DBS Altitude offering up to 21,000 miles sign-up bonus

DBS is running a sign-up bonus offer for its popular Altitude credit cards, with new-to-bank customers eligible to earn up to 21,000 bonus miles when successfully applying and meeting a retail spend of S$4,000 in the first 60 days from approval.

Existing DBS cardholders can also benefit from a 10,000 miles bonus when signing up for the Altitude Amex card and making the same minimum spend.

In all cases, you can also pick up an additional 10,000 bonus miles, for a total of up to 31,000 miles in some cases, by voluntarily paying the card’s annual fee of S$192.60.

The deals are good for those applying by 31st January 2023.

Eligibility (new-to-bank)

To be eligible for the new-to-bank bonus for both DBS Altitude cards, you’ll need to meet the following criteria.

If you are a supplementary DBS/POSB cardholder, but not a primary cardholder on any such account, you will qualify as a new customer.

New customer sign-up bonuses

New-to-bank customers are eligible for the for the following two options when signing up for the DBS Altitude Amex card.

DBS Altitude Amex
(new customers)

Bonus Miles
Promo Code: ALTMEXW	Promo Code: ALTMEX
↓	↓
Spend: S$4k in 60 days
Fee waiver	Annual Fee: S$192.60
↓	↓
Bonus Miles: 21,000	Bonus Miles: 31,000

As you can see, you’ll need to apply promo code ALTMXW for the fee-free first year offer with 21,000 bonus miles for spending S$4,000, or ALTMEX for an additional 10,000 miles (31,000 miles in total), with payment of the S$192.60 fee.

A lower 12,000 miles bonus is available for new-to-bank customers applying for the DBS Altitude Visa card.

DBS Altitude Visa
(new customers)

Bonus Miles
Promo Code: ALTVISW	Promo Code: ALTVIS
↓	↓
Spend: S$4k in 60 days
Fee waiver	Annual Fee: S$192.60
↓	↓
Bonus Miles: 12,000	Bonus Miles: 22,000

In this case, promo code ALTVISW will qualify you for the fee-free first year offer, accruing 12,000 bonus miles for spending S$4,000, while ALTVIS will net you an additional 10,000 miles (22,000 miles in total), with payment of the S$192.60 fee.

Existing customer sign-up bonus (Amex)

DBS is also offering existing cardholders who already have a DBS or POSB credit card as primary cardholder a 10,000 miles bonus when signing up for the DBS Amex card (but unfortunately there is no such offer for the Visa product).

DBS Altitude Amex
(existing customers)

Bonus Miles
Promo Code: ALTMEXAW	Promo Code: ALTMEXA
↓	↓
Spend: S$4k in 60 days
Fee waiver	Annual Fee: S$192.60
↓	↓
Bonus Miles: 10,000	Bonus Miles: 20,000

For the existing cardholder offer, promo code ALTMXAW means no annual fee in the first year, with 10,000 bonus miles for spending S$4,000, or ALTMEXA for an additional 10,000 miles (20,000 miles in total), with payment of the S$192.60 fee.

Application process

In all cases, whichever card you choose under the new or existing customer offer, here’s how it works:

The qualifying spend can be online or in-person and can be charged in SGD or foreign currency, or any mixture of these.

Spend exclusions

Your S$4,000+ of eligible spend to qualify for the bonus miles under this promotion does not include the usual DBS category exclusions for miles earning.

Here’s a list of excluded spend categories:

DBS Spend exclusion categories posted 0% Interest Instalment Payment Plan monthly transactions posted My Preferred Payment Plan monthly transactions interest, finance charges, cash withdrawal, balance transfer, smart cash, AXS payments, SAM online bill payments, bill payments via internet banking and all fees charged by DBS payments to educational institutions payments to financial institutions (including banks, online trading platforms and brokerages) payments 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) payments to hospitals payments to insurance companies (sales, underwriting and premiums) payments to non-profit organisations payments to utility bill companies payments to professional service providers (including but not limited to accounting, auditing, bookkeeping services, advertising services, funeral service and legal services and attorneys) 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) any betting transactions (including levy payments to local casinos, lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, off-track betting and wagers) any transactions related to crypto currencies any transaction with transaction description “AMAZE*” any other transactions determined by DBS from time to time

Primary exclusions here are for education, insurance, utility bill and government-related spend.

However, do note that CardUp and ipaymy are counted as eligible spend for the bonus calculation, which could be a good way to reach the threshold with things like an education, rental, insurance or tax payment.

When are the bonus miles credited?

Unfortunately, not anytime soon!

Provided you fulfil the spend criteria, bonus miles totalling 12,000 (Visa), 21,000 (Amex) or 10,000 (Amex for existing cardholders) will be credited to your card account from 120 to 150 days after the date of card approval.

If you have opted to receive the annual fee bonus of 10,000 miles, it will be credited at the same time, at which point the annual fee itself of S$192.60 will also be charged to your card.

For example if your card is approved on 1st November 2022:

• You must meet the S$4,000+ spend criteria by 31st December 2022
• Bonus miles will be awarded by 31st March 2023
• The annual fee bonus (if applicable) will be awarded by 31st March 2023

Your card account must remain open and in good standing for the bonus miles to be credited.

Regular miles earning is in addition

The bonus miles outlined above are awarded in addition to the regular miles you will earn for making the S$4,000 minimum spend with the Altitude cards, at the following rates:

• 1.2 miles for every $1 spent locally (i.e. transacted in SGD), or
• 2 miles for every $1 spent overseas (i.e. transacted in foreign currency), or
• 3 miles for every $1 spent on online flight and hotel bookings (capped at S$5,000 per month)

Indeed DBS advertises this promotion with “up to 43k miles”, though that (rather cheekily and unrealistically) assumes all your S$4,000 spend is in the 3 mpd category!

In reality, you’ll probably be meeting the S$4,000 spend requirement in local currency, meaning S$4,000 x 1.2 mpd of additional earning – equivalent to 4,800 additional miles. These will be credited to your account alongside each eligible transaction.

However, do remember these miles are quite irrelevant – you should be earning at least 1.2 mpd for this local spend anyway, and in some cases you may even be taking a hit by diverting spend away from 4 mpd cards to achieve the DBS Altitude spend threshold.

Which FFPs can you transfer into?

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

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!

For further details, check out our full review of the Altitude cards.

Terms and conditions

Here are the full terms and conditions applicable to these sign-up offers.

 DBS Altitude Amex / Visa Sign Up Promo (New Cardholders) T&C
 DBS Altitude Amex Sign Up Promo (Existing Cardholders) T&C

Further details are available at the bonus promotion page.

S$300 cashback alternative

New primary DBS / POSB cardholders may wish to hold out for the bank’s regular S$300 cashback promotion for the Altitude cards, a flash deal which tends to come around every month or two.

This one typically only requires a minimum spend of S$500 in the first 30 days with first-year fee waiver, which this is much easier to achieve than spending S$4,000 for a 21,000 miles bonus for the Amex card.

For new customers interested in the Altitude Visa card, the S$300 cashback deal (once it comes around again) is almost certainly more worthwhile than the 12,000 bonus miles offer, again not to mention easier to achieve.

You’ll also wait a lot longer for the bonus to credit with these miles sign-up bonuses – between four and five months from card approval, while the S$300 cashback is usually much quicker, taking only 60 to 80 days.

DBS is offering new-to-bank applicants for its Altitude credit cards up to 21,000 bonus miles for spending S$4,000 in the first 60 days, with an additional 10,000 miles on offer if you wish to voluntarily pay the first year annual card fee.

Existing customers can also score a 10,000 miles bonus with a new Altitude Amex card.

If you’re new-to-bank, it may be worth holding off for the next S$300 cashback deal for DBS Altitude cards, which has similar or even better value than the miles bonus in some cases, and is typically easier to unlock with only S$500 spend.

(Cover Photo: Rae Galatas)