OCBC extends Titanium Rewards 12,800 miles sign up bonus to 30 April

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

Last month we wrote about one of the easiest credit card sign-up bonuses to achieve on a fee-free card, with OCBC offering 32,000 OCBC$ (12,800 KrisFlyer miles) to new credit card holders successfully signing up for either of their Titanium Rewards cards and spending just S$300 in the first full calendar month of card approval.

Originally due to end today, OCBC has extended the sign-up promotion through the end of the month and it is now valid for cards applied for up to and including 30th April 2019.

If you missed the previous post here are the full details, with the revised sign-up deadline now reflected.

How the offer works

Provided you don’t currently hold an OCBC credit card (any variant, not just the Titanium Rewards pair), and you haven’t held one in the last six months, successful applicants for either of the Titanium Rewards cards under this promotion will receive the following sign-up bonus:

21,500 OCBC$ (8,600 miles) on card approval.
10,500 OCBC$ (4,200 miles) when you spend at least S$300* on the card by the end of the first full calendar month, following the month of card approval.

* Qualifying spend relates to retail transactions and excludes obvious categories such as cash advances and AXS / SAM payments.

The offer was originally valid for applications up to 18th April 2019, but has been extended and the new final date of application in order to be eligible has been set at 30th April 2019.

You must apply through OCBC’s dedicated links to be eligible for this offer:

When will you get your bonus points?

The 21,500 OCBC$ (8,600 miles) sign-up bonus will be paid based on the date of your card approval.

For cards approved in April, it’ll be by 31st May 2019
For cards approved in May, it’ll be by 30th June 2019

Remember you will still have to apply by 30th April 2019 at the latest, using the links above, to be eligible for the promotion.

For the additional 10,500 OCBC$ (4,200 miles) spend bonus, you must meet the S$300 spend requirement by the end of the calendar month following the month of card approval. For example:

Approved in April – by 31st May 2019
Approved in May – by 30th June 2019

The OCBC Titanium Rewards card

Not a particularly exciting card for general spending, the OCBC Titanium Rewards earns just 0.4 miles per S$1 spent either in Singapore or overseas.

The major benefit of this card comes into play with the bonus (10x) earning categories, which fall under shopping. Provided you get the MCC right, you’ll earn 4 miles per dollar at the right outlets, 10x the regular earn rate, both in Singapore and overseas.

Retailers selling items such as clothes, shoes and bags, electronics and gadgets are included, with online transactions also eligible. Spending at department stores like Tangs also counts, but you’ll have to be physically present for those transactions (i.e. online is excluded).

Historically the card has also offered 4 miles per dollar on mobile transactions, though this was sadly cut short in August last year.

Other factors to consider

Bonus points are capped

The 10x reward earning bonus points are capped at S$12,000 spend per card membership year, however you can get two cards (the blue and the pink) and effectively double your annual allowance in this category to S$24,000.

This is better than some other cards with 10x earning categories, like the Citi Rewards which last year moved to a monthly earnings cap rather than an annual limit.

You can only transfer to KrisFlyer, in 10k batches

OCBC$ only convert to the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer frequent flyer program. Even Asia Miles are not an option with this one.

Also if 12,800 KrisFlyer miles sounds like just the sort of top up you need, bear in mind that OCBC enforces conversion blocks of 10,000 miles (25,000 OCBC$), in whole blocks.

You won’t be able to earn 12,800 bonus miles then extract that exact sum into KrisFlyer after your S$300 spend, you’ll basically have to continue to accrue OCBC$ until you’ve reached at least the next 10,000-mile block. That’s quite a bit more spend, as you’ll need to have accrued 50,000 OCBC$ (20,000 miles).

Also worth noting is the fee to transfer OCBC$ to KrisFlyer miles, which is S$25 per transfer, no matter how many ‘blocks’ you are converting. Clearly it makes financial sense to convert as large a quantity as possible to dilute the conversion cost per mile.

For full details, see our updated full review of this credit card.

Turning S$300 spend into 40+ mpd

The great thing about this sign-up bonus is the very small spend requirement to top up the welcome miles by 4,200, to the full 12,800 miles on offer. You only need to spend S$300 to trigger this. That’s an effective earn rate for that S$300 spend alone of:

14.4 miles per dollar (general spending), or
18.0 miles per dollar (10x spend categories).

If you also consider the welcome bonus, which every successful applicant receives regardless of spend on the card, for opening the card account and making S$300 eligible spend you are actually receiving:

43.1 miles per dollar (general spending), or
46.7 miles per dollar (10x spend categories).

Those are insanely good rates given this card is fee-free for the first two years (and provided you spend S$10k+ per year thereafter, the annual fee is waived anyway).

Summary

While the excellent 4 miles per dollar on mobile payments using this card sadly ceased in August last year (a deal only eclipsed by Citi’s crazy 8mpd Apple Pay promotion which ended around the same time), there are still some reasonably useful 10x (4mpd) spend categories with the Titanium Rewards card.

However, even if you don’t think you’ll use those, or can’t be bothered with the ‘MCC hassle’, this 12,800 miles bonus is still a deal worth considering given the two year fee-free nature of this card.

Extension of the offer to 30th April gives you another 12 days to apply if you want to take advantage.

Just remember you will have to accrue sufficient OCBC$ to convert to miles in 10,000-mile blocks, and that a S$25 fee applies for each transfer.