OCBC Voyage: Earn 3 mpd on overseas spend and 2.5 mpd on dining

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

OCBC has a new overseas spend and dining offer for its Voyage, Premier Voyage, OCBC Premier Private Client Voyage and OCBC Bank of Singapore Voyage cardholders, worth up to 3 miles per dollar spent during December 2020 and January 2021.

The bonus rate is capped at S$1,000 spend during the promotion period, across both spend categories.

How it works

No registration is required for this promotion, so all OCBC Voyage cards are automatically eligible, with no minimum spend.

Initially you will earn your Voyage card’s base miles for these overseas and dining transactions as usual, with the difference between that level and either 3 mpd or 2.5 mpd topped up as bonus miles, which will be awarded within two calendar months after the end of the promotion period.

Foreign currency spend

The OCBC Voyage card normally earns 2.2 mpd or 2.3 mpd on foreign currency transactions.

During this promotion, that’s topped up (regardless of the specific Voyage card you hold) to 3 mpd for any spend within the S$1,000 cap.

Foreign Currency Spend
Card Type	Base Miles	Bonus Miles	Total Miles
OCBC Voyage	2.2 mpd	0.8 mpd	3 mpd
OCBC Premier Voyage BOS Voyage OCBC Premier Private Client Voyage	2.3 mpd	0.7 mpd	3 mpd

The OCBC Voyage cards charge a 3.25% transaction fee for foreign currency spend, the equivalent of ‘buying’ miles at 1.56 cents each using the basic card at 2.2 mpd.

With this enhanced offer during December and January, the equivalent cost per mile is 1.14 cents each, one of the best on the market, even accounting for a 0.3% ‘spread’ over money changer currency rates, which doesn’t apply to all banks and all foreign currencies, and so is a worst-case scenario.

Dining spend

The OCBC Voyage card previously had a 1.6 mpd earn rate for local dining, but that became lumped in with a new general local spend rate of 1.3 mpd back in April 2020.

During this promotion, that’s topped up (regardless of the specific Voyage card you hold) to 2.5 mpd for any spend within the S$1,000 cap.

Local Dining Spend
Card Type	Base Miles	Bonus Miles	Total Miles
OCBC Voyage	1.3 mpd	1.2 mpd	2.5 mpd
OCBC Premier Voyage BOS Voyage	1.6 mpd	0.9 mpd
OCBC Premier Private Client Voyage	2.3 mpd	0.2 mpd

Do be aware that only dining transactions made under the following Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) will qualify:

MCC 5811: Caterers
MCC 5812: Eating Places, Restaurants
MCC 5814: Fast Food Restaurants

While this covers most restaurants in Singapore, be particularly careful when dining at restaurants within hotels. These usually code under a hotel MCC, not a dining one, and therefore won’t be eligible for the bonus miles as part of this promotion.

Also note that food delivery services such as Deliveroo, foodpanda and Grab Food fall under MCC 5499 and will therefore not qualify either.

Other cards to use for dining

The OCBC Voyage cards aren’t necessarily the best options for local dining transactions. In some circumstances the following cards will give you up to 4 miles per dollar instead.

Card	Miles per S$1	Notes
UOB Lady’s Card	4.0	4 mpd if dining is specified as your quarterly bonus category, capped at S$1,000 per month.
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Card	4.0	4 mpd if dining is specified as your quarterly bonus category, capped at S$3,000 per month.
HSBC Revolution (see our review)	4.0	4 mpd on dining with contactless payment, capped at S$1,000 per month.
Maybank Horizon Visa Signature (see our review)	3.2	3.2 mpd on all local dining transactions with a total spend in any category of at least S$300 in the same calendar month.
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card (see our review)	3.0	3.0 mpd on dining transactions, with a minimum S$500 spend per membership year at SIA, SilkAir, Scoot or the KrisShop.

The cap is combined

Remember the bonus rate of either 3 mpd for FCY spend or 2.5 mpd for local dining spend is capped at S$1,000 spend across both categories during December 2020 and January 2021.

After that you’ll earn the usual base miles rates for these transactions, depending on the Voyage card you hold.

S$5 rounding for miles earning

Don’t forget that OCBC credit cards now award miles only for S$5 spend blocks, so you may earn less than 3 mpd or 2.5 mpd under this promotion, especially for smaller transactions.

For example a dining charge of S$14.99 will be rounded down to S$10 (25 miles under this promotion), equivalent to just 1.67 mpd.

The rounding issue becomes much less of an impact for larger transactions, for example a $94.99 charge will be rounded down to $90 (225 miles), equivalent to 2.37 mpd.

Once your transactions exceed S$100, as they will in many cases for dining in a restaurant, the rounding issue becomes almost negligible.

Terms and conditions

Full terms and conditions for this promotion are available here:

OCBC Voyage Dining and FCY Spend T&C

Summary

Earlier this year, OCBC removed its year-round 1.6 mpd bonus rate for dining transactions on the Voyage cards, so a 2.5 mpd promotion is nice to see, effectively a repeat of the bank’s August 2020 offer.

There are some other cards offering superior rates on dining transactions, with some conditions attached, including a recently-hiked 4 mpd rate for S$1,000 monthly contactless dining spend with the HSBC Revolution Visa.

This time round there’s also a 3 mpd rate for foreign currency transactions, and although it shares the same S$1,000 cap applicable to dining spend during the promotion period, it represents a competitive cost per mile for general spending in this category.