Don’t make the error of paying in your revenue taxes by way of GIRO, as a result of that earns you completely NOTHING in your funds. Right here’s what I’ve been utilizing to earn miles on funds that my bank cards wouldn’t in any other case give me rewards for.
Now that you just’ve efficiently filed your revenue taxes to IRAS, it gained’t be lengthy earlier than you obtain your tax invoice. Whether or not you select to go for month-to-month repayments or a one-time yearly invoice, the larger query could be HOW to make cost – particularly, what mode of cost must you use so that you could nonetheless earn miles from this?
We already know that most bank cards reward you based mostly in your discretionary spending i.e. services or products that you just need to purchase as a substitute of the stuff that you just want. And that’s precisely why you see classes like eating and buying get such beneficiant rewards (e.g. 10X for eating!), since you may technically stay with out consuming out and shopping for new stuff.
The tougher piece to unravel is normally tips on how to earn rewards on our non-discretionary spend i.e. common funds that you just HAVE to make and can’t keep away from, equivalent to if you pay in your insurance coverage premiums, revenue taxes, or electrical energy.
Enter CardUp, which has been fixing this downside for Singaporeans since 2016.
In case you haven’t already heard of them / began utilizing them, then that’s since you haven’t been following this weblog carefully 😛 I’ve raved about them a number of occasions since discovering the service in 2017, and assembly the founders in particular person (at an occasion) who helped me actually perceive what they do and the way it works.
Merely put, service suppliers like CardUp cost your bank card for the cost plus an administrative payment (1.9% – 3.3%), which they then make the funds in your behalf utilizing financial institution transfers.
This fashion, you’ll be able to get pleasure from cashback, miles or reward factors on these funds that bank card corporations usually exclude.
After all, this was a shocker to the monetary business, and within the years that adopted, I’ve watched as some banks proceeded to exclude CardUp transactions. Nevertheless, 7 years on, CardUp is now usually accepted for the base mile / cashback earn charge, whereas being excluded for the excessive on-line spend class or any bonus programmes.
Which means should you’re utilizing a card that rewards you generously for on-line spending e.g. DBS Girl’s Card (5X) or DBS Girl’s World (10X), you’ll solely earn the bottom charge of 1X DBS Factors in case your on-line transaction is thru CardUp.
So the trick with utilizing CardUp is to discover a card that provides you a good base reward charge, which you’ll be able to verify right here. In my case, for example, I’ve been utilizing my UOB PRVI Miles card to pay for all CardUp transactions previously 6 years.
Ought to I exploit miles or cashback playing cards with CardUp?
To start with, I used a cashback bank card to pay by way of CardUp.
However because the banks stored altering their T&Cs, it turned an excessive amount of of a problem to maintain up, so I switched to a far card as a substitute and settled for the bottom reward charge. At this time, I wouldn’t actually advocate utilizing a cashback bank card with CardUp, as a result of the admin payment of two.6% signifies that you’ll must discover a cashback bank card that rewards you the next earn charge than that – that’s a troublesome name.
It has grow to be far simpler – and fewer of a headache – to simply keep on with a superb miles card on CardUp.
Is it actually value paying for the admin payment?
This can be a query that solely you’ll be able to reply for your self.
You’ll must weigh the prices vs. rewards and resolve if this is sensible for you. Right here’s an instance of how I do it:
First, go into CardUp’s web site right here and key in your estimated bills to learn the way a lot the service will value you:
Subsequent, choose your bank card from the checklist and verify how a lot rewards you’ll be capable to earn should you have been to route your non-discretionary bills via CardUp:
So within the above state of affairs, the query to ask is whether or not you’ll be prepared to pay $1k+ for the related miles. My reply is sure, as a result of doing so nonetheless permits me to avoid wasting ~$600.
Are there different choices to CardUp?
After all, CardUp just isn’t the one service supplier of its type – you may additionally choose to make use of different related providers by ipaymy, or by way of the banks i.e. Citi PayAll, Commonplace Chartered EasyBill and UOB Cost Facility.
| Cardup | ipaymy | Citi PayAll | SC EasyBill | UOB Cost Facility |
| 2.6% | 1.99% – 3.30% | Varies | As much as 1.99% | 1.9% – 2.3% |
Unsurprisingly, the banks restrict this service solely to their cardholders, which suggests Citi PayAll solely advantages a Citi-cardholder, whereas SC EasyBill is just for Commonplace Chartered members and UOB Cost Facility for simply UOB playing cards.
For these of you who want recurring (month-to-month) funds, then SC EasyBill is out because it at the moment doesn’t provide this perform.
UOB cardholders who want to earn miles by way of UOB Cost Facility are restricted to utilizing solely the Krisflyer UOB card, which at the moment awards a low base charge of 1.2 miles per greenback.
Why select CardUp?
Personally, I selected and have stayed with CardUp for the next causes:
- It has the widest vary of supported cost classes.
e.g. CardUp was once restricted solely to 10 kinds of funds again in 2018, however they’ve been quietly increasing the checklist (now 16) through the years. - It helps the widest variety of bank cards.
Together with AMEX and UnionPay. In case you use multiple bank card (or must you change bank cards resulting from technique within the coming years), CardUp has the least exclusions vs. the others. - ipaymy has since been excluded from some playing cards.
Notably UOB, which is what I’m on.
Another good miles playing cards to pair with CardUp could be:
- Citi Premier – 1.2 mpd
- DBS Altitude – 1.2 mpd
This excludes premium playing cards like DBS Insignia (1.6 mpd) and DBS Vantage (1.5 mpd), that are usually not accessible to the mass market who aren’t excessive revenue earners.
Like this hack? Keep in mind to share it along with your family members to allow them to cease shortchanging themselves of miles they might have in any other case earned!
Save in your CardUp funds if you use my affiliate promo code SGBUDGETBABE
With love,
Price range Babe