CardUp offering 1.5% fee for OCBC 90°N cards – buy miles from 1.14 cents

If you’re an OCBC 90°N cardholder there’s a new CardUp deal running for the rest of the year offering you a very competitive 1.5% fee on any one-time payment of up to S$10,000 if you haven’t used the service before, allowing you to buy miles from as little as 1.14 cents each.

There’s also a year-round 2% fee offer on payments in 2023 for existing CardUp users holding the OCBC 90°N cards, a nice discount on the platform’s usual 2.6% fee, allowing you to buy miles at 1.51 cents each, but this once is capped so you may need to act fast to take advantage.

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 for the rest of this year.

Maximise 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. Receive up to 1.2 90°N Miles with every S$1 you spend on your OCBC 90°N Card.

OCBC

OCBC is a bit behind on its own card’s earning rates here – the OCBC 90°N cards now earn 1.3 mpd for general local spend – not 1.2 mpd!

This offer is similar to (but slightly less generous than) the ongoing deal CardUp is running for OCBC Voyage cardholders, where a cost per mile starting at 0.92 cents is possible, so do check that one out first if you’re a Voyage cardholder.

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 22nd February 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 OCBC90N15 at the ‘Amount’ stage, prior to uploading the supporting documents and reviewing the payment.

OCBC90N15			2.6%	1.5%
New Users: One-time payment with an OCBC 90°N Visa or Mastercard (capped at S$10,000). 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 capped at S$10,000. If your payment exceeds S$10,000, any remaining amount over and above S$10,000 will attract the regular CardUp 2.6% fee.

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 90°N Visa OCBC 90°N Mastercard	1.3	1.14¢

This is a very competitive rate to buy KrisFlyer miles, now that travel has returned post-pandemic.

Existing CardUp users offer (2%)

CardUp also has a deal running for new and existing OCBC 90°N cardholders, with a 2.0% fee on all payments made in 2023.

This offer is valid for payments scheduled between 22nd February 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, but there is an overall upper cap across all payments of S$10,000, and only the first 100 users who apply it for the Visa card and 100 for the Mastercard can benefit.

OCBC90NV			2.6%	2.0%
Existing Users: Unlimited payments with an OCBC 90°N Visa (S$10,000 total, first 100 users). Full terms here.

OCBC90NMC			2.6%	2.0%
Existing Users: Unlimited payments with an OCBC 90°N Mastercard (S$10,000 total cap, first 100 users). Full terms here.

For example, if you’re one of the first 100 OCBC 90°N Visa cardholders to use the code, you will be able to make two separate payments of S$5,000 at a 2.0% fee.

Here’s how the cost per mile looks for these payments.

Card	Miles per S$1	Cost per mile (2.0% fee)
OCBC 90°N Visa OCBC 90°N Mastercard	1.3	1.51¢

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 OCBC90N15 or OCBC90NV or OCBC90NMC 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 a nine-partner repertoire, from December that year.

Unfortunately the execution doesn’t seem to be going to plan, with the additional options then slated for February 2023, but still no sign of them here in mid-March.

The full list of programmes will be:

While the all-important conversion ratios have not been announced yet, an accrual of Travel$ (or 90°N miles as they seem to call them now) on your OCBC 90°N card 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.

If you’re new to CardUp and you hold one of the OCBC 90°N 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 1.14 cents each.

Thereafter, you’ll also benefit from a year-round 2% rate for the next S$10,000 of 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 1.51 cents each, but is capped at the first 100 users for the Visa cards and a further 100 users for the Mastercard.

While OCBC Travel$ accrued with the 90°N card currently only transfer to KrisFlyer, eight new transfer partners are coming online soon, which may improve your future redemption flexibility considerably.

Sign Up HERE

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(Cover Photo: Angela Compagnone)