Citi Rewards cards now earn 2.5 mpd for PayAll payments – buy miles from 0.8 cents

Back in early May, Citi revealed one of its most generous offers to date for those making PayAll payments – a 2.5 mpd earn rate for any expense category, capped at a generous S$120,000 total transaction spend by 31st August 2021.

Three of the bank’s popular miles earning credit cards were initially included in the offer:

Two cards missing from the deal, however, were the Citi Rewards cards.

That wasn’t too surprising – Citi announced to its Rewards cardholders that it was axing rewards points earning for PayAll payments from May 2021 – however it appears as though the bank then had a change of heart.

Citi Rewards cards continue to earn points for PayAll payments after all, though with the poor 0.4 mpd earn rate, it continued to be a very bad idea – equivalent to buying miles at 5 cents each.

Citi Rewards cards now earn 2.5 mpd too

Here’s the good news if you’re a Citi Rewards cardholder – you’ll now also earn 2.5 mpd instead of your card’s usual earn rate for any PayAll payment made between 21st June 2021 and 31st August 2021.

Though the cards are joining the 2.5 mpd party a bit later than their fellow miles earning Citi options, if the Rewards card is the only one you hold this is great news for you, since you had probably resigned yourself to being excluded from the deal by now.

You’ll also be entitled to an additional S$50 cashback if you’ve never made a PayAll transaction before (which as a Rewards cardholder with no other Citi products, you probably won’t have done).

No need to set up recurring payments or meet a minimum / maximum number of transactions. Any payment, any amount – you’re included.

Bonus miles and the new cost per mile are as follows for each eligible card in the promotion, now including the Citi Rewards cards (Visa or Mastercard):

Card	Earn rate	Cost per mile (2% fee)
Citi ULTIMA	1.6 mpd 2.5 mpd	0.8¢
Citi Prestige	1.3 mpd 2.5 mpd
Citi PremierMiles	1.2 mpd 2.5 mpd
Citi Rewards	0.4 mpd 2.5 mpd

Updated terms and conditions for this promotion, effective from 21st June 2021, can be found here.

This could be a great way to settle your income tax payment this year at a (probably record-breaking) cost per mile of just 0.8 cents.

If you’re planning to be a big spender on PayAll during this promotion and you hold more than one Citi card (for example the PremierMiles and a Citi Rewards card), do note that the S$120,000 total transaction limit is per customer, not per card, so the inclusion of the Rewards card won’t double your cap.

Note: For those holding the Citi Cash Back Card, the bank also has a 1.5% cashback offer (bonus of 1.25%) running between 21st June 2021 and 31st August 2021 when making up to S$120,000 of PayAll payments. See the terms here.

When are the bonus miles credited?

Initially you’ll earn the regular rate for your eligible Citi card when making PayAll transactions during the promotion period (1 ThankYou point per S$1 in the case of the Rewards Cards).

The bonus miles, making up the applicable difference to 2.5 mpd (either in equivalent ThankYou points or Citi Miles) will be credited within 10 weeks from the end of the promotion period, which is by 9th November 2021.

New customers: Extra S$50 cashback

If you haven’t made a Citi PayAll transaction before the start date of this promotion (21st June 2021 for Citi Rewards cards, 1st May 2021 for other cards), you’ll also get S$50 cashback credited to your card account, simply for making any payment through the platform during the promotion period, in addition to enjoying the enhanced 2.5 mpd bonus earn rate.

You’ll receive this account credit in the same timeframe as the bonus miles – within 10 weeks after the promotion period ends.

Is it worth it?

Absolutely! As we said back in May, being able to generate such a large quantity of miles at 0.8 cents each is a fantastic offer.

At the top end, if you managed to max out the deal with S$120,000 of PayAll transactions during the promotion, you’d be generating 300,000 miles, enough for three return Business Class trips from Singapore to Tokyo on SIA, for a total fee of S$2,400.

For the income tax season in particular, Citi cardholders are being really spoiled here.

Last year Citi added an additional range of options to its PayAll programme, including insurance, charity and transport payments, not to mention payments to friends or family members for ‘services rendered’, given that Citi does not request evidence of your payment.

Citi Miles / TYP are very flexible

One of the best things about Citi Miles (and Citi ThankYou points like you earn with the Rewards card) in Singapore is the wide range of transfer partners compared with other bank loyalty points.

You can transfer your miles into 11 different frequent flyer programmes and on the hotel side into IHG points.

Here’s how Citi compares to other banks in Singapore.

Singapore credit card to FFP transfers

Our comprehensive guide also gives examples of some of the alliance and partner airline redemptions you can achieve that you might not have considered before.

As you can see from the table above, Citi gives you a wide range of flight redemption options including oneworld and SkyTeam carriers.

We’ve personally transferred Citi Miles into British Airways Avios (for good value intra-Asia Cathay Pacific redemptions) and Asia Miles (for the Qatar Airways Qsuite to Europe), but Turkish Airlines and the newly revalued Qatar Airways Privilege Club are also great options.

Stack with the latest recurring payments offer

Citi Rewards cardholders can now also stack this 2.5 mpd offer with the bank’s fantastic cashback promotion when you set up at least six recurring payments of S$500+ each to an eligible recipient.

See our full article for how this can help you generate completely free miles in some cases!

Summary

It’s great to see that Citi has now added its Rewards cards to the excellent 2.5 mpd earn rate offer for PayAll transactions. If this is the only Citi card you hold – you should definitely be looking to capitalise on this deal between now and the end of August.

Not only is 0.8 cents per mile a ridiculously competitive rate to buy miles, the promotion mechanics are simple and the upper cap is very generous.

This could well be the perfect income tax settlement method for many of our readers this year.

There’s an extra sweetener for those who’ve never made a PayAll transaction before in the form of a S$50 account credit for making any payment during the promotion period, equivalent to completely cancelling any fee charged for the first S$2,500 of payments.

Even if you don’t need the miles for flights given the high balances you may have accrued during the last year, buying miles at this rates should still be justifiable given the excellent cost. At this rate (0.8 cpm), you’d get your money back – if you needed to – even for a KrisShop purchase!

(Cover Photo: Shutterstock)