If you use your credit card to make rental payments to your private landlord in Singapore, earning thousands of miles a month in the process, you probably don’t need us to tell you you’ve never had it so good! Card payment providers CardUp and ipaymy have been clambering to take a slice of this market over the last few months.
We already have an ongoing special offer with ipaymy for rental payments using your Singapore-issued Visa or Mastercard for a discounted fee of 1.99%, or using your American Express card at 2.6% fee, until 31st July 2019.
Our other reader offer in the rental space is of course RentHero, who have been offering Mainly Miles readers a fantastic 1.9% fee for rental payments provided you hold one of eight relatively popular credit cards. That’s a 15% discount on their usual 2.25% transaction fee.
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 enhanced offer
RentHero customers making rental payments for the rest of this year who apply promotion code MAINLYMILES185 will enjoy a discounted fee of 1.85% for payments until 31st December 2019.
At the 1.85% rate that represents a fantastic 18% 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 eight major miles earning credit cards in Singapore.
Here’s how the cost per mile looks for the various payment options at the new 1.85% transaction fee.
| Card | Miles per S$1 | Cost per mile (1.85% fee) |
 BOC Elite Miles |
1.5 | 1.21¢ |
 DBS Altitude Visa |
1.2 | 1.51¢ |
 HSBC Visa Infinite |
1.25 | 1.45¢ |
 Standard Chartered Priority Banking Visa Infinite |
1.2 | 1.51¢ |
 Standard Chartered Visa Infinite |
1.4 | 1.30¢ |
 UOB PRVI Miles (Visa & Mastercard) |
1.4 | 1.30¢ |
 UOB Reserve |
1.6 | 1.14¢ |
 UOB Visa Infinite |
1.4 | 1.30¢ |
The top two here for value are the UOB Reserve Visa, at 1.14 cents per mile, and the more accessible BOC Elite Miles card (see our review) at 1.21 cents per mile.
Even at the upper end, 1.51 cents per mile with cards like the DBS Altitude Visa are justifiable miles purchase rates for most of our readers.
In our recent comprehensive update to the value of a KrisFlyer mile in 2019 we amended our ‘upper limit to buy’ to 1.9 cents each, and these rates all fall comfortably below this.
We actually achieve 2.4 cents per KrisFlyer mile when we redeem in Business Class, assuming today’s redemption rates, based on over 1.7 million miles used over the last few years. Even then, it assumes some rather 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.
Consider our ipaymy offer in those cases (a one-off 1.99% fee until 31st July 2019). Aside from rental payments with any Singapore-issued Visa or Mastercard, it’s also good for any payment type using a Visa card, including income tax or home renovation bills.
You can also consider Citi PayAll for rental payments at a flat 2.0% fee if you have a Citi credit card.
Miles earned example
Let’s say your monthly rental payment is S$5,000. Using the BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard at RentHero’s standard 2.25% payment fee over the next six months (July to December 2019) would normally look like this:
- Total Spend: S$30,000
- RentHero’s Fee (2.25%): S$675
- Total Spent: S$30,675
- Miles Earned: 46,012
- Cost per Mile: 1.47 cents
Using promo code MAINLYMILES185 instead for these transactions would look like this:
- Total Spend: S$30,000
- RentHero’s Fee (1.85%): S$555
- Total Spent: S$30,555
- Miles Earned: 45,832
- Cost per Mile: 1.21 cents
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 promotional 1.85% fee, assuming you are using the BOC Elite Miles card, the miles ‘purchase’ rate is 1.21 cents each (S$555 / 45,832), 18% cheaper than the usual RentHero rate.
Schedule payments in 2020 at 1.9% fee
If you wish to use RentHero to schedule rental payments for next year, after this 1.85% offer has ended, you can still apply promotion code MAINLYMILES and be entitled to our regular discount for a 1.9% transaction fee.
The team at RentHero have kindly extended this offer to the end of June 2020, allowing you to schedule payments up to a year in advance and still get a great rate each month.
Terms and conditions
The following terms and conditions apply to this offer:
- Promo code MAINLYMILES185 must be applied at the review stage to get the 1.85% service fee instead of 2.25%.
- Any payment on and before 31st December 2019 will be affected by this promo code.
- Minimum payment of $500 per transaction.
- Promo code MAINLYMILES is still active for payments scheduled between 1st January 2020 and 30th June 2020 and will get a 1.9% service fee instead of 2.25%.
- Standard website terms and conditions apply.
- 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 MAINLYMILES185).
- The discount is applied at the final stage.
Successful payments using RentHero with our promotion code pay MainlyMiles an affiliate commission.
Don’t forget to apply the promo code MAINLYMILES185 at the ‘review payment’ stage when setting up your payment to generate the 1.85% service fee. Clicking the sign up link alone will not automatically trigger the discount.
For payments scheduled in the first six months of 2020, use code MAINLYMILES for a 1.9% fee.
For further information about RentHero and a list of frequently asked questions, click here.