ipaymy offering 1.6% fee for international school fees using Mastercard

Card payment provider ipaymy has launched a new promotion for those paying international school fees in Singapore, with a competitive 1.6% fee using a local Mastercard to settle this sometimes significant expense, allowing you to buy miles from as little as 0.98 cents each.

The offer is available to both new and existing ipaymy personal account holders. Simply use the promo code EDUMC160 at the ‘Payment Details’ stage.

EDUMC160			~~2.25%~~	1.6%
One-time international school fees payment with a Singapore-issued Mastercard

There is no upper cap for this promotion code, but it can only be applied once per user, for a one-time international school fee payment setup.

The code is valid until 31st December 2024.

Many international schools in Singapore cost over $40,000 a year, so this is a significant expense for some families, and this offer allows a large stash of miles to be awarded in the process, at a competitive rate.

How it works

Once you’re logged on to ipaymy you’ll be presented with the ‘Dashboard’ screen. To set up your payment, click ‘Make payment’ in the top right, then select ‘Domestic’, then ‘Pay with card’.

Then select ‘Invoices’ as your payment category.

If you haven’t used ipaymy to pay your international school before, you’ll then need to add the supplier via the search function, including the bank details found on your payment invoice.

Once you have done so, simply select the supplier name from your list of saved suppliers and click ‘Move forward’.

You’ll then be asked to enter the details for your school fees bill, including the invoice which you’ll have to upload as a PDF or scanned copy, for verification.

After providing details of your payment including the payment date, you’ll select which credit card you wish to use, then the regular ipaymy fee of 2.25% will be displayed.

Here’s where you’ll enter the EDUMC160 promo code.

Once applied, you will see the fee drop from 2.25% to 1.6%, provided you have selected a Singapore-issued Mastercard. In this example a tuition fees payment of S$12,000 now carries a fee of S$192 (1.6%) instead of S$270 (2.25%).

Note that ipaymy adds a S$1 surcharge to the fee payable for ‘Fund Safeguarding’, which ensures your funds are protected and held in a segregated safeguarded account.

For smaller payments, this does adversely affect the cost per mile, though for a typical international school fee payment this is likely to be negligible.

Cost per mile

Here’s how the all-important cost per mile looks for some popular Mastercard credit cards issued in Singapore, starting at 0.98 cents.

Cost per mile – EDUMC160

Card	Mpd	Cost per mile (1.6% fee)
Citi Ultima MC	1.6	0.98¢
UOB PRVI MC	1.4	1.12¢
Citi Prestige	1.3	1.21¢
OCBC 90°N MC	1.3	1.21¢
KrisFlyer UOB	1.2	1.31¢
Citi PM MC	1.2	1.31¢
BOC EM	1.0	1.57¢

You can refer to the latest full list of cards awarding points and miles for ipaymy transactions here.

As you can see even with one of the widely-held 1.2 mpd to 1.3 mpd cards like the Citi PremierMiles and OCBC 90°N options, an effective cost per mile of 1.21 to 1.31 cents is very competitive.

However, for those lucky enough to have 1.4 mpd or 1.6 mpd earning cards, the cost per mile drops to an even more attractive 1.12 cents or even 0.98 cents.

Note: UOB excludes UNI$ earning on payments with the descriptor “IPAYMY” in its credit card T&Cs, but does not exclude ipaymy as a merchant itself. ipaymy states that UOB cards do still earn miles, and reader reports confirm this. ipaymy is still honouring its points guarantee for payments made with UOB cards.

Summary

Between now and 31st December 2024, ipaymy is offering a one-time 1.6% fee deal for those settling international school fee payments in Singapore with a locally-issued Mastercard.

This allows you to buy miles from as little as 0.98 cents each, excellent value when you then go on to redeem them for First Class and Business Class award flights with Singapore Airlines and other carriers.

(Cover Photo: Canadian International School)