Reminder: Pay 1.9% credit card fee on your rental payments 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.

We wanted to do a quick reminder post today about our special offer code with RentHero, which gets you 15% off their usual fee for paying your rent in Singapore with a number of popular miles earning credit cards.

Several of our readers have already signed up with the payment service since our offer launched in February, and this is a great way to boost your annual miles earning at a competitive ‘cost per mile’.

Our offer

New RentHero customers making rental payments between now 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%.

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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. We spoke to the team this week and they confirmed that the new KrisFlyer UOB credit card, which we comprehensively reviewed last week, will also be eligible for their service in due course.

We have therefore updated the earning and cost per mile tables below to include this payment option.

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¢
KrisFlyer UOB	1.2	1.55¢
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 (and the new KrisFlyer UOB card) 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, Citi PayAll now offers a 2.0% fee (1.5% for some users). 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% PayAll fee, with the exception of the Citi PremierMiles Visa, it is basically the cheapest method around for rental payments.

The following table assumes the 1.9% promo code (Mainly Miles reader rate) for RentHero, compared with the regular rates for CardUp, ipaymy and Citi PayAll.

Again we’ve added the upcoming KrisFlyer UOB credit card for comparison.

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
KF UOB	1.55¢	2.11¢	1.83¢	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. RentHero only accept rental payments with valid tenancy agreements.