A miles card promotion is only worth it when the bonus miles, valued at roughly 1.5 to 2 Singapore cents each, clearly beat the cost of getting them: the annual fee you cannot waive plus any spend you would not otherwise have made. In June 2026 the entry-tier offers cluster around 28,000 to 38,000 KrisFlyer miles for about S$800 of spend, on cards with a S$196.20 fee that is sometimes waivable; the headline-grabbing 91,800 to 115,000-point offers sit on premium cards with S$700 to S$1,744 fees and S$5,000 to S$8,000 minimum spends. Pick the version of each offer that matches what you would spend anyway, take the fee-waived option if you only want the miles, and never chase a higher bonus by buying things you do not need. The miles are worth having; the manufactured spend to earn them usually is not.
Banks quote sign-up bonuses in miles because the number looks big. Translate it into dollars first. A KrisFlyer mile is worth roughly 1.5 to 2 Singapore cents when redeemed for the kind of premium-cabin flights miles are best used on; spend them on economy seats or, worse, vouchers and the value drops well below 1 cent. Use 1.5 cents as a sober working figure. On that basis a 30,000-mile bonus is worth about S$450, a 91,800-mile bonus about S$1,377, and a 120,000-mile bonus about S$1,800.
Now subtract the cost. The real price of a sign-up bonus is the annual fee you cannot waive, plus the value of any spend you only made to hit the minimum. If a card gives 30,000 miles (about S$450) for S$800 of spend on a S$196.20 fee you must pay, and you would have spent that S$800 anyway, your net gain is about S$254. If the fee is waived, the full S$450 is upside. If you had to buy S$800 of things you did not need, the bonus cost you S$800 to earn S$450, a loss dressed up as a reward.
That one calculation, bonus value in dollars minus unwaivable fee minus manufactured spend, decides every miles promotion. Everything below is just the inputs.
The table below lists live KrisFlyer-earning sign-up bonuses as of June 2026, drawn from The MileLion's monthly roundup. NTB means new-to-bank (you have not held a card from that issuer recently); ETB means existing customer, who usually gets a smaller bonus. Annual fees include 9% GST. Promotions change monthly and most carry an expiry date, so confirm the exact terms on the card's own page before applying.
Two patterns stand out. The entry tier, cards with a S$196.20 fee, offers 8,000 to 38,000 miles for about S$800 of spend, which most people clear on normal expenses in two months. The premium tier offers far bigger numbers, but only in exchange for S$2,000 to S$20,000 of spend inside 30 to 90 days and fees from S$599 to S$1,744 that you usually cannot waive. The big bonus is real; so is the spend you must front to claim it.
| Card | Bonus miles | Min. spend | Window | Annual fee (incl. GST) | Fee waived? | Promo expires |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DBS Altitude | 38,000 (pay fee) / 28,000 (waived) | S$800 | 60 days | S$196.20 | Option for 28,000 | 30 Jun 26 |
| Citi PremierMiles | 30,000 (pay fee) / 8,000 (waived) | S$800 | 2-3 months | S$196.20 | Option for 8,000 | 30 Jun 26 |
| StanChart Journey | 30,000 + S$180 (pay fee) / 20,000 + S$180 (waived) | S$800 | 60 days | S$196.20 | Option for 20,000 | 30 Jun 26 |
| HSBC TravelOne | 33,600 (NTB) / 21,600 (ETB) | S$1,000 | 1-2 months | S$196.20 | No | 30 Jun 26 |
| AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card | 12,900 (NTB, promo-dependent) | S$1,000 | 60 days | S$179.85 | Yes (1st year) | 16 Jun 26 (confirm current AMEX promo) |
| BOC Elite Miles | 10,000 | S$50 | 60 days | S$207.10 | No | 31 Dec 26 |
| UOB Visa Infinite Metal | 60,000 (NTB) / 40,000 (ETB) | S$4,000 | 30 days | S$654.00 | No | 30 Jun 26 |
| Citi Prestige | 45,000 | S$14,000 | 2-3 months | S$651.82 | No | 30 Jun 26 |
| StanChart Visa Infinite | 50,000 | S$2,000 | 60 days | S$599.50 | No | 30 Jun 26 |
| HSBC Premier Mastercard | 91,800 | S$5,000 | 1-2 months | S$708.50 | Premier customers | 31 Jul 26 |
| StanChart Beyond | 100,000 | S$20,000 | 90 days | S$1,635.00 | No | 30 Jun 26 |
| AMEX Platinum Charge | 115,000 miles equiv. (NTB) / 49,125 (ETB) | S$8,000 / S$3,000 | 90 days | S$1,744.00 | No | 16 Jun 26 (confirm current AMEX promo) |
The bonus is only paid if your spend qualifies, and not every charge does. Banks exclude a long list of transactions from the minimum-spend tally even when the money leaves your account: most tax payments to IRAS, insurance premiums on many cards, donations, education fees, government and council charges, AXS and SAM bill payments, e-wallet and prepaid top-ups (GrabPay, FavePay, EZ-Link, Singtel Dash), foreign-currency funding of brokerage or crypto accounts, and the annual fee itself. Pay your S$800 target with a mix of these and you can finish the window thinking you qualified while the bank's counter sits at zero.
The exclusion list is card-specific and it changes, so the only safe move is to read the promotion's terms before you start spending, then route the minimum through plain retail, dining, transport and grocery transactions you know will count. If you are deliberately timing a large purchase to clear a high minimum, confirm in writing that the merchant category counts; renovation and some insurers run through payment types that several cards reject.
A few banks let you turn otherwise-excluded bills into qualifying spend through their own facilities. Citi PayAll, for example, can route rent, tax or insurance through the card and have it count towards the minimum spend on some promotions, usually for an admin fee of around 1 to 2 percent and only when you pay the annual fee. Run that fee against the bonus value before you use it: paying 2 percent to manufacture S$5,000 of spend costs S$100, which only makes sense if the bonus it unlocks is clearly worth more.
| Usually counts | Usually excluded |
|---|---|
| Retail, dining, groceries, transport | The annual fee itself |
| Online shopping, subscriptions | IRAS tax and most government/council payments |
| Petrol and travel bookings | AXS, SAM and many recurring bill payments |
| Overseas card spend | E-wallet and prepaid top-ups (GrabPay, EZ-Link, Dash) |
| Contactless and mobile-wallet retail | Insurance premiums and donations on many cards |
| Spend routed through Citi PayAll (some promos, fee applies) | Brokerage, crypto and other funding transfers |
Three of the most popular cards, the DBS Altitude, Citi PremierMiles and StanChart Journey, offer two versions of the same promotion: a larger bonus if you pay the annual fee, or a smaller bonus if you take a first-year fee waiver. Work out which is better with the dollar value.
Take the DBS Altitude. Paying the S$196.20 fee gets you 38,000 miles (about S$570 at 1.5 cents), a net of roughly S$374. Taking the waiver gets you 28,000 miles (about S$420) for free, since you pay no fee. The waiver leaves you S$46 better off and you also keep the option to cancel cleanly before the second year. The 10,000 extra miles cost you S$196.20, or roughly 2 cents each, more than the miles are worth.
Citi PremierMiles is starker. Pay the fee for 30,000 miles (about S$450, net S$254 after the S$196.20 fee), or take the waiver for 8,000 miles (about S$120) free. Here the pay-fee route wins on net value because the gap is 22,000 miles for a S$196.20 fee, under 1 cent a mile. The rule is not always take the waiver; it is run both numbers and pick the higher net. As a habit, the waiver suits people who want the miles without commitment, while paying the fee suits those confident they will use the card and want the bigger haul.
The minimum spend is where promotions trap people. An S$800 target over two months is about S$400 a month, which most working adults clear on groceries, transport, bills and dining without changing anything. An S$8,000 target over 90 days on the AMEX Platinum Charge, or S$20,000 on the StanChart Beyond, is a different animal: unless you have a large planned purchase like renovation, a wedding or insurance premiums, you would have to invent the spend.
Inventing spend to earn miles destroys the maths. If the StanChart Beyond pays 100,000 miles (about S$1,500) for S$20,000 of spend and a S$1,635 fee, the bonus barely covers the fee even before counting whether that S$20,000 was real. Frame the minimum spend as a budget, not a target. Pull out the personal budget calculator and check the figure is spend you were going to make anyway, on the timeline the promo allows.
Timing the application around a genuine big-ticket purchase is the one legitimate way to clear a high minimum spend. People who renovate a flat, settle annual insurance, or pay for a wedding can route that real spending through a premium card and earn a large bonus on money that was leaving their account regardless. Outside of that, the high-minimum promotions are not built for you.
The largest sign-up bonuses are reserved for new-to-bank (NTB) applicants, and the definition is stricter than most people assume. A bank usually treats you as new only if you do not currently hold one of its principal credit cards and have not cancelled one within the past 12 months; some banks shorten that window to 6 months. Existing customers still get an offer, but it is typically a third to a half smaller, which is why the table above splits NTB and ETB figures. If you are chasing a specific card's headline number, check when you last held or closed a card from that issuer before you apply, because applying as an existing customer locks you out of the bigger bonus with no way to appeal.
Several promotions also hide a payout trap that the headline figure ignores. The AMEX Platinum Charge advertises a six-figure points haul, but a large slice of it is only credited around 15 months after approval, which forces you to keep the card and pay its four-figure annual fee twice before the full bonus lands. A bonus you have to fund two years of fees to collect is a far worse deal than the headline, so read when each tranche is actually paid, not just the total.
Then there are the steps that quietly forfeit the whole bonus. Some cards, such as the HSBC Premier Mastercard, require you to opt in to marketing communications during sign-up; miss that box and you get nothing despite hitting every spend target. Others require you to register a promo code, claim the offer in-app, or apply through a specific channel. Before you spend a cent, confirm three things: that you qualify as the applicant type the offer needs, that you have completed any registration or opt-in step, and that the bonus is credited on a timeline you are willing to commit to.
If you want bonus miles with no risk of the fee eating the reward, look at the cards whose offer requires no annual-fee payment. The AMEX KrisFlyer Credit Card is the clearest example: its S$179.85 annual fee is waived for the first year, and its welcome offer (about 12,900 KrisFlyer miles for new-to-bank applicants on roughly S$1,000 of spend in the first 60 days in the June 2026 roundup, though the exact figure changes with each running promotion, so confirm on American Express' card page) lands as pure upside on spend you would make anyway. At 1.5 cents a mile, a 12,900-mile bonus is worth about S$194, and you pay nothing in year one.
These low-commitment offers will not top a leaderboard, but they are the cleanest deal for someone who travels once or twice a year and does not want to track fee-waiver deadlines. You apply, spend your normal S$1,000 over two months, collect the miles, and owe nothing. There is no annual-fee anniversary to manage and no pressure to keep spending on the card afterwards.
The trade-off is the ongoing earn rate. Fee-free or fee-waived entry cards tend to earn around 1.2 to 1.3 miles per dollar locally, lower than premium cards. That matters if you plan to keep using the card for years, but for a one-time sign-up bonus on everyday spend, the lower earn rate is irrelevant. Take the bonus, then decide separately which card to keep for daily use, using the wider best credit cards in Singapore guide.
A mile is only worth 1.5 to 2 cents if you redeem it well. KrisFlyer miles deliver the most value on Singapore Airlines or partner premium-cabin redemptions, where a business-class seat bought with miles can return well over 2 cents per mile against the cash fare. Redeem the same miles for economy seats, hotel stays or shopping vouchers and you often get under 1 cent, which would halve every dollar figure in this article.
KrisFlyer miles are valid for three years from the date they are credited. Singapore Airlines lets you extend miles once before they expire for a service fee of 1,200 miles or US$12 per 10,000 miles (or part thereof); ordinary KrisFlyer members get a 6-month extension and Elite Silver or Gold members get 12 months, but the fee applies regardless of tier (see Singapore Airlines' service fees page). The cleaner plan is to earn miles only when you have a redemption in sight. A 91,800-mile bonus you cannot use before it expires is worth nothing, no matter how good the offer looked. If you do not fly enough to spend miles within three years, a cashback or rewards card usually returns more real value than a miles card.
One point softens the rarely-fly objection. You do not have to fly to use your own miles. Singapore Airlines lets a KrisFlyer member nominate up to five individuals as redemption nominees and book award tickets or cabin upgrades for them with your miles; the nominees can be anyone, not a company, and once you add a name you cannot change it for six months (per Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer FAQ). So a bonus you earn can buy a parent's flight home or a partner's holiday seat, which widens who benefits from the miles even if you travel little yourself. The mechanics of turning a bonus into a booked seat are covered in the guide on redeeming KrisFlyer miles for SIA award flights.
This is the honest filter for any miles promotion. The bonus is worth its dollar value only if you, or one of your nominees, will redeem the miles on flights someone would otherwise pay cash for, within their three-year life. If nobody will, the promotion is a number, not money.
Most people lose on miles promotions not because the offer is bad but because they skip a step. Run every application through the same short sequence and the maths stays in your favour. Start by writing down the bonus in dollars at 1.5 cents a mile, subtract the fee you cannot waive, and subtract any spend you would not otherwise make; if the result is not clearly positive, stop there. Check you qualify as the applicant type the bigger bonus needs, then complete any opt-in, registration or promo-code step the same day you apply, before the card even arrives.
Once approved, map the minimum spend against your real upcoming bills for the window, using the personal budget calculator to confirm the figure is money you were going to spend anyway on transactions that qualify. Charge those expenses, keep the card paid in full each month, and set a calendar reminder for two dates: a few days before the spend window closes, and one month before the annual-fee anniversary. When the bonus is credited, redeem the miles, or earmark them for a nominee, on a flight within three years, then decide separately whether the card is worth keeping for daily use.
The whole sequence takes ten minutes of planning and removes every common way these offers go wrong: an unqualified application, a missed opt-in, spend that does not count, a forgotten fee, or miles that expire unredeemed. Done this way a sign-up bonus is close to free money on spending you already had; done carelessly it is a marketing-funded loss.
The income and age rules are set by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and apply across all banks, so they are not card-specific. A principal credit card generally requires you to be at least 21. Singaporeans and permanent residents aged 55 and below need a minimum gross annual income of S$30,000; those above 55 can qualify on assets or a guarantor. Foreigners typically need around S$45,000 plus a valid work pass. The premium cards carrying the largest bonuses usually require S$120,000 or more, which is why those offers are out of reach for most early-career applicants regardless of the spend.
Your credit limit is capped at up to 2 times monthly income on annual income below S$30,000, and up to 4 times on income from S$30,000 to below S$120,000; above that it is set case by case. Across all banks, MAS also caps total interest-bearing unsecured borrowing: once your outstanding unsecured debt exceeds 6 times monthly income you cannot get new unsecured credit that would push your total credit limit past 12 times monthly income. None of this changes a promotion's value, but it sets which cards you can actually be approved for.
Opening cards for sign-up bonuses also touches your credit file. Each application is recorded, and a flurry of new cards in a short window can show up when you next apply for something that matters, like an HDB or bank home loan. Space out applications and check your record through your credit score and Credit Bureau report before a big borrowing decision.
Miles cards charge interest of roughly 26 to 29 percent a year on unpaid balances. One month of carrying a balance can wipe out an entire sign-up bonus and then some. A 30,000-mile bonus worth about S$450 disappears if you revolve S$1,800 for a year at 27 percent. The only way a miles promotion stays profitable is to pay the statement balance in full every month, ideally by GIRO, so you never touch the interest.
Diarise the annual-fee anniversary too. For DBS Altitude holders, the spend-based fee waiver is being discontinued from August 2026, so the old trick of spending S$25,000 a year to auto-waive the fee no longer works; from then you either request a discretionary waiver through DBS digibank or pay. Set a reminder a month before each card's anniversary to either secure a waiver or cancel before a non-waivable fee lands, the same habit covered in the guide on waiving your credit card annual fee.
Treated this way, sign-up bonuses are a modest, repeatable source of value: apply for one card at a time when you have spend you would make anyway, take the higher-net version of the offer, redeem the miles on a flight within three years, then move on. Treated as a reason to spend more, they are a marketing-funded way to lose money.
There is no single best one; it depends on your spending. For most people the entry-tier offers are the sweet spot: in June 2026 the DBS Altitude gives 28,000 miles fee-waived or 38,000 if you pay the S$196.20 fee, and Citi PremierMiles gives 30,000 miles for paying the fee, both on about S$800 of spend you would make anyway. The biggest headline bonuses, like the AMEX Platinum Charge's roughly 115,000 miles-equivalent in Membership Rewards points for new-to-bank applicants in the June 2026 roundup, require S$5,000 to S$8,000 of spend and fees over S$700, so they only suit people with a genuine large planned purchase. Always confirm current terms with the bank, as promotions change monthly.
Roughly 1.5 to 2 Singapore cents each when redeemed well, which usually means premium-cabin Singapore Airlines or partner flights where a mile can return over 2 cents against the cash fare. Redeem miles for economy seats, hotels or shopping vouchers and the value often falls below 1 cent. Use 1.5 cents as a sober estimate: on that basis a 30,000-mile bonus is worth about S$450, and a 91,800-mile bonus about S$1,377.
Run both versions through the dollar maths and pick the higher net. For the DBS Altitude, taking the waiver for 28,000 miles free usually beats paying S$196.20 for 38,000, because the extra 10,000 miles cost about 2 cents each, more than they are worth. For Citi PremierMiles, paying the fee for 30,000 miles beats the 8,000-mile waiver because the gap is large for the same fee. There is no universal answer; the better choice depends on how big the bonus gap is relative to the fee.
It depends on the card. Entry-tier cards ask for about S$800 to S$1,000 over one to three months, which most working adults clear on normal expenses. Premium cards ask for S$4,000 to S$20,000 in 30 to 90 days. The rule is to treat the minimum spend as a budget you check against your real spending, not a target to chase. If you would have to buy things you do not need to hit it, the promotion costs you more than the miles are worth.
Each application is recorded on your Credit Bureau file, and several new cards in a short window can show up when you next apply for credit that matters, such as an HDB or bank home loan. The bonus itself does not hurt you, but a cluster of applications around a major borrowing decision can. Space out applications and check your Credit Bureau report before applying for a home loan or other large facility.
Yes. KrisFlyer miles are valid for three years from the date they are credited, including miles from a sign-up bonus. Singapore Airlines lets you extend miles once before they expire for a service fee of 1,200 miles or US$12 per 10,000 miles (or part thereof); ordinary KrisFlyer members get a 6-month extension and Elite Silver or Gold members get 12 months, but the fee is charged regardless of tier. The cleaner approach is to earn a large bonus only when you have a redemption in sight, because a 91,800-mile bonus you cannot use before it expires is worth nothing.
Usually not, but it is less clear-cut than it sounds. The whole value of a miles card rests on redeeming the miles on flights someone would otherwise pay cash for, within their three-year life. You can nominate up to five people on your KrisFlyer account and book award tickets for them with your miles, so a bonus can fund a parent's or partner's flight even if you stay home. If nobody you can nominate will use the miles within three years, a cashback or rewards card returns more usable value, because the rewards are spendable on anything and do not expire on the same clock. Match the card to how you and your nominees actually travel, not to the size of the sign-up bonus.
Plain retail, dining, groceries, transport, online shopping and overseas card spend almost always count. The annual fee, IRAS tax, most government and bill payments, e-wallet and prepaid top-ups, insurance premiums and donations on many cards, and funding transfers to brokerage or crypto accounts usually do not. The exclusion list is card-specific and changes, so read the promotion's terms first and clear the minimum on transactions you know qualify. Some banks let you route otherwise-excluded bills through their own facility, such as Citi PayAll, to make them count, but that carries an admin fee of around 1 to 2 percent.
New-to-bank (NTB) usually means you do not currently hold a principal credit card from that issuer and have not cancelled one in the past 12 months, though some banks use a 6-month window. It matters because the largest sign-up bonuses are reserved for NTB applicants; existing customers typically get a bonus a third to a half smaller. Check when you last held or closed a card from the bank before applying, because applying as an existing customer locks you out of the bigger offer with no appeal.
Not always. Most entry-tier cards credit the bonus within one to three months of clearing the minimum spend, but some premium cards stagger the payout. The AMEX Platinum Charge, for example, credits a large part of its bonus only around 15 months after approval, which means keeping the card and paying its annual fee twice before the full amount lands. Check when each tranche is actually paid, not just the headline total, and factor a second annual fee into the maths if the bonus is deferred.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.