If you’re an OCBC Voyage or Premier Visa Infinite cardholder there’s a new CardUp deal running for the next few months offering you a very competitive 1.5% fee on any one-time payment if you haven’t used the service before, allowing you to buy miles from as little as 0.92 cents each.
There’s also a year-round 1.8% fee offer on any number of payments in 2023 for existing CardUp users holding the Voyage or Premier Visa Infinite cards.
These promotional codes are valid for any supported payment type via the CardUp platform, making this a very flexible way to generate miles at a reasonable cost during the coming year.
Maximise your rewards with CardUp! Earn miles when you pay for bills that do not offer rewards such as income taxes, insurance, school fees, car loans and more. Earn up to 1.6 VOYAGE Miles for every S$1 spent using your VOYAGE Card.
OCBC
New users promotion (1.5%)
This offer is available to new CardUp personal account users who have not yet scheduled a payment using the platform.
A 1.5% fee is available for any payment type scheduled between 11th January 2023 and 31st December 2023, both dates inclusive.
Payments must be scheduled at least 3 business days in advance of the due date to allow for processing time. The payment due date is the last date on which the payment must arrive at your recipient, and is therefore 3rd January 2024 for this offer.
The code can be applied to domestic and international payments.
Simply use the promo code OCBC15 at the ‘Amount’ stage, prior to uploading the supporting documents and reviewing the payment.
| OCBC15 |  |
 |
1.5% | |
| New Users: One-time payment with an OCBC Voyage or OCBC Premier Visa Infinite card (no cap). Full terms here. | ||||
Remember this is a one-time use promo code, so to maximise the value you should save this for your largest upcoming payment.
The payment amount is unlimited. Each promo code can only be applied once per user.
Cost per mile
Here’s how the cost per mile looks for a one-time payment at 1.5% fee.
| Card | Miles per S$1 | Cost per mile (1.5% fee) |
 OCBC Premier VoyageOCBC PPC Voyage BOS Voyage |
1.6 | 0.92¢ |
 OCBC Voyage |
1.3 | 1.14¢ |
| OCBC Premier VI |
1.28 | 1.15¢ |
These all represent competitive rates to buy KrisFlyer miles, now that travel has returned post-pandemic.
Existing CardUp users offer (1.8%)
CardUp also has a deal running for new and existing OCBC Voyage and Premier Visa Infinite cardholders, with a 1.8% fee on all payments made in 2023.
This offer is valid for payments scheduled between 11th January 2023 and 31st December 2023, both dates inclusive.
Payments must be scheduled at least 3 business days in advance of the due date to allow for processing time. The payment due date is the last date on which the payment must arrive at your recipient, and is therefore 3rd January 2024 for this offer.
The code can be applied to domestic and international payments.
There is no limit to the number of times you can use this promo code, and there is no upper payment cap.
| OCBC18 | |
|
1.8% | |
| Existing Users: Unlimited payments with an OCBC Voyage or OCBC Premier Visa Infinite card (no cap). Full terms here. | ||||
Here’s how the cost per mile looks for these unlimited payments at a 1.8% fee.
| Card | Miles per S$1 | Cost per mile (1.8% fee) |
| OCBC Premier Voyage OCBC PPC Voyage BOS Voyage |
1.6 | 1.11¢ |
| OCBC Voyage |
1.3 | 1.36¢ |
| OCBC Premier VI |
1.28 | 1.38¢ |
How to unlock the discounted fee
CardUp’s user interface makes it quite logical to set up a new payment and apply one of these promo codes.
Set up your payment as normal on CardUp and at the stage where you enter your payment amount and bill reference there is a ‘Promo Code’ field, just before the applicable fee is quoted.
This is where you can enter the OCBC15 or OCBC18 code, depending on which offer you are using.
Note that entering the code at this stage will not change the fee, you’ll have to click ‘Continue’ to see the discount reflected.
The usual 2.6% fee is then reduced to the applicable offer fee once the code is entered, before you confirm and submit the payment.
OCBC only transfers to KrisFlyer… for now
In 2022 OCBC revealed it would be dragging itself out of the dark ages when it comes to airline and hotel transfer partners in Singapore, by improving its offering from a single programme (Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer) to an eight-partner repertoire, from December 2022.
At the same time as announcing some other negative changes for Voyage cardholders, like the instatement of a S$25 conversion fee to miles and a significant cut in complimentary limo rides, OCBC also stated that the (yet to be revealed) list of seven new partner options will now be added in February 2023.
Hopefully we can expect programmes like Asia Miles to be included in the line-up, so an accrual of Voyage Miles in 2023 might give you more flexibility than you think.
Other CardUp offers
CardUp has also recently extended some of its offers for other personal payment types:
- General Payments:
2.6%2.25% extended until 31st January 2024 (code GET225) - Rent:
2.6%1.79% extended until 31st January 2024 (code SAVERENT179) - Recurring Payments:
2.6%1.85% (Visa-only) extended until 31st January 2024 (code RECURRING185)
There are also some promotional rates for business users, including a 1.3% fee deal for new business payments.
See CardUp’s pricing page for further details.
Consider Citi PayAll until 31st January
If you’re a Citi cardholder, the bank’s PayAll facility has an ongoing deal running from now until 31st January 2023, offering 1.8 mpd on all payments, provided the total from all payments made through the facility is between S$5,000 and S$80,000 (in total aggregate spend) during the promotion.
Like CardUp, Citi PayAll can be used to pay property rental, education bills, income tax, insurance and other similar expenses.
This allows those with the following cards to buy miles at 1.11 cents each during the promotion, which in some cases is better than the OCBC x CardUp 1.8% fee offer.
| Card | Earn rate | Cost per mile (2% fee) |
 Citi ULTIMA |
1.8 mpd |
1.11¢ |
 Citi Prestige |
1.8 mpd |
|
 Citi PremierMiles |
1.8 mpd |
|
 Citi Rewards |
1.8 mpd |
The downside of course is that you’ll need to have at least S$5,000 of total payments to make by the end of January 2023 to benefit, while these CardUp OCBC deals are good for smaller payment amounts too, throughout 2023.
Summary
If you’re new to CardUp and you hold the OCBC Voyage or Premier Visa Infinite cards, this 1.5% one-time fee offer for any payment type is a great rate, allowing you to buy miles from as little as 0.92 cents each.
Thereafter, you’ll also benefit from a year-round 1.8% rate for all CardUp transactions, even if you don’t qualify for the initial 1.5% one-time payment option, having used CardUp in the past.
That allows you to generate miles from 1.11 to 1.36 cents each, competitive rates now that pre-pandemic travel has returned to and from almost all countries.
While OCBC Voyage Miles currently only transfer to KrisFlyer, and will have a conversion fee added from February 2023, seven new transfer partners are coming online next month which may improve their flexibility considerably.
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(Cover Photo: CardUp)