Offer: 1.90% fee for rental payments using your credit card with RentHero

EXPIRED This article relates to an offer or promotion which has now expired.

Note: RentHero now has a 1.75% fee offer for all users, replacing our previous reader offers.

Just over a year ago we wrote about how you can use CardUp to make a variety of payments including your monthly condo or house rental using your credit card to earn thousands of extra miles each year for a nominal fee.

These payments are a great opportunity to boost your annual miles balance at a competitive ‘cost per mile’, provided you are comfortable to pay a little more for the privilege.

As we mentioned at the time, ipaymy is another provider offering a similar service. Note that if you don’t currently have an account with ipaymy, only new business accounts are currently being accepted, not personal ones.

Well the newest company on the scene is RentHero, and while ipaymy and CardUp allow some other payments such as tuition fees, condo fees, income tax and property tax, RentHero, as its name suggests, specialises purely in rental payments to your landlord.

The company launched in November last year and has reached out to us with a great offer for our readers.

New RentHero customers making rental payments between today and February 2020 who apply promotion code MAINLYMILES will enjoy a discounted fee of 1.90%. This applies to both one-time and recurring payments.

That’s a 15% saving on the usual fee RentHero charges, already a competitive rate in the market at 2.25%.

Successful payments using RentHero with our promotion code pay MainlyMiles an affiliate commission.

Supported cards

RentHero currently supports seven major miles earning credit cards in Singapore.

Card	Miles per S$1	Cost per mile (1.9% fee)
BOC Elite Miles	1.5	1.24¢
DBS Altitude Visa	1.2	1.55¢
HSBC Visa Infinite	1.25	1.49¢
Standard Chartered Priority Banking Visa Infinite	1.2	1.55¢
Standard Chartered Visa Infinite	1.4	1.33¢
UOB PRVI Miles (Visa & Mastercard)	1.4	1.33¢
UOB Reserve	1.6	1.17¢

The top two here for value are the UOB Reserve Visa, at 1.17 cents per mile, and the more accessible BOC Elite Miles card at 1.24 cents per mile.

Even at the upper end, 1.55 cents per mile with cards like the DBS Altitude Visa are justifiable miles purchase rates for most (we aim to get 2+ cents per mile on redemptions and actually achieve closer to 3 cents per KrisFlyer mile, even by some pessimistic valuation assumptions).

You’ll notice a couple of popular credit cards are missing from RentHero’s list, that’s due to the nature of RentHero being a rental payments only facility, with that payment category except from miles earning in the terms and conditions of certain cards like the Citi PremierMiles Visa and OCBC Voyage.

Miles earned example

Here’s how RentHero illustrates the number of miles you can earn in a year, with an example for a rental payment of S$5,000 per month using the BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard as the payment method (earning 1.5 miles per S$1 spent).

In this example you’re ‘buying’ miles at 1.47 cents each (S$1,350 / 92,025). That’s based on the standard 2.25% fee charged by RentHero.

Let’s take a look at the same rental over a year, paid using the MAINLYMILES promo code with a 1.90% fee.

First thing you’ll notice is that you’ll actually earn fewer miles using our promo code. That’s because the fee is lower, and since the fee is also charged to your credit card it is also eligible for miles earning.

The key here is the rate at which you’re buying the miles. With this lower 1.90% fee, assuming you are using the BOC Elite Miles card, the miles ‘purchase’ rate is 1.24 cents each (S$1,140 / 91,710), over 15% cheaper than at the normal rate.

Alternatives

RentHero won’t always be the cheapest way to buy miles when making your monthly rental payment, even using our 1.9% promo code, so remember to shop around.

For Citi credit card holders in Singapore, following a trial last year PayAll now offers a 2.0% fee (1.5% for some users), as we reported last week. Given that Citi cards are not eligible RentHero payment methods, PayAll may be your cheapest option.

If you’ve been selected for the 1.5% fee, with the exception of the Citi PremierMiles Visa, it basically is the cheapest method around.

The following table assumes the 1.9% promo code for RentHero, compared with the regular rates for CardUp, ipaymy and Citi PayAll.

Cents per mile analysis for rental payments by card

Card	RentHero	CardUp	ipaymy	Citi PayAll
				1.5%	2.0%
AMEX KF	n/a	2.30¢	2.90¢	n/a
AMEX KF Ascend	n/a	2.11¢	2.66¢	n/a
BOC EM	1.24¢	1.69¢	1.47¢	n/a
Citi PM Visa	n/a	2.11¢	1.83¢	1.25¢	1.67¢
Citi Prestige / Citi PM Amex	n/a	1.95¢	1.69¢ / 2.46¢	1.15¢	1.54¢
Citi ULTIMA	n/a	1.58¢	1.38¢	0.94¢	1.25¢
DBS Alt Visa	1.55¢	2.11¢	1.83¢	n/a
HSBC VI	1.49¢	2.03¢	1.76¢	n/a
OCBC Voyage	n/a	2.11¢	1.83¢	n/a
SCVI	1.33¢	1.81¢	1.57¢	n/a
UOB PRVI	1.33¢	1.81¢	1.57¢	n/a
UOB Reserve	1.17¢	1.58¢	1.38¢	n/a

Table assumes CardUp fee for rental payments of 2.6%, ipaymy of 2.25% (3.3% for Amex), Citi PayAll based on the rate applicable to your account (1.5% or 2.0%). Promotion codes are sometimes offered for other payment facilities and are not reflected here.

As you can see with the exception of Citi PayAll, our promotional rate with RentHero is the cheapest way to pay rent in Singapore with most of the popular cards listed above.

For example if you hold the BOC EM card and the Citi PM Visa card, even if Citi are quoting you the 1.5% PayAll rate, RentHero with BOC EM comes out better.

Terms and conditions

The following terms and conditions apply to this offer:

1. Promo code MAINLYMILES must be applied at the review stage to get the 1.90% service fee instead of 2.25%.
2. Any payment on and before 27th February 2020 will be affected by this promo code.
3. Minimum payment of $500 per transaction.
4. Standard website terms and conditions apply.
5. Promo code is applicable from 26th February 2019.
6. RentHero only accept rental payments with valid tenancy agreements.

How it works

The process is fairly simple.

• Let RentHero know your monthly rental amount.
• Decide whether you wish to make a one-time or recurring payment (you can cancel recurring payments any time).
• Provide your landlord details and a copy of your tenancy agreement.
• Provide your eligible payment card details.
• Review and sign up (this is where you’ll enter promo code MAINLYMILES).
• The discount is applied at the final stage.

SIGN UP HERE

Successful payments using RentHero with our promotion code pay MainlyMiles an affiliate commission.

Don’t forget to apply the promo code MAINLYMILES at the ‘review payment’ stage when setting up your payment to generate the lower service fee. Clicking the sign up link alone will not automatically trigger the discount.

For further information about RentHero and a list of frequently asked questions, click here.