DBS Woman’s World Card Review (2022)

Here’s our review of the DBS Woman’s World credit card issued in Singapore. It forms part of our series of credit card reviews, which are all summarised on our dedicated Credit Cards page.

Dollar amounts refer to SGD, and ‘miles’ refer to KrisFlyer miles, except where stated. This review was updated on 16th February 2023.

A generous $2,000 monthly cap for 4 miles per dollar on all online spend is the main draw for this card, enough to net you 96,000 KrisFlyer miles, Asia Miles or Qantas Points per annum with the right spend.

Pros	Cons
First year fee waiver 4 mpd on up to $2,000 of all monthly online spend Generous points rounding for smaller transactions in the bonus category Points pool with other DBS cards	One year points expiry High FCY fee outweighs the offline overseas earn rate Bonus points take a month to credit High income requirement (if they stick to it)

The DBS Woman’s card comes in two varieties. Both use the Mastercard network; the DBS Woman’s Card and the DBS Woman’s World Card.

We are only reviewing the DBS Woman’s World Card here (the one on the right). That’s because of its 4 miles per dollar bonus rate for online transactions, which we’ll cover in detail later.

Another concept to get your head around is that despite this being marketed as a product for female’s, anyone can apply for one of these cards. In case you’re a man feeling uncomfortable about pulling this out of your wallet for a purchase – don’t worry.

As we attested to in the previous paragraph, your secret miles-earning card with its floral design will spend its life hidden away at home anyway, since this one is only really any use for the high miles per dollar rate associated with online spending.

• Gender: Any!
• Minimum Age: 21
• Minimum Income: $80,000/yr

While the mainstream miles earning DBS Altitude cards came down to earth from their $80k per annum income requirement in recent years (to $30k), the Woman’s World Card has remained pinned at this higher level, for all applicants.

However, there are reports that the income requirement is not strictly enforced, especially for existing DBS customers. If you earn over $30k per annum, it’s worth a try.

• Annual Fee (principal): $194.40 (first year free)
• Annual Fee (supplementary): $97.20 (first year free)
• Fee waiver: All annual card fees waived with $25,000+ retail spend in the previous membership year

This card has an annual fee of $194.40. That’s waived in year one, but don’t worry – there’s a ‘get out’ in subsequent years too.

Provided you spend at least S$25,000 on the card each membership year, you’ll receive a waiver of the fee in the following year.

There is reportedly some flexibility in the application of the annual fee even if you do not meet the spend criteria. You can request a waiver online for any DBS card (including this one) here. For the last two years I got a full waiver on my DBS Altitude Amex card this way within 24 hours, between a week and a month after it had been charged.

Other fees and interest rates for the DBS Woman’s World card include:

• EIR: 26.8%
• Interest-free period: 25 days
• Minimum payment: 3% (capped at $50)
• Late payment fee: $100 (for outstanding balance $200+)
• Cash advance fee: 8% (capped at $15)
• Overlimit fee: $40

The DBS Woman’s World card earns:

• 0.4 miles for every $1 of general local spend
• 1.2 miles for every $1 of foreign currency spend

These are not attractive earn rates, you should be earning at least 1.2 mpd for general spend locally (outside bonus categories) and 2 mpd overseas, however the big draw for this card is of course the online bonus earn rate, outlined below.

You should not be using the WWMC for general spending outside the bonus category (see entry-level general spend cards like the Citi PremierMiles, or DBS Altitude or UOB PRVI Miles for good general spend earn rates).

The DBS Woman’s World card earns:

• 4 miles for every $1 spent online (local or overseas)

This excellent rate is capped at the first $2,000 spent in this category per calendar month.

It applies for retail purchases including Grab and Gojek rides, foodpanda and Deliveroo orders, buying air tickets online or booking hotels online, to name a few.

It also includes in-app online spend via Apple Pay or Google Pay (e.g. when paying a merchant online using Apple Pay, via your phone browser or an app). It does not include contactless payment in-store, even via these mobile wallet methods.

Kris+ in-store merchant transactions using the WWMC via Apple Pay or Google Pay are considered online transactions and therefore are eligible for 4 mpd, but you won’t earn the bonus rate, for example, when purchasing something from 7-Eleven using the WWMC via your mobile wallet to make contactless payment (0.4 mpd in this case).

Whenever you make a transaction on your credit card, it typically takes one to three days before the amount is posted to your account, and for most cards with bonus spend periods it’s the posting date that is taken into account for bonus spend calculation.

That’s not the case for the WWMC card, which goes by transaction date when determining which calendar month your bonus spend falls into.

For example, if you make an online transaction on 31st October at 11.50pm Singapore Time it will still be counted under October’s S$2,000 bonus spend cap, even though the amount will likely only post to your card account in the first few days of November.

If you are making an international online payment, where the payment is processed overseas, do be aware that the transaction date may be based on the local time zone of the country the payment is processed in.

For example, if you book a British Airways flight ticket at 6am Singapore Time on 1st November, it will probably appear as a 31st October transaction on your card, because that was the local date at the payment processing location.

It may be better to avoid making payments in the bonus category with this card on the 1st of each month, if you already reached the bonus spend cap for the previous calendar month, in case this issue affects your transaction.

There is no current miles-earning sign-up bonus for the DBS Woman’s World Card, which is the normal situation.

Instead DBS is offering $150 cashback for new to DBS/POSB credit card customers who are currently not holding any principal DBS/POSB credit card and/or have not cancelled such a card within the last 12 months.

To be eligible for this offer you’ll have to:

• Apply online for your DBS Woman’s World Card by 31st January 2023 with promo code ‘150CASH’
• Have your card account approved by 14th February 2023.
• Charge at least $800 spend to the card within the first 60 days from the date of approval.

Further promotion details are available here, while full terms and conditions for the sign-up bonus are available here.

Do be aware that DBS regularly offers a $300 cashback sign-up bonus for the WWMC card, so it may be worth holding off your application until that deal next comes along.

Eligible transactions on the DBS Woman’s World card for miles earning are all retail purchases including recurring payments, with the exception of the following:

Spend exclusion categories Bill payments and all transactions via AXS (except Pay+Earn), SAM, eNETS; Payments to educational institutions; Payment to government institutions and services (court cases, fines, bail and bonds, tax payment, postal services, parking lots and garages, intra-government purchases and any other government services not classified here); Payment to insurance companies (sales, underwriting, and premiums); Payments to financial institutions (including banks and brokerages); Payment to non-profit organisations; Payments to hospitals; Payments on utilities; Betting (including lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, off-track betting, and wagers at race tracks) through any channel; Any top-ups or payment of funds to payment service providers, prepaid cards, any prepaid accounts or purchase of prepaid cards/credits (including but not limited to EZ-Link, GrabPay, NETS FlashPay and Singtel Dash); Instalment payment plan purchases, preferred payment plans, balance transfer, fund transfer, cash advances, annual fees, interest, late payment charges, all fees charged by DBS, miscellaneous charges imposed by DBS (unless otherwise stated in writing by DBS).

This list is subject to change, so check the DBS Rewards Programme Terms and Conditions (section 2.6) for the latest information.

Some additional exclusions are also listed on the DBS Woman’s Card Terms and Conditions, so be sure to review those in conjunction with the above list.

Principal exclusions are for CardUp, iPaymy, insurance premiums, utility bills and Grab top-ups, even if conducted online.

Note that Amaze transactions no longer accrue DBS Points.

No, in fact rather than being credited miles directly you’ll accrue ‘DBS Points’ for your regular spending on this card.

These transfer to KrisFlyer miles at a 1:2 ratio, so for $2,000 of eligible online spending, you’ll net 4,000 DBS Points, which can be converted to 8,000 KrisFlyer miles (4 mpd).

DBS Points per S$5 of spend will reflect in your rewards account as follows:

• For local transactions 1 DBS Point (0.4 mpd) will be credited one working day after the transaction is posted to your account.
• For overseas transactions 3 DBS Points (1.2 mpd) will be credited one working day after the transaction is posted to your account, shown as two separate credits of 1 DBS Point + 2 DBS Points (0.4 mpd + 0.8 mpd).
• For online transactions, points will initially be credited in line with the local or overseas rate shown above (depending on the currency the transaction took place in), i.e. within one working day of the transaction posting.
  
  The balance of points, equivalent to 9 DBS Points (3.6 mpd) for local online spend or 7 DBS Points (2.8 mpd) for overseas online spend, will be credited around the middle of the next calendar month.

Bear in mind that it takes between one and three days for a transaction to post to your account in the first instance.

One issue that often crops up with these credit card bonus points categories, in this case for online spend, is whether the bank accurately identifies the transactions as such, and therefore awards the correct bonus points each month.

This unfortunately sometimes takes a little work on your part, as DBS does not itemise the bonus points transaction-by-transaction in your monthly statement. Instead you can use their chatbot service to check on the total bonus awarded the following month, for eligible spend made the previous month.

To do so, log on to your DBS online banking account and click the chatbot icon at the bottom right of the screen.

Type “Rewards” and press enter, then click on “View Rewards”, then “Points by Card” and select your DBS WWMC from the list.

The bot will then ask if you wish to view your points by transaction, so click “Yes”. The bonus points are added in a single block for all eligible transactions around the middle of the month following the spend month.

Note that the amount shown (e.g. S$3,216.40 above) does not relate to your bonus category spending, it is some ‘back-driven’ total that matches the number of points shown (the number of points should accurately reflect the bonus element of your monthly transactions – just ignore the amount).

We certainly recommend checking your bonus points carefully towards the middle of each month to ensure you’re getting what you expect for the previous month’s transactions, and do take it up with DBS if you think there is an error.

They will usually address the issue for a transaction which should obviously have qualified, but didn’t register correctly, or at least be able to tell you why it wasn’t eligible.

Some do and some don’t! Unfortunately unlike the DBS Altitude card, which enjoys expiry-free points, DBS Points accrued with the Woman’s World card do expire, on an annual basis. It’s a little complicated so you have to be careful with this.

• DBS Points awarded in the first year commencing from the date your account is opened, are only redeemable during the 12-month period from that date. This will be shown on your credit card statement. After that if you haven’t redeemed them, the points will expire and be reduced to zero.
• Points earned in each successive year will then expire a year from the earning date.

This is quite a restrictive policy compared to other cards on the market, so if you are going to get this card to enjoy the 4 miles per dollar online earn rate make sure you keep on top of the expiry rules and transfer your miles into frequent flyer points before they vanish.

Remember if you’re transferring to KrisFlyer you’ll then have a three-year validity window to use those miles before they expire in that scheme too (now that expiry is back).

Pro Tip: If you do let your DBS Points expire, they will usually allow you to reinstate them for gift redemptions like vouchers, but unfortunately you won’t be able to convert them to miles anymore.

DBS Points pool together with your other DBS cards for the purposes of redemption, for example if you also hold the DBS Altitude card.

Points earned first are then used first when you redeem.

If you cancel your Woman’s World card however, any DBS Points accrued but not redeemed from that card will be forfeited, they cannot be transferred to your Altitude card in this example.

It’ll cost $27.00 (including GST) each time you transfer DBS Points to KrisFlyer miles.

The minimum volume of miles you can transfer into KrisFlyer is 10,000 (i.e. 5,000 DBS Points). Thereafter they must then be transferred in blocks of 10,000 miles.

The official line is “approximately 7 working days”. In other words, about a week and a half. That’s a bit on the long side if you’re chasing a currently available redemption ticket, or booking a short-term award.

Luckily the FlyerTalk forum post where KrisFlyer members share the actual number of days taken to transfer miles across from various banks, suggests that 1 to 4 days is more typical from DBS, with some reporting to receive their miles the same day (presumably on a working day, with a transfer request submitted in the morning).

In our personal experience, DBS points usually credit into KrisFlyer within 48 hours of initiating the transfer request.

You can transfer DBS Points into Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles and Qantas Frequent Flyer Points.

The same earning rate, transfer cost, and minimum transfer ‘blocks’ apply if you choose to credit to Asia Miles or Qantas.

You can also transfer your DBS Points to Air Asia BIG Points, here 500 DBS Points will transfer into 1,500 BIG Points (a 3:1 ratio), though it won’t be much interest to our readers – BIG Points are worth only about $0.0034 each (0.34 cents), or about a fifth of the value of a KrisFlyer mile / Asia Mile.

Since Air Asia BIG Points is effectively a cashback programme, this is even worse value than cashing out your DBS Points for shopping vouchers!

Points / miles transfer times into non-KrisFlyer programmes are quoted as:

• Air Asia: 10 working days
• Asia Miles: 10 working days
• Qantas: 7 working days

Our personal experience of transferring DBS Points into Asia Miles in 2019 was a transfer time of almost exactly one week.

There is no auto miles conversion option with the DBS Woman’s World card. Each miles transfer must be requested individually and will attract the transfer fee.

The exception is if you are also a DBS Altitude, Insignia or Treasures Black Elite cardholder, in which case you are eligible for the Auto Conversion Programme if you wish.

In this case, if you enrol, DBS Points accumulated under all your DBS credit cards (including the WWMC) will be automatically converted into KrisFlyer miles at the start of every quarter, for an annual fee of S$42.80.

You can also link your DBS Points and KrisPay account and instantly transfer as little as 100 points into KrisPay miles via the Kris+ app.

The transfer ratio is 1:1.7 (e.g. 100 DBS Points = 170 KrisPay miles)

You won’t want to be using the KrisPay miles against Kris+ merchant purchases, due to the awful value of 0.67 cents per mile, but you can immediately transfer them 1:1 into your KrisFlyer account as KrisFlyer miles.

As you’ll notice the ratio means taking a 15% ‘hit’ on the usual DBS Points to KrisFlyer transfer rate, so it’s only of interest if you need a small amount to meet a specific redemption threshold, or have a small balance ‘stuck’ in DBS Points (less than 5,000), which you aren’t going to be adding to in future.

You shouldn’t be using this as your regular DBS Points to KrisFlyer transfer method, as it effectively devalues your miles earning rate to 0.34 mpd for general transactions, 1.02 mpd for FCY transactions and 3.4 mpd for bonus rate purchases.

There are important factors to be aware of, firstly you’ll have to move any points transferred from DBS to KrisPay into KrisFlyer miles within seven days, otherwise they are stuck in KrisPay (where you definitely don’t want them).

The second is just as important, you cannot use any of the KrisPay miles you have earned from your DBS Points transfer for any Kris+ purchase, no matter how small, as that automatically renders the entire transfer stuck in Kris+ until expiry, six months later.

The golden rule therefore is to transfer in to KrisPay miles via Kris+, then transfer straight out to KrisFlyer. Even with that seven-day window available, our advice is don’t wait.

DBS doesn’t have the simplest rounding policy for issuance of its DBS Points when you make a purchase using the Woman’s World card.

“DBS Points shall be awarded to the Principal Cardmember based on the amount of retail purchases charged to the Card Account on a per transaction basis, rounded down to the nearest whole number.”

DBS Rewards Terms and Conditions

That means each transaction you make, whether in SGD or foreign currency, will first be rounded down to the next whole dollar (in SGD equivalent if required) before DBS Points earning is assessed (e.g. $57.99 is rounded down to 57).

Now for the trickier part.

“DBS Woman’s World Cardmembers earn 10 DBS Points for every S$5 online retail purchase, capped at S$2,000 spend on online retail purchase per calendar month, and 3 DBS Points for every S$5 equivalent in foreign currency purchase.”

DBS Rewards Terms and Conditions

That suggests points will only be awarded in $5 spend blocks, however it’s not quite that simple.

Your rounded down transaction (57 in the $57.99 example above) is then divided by 5 before being multiplied by the appropriate number of DBS Points.

While DBS does not then mention it specifically, only whole DBS Points can be awarded for your transaction so it’s another ’round down’ at the end to the next whole point.

For example, assuming a $57.99 local offline transaction:

• $57.99 rounds down to 57
• 57 / 5 = 11.4 x 1 (FCY purchase) = 11.4
• 11.4 rounds down to 11
• 11 DBS Points awarded (equivalent to 22 miles, so you’re getting 0.38 mpd)

Assuming a $57.99 overseas offline transaction:

• $57.99 rounds down to 57
• 57 / 5 = 11.4 x 3 (FCY purchase) = 34.2
• 34.2 rounds down to 34
• 34 DBS Points awarded (equivalent to 68 miles, so you’re getting 1.17 mpd)

As we mentioned earlier, even for eligible online spend you’ll initially earn the basic local or overseas earn rate and have these DBS points credited (as shown above) to your rewards account within a few days of your purchase.

At the end of the following month, eligible transactions in the online spend category for the previous month are assessed.

• Your total local spend in this category is then combined and the remaining 9 DBS Points per $5 are then applied.
• Your total overseas spend in this category is then combined and the remaining 7 DBS Points per $5 are then applied.
• These two totals are then combined and credited as a whole number of DBS Points, towards the end of the month.

Let’s stick to the S$57.99 transaction example used above, but let’s say you made two of these identical transactions per month. Here are the bonus DBS Points awarded at the end of the following month, assuming the two transactions were:

• Both in SGD
• Both in FCY
• One in SGD, one in FCY

For the overseas transactions, this assumes they converted from the applicable FCY to exactly S$57.99 when posted to your statement.

Both in SGD	$57.99 x 2 = $115.98 $115.98 rounds down to 115 115 / 5 = 23 x 9 (online purchase) = 207 No round down required 207 DBS Points awarded + 22 DBS Points awarded the previous month for these transactions 229 DBS Points awarded (equivalent to 458 miles, so you’re getting 3.95 mpd)
Both in FCY	$57.99 x 2 = $115.98 $115.98 rounds down to 115 115 / 5 = 23 x 7 (online purchase) = 161 No round down required 161 DBS Points awarded + 68 DBS Points awarded the previous month for these transactions 229 DBS Points awarded (equivalent to 458 miles, so you’re getting 3.95 mpd)
One in SGD and One in FCY	SGD: $57.99 rounds down to 57 57 / 5 = 11.4 x 9 (online purchase) = 102.6 102.6 rounds down to 102 102 DBS Points awarded FCY: $57.99 rounds down to 57 57 / 5 = 11.4 x 7 (online purchase) = 79.8 79.8 rounds down to 79 79 DBS Points awarded 79 + 102 = 181 DBS Points awarded + 45 DBS Points awarded the previous month for these transactions 226 DBS Points awarded (equivalent to 452 miles, so you’re getting 3.90 mpd)

Once you have multiple eligible transactions in SGD or in FCY during a calendar month, the rounding issue becomes less relevant because all of the spend in each category is then combined before being assessed for bonus points in one fell swoop at the end, meaning that final ’round down’ to a whole DBS point becomes inconsequential.

Since you’ll need to accrue at least 1 DBS Point to earn miles for your transaction (0.99 DBS Points rounds down to zero), the minimum spend in SGD on the DBS Woman’s World card to earn points is:

• Offline local transactions: $5.00
• Offline FCY transactions: $1.67 (after conversion to SGD)
• Online local transactions: $0.56
• Online FCY transactions: $0.72 (after conversion to SGD)

With the exception of offline local transactions, which you shouldn’t be charging to this card at the poor 0.4 mpd earn rate anyway, these are quite reasonable levels.

Be aware: Online transactions of less than $5 (local) or $1.67 (FCY) will initially earn no DBS Points when posted to your account. They will still earn bonus points however in the middle of the following month, provided they were $0.56 or more (local) or $0.72 or more (FCY). For example a $4.50 local online transaction will earn no DBS Points at first, but will attract 8 DBS Points at the end of the following month (16 miles, equivalent to 3.55 mpd).

DBS imposes a 3.25% fee on transactions made in foreign currency on the Woman’s World card.

You won’t be wanting to make transactions in foreign currency at the basic 1.2 mpd earn rate with this card, which would be equivalent to ‘buying’ miles at an unattractive 2.86 cents each, much more than you can probably achieve in value.

At the 4 mpd bonus rate though, which would apply for example to an online payment charged in US Dollars, it’s a different matter altogether.

Here’s how that cost per mile compares to other credit cards in Singapore offering 4 mpd for at least some form of eligible transactions in foreign currency.

Cost per mile on overseas credit card transactions (4 mpd cards)
(Best to worst, October 2021)

Card	Fee	Miles per $	Cost per mile
HSBC Revo	2.8%	4.0	0.75¢
UOB PPV	3.25%	4.0	0.86¢
Citi Rewards	3.25%	4.0	0.86¢
DBS WWMC	3.25%	4.0	0.86¢
UOB VS	3.25%	4.0	0.86¢
OCBC TR	3.25%	4.0	0.86¢

Cost per mile also accounts for an additional 0.3% ‘spread’ over money changer currency rates, though this doesn’t apply to all banks and all foreign currencies, so is a worst-case scenario.

As you can see the DBS Woman’s Word card comes in at a very competitive cost of 0.86 cents per mile, so you should definitely be using this card for online transactions in FCY, subject to the monthly cap.

There are a variety of rewards other than airline miles you can use your DBS Points for, though as usual they all represent much poorer value.

We know that 1 DBS Point can be converted into 2 KrisFlyer miles, which we value at 1.9 cents each, so that’s approximately 3.8 cents value to a DBS Point when used this way.

Other transfer options are largely for shopping and retail vouchers, for example a $10 FairPrice voucher will set you back 690 DBS Points. The same number of points should be getting you 1,380 KrisFlyer miles, worth about $26. You should never be using your DBS Points for anything other than KrisFlyer miles, Asia Miles or Qantas Points transfers.

There are a few additional benefits with the DBS Woman’s World card. For a full list see the landing page for this card product on the DBS website.

Some other benefits which we think will be of most interest to our readers are:

• World Mastercard benefits across categories like travel and shopping.
• A range of beauty and wellness discounts and fashion discounts at a variety of outlets in Singapore. See the product landing page for full details.

Here are links to the full terms and conditions applicable to the DBS Woman’s World Card and the DBS Rewards programme.

 DBS Woman’s World Card T&C
 DBS Woman’s World Card sign-up bonus T&C
 DBS Rewards Programme T&C

There’s really only one valuable use for the DBS Woman’s World Card, spending up to $2,000 per month on eligible online transactions. While the fact that only a single spend category is worth considering with this card sounds like a downfall, its simplicity is also enticing.

No worrying about MCC codes (for the most part), or whether you need to tap or use Apple Pay, etc. If you have an online retail transaction to make in any currency, the DBS Woman’s Card is your go-to solution, including for travel-related spend (where the Citi Rewards cards fall down).

It’s also your go-to card for in-store Kris+ payments, which tag as online transactions through Apple Pay or Google Pay.

If you achieve the exact monthly cap of $2,000 spend in this category throughout the year, it’s equivalent to 96,000 KrisFlyer miles, Asia Miles or Qantas Points per annum.

Another great thing about this card of course is that men can get it too, and many should to take full advantage of this great benefit.

There are no significant other perks like lounge access and limo rides with this card however. For physical shopping such as in department stores, take a look at the Citi Rewards or OCBC Titanium Rewards cards for better miles-earning options at the 4 mpd levels.

For general spending, stick with the DBS Altitude or similar for at least 1.2 mpd locally and 2 mpd overseas.

The one-year expiry rule for DBS points accrued on this card is a shame, and definitely something to keep on top of. It means you’ll have to transfer to miles at least once per year. Remember once you transfer into KrisFlyer, your miles will then only be valid for a further three years.

DBS Points also only convert into three useful frequent flyer programmes, a relatively limited list when compared to Citi cards for example (check which banks convert where in our table here).

Overall though, provided you have a decent monthly online retail spend, this is definitely one to consider.

Our Rating

4 / 5 among 4 mpd bonus cards

DBS Woman’s World Card APPLY HERE

How we rate credit cards Best in class: A must-have for the miles earner in Singapore Excellent: A leader in its category with few if any downsides Very good: Drawbacks largely outweighed by the positive aspects Good: Useful benefits despite some poor features vs. other cards Average: Worth considering but not an essential addition to your wallet Conflicted: Some benefits but much better cards exist in the same category Poor: Few benefits worth having Very poor: Almost no benefits, not recommended Awful: Not worth considering

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(Cover Photo: Shutterstock)