If you have an invoice, one-off rental payment or tax bill to settle this month, credit card payments company ipaymy has a one-time promotional code unlocking a 1.98% fee using a Singapore-issued Visa or Mastercard. For some of our readers this means ‘buying’ miles at a competitive 1.21 cents each, rising to 1.62 cents per mile for the more widely held cards.
That makes ipaymy one of the cheapest ways to generate miles from a single payment of any type this month, even beating Citi PayAll’s fixed 2% fee.
The offer
ipaymy’s usual fee for payments using your Singapore issued Visa or Mastercard for an invoice payment is 2.25%.
Schedule a payment anytime this month and apply promo code DEC12, with payment using a Singapore-issued Visa or Mastercard, to be eligible for a 12% discount on the regular fee, making it a 1.98% rate for a one-time transaction. Note that this does not apply to recurring payments.
Obviously the bigger the payment, the bigger the saving, so if you have more than one transaction to make this month – try to save the code for the most expensive one!
Note that this offer is for a maximum payment of S$10,000, and the charge date for your transaction must be on or before 31st December 2020 to qualify.
How it works
Simply set up your payment as normal using ipaymy, then at the final (fourth) step (the ‘Complete Your Payment’ stage), enter the promo code DEC12 in the ‘Coupon Code’ section.
Once the code is entered the discount will be applied, as shown above.
Cost per mile
Here are some cost per mile examples for Singapore-issued credit cards under this promotional deal at the 1.98% rate (applicable to any Visa or Mastercard payment):
| Card | Miles per S$1 | Cost per mile (1.98% fee) |
 UOB Reserve |
1.6 | 1.21¢ |
 Citi ULTIMA |
1.6 | 1.21¢ |
 UOB PRVI Miles MC/Visa |
1.4 | 1.39¢ |
 Standard Chartered Visa Infinite |
1.4* | 1.39¢* |
 Citi Prestige |
1.3 | 1.49¢ |
 OCBC Voyage Visa |
1.3 | 1.49¢ |
 DBS Altitude Visa |
1.2 | 1.62¢ |
 Citi Premiermiles |
1.2 | 1.62¢ |
 OCBC 90ºN |
1.2 | 1.62¢ |
 KrisFlyer UOB |
1.2 | 1.62¢ |
* 1.4 mpd subject to a minimum spend of S$2,000 in the same statement cycle, otherwise 1 mpd. ipaymy payments do count towards the minimum.
All of these are competitive rates to buy, we value KrisFlyer miles at 1.9 cents each (our upper limit), and actually achieve around 2.4 cents per mile when we redeem, based on well over 1 million miles burned over recent years, assuming current redemption rates.
Citi PayAll
Even if you have a Citi card, at a 1.98% fee this ipaymy promotional rate beats Citi PayAll, which applies a 2% transaction fee for all users.
That’s not only because the ipaymy fee is marginally lower, but you are also earning miles for the fee itself as well as the payment amount when you use a card payments company like this, whereas with Citi PayAll you do not accrue miles for the fee element.
A Citi PremierMiles customer, for example, is buying miles at 1.67 cents each making a payment through PayAll, 3% higher than with this new ipaymy offer (1.62 cents each).
 |
 |
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| S$5,000 charged | S$5,000 x 1.2 = 6,000 miles |
S$5,000 x 1.2 = 6,000 miles |
| Admin Fee | 2% (S$100) |
1.98% (S$99) |
| Admin Miles | No miles awarded for payment of the admin fee | S$5,000 x 1.98% = S$99 x 1.2 = 119 miles |
| Total | = 6,000 miles | 6,000 + 119 = 6,119 miles |
| Cost per mile | S$100 / 6,000 = 1.67 cpm |
S$99 / 6,119 = 1.62cpm |
As you can see despite an almost identical fee between Citi PayAll (S$100) and ipaymy (S$99) for a S$5,000 transaction, using the DEC12 ipaymy promo code you’re earning more miles and paying slightly less overall.
Mainly Miles new user offer
If you’re new to ipaymy, or have signed up but are yet to make your first payment, don’t dive in with this December offer just yet!
Mainly Miles readers get a special sign-up offer with up to S$22.50 off the usual fee for a one-time transaction between now and 28th February 2021, using promo code MAINLY1000.
With ipaymy charging a 2.25% transaction fee for payments using your Singapore-issued Visa or Mastercard, that’s equivalent to a completely fee-free payment up to S$1,000.
Click here for full details of our Mainly Miles x ipaymy reader offer
Even for payments above S$1,000, the discount is giving you the unique opportunity to buy miles at very attractive rates.
For example a S$2,000 payment using the UOB PRVI Miles Visa or Mastercard (1.4 mpd) is possible at a fee of just S$22.50, the equivalent of buying 2,830 miles at just 0.79 cents each.
If you’re a first time ipaymy user with more than one payment to make this month, you will have to use the MAINLY1000 code on your first payment, followed by the DEC12 code on any subsequent payment during December.
For example:
- 16th December: S$1,000 payment using MAINLY1000 (fee S$0.00)
- 24th December: S$1,000 payment using DEC12 (fee S$19.80)
That would allow you to generate 3,231 miles with a 1.6 mpd credit card for less than S$20!
1.79% on rental payments is still available
You may recall earlier this year ipaymy launched a 1.79% fee promotion for recurring rental payments of six months or more, with a Singapore-issued Visa or Mastercard.
That ‘Ending Soon’ offer is still available, though it’s now restricted only to locally-issued Visa ca