Extended: Earn up to 3 mpd for online spend with DBS Altitude cards

DBS has extended its enhanced miles earning offer for its Altitude cardholders, originally running only in June and July, with up to 3 mpd spent on a range of online retail transactions. The deal now runs through to 30th September 2021, giving you two more months to benefit and another 10,000 potential bonus miles.

The deal is open to all cardholders with no registration required.

Unfortunately the earn rate still falls short of the 4 mpd offered by other bonus credit cards on the market for online spend, plus you’ll have to commit to a significant minimum general spend on your card to unlock the bonus miles in the same month.

The offer

All principal DBS Altitude Visa Signature and DBS Altitude American Express cardholders are automatically eligible for the offer, with no registration required.

You will earn bonus miles for selected online retail spend as follows:

when you spend a minimum of S$2,500 in each calendar month during the promotion period.

If you wish to participate in August, for example, that means spending S$2,500+ (on anything) during that month.

If you wish to participate in both of the last two remaining months of the promotion, you’ll have to clock S$2,500+ (on anything) in August 2021 and S$2,500+ (on anything) in September 2021.

Qualifying spend

For the S$2,500 in monthly charges to the card to qualify for the applicable enhanced earn rate within that month, the following typical DBS exclusions apply:

Unlike some recent DBS promotions, the general monthly spend of S$2,500+ to activate this bonus online rate can include CardUp and ipaymy transactions.

Eligible spend

The following Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) are valid for the bonus miles under this offer for online retail transactions (remember, no in-store spend):

  Online Spend

Category	Eligible MCCs
Apparel	5137, 5139, 5611, 5621, 5631, 5641, 5651, 5655, 5661, 5681, 5691, 5697, 5698, 5699 (e.g. Zara, Pull & Bear, H&M, Pandora)
Duty Free Stores & Department Stores	5309, 5310, 5311, 5331, 5399 (e.g. Isetan, TANGS, KrisShop, MUJI)
Electronic and Computers	5045, 5065, 5732, 5734 (e.g. Apple Store, Challenger, Harvey Norman, Bowers & Wilkins)
Home/Office Furnishing & Appliances	5021, 5200, 5712, 5713, 5714, 5718, 5719, 5722, 5997 (e.g. Prestige Affairs, Castelry, FortyTwo, Simmons)
Specialty Retail	4225, 5111, 5193, 5531, 5931, 5932, 5933, 5937, 5943, 5947, 5948, 5950, 5973, 5978, 5992, 5993, 5996, 5999, 9751 (e.g. Amazon, Bynd Artisan, Klosh, Xpressflower.com)
Watches & Jewellery	5094, 5944 (e.g. Breitling, Franck Muller, The Hour Glass, Tag Heuer)

Any spend made by supplementary cardholders during this promotion will be combined with that of the principal cardholder, for calculation of both the qualifying minimum spend and the eligible spend components.

While 2.2 mpd or 3 mpd is 83% or 50% more respectively than the usual miles earning you’ll achieve online at these merchants using your DBS Altitude card, do note that you can get 4 mpd with many other bonus miles credit cards in Singapore for online spend, like the Citi Rewards and HSBC Revolution.

Monthly cap

If you have a large online spend planned, do be aware that this bonus offer is capped at S$5,000 spend in each calendar month.

The maximum bonus you can be awarded in each calendar month as part of this promotion is therefore 5,000 miles (S$5,000 spend x 1 bonus miles), which comes to 20,000 miles if you hit S$5,000 of eligible online spend in all four months of the promotion.

Remember, you’ll still need to make S$2,500+ of qualifying general spend (on anything) in each calendar month to ‘activate’ the bonus rate.

For example if you make S$3,000 in general spend transactions in August and S$2,400 in general spend in September, you’ll only get the bonus miles for any online retail spend in August (because your September qualifying transactions total was insufficient).

Qualifying spend vs. Eligible spend

Qualifying spend can include eligible online spend, for example a S$5,000 online payment at Harvey Norman in August 2021 will unlock the online spend bonus (S$2,500+) and be awarded 2.2 mpd earn rate (eligible spend).

In other words you don’t necessarily need to make S$2,500+ of qualifying spend to then unlock the bonus for subsequent eligible online spend, the two amounts can overlap if you wish.

When are the bonus miles credited?

In the latest instalment of ‘which bank can stuff up its terms and conditions document today?’… DBS doesn’t seem too sure!

In point 8 of the T&Cs for this offer it states that bonus miles will be awarded by the end of the following month from the end of each calendar month in the promotion period (e.g. by 30th September for August).

Later however in point 11 of the same document it states that bonus miles will be awarded within 60 days from the end of each calendar month of the promotion period (e.g. by 30th October for August spend).

We’d recommend expecting the latter, to avoid disappointment.

Is it just for KrisFlyer miles?

No. These bonus miles will be credited as DBS Points, so you can transfer them into your choice of four different frequent flyer programs. For example 5,000 DBS Points transfers into:

• 10,000 KrisFlyer miles
• 10,000 Asia Miles
• 10,000 Qantas Points
• 15,000 AirAsia BIG Points

Our advice? Forget AirAsia BIG Points (worth about 0.34 Singapore cents each as mentioned in our full review of this card) and stick with KrisFlyer miles, Qantas Points or Asia Miles, all worth closer to the 1.9 Singapore cents per mile / point mark.

DBS Points never expire, so there’s no rush to transfer to your preferred program. Do be aware however that DBS Points typically take up to four days to credit into KrisFlyer upon each transfer request, and we expect Asia Miles and Qantas transfers are probably no different.

Whichever frequent flyer programme you choose, there’s a S$26.75 fee (including GST) each time you transfer DBS Points into an airline scheme.

Terms and conditions

Full updated terms and conditions for this extended bonus miles offer are available at the DBS website:

 DBS 3 mpd on Online Shopping Promo

Summary

You can pick up 4 mpd for online retail transactions with a several bonus credit cards on the market, including transactions in SGD, so this offer from DBS (2.2 mpd in SGD and 3 mpd in FCY) may not be of much interest.

If you are already maxing out your 4 mpd cards each month, however, this could be a useful bonus – especially if you usually spend S$2,500+ per month on your DBS Altitude card anyway.

In that case you’ll see the bonus miles come through for eligible online spend regardless, since all cardholders are included in the offer and no registration is required.

Of course if you’re more of a ‘single card strategy’ miles earner and you’re only holding the DBS Altitude card for all your spend – this promotion could come in useful.

For full details of the DBS Altitude cards, which currently have a 10,000 miles (or up to S$200 cashback for S$800 spend) sign-up bonus, see our comprehensive up-to-date review.

(Cover Photo: Shutterstock)