The Perfect Card to Complement HSBC Revolution Card for Me- DBS Altitude Card

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Before I begin, allow me to highlight that this is a personal perspective.  I know there are many other better credit cards out there like Citi PremierMiles card and the new Standard Chartered SMART card to earn cashback or mile points.  However, based on my personal situation and spending habits, and being a super noob at using credit cards to earn miles, after much deliberation, I decided to go with DBS Altitude card.

In my previous post, I had just added HSBC Revolution Card, and mentioned that I will do some consolidation and 'spring cleaning' of my credit cards.  So why did I decide to add another credit card into my list?

Prior to getting this card, I was using EZ-Link Concession Pass card for my daily travel via public transport.  As I am a private tutor giving one to one tutoring at student's residence, travelling is a daily affair.  As such, I was using the monthly concession at SGD 128.00 for unlimited bus and MRT trips.  However in July 2022, my card expired and somehow, the lady at the Concession Card Replacement Office said that I cannot change my card there and have to wait for them to send me a letter by mail, before I can bring the letter to office to "renew" my card.  TLDR, the letter never came and my card expired.  I reverted back to using the adult EZ Link card that I have, and found that it will expire in December 2022 as well.

After getting the HSBC Revolution card, I had the thought of using it for my travelling via SimplyGo.  However, as the rewards is 1 point per SGD 1 spent, I decided to look a better alternative for SimplyGo, which allow me to earn mile points as well.  Sethisfy had posted a video to compare which credit card (both cashback and miles rewards) are good for SimplyGo.  After much research and reading up, big thanks to MileLion's blogs, Sethisfy's blogs and videos, Moneysmart's and Seedly's credit cards' recommendations, I decided to go with DBS Altitude card due to the following reasons:  

1)     Earn 1.2 Mile Points Per Dollar

DBS Altitude card awards 1.2 mile points per SGD 1 spent.  Although this is not far from HSBC Revolution, nonetheless, an extra 0.2 mile, when accumulated, may give me an extra 250 mile points per year, so why not?  Although it is still very low compared to other cards like Maybank Horizon and UOB Krisflyer cards which offers around 3 mile points per SGD 1 spent, I still went ahead with DBS Altitude for other reasons below.

2)     Calculation of DBS Points are "Less Penalizing"

As illustrated in the post by MileLion, the calculation for the points being awarded is more friendly.  Despite the points are awarded in blocks of SGD 5 spent, but the calculation actually do the conversion before rounding down the points to nearest whole number, instead of rounding down the amount spent to the nearest SGD 5 spent, before conversion to the points.  For instance, when SGD 6.80 has been spent, the calculation by DBS awards (6.8/5*3 = 4.08) 4 points, instead of awarding just (SGD 6.80 rounded down to SGD 5.00 before conversion 5/5*3 = 3) 3 points.

3)     Mile Points Reward Never Expires

Another important point is the mile points reward has no expiry.  This enables me to slowly accumulate the points without the need to worry about expiry, or being compelled to spend more to accumulate the points faster to redeem before expiry.

4)     Easy to Waive Annual Fees

Based on comments online, and personal experience with the POSB Everyday Card, it is easy to waive off the annual fees of DBS/POSB credit cards.  This is definitely a plus point for credit card holders.  Personally, I do not like to pay annual fees to get rewarded with mile points in return (unless there are promotions that allow me to get mile points for less than 0.8 cents per mile).  

That's it for now!  Hopefully my miles-earning journey goes well, and may I get to enjoy more perks in my future travels!  Stay tune for more updates and for now, Barista FIRE, here I come...!

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