Earlier this month card payments provider ipaymy launched an offer for American Express cardholders to make up to three payments with a fee starting at 1.9% fee, and now CardUp is beating this deal for selected cards, with a 1.8% deal now launched.
This could time nicely with your annual IRAS Income Tax payment, among other expenses, allowing you to buy miles from 0.98 cents each in some cases – which is great for Amex cards since they tend to levy a high fee relative to Visa and Mastercard products.
The deal is running from now until 22nd September 2023.
New customers – 1.8% Amex deal
If you’re new to CardUp, or have signed up for a personal account but have yet to schedule a payment through the platform, you’re eligible for the 1.8% fee offer on American Express payments using the code AMEX18.
| AMEX18 |  |
1.8% | ||
| One-time payment with a selected Singapore-issued American Express card (new users). | ||||
Applicable cards are Amex cards issued in Singapore, with the exception of:
- Amex True Cashback
- Amex Corporate
- Amex cards issued by DBS and UOB
The minimum payment is S$500 and the maximum is S$7,000. If your payment exceeds S$7,000, CardUp’s regular 2.6% fee will apply to the amount over and above this amount.
The code can be applied once per user, but is limited to the first 100 redemptions (if the code works, the offer is still available).
Existing customers – 1.9% Amex deal
If you’re an existing CardUp customer, meaning you’ve made a personal payment through the platform before, you’re eligible for the slightly higher 1.9% fee offer on American Express payments using the code AMEX19.
| AMEX19 | |
1.9% | ||
| One-time payment with a selected Singapore-issued American Express card (existing users). | ||||
Applicable cards are Amex cards issued in Singapore, with the exception of:
- Amex True Cashback
- Amex Corporate
- Amex cards issued by DBS and UOB
The minimum payment is S$500 and the maximum is S$7,000. If your payment exceeds S$7,000, CardUp’s regular 2.6% fee will apply to the amount over and above this amount.
The code can be applied once per user, but is limited to the first 150 redemptions (if the code works, the offer is still available).
Cost per mile
Here are some cost per mile examples for selected Singapore-issued American Express credit cards with these promotional CardUp deals.
| Card | Mpd | New User (1.8% fee) |
Existing User (1.9% fee) |
 Amex SIA HighFlyer |
1.8 | 0.98¢ | 1.04¢ |
 Amex KF PPS |
1.3 | 1.36¢ | 1.43¢ |
 Amex KF Solitaire PPS |
1.3 | 1.36¢ | 1.43¢ |
 KF Ascend |
1.2 | 1.47¢ | 1.55¢ |
 KF Blue |
1.1 | 1.61¢ | 1.70¢ |
 Amex Centurion |
0.98 | 1.80¢ | 1.90¢ |
 Amex Platinum Charge |
0.78 | 2.27¢ | 2.39¢ |
 Amex Platinum CC |
0.69 | 2.56¢ | 2.70¢ |
 Amex Platinum Reserve |
0.69 | 2.56¢ | 2.70¢ |
Terms and conditions
The terms and conditions for the AMEX18 and AMEX19 offers can be found here.
DBS Amex alternative
Since CardUp is excluding Amex cards issued by DBS in this promotion, those holding the DBS Altitude Amex card should consider the ongoing ipaymy Amex offer, with a 1.9% fee for new users and a 1.99% fee for existing users.
Here is the cost per mile for that card under the ipaymy deal.
| Card | Mpd | New User (1.9% fee) |
Existing User (1.99% fee) |
 DBS Alt Amex |
1.2 | 1.55¢ | 1.63¢ |
Good income tax opportunity
If you’ve get to pay this year’s IRAS income tax bill, this promotion could be a great opportunity to do so while earning miles with your American Express card, assuming you don’t have a Visa card you can use with CardUp’s 1.75% promotional fee (MMTAX23 promo code).
We’ll be updating our full guide to earning miles with your 2023 income tax payment to include this new offer, to help you see which card and method offers the best deal this year.
Summary
CardUp is offering new and existing customers with selected Amex cards discounted fees of 1.8% and 1.9% respectively when making a one-time payment between now and 22nd September 2023, including income tax, allowing you to ‘buy’ miles from just 0.98 cents each.
This beats the recently-launched ipaymy Amex deal, though that one is still good for DBS Altitude Amex cardholders, who are excluded from this CardUp offer.
The deal is by far the cheapest way to generate miles for bill payments using Amex cards at the moment, so take advantage soon if you can, because this one is limited to only 100 or 150 redemptions respectively.
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(Cover Photo: CardUp)