If you pay rent to a private landlord in Singapore every month, there’s a great way to turn this significant expense into a large chunk of miles by using your credit card to do so through one of the card payment providers, potentially earning thousands of frequent flyer miles per year for a nominal fee.
Competition in this market is fierce – and that’s good for miles chasers because it means more fantastic offers for all of us.
RentHero has just launched its latest deal, with a ‘best-in-market’ 1.75% fee for these transactions using one of eight locally issued Visa or Mastercard credit cards. That’s a 22% discount on the company’s usual 2.25% transaction fee.
Many of our readers have already signed up with the payment service since we started working with them over a year ago, and this is a great way to boost your annual miles earning at a competitive ‘cost per mile’.
This replaces our reader offer
Mainly Miles readers have enjoyed a promotional rate for paying their rent using RentHero since February 2019, with discounted fees of 1.9% and later 1.85% when using our promotion code.
This new rate of 1.75% is available to all RentHero customers, and so our promotional code is no longer required. If you have existing payments set up at the previously discounted rates, RentHero advised us that you will have to manually remove existing payments and simply set up new ones.
No promo code is needed, as the new 1.75% is the rate available to all users. RentHero should also be contacting you directly with this update.
The offer
RentHero customers making rental payments from 6pm on 27th March 2020 will enjoy a discounted fee of 1.75% for their payments.
At the 1.75% rate that represents a fantastic 22% saving on the 2.25% fee RentHero previously charged.
Remember to take advantage you’ll need to log on to your dashboard, remove your upcoming payments then reschedule them, for the 1.75% fee level to take effect.
Note that RentHero only accepts rental payments with valid tenancy agreements.
Supported cards
RentHero previously supported eight major miles earning credit cards in Singapore, however unfortunately from 6pm on 27th March 2020, UOB cards will no longer earn miles for RentHero transactions.
“We would like to extend our sincere apologies for the inconvenience and disruption but we were unable to continue supporting the UOB cards due to the high costs associated with earning rewards which would not be favourable to you.” RentHero
If you have any rental payments scheduled with a UOB card, log in to your account here to remove them.
Here’s how the cost per mile looks for the remaining five payment options at the new 1.75% transaction fee.
| Card | Miles per S$1 | Cost per mile (1.75% fee) |
 BOC Elite Miles |
1.5 | 1.15¢ |
 Standard Chartered Visa Infinite |
1.4* | 1.23¢* |
 HSBC Visa Infinite |
1.25 | 1.38¢ |
 Standard Chartered Priority Banking Visa Infinite |
1.2 | 1.43¢ |
 DBS Altitude Visa |
1.2 | 1.43¢ |
* For Standard Chartered Visa Infinite cards, a minimum of S$2,000 spend in the same statement period is required to earn 1.4 miles per dollar on all local spend that month.
The top two here for value are the BOC Elite Miles card (see our review) at 1.15 cents per mile and the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite (see our review) at 1.23 cents per mile.
Even at the upper end, 1.43 cents per mile with cards like the DBS Altitude Visa are justifiable miles purchase rates for most of our readers. In our latest comprehensive analysis of the value of a KrisFlyer mile 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.
Aside from UOB cards, you’ll notice some other 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.
If you don’t hold one of the supported cards, consider ipaymy’s ongoing 1.79% fee offer for a recurring rental payment arrangement for at least 6 months (or as long as your tenancy agreement has left to run, if shorter) using a Singapore-issued Visa or Mastercard.
For one-off rental payments with other local Visa or Mastercard products, CardUp is offering a 1.9% fee until the end of June 2020.
You can also consider Citi PayAll for rental payments at a flat 2.0% fee if you have a Citi credit card, though remember you won’t earn miles or points for the fee itself in this case, increasing the cost per mile slightly. For a Citi PremierMiles card, for example, it’s 1.67 cents per mile.
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.
For further information about RentHero and a list of frequently asked questions, click here.
Miles earned example
Let’s say your monthly rental payment is S$5,150. Using the BOC Elite Miles card at RentHero’s standard 2.25% payment fee over the next six months (April to September 2020) would normally look like this:
- Total Spend: S$30,900
- RentHero’s Fee (2.25%): S$695
- Total Spent: S$31,595
- Miles Earned: 47,392
- Cost per Mile: 1.47 cents
With this new 1.75% fee offer for these transactions, it now looks like this:
- Total Spend: S$30,900
- RentHero’s Fee (1.75%): S$541
- Total Spent: S$31,441
- Miles Earned: 47,162
- Cost per Mile: 1.15 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 1.75% fee, assuming you are using the BOC Elite Miles card, the miles ‘purchase’ rate is 1.15 cents each (S$541 / 47,162), 22% cheaper than the usual RentHero rate.
That’s enough miles for a Singapore Airlines Business Class flight from Singapore to Japan, and you’re paying just S$540 for it.
Summary
Disappointing news for those using UOB credit cards to earn miles through RentHero, as these will no longer earn miles through the platform from 27th March 2020.
If you do have one of the supported cards however, 1.75% is the most competitive fee for rental payments on the market at the moment and gives you the opportunity to buy miles from just 1.15 cents each.
If you have existing payments set up through RentHero, remember to log on to your dashboard, remove your upcoming payments then reschedule them, to make sure you get the 1.75% fee from your next payment.
(Cover Photo: Shutterstock)