It began with introducing me to the CitiBank Premier Miles card, and how we should use it as our primary means of payment to maximise benefits from the simple act of spending. At the time, I was rather swarmed with work and skills development, so I simply accepted the change and moved on.

Fast forward to Aug 2022, where I was given what seemed to be an hour-long lecture by about how we could be earning higher miles per dollar by switching to other credit cards, and a bunch of other miles hackerish gibberish that I started to get lost in.

Well, since time is more available to me now, I decided to embark on my own quest for miles, with the goal of enjoying many, many, many business class flights in the future.

There is no better source than the for Miles Hacking in Singapore. After perusing a ton of content on their website, I narrowed down the miles acquisition strategy that best fits Tricia and I.

The main bulk of miles acquisition comes from credit card spendings, so I will outline my chosen weapons. Two factors play a part in my decisions: annual income requirements of credit cards and our monthly spending. We spend a moderate amount, which doesn't exceed the maximum spending capacity for optimal miles per dollar for the entry-level cards.

The primary card that allows us to earn 4 mpd on contactless payments and petrol, with the exception of . The 4 mpd is subject to having a minimum local spend of $1,000 per statement month, capped at $2,000. Any excess earns 0.4 mpd. Petrol and contactless payments share the same cap. Having it on Apple Pay and tapping in stores is a breeze. Points on the UOB cards expire in 2 years.

Trish and I are sharing the use of the card, which makes meeting the minimum spend far easier. However, if you are concerned about the minimum spend of $1,000, then the is the one for you. It's basically the same, but with no minimum spend, and a monthly cap of $1,000 for the 4 mpd bonus.

A major caveat to both cards is that spending is counted in $5 chunks. This means that spending $14.99 basically counts as $10 when assessing for miles. This is why Hai Xin buys random tissue packets with a pack of cigarettes at 7-11 to make it $15.99, which counts at $15 when assessing for miles.

I would be remissed if I didn't mentioned a major difference in the aforementioned caveat between the two cards. The UOB Preferred Platinum Card counts the $5 chunks on a per transaction basis, whilst the UOB Visa Signature Card counts it at the end of the statement month. If you can hit the $1,000 minimum spend, just go for the UOB Visa Signature. You wouldn't have to purchase random tissue packets like Hai Xin does to make up for a $5 chunk.

A much more was made by the MileLion.

Online payments will be made entirely with the DBS Women's World card. It offers 4 mpd on online spending, capped at $2,000 per calendar month. Any excess earns 0.4 mpd. Similarly, there is the issue of miles assessment by $5 chunks.

You do not have to be a woman to apply for this card.

Points expire in 1 year.

This should be a staple in every mile hacker's arsenal. We can use it on Shopee, Lazada, Amazon and more. We can use it to book air tickets and book hotels. We can use it to take a Grab or Gojek, order food delivery or pay for streaming services. Love it.

The CitiBank PremierMiles Card only provides us with 1.2 mpd, but the miles accumulated on this card has no expiry, and there is no minimum spend nor maximum cap! It's a pretty decent solution for big ticket items for now. It also boasts 2 complimentary lounge access passes per year.

CitiBank occasionally offers promotions that allow you to purchase miles. Based on past promotions, the cost of each mile is extremely low. I'll have to watch out for these promotions.

Similar to the UOB cards, HSBC revolution also earns 4 mpd on a multitude of merchants. The 4 mpd rate is capped at $1,000 per calendar month. Any excess earns 0.4 mpd. Points are valid for slightly more than 3 years.

This loses out to the UOB cards because the number of merchants that the bonus 4 mpd applies to is a much shorter list. However, it does cover some merchants that the UOB cards do not. So the combination of a HSBC Revolution card and either a UOB Visa Signature card or UOB Preferred Platinum card should cover nearly every single merchant for contactless payments.

We might consider the HSBC Revolution card if we find ourselves often exceeding the combined $4,000 cap of the UOB Visa Signature + DBS Women's World cards.

Trish and I are likely to have our wedding late 2023. There is likely a better card to use for big ticket purchases.

As I was browsing the MileLion, I chanced upon this comment, “It would be great if a kind Excel geek could do up a macro which feeds in the card transaction CSVs downloaded from internet banking portals, automatically calculate the base + bonus points, and tally them for reconciliation against the monthly statement. Bonus if it tallies against merchant name with MCC code and known UOB merchants to exclude UNI$ calculation.”

That got me rather interested in making a mobile application that could perform these functions:

1. 1. Portal for rapid checking of MCC code before making payments
2. 2. Allow users to sign in to multiple bank accounts and extract transaction data from
   Open Banking APIs
3. 3. Automatically calculate the miles earned
4. 4. Suggest optimal credit cards based on users' changing spending habits
5. 5. Gather reviews about credit cards, whether waivers are easy to get, experience with customer support, pains and gains, etc

I hope it could grow into a tool like , which impacts the lives of many positively, and earns the owner a decent chunk of change. I'm uncertain how many miles enthusiasts there are in Singapore, but the MileLion telegram group consists of 15,878 members at the time of writing, which is encouraging.