How to maximise miles by splitting payments across multiple cards

The golden rule about collecting miles is that no one should be using a general spending card as a matter of course.

While general spending cards have their uses (e.g. sign-up bonuses and lounge access), the bulk of your day-to-day spend should go on specialised spending cards, because the 1.1-1.6 mpd of the former is never going to compete with the 4-6 mpd of the latter.

But the higher earn rates come with a catch. Obviously, banks can’t afford to award 4-6 mpd without caps (well, there was this one time…), so they set limits on the bonuses that can be earned. And that creates another problem, because outside these caps, specialised spending cards earn a miserable 0.4 mpd– much less than a general spending card!

In an ideal world, you’d be allowed to split transactions over multiple cards, so as to optimise each payment. You might be able to ask the cashier to do that in a store, but it’s usually not possible online.

So in this post, I’m going to share two methods I’ve found of circumventing this problem.

Specialised spending cards and caps

Thankfully, there’s no shortage of specialised spending cards in Singapore. I can think of at least half a dozen that I use on a regular basis, even more if you include obscure ones like the Maybank World Mastercard, or slightly lower-earning ones like the StanChart Journey or KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card.

💳 4-6 mpd Cards in Singapore
Card	Earn Rate	Cap
Citi Rewards Card Apply	4 mpd¹	S$1K per s. month Review
DBS WWMC Apply	4 mpd²	S$2K per c. month Review
HSBC Revolution Apply	4 mpd³	S$1K per c. month Review
OCBC Titanium Rewards Apply	4 mpd⁴	S$13.3K per m. year Review
UOB Lady’s Card Apply	6 mpd⁵	S$1K per c. month Review
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Apply	6 mpd⁶	S$3K per c. month Review
UOB Pref. Plat. Visa Apply	4 mpd⁷	S$1.1K per c. month Review
UOB Visa Signature Apply	4 mpd⁸	S$2K per s. month Review
1. All online transactions except in-app mobile wallet and travel (airlines, hotels, rental cars, tour agency, cruises etc.) (T&Cs) 2. All online transactions (T&Cs) 3. Contactless and online transactions for travel, shopping, supermarkets, dining, transportation (T&Cs) 4. Electronics, clothes, bags, shoes and shopping(T&Cs) 5. Pick 1: Beauty & wellness, dining, entertainment, family, fashion, transport, travel (T&Cs) 6. Pick 2: Beauty & wellness, dining, entertainment, family, fashion, transport, travel (T&Cs) 7. For in-person mobile contactless spending, plus online shopping & entertainment (T&Cs) 8. For in-person contactless spending, plus foreign currency transactions and petrol. Min spend of S$1K per s. month applies (T&Cs)

The earn rates are all good; the problem are the caps.

Apart from the OCBC Titanium Rewards Card, which allows you to burn the entire year’s S$13,333 bonus cap at one go, the rest of the cards cap your bonus miles by calendar or statement month. The cap isusually S$1,000-2,000 per month, though the UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card is noticeably more generous with a S$3,000 monthly cap.

I hope you see the problem here. Suppose you want to buy a S$1,500 laptop on Qoo10. You have both the Citi Rewards and HSBC Revolution, but regardless of which one you choose, you’d be busting your bonus cap:

The first S$1,000 would earn 4 mpd
The remaining S$500 would earn 0.4 mpd
You would earn 1,000*4 + 500* 0.4 = 4,200 miles, a weighted average of 2.8 mpd

That’s far from ideal, but using a general spending card like the UOB PRVI Miles isn’t the solution either: S$1,500 @ 1.4 mpd gives a mere 2,100 miles!

Here’s what I do in these situations.

Buying gift cards

Buying gift cards effectively allows you to “break up” a transaction into two different modes of payment.

Using a BNPL service

If gift cards aren’t an option, another alternative you can try is a BNPL service, which splits your payment into three interest-free instalments.

Going back to our laptop example, instead of spending the S$1,500 at one go, I could opt to use Atome with my Citi Rewards or HSBC Revolution Card. I would then be charged:

Month 1 (upfront): S$500
Month 2: S$500
Month 3: S$500

As each month’s instalment is less than the S$1,000 monthly cap, I’m able to earn 4 mpd on the full S$1,500.

⚠️ Trigger payments manually!

There are reports of cardholders not earning points on the 2nd and 3rd payments with BNPL platforms. This might be because the way the platform processes subsequent instalments does not satisfy the “online” parameter required to earn bonuses with certain cards.

To avoid this issue, my advice would be to trigger payments manually each month instead of letting them happen automatically. Most BNPL providers should allow for this (e.g. Atome, Hoolah, Pace).

I’ve written a separate article about the best cards to use for BNPL platforms, which can be found below.

What’s the best credit card for Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platforms?

Do note that it’s been a while since I last looked at this topic, so I’d highly recommend reading the article in conjunction with the comments section, where people have reported more recent data points.

Conclusion

Specialised spending cards offer outsized rewards on your spending, provided you stay within the caps. Stray outside, and your weighted average mpd is going to fall rapidly!

If it’s not possible to split the payment over multiple cards, two workarounds include buying gift cards, or using a BNPL service. This makes it possible to optimise each transaction, maxing out the monthly cap on each specialised spending card with little to no wastage.

Any other ways you know of splitting payments?

How to maximise miles by splitting payments across multiple cards - The MileLion (2024)

Specialised spending cards and caps

Buying gift cards

Using a BNPL service

Conclusion

References