Here’s our review of the OCBC Voyage Visa Infinite credit card issued in Singapore. It forms part of our series of credit card reviews, which are all summarised on our dedicated Credit Cards page.
Dollar amounts refer to SGD, and ‘miles’ refer to KrisFlyer miles, except where stated. This review was updated on 6th January 2020.
Key features
Annual fee: $488.00/yr
EIR/APR: 25.92%
Sign-up bonus: 15,000 miles
Local earn rate: 1.2 miles per $1*
Overseas earn rate: 2.3 miles per $1
Minimum Age: 21
Minimum income: $120,000/yr
* 1.6 miles per $1 spent locally on dining, or all transactions if you’re also an OCBC Premier, OCBC Premier Private Client or Bank of Singapore Voyage cardmember.
Annual Fee
The annual fee for the OCBC Voyage Visa card is high at $488.00, though this also gets you 15,000 bonus miles at each yearly renewal. On its own that’s not worth it – you’re paying 3.25 cents per mile which is way too high, but the card does come with some other useful benefits which may make up the value for you.
Sign-up bonus
The current sign-up bonus for the OCBC Voyage Visa card is one of the following options:
- 15,000 miles for a $488 annual fee (3.25 cents/mile)
- 150,000 miles for a $3,210 annual fee (2.14 cents/mile)*
* For the 150,000 miles sign-up option, miles awarded must be converted to KrisFlyer miles (you cannot hold them as Voyage Miles, see below).
Note that OCBC Voyage previously offered a 500,000 miles sign-up bonus option for a $10,000 annual fee, however this ended on 31st August 2018.
The ‘enhanced’ sign-up bonus option (with 150,000 miles) was also reportedly being re-offered at annual renewal for some cardholders last year, though there is nothing in the terms and conditions about this so it is likely a targeted or temporary offer. You may or may not receive the option.
Earning rates
The OCBC Voyage Visa card earns 1.2 miles for every $1 spent locally (i.e. transacted in SGD), and 2.3 miles for every $1 spent overseas (i.e. transacted in foreign currency).
For local dining transactions, you’ll get 1.6 miles for every $1 spent.
If you are an OCBC Premier, OCBC Premier Private Client or Bank of Singapore Voyage cardmember, your local earning rate increases to 1.6 miles for every $1 spent, regardless of the spending category.
| A note about Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC)
Beware the ‘Dynamic Currency Conversion’ (DCC) offer you’ll often experience overseas when paying with your Visa or MasterCard. It’s very common when settling your overseas hotel bill, for example, to be offered to pay in SGD instead of local currency. This is a terrible idea, because: a) you’ll suffer financially, even after the credit card foreign exchange fee is accounted for. If you remember the SGD amount you were offered to pay, then pay in local currency instead, once the transaction appears on your credit card statement you’ll generally find they were scamming you, you’d have paid at least 2% more using DCC. b) you will earn credit card miles at the local spend rate if you accept DCC, because the transaction will take place in SGD, not the local currency. In other words, you’ll pay more, and lose miles. Always insist on paying in the local currency of the country you are in. |
Are KrisFlyer miles credited directly?
No, in fact rather than being credited miles directly you’ll accrue ‘Voyage Miles’ for your regular spending on this card. These transfer to KrisFlyer miles at a 1:1 ratio, so for $10,000 of local spending (non-dining, regular cardmember), you’ll net 12,000 Voyage Miles, which can be converted to 12,000 KrisFlyer miles.
Do Voyage Miles expire?
No they don’t, which is great because as you will probably know once transferred into KrisFlyer miles they will then only last for three years. That means no need to keep an eye on the expiration date at the OCBC side, just transfer to KrisFlyer when you need to.
What is the transfer cost to KrisFlyer miles?
Here’s a great benefit of the OCBC Voyage card, transfer to KrisFlyer miles are free. That’s quite unlike other cards in Singapore, which typically charge $25 each time you transfer your points to KrisFlyer miles.
That means no need to wait around to accumulate a decent level of Voyage Miles before transferring to KrisFlyer to ‘dilute’ the fee to a reasonable level per mile, you can do so as soon as you’ve reached one of the transfer thresholds if you wish.
Just bear in mind as we stated above, once the miles are transferred into KrisFlyer you’ve got three years to use them, so unless you have an urgent need then it may be better to keep them as Voyage Miles for as long as possible.
Is there a minimum transfer amount?
The minimum volume of miles you can transfer into KrisFlyer is 8,000. Then it’s 10,000, and thereafter they must then be transferred in blocks of 10,000.
How long do miles take to credit to KrisFlyer?
The official line is “approximately 21 working days”. That’s probably the worst transfer time between credit card reward points and KrisFlyer miles in the whole of Singapore.
Since I don’t hold this card myself, I can’t claim my personal experience relating to miles transfer time, hopefully someone can confirm that it doesn’t actually take an entire month to receive your points when transferred from the card?
Edit: One of our readers shared with us that a recent OCBC Voyage to KrisFlyer miles transfer took only 24 hours – February 2018.
Which loyalty schemes can I transfer into?
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer is the sole frequent flyer program for OCBC Voyage Miles redemptions.
What else can Voyage Miles be used for?
Here’s an interesting angle to the OCBC Voyage Miles scheme, rather than transfer them to KrisFlyer you can use them to book revenue flight tickets directly – with any airline.
As these are not redemption tickets, award availability does not have to be available, and you will earn the normal airline frequent flyer miles and relevant status credits from the ticket purchased using Voyage Miles (they are basically converting Voyage Miles into cash at a specific rate for you in this case).
It sounds too good to be true and that’s where the downside comes in – the value of the miles isn’t that great when they are used this way. It’s more of a ‘cashback’ scheme, and based on reports the value does not always ‘fix’ at the same rate for different bookings. You’ll need to call up to find out what they will quote you in Voyage Miles for the revenue ticket of your choice.
Generally Voyage Miles appear to be worth anywhere between 1.1 cents and 2.2 cents per mile when used this way, clearly a lot poorer value than a KrisFlyer redemption, so you’ll almost always want to transfer into KrisFlyer to achieve better value.
Remember though the flexibility offered is not to be totally discounted. Some frequent flyer schemes, like British Airways Avios, allow their gold status members to ‘force’ a redemption where one isn’t available by paying double the number of miles required, provided commercial (cash fare) availability exists for a seat in that class on that flight.
In a sense, that’s what you’re doing here, paying more miles (perhaps 50-60% more according to online reports) for the flexibility you don’t always get from KrisFlyer due to redemption availability constraints.
Whether that represents acceptable value to you or not is a different matter of course.
Other benefits
For a card charging a $488 per year annual fee – the OCBC Voyage Visa Infinite is a little light in terms of additional perks. Some of the key benefits which will be of most interest to our readers are:
- VOYAGE Exchange – personal concierge service. This can be helpful for arranging things like restaurant reservations, limo transfers or concert tickets.
- Complimentary unlimited Plaza Premium Lounge access. This covers around 80 airport lounges worldwide including 4 in Singapore. Offer valid until 31st December 2020.*
- Free airport limo transfer for each $3,000 spent per month, capped at 2 free transfers earned per month. Each limo transfer earned is then valid for three months.
- 19% off fuel at Caltex, with no minimum spend.
* Technically this reverts to 2 complimentary visits per year after 31st December 2020, but the unlimited access deal was renewed for the last three years, and so is likely to renewed be again.
Voyage Payment Facility
The OCBC Voyage is one of the few credit cards in Singapore that has allowed you to pay your income tax bill using your credit card and accrue miles for the transaction.
This facility was enhanced in April 2019, and now effectively lets you pay any bill (or just pay yourself, like UOB’s PRVI Pay facility) for a 1.9% or 1.95% fee. This can be a useful way to generate miles from your income tax payment or any other payments you need to make part way through the year.
Note that for any payments made through the Voyage Payment Facility only 1 Voyage Mile (convertible to 1 KrisFlyer mile) is awarded per $1 rather than the usual 1.2 or 1.6 mile rates.
Funds are credited to your specified bank account. In the case of income tax you must provide your income tax ‘Notice of Assessment’ with your application, then arrange the income tax payment to IRAS yourself.
For ‘other payments’ no evidence of needing the funds for anything in particular is required. The 1.95% fee here means a cost per mile of 1.95 cents each, unless you’re requesting a (rather unrealistic) $150,100+. Also note that for ‘other payments’ a minimum finds transfer of $10,000 is required.
Of course in all cases you must have sufficient credit balance to cover the total.
For example:
- Annual Income Tax Bill: $5,000
- OCBC 1.9% Fee: $95
- Total Payable: $5,095
- Miles Accrued: 5,000 (5,000 x 1.0)
- Cost per mile: 1.90 cents (we value KF miles at 2 cents each)
This is a good way to accrue miles at a reasonable cost, especially if you use the ‘other payments’ option to top up your KrisFlyer balance to meet a specific redemption level in a short time period (e.g. 10,000 miles will cost you $195 and only takes a few days).
For income tax payments however do note that the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite (SCVI) tax payment facility, which we detailed in our review here, comes out much better with a lower fee and higher miles earning rate – an equivalent cost per mile of 1.1 cents.
You can also refer to our April 2018 update on the best options for earning miles paying income tax in Singapore which shows how the OCBC Voyage card stacks up against various options as there are some other cards offering a better ‘purchase rate’ here including a couple of CardUp methods.
Note that even once OCBC pay the total sum of your income tax bill into your bank account under this program, this does not compel you to then pay your income tax to IRAS in one lump sum if you don’t wish to. You can use the credited funds to settle the amount on your credit card statement (usually posted the following month), and then set up a GIRO to pay your income tax in interest-free instalments over the year as normal. That’s what I do, albeit with the SCVI card due to the lower fee.
Visa Infinite
The OCBC Voyage Visa Infinite is, unsurprisingly, a Visa Infinite product. That means the card automatically comes with a few additional perks including:
- Avis and Hertz Car Hire discounts
- 8% off Hotels.com bookings
- Hilton Honors Gold status with 2 stays or 4 nights
The full list of Visa Infinite benefits can be found here.
Other details
The OCBC Voyage Visa Infinite card is made of metal. This frankly couldn’t interest us less, but if it does it for you…
Our summary
The OCBC Voyage Visa Infinite has some nice features – especially a great local earning rate on dining transactions. The ability to buy a large chunk of KrisFlyer miles from the outset is a rather unique option some will find useful, as is the Voyage Payment Facility letting you buy almost unlimited miles for 1.95 cents each.
Fee-free transfers to KrisFlyer miles are another unique and welcome benefit for this card.
Potentially if you spend enough on the Voyage card, either in Singapore or overseas, you could get 24 complimentary airport limo transfers per annum, and for regular travellers that’s probably saving you over $300 versus a year’s worth of medium-distance taxi or Grab rides.
On the flip side – the income requirement is high, as is the annual fee, and personally we would sway towards the UOB PRVI Miles card to allay both of those concerns, or go all-out on the SCVI card for the higher miles earning rates and superior income tax payment facility.
Our recommendations for credit cards and other similar products on this site do not constitute financial advice.
How long do miles take to credit to KrisFlyer?
The official line is “approximately 21 working days”.
FYI – I did the transfer yesterday & the KF miles were in my acct. in 24 hours.
Thanks for sharing this information, that turnaround time is much more like it. Have added the info to the article.
Hi Andrew,
With regards to the tax payment facility, have you actually tried and received the respective miles? I am getting conflicting information and have asked OCBC at hwz (https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/credit-cards-line-credit-facilities-243/ocbc-voyage-card-4982980-46.html) and according to them you only get 1Mile per Dollar (no 1.2 or 1.6).
However, if you can check and confirm that you indeed got 1.2 miles/$, I would ask further…
Hi yes you are right that’s a mistake on our part – the correct rate is 1 Voyage Mile per S$1 using the Income Tax payment facility on this card. We corrected this in our April 2018 article on the options for earning miles paying your income tax bill, but we neglected to go back and amend this review.
Sorry for the confusion and thanks for pointing it out – this review has now been amended.
My next goal is to attain PPS using Voyage Miles… If my calculations are correct, it’ll take approx. 1-1.1M Voyage Miles…? Wish me luck! 🤪