DBS Altitude offering up to 21,000 miles sign-up bonus, with reduced $2k spend

DBS has extended the 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 charging retail transactions of S$2,000 in the first 30 days from approval, half the previous spend requirement.

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$194.40.

The deals are good for those applying by 30th June 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$2k in 30 days
Fee waiver	Annual Fee: S$194.40
↓	↓
Bonus Miles: 21,000	Bonus Miles: 31,000

As you can see, you’ll need to apply promo code ALTMEXW for the fee-free first year offer with 21,000 bonus miles for spending S$2,000, or ALTMEX for an additional 10,000 miles (31,000 miles in total), with payment of the S$194.40 fee.

A lower 15,000 miles bonus is available for new-to-bank customers applying for the DBS Altitude Visa card, though this has been hiked by 3,000 miles compared to the most recent deal.

DBS Altitude Visa
(new customers)

Bonus Miles
Promo Code: ALTVISW	Promo Code: ALTVIS
↓	↓
Spend: S$2k in 30 days
Fee waiver	Annual Fee: S$194.40
↓	↓
Bonus Miles: 15,000	Bonus Miles: 25,000

In this case, promo code ALTVISW will qualify you for the fee-free first year offer, accruing 15,000 bonus miles for spending S$2,000, while ALTVIS will net you an additional 10,000 miles (25,000 miles in total), with payment of the S$194.40 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$2k in 30 days
Fee waiver	Annual Fee: S$194.40
↓	↓
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$2,000, or ALTMEXA for an additional 10,000 miles (20,000 miles in total), with payment of the S$194.40 fee.

Application process

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

• Apply online via DBS digibank or Myinfo with Singpass using the relevant promo code by 30th June 2023.
• Have your card account approved by 14th July 2023.
• Charge at least S$2,000 of eligible spend to the card within 30 days of your approval date.

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

Note that while the minimum spend has been halved from S$4,000 under the previous deal, the spend window has also been halved from 60 days to 30 days!

Spend exclusions

Your S$2,000+ 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 90 to 120 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 when the annual fee itself of S$194.40 is charged to your card.

For example if your card is approved on 1st March 2023:

• You must meet the S$2,000+ spend criteria by 31st March 2023
• Bonus miles will be awarded by 30th May 2023
• The annual fee bonus (if applicable) will be awarded when the annual fee is charged (typically in your first statement month)

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$2,000 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 37k miles”, though that (rather cheekily and unrealistically) assumes all your S$2,000 spend is in the 3 mpd category, and that you’ll (voluntarily) pay an additional S$194.40 on the first year annual fee for 10,000 additional miles!

In reality, you’ll probably be meeting the S$2,000 spend requirement in local currency, meaning S$2,000 x 1.2 mpd of additional earning – equivalent to 2,400 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 year-round, 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.

Additionally, you’ll likely not be choosing to stump up an additional S$194.40 for the last 10,000 miles DBS is including in its advertising.

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 Sign Up Promo T&C
 DBS Altitude Amex Existing Customers Sign Up Promo T&C

Further details are available at the bonus promotion page.

DBS is offering new-to-bank applicants for its Altitude credit cards up to 21,000 bonus miles for spending S$2,000 in the first 30 days, half the previous spend requirement (but also in half the time), 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.

This could be a good time to jump in with one of these popular cards, especially if you’re new-to-bank, given the reduced spend threshold.

(Cover Photo: EDITION Hotels)