Update 17th March: Having initially terminated this sign-up bonus over two weeks early, OCBC has now had a change of heart and decided it will be ongoing till 31st March 2023 as initially advertised.
If you were hoping to take advantage of OCBC’s rare (and very competitive) sign-up bonus for its Titanium Rewards cards between now and the end of March, with 11,520 bonus miles on offer for a spend of just S$100, there’s some bad news unfortunately.
Despite this not being advertised as a UOB-style “first xxx applicants” deal, OCBC has clearly decided they’ve dished out enough OCBC$ with this one already, and have pulled the deal over two weeks early, so whatever you do – don’t apply now!
Sign-up bonus promotion withdrawn
OCBC has been offering an 11,520 miles sign-up bonus for new-to-bank cardholders picking up its Titanium Rewards cards since mid-January 2023, due to end on 31st March 2023.
Even existing cardholders, like those with the Voyage card, were in line for a 5,760 miles stash, just for spending S$100 in the first 30 days.
It was a particularly sweet deal given that the OCBC TR cards are fee-free for the first two years, making the miles free provided you had S$100 spend to make, plus there’s up to S$12,000 of annual 4 mpd spend available in selected categories.
OCBC has now updated its website to show that this 28,800 OCBC$ (11,520 miles) deal is “fully redeemed”, which is strange since it… erm… wasn’t ever supposed to be capped!
Nothing in the Terms and Conditions document for this promotion mentioned any kind of upper applicant limit, but then OCBC can always fall on that ‘golden’ legal term most banks throw in towards the end, for any promotion:
“OCBC Bank reserves the right at its absolute discretion to terminate the Promotion or vary, delete or add to any of these terms and conditions at any time without notice including without limitation, the eligibility of any customer and the dates of the Promotion.”
OCBC
Effectively though, “fully redeemed” is totally disingenuous here.
What OCBC really should be saying is that the promotion has been terminated early, no doubt because they think they’ve given enough OCBC$ away already.
It’s a bit shady, and certainly not customer-focused, but then again OCBC has some form here.
In August 2018 the bank pulled the rug on its 4 mpd deal for mobile payments and personal care transactions – a full 5 months before its proposed end date.
Here they are doing the same again, albeit only two weeks before the sign-up bonus offer was due to end.
What’s not clear is how recent applicants in the last couple of days are affected. OCBC only announced on its website that this uncapped deal has been “fully redeemed” at 6pm today (14th March 2023), so does that mean everyone who applied before that is still eligible for the bonus? When did this “full redemption” (and zero OCBC$ bonus) kick in?
We’re checking with the bank to see what the status is, and will update this section with their response.
Summary
“Fully redeemed” is a real cop-out from OCBC here with this offer.
The sign-up bonus promotion never mentioned an upper applicant cap, and this simply reminds us all that the bank unceremoniously pulled another card promotion 5 months ahead of scheduled back in 2018.
Those who applied recently will certainly be concerned – we’ve contacted the bank for a response on exactly when this cutoff for the offer took effect.
It’s certainly a shame because this was a great deal, but it’s safe to say it’s now too late to take advantage, and that it also sows the seeds for some serious mistrust over the bank’s other promotions, like those for the 90°N Mastercard and the Voyage Card.
Could they pull these promotions too? I think the answer OCBC just gave us is “YES!”
Too good to last. LOL
Sigh. Saw your post over the weekend and was procrastinating. Finally going to apply tonight and it got pulled.
Ridiculous! Just received my card and may as well bin it straight away thanks OCBC!!
I’ve had to supply so many documents to OCBC it’s ridiculous. They still haven’t approved my card. Lesson learned – never apply for OCBC credit cards. I recall that I needed to chase them multiple times for 10x points on valid purchases when I had a TR card about 8 years ago. Now I know why I cancelled all my OCBC cards.
dun c the fully redeeem tag liao leh
Never like ocbc ever since they refused to waive off my annual fee on TR. Has stopped using them for about 2 years, guess I won’t be missing them much
Small bank.