OCBC Titanium Rewards offering 6 mpd for new sign

OCBC has a new offer for those signing up for one of its Titanium Rewards cards, with an upsized earn rate of 6 mpd instead of the year-round 4 mpd in selected spend categories for the first three months, worth up to 12,000 additional miles.

This is in addition to a choice between S$250 cashback, a S$350 eCapitaVoucher or other gifts when you apply via SingSaver between now and 30th August 2023.

Provided you don’t currently hold an OCBC credit card (any variant, not just the Titanium Rewards pair), and you haven’t held one in the last six months, you will be eligible for the sign up offer.

You’ll need to apply and be approved for either of the Titanium Rewards cards under this promotion (blue or pink) between 18th August 2023 and 30th September 2023.

APPLY HERE

You can then earn 6 mpd instead of the regular 4 mpd for online and in-store spend at this card’s eligible bonus merchants, for the first S$2,000 spend in these categories per month for a three-month period.

For example, if your card is approved on 29th August 2023, the qualifying spend period will be 29th August 2023 to 28th November 2023 inclusive, broken down as follows.

If you maximise the bonus by spending exactly S$2,000 in the eligible categories during each of the three monthly periods, you’ll net a total of 36,000 miles (6 mpd x S$6,000), 12,000 miles of which are the bonus 2 mpd element, over and above the regular earn rate.

You will initially be awarded 0.4 miles (1 OCBC$) per S$1 on all spending with this card when it is first posted to your account.

The additional 3.6 miles (9 OCBC$) are credited, provided the spending category was eligible for the transaction, by the end of the following month.

The bonus 2 mpd element earned under this campaign for all three monthly periods will be credited to your rewards account in one lump sum, by 31st January 2024.

To benefit from this 6 mpd earn rate you’ll have to spend within the usual bonus earn categories with the Titanium Rewards card, which centre around shopping spend, both in Singapore and overseas.

Retailers selling items such as clothes, shoes and bags, electronics and gadgets are included, with online transactions also eligible. Spending at department stores like TANGS also counts, as does eligible spend with Kris+ merchants falling under the eligible MCC list.

Here’s the full list of Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) which qualify for 6 mpd both locally and overseas during this offer, including online transactions:

As you can see, this includes many useful retailers like Apple, Courts, Best Denki, H&M, TANGS and Zalora.

Additionally, retail transactions at the following merchants are also included in the bonus earning category:

* Except Shopee Pay transactions under MCC 5262

Note that since 1st March 2023, transactions made at Amazon and Mustafa Centre using the OCBC Titanium Rewards Credit Card will not earn bonus miles if they fall under Merchant Category Code (MCC) 5411 (Grocery stores, Supermarkets).

Unfortunately this includes Amazon Fresh purchases, which was previously a nice way to clock spend for many cardholders.

Full terms and conditions for this sign-up promotion are available here:

OCBC TR 6 mpd Acquisition Campaign T&C

If you’re new to OCBC cards in the last six months and willing to spend at least S$500 in the 30 days of card approval, you can consider signing up for this card through SingSaver until 30th August 2023, where you’ll then be eligible to receive one of the following gifts in addition to being eligible for the 6 mpd earning outlined above:

Apple Watch SE (Gen 2) GPS 40mm (worth S$382.50)orApple AirPods Pro (Gen 2) + MagSafe Charger (worth S$421.90)orSony WH-1000XM5 (worth S$549)orS$350 eCapitaVoucherorS$250 cashAPPLY HERE

For the SingSaver offer, you’ll have to follow these application steps:

You’ll then receive a rewards notification from SingSaver confirming the redemption details for your gift within eight weeks (do take note, it’s far from immediate!).

Terms and conditions are available here (under ‘OCBC Credit Cards’).

It’s worth noting that OCBC has its own direct application available with a different set of welcome gifts, but these don’t look as attractive for most of our readers compared to the SingSaver offer.

Before you take the plunge with the OCBC TR cards, here are a few key points to note.

The 10x reward earning bonus points are capped at S$12,000 spend per card membership year, however you can get two cards (the blue and the pink) and effectively double your annual allowance in this category to S$24,000.

This is better than some other cards with 10x earning categories, like the Citi Rewards which moved to a monthly earnings cap a few years ago, rather than an annual limit.

That makes the OCBC TR cards more suited to big ticket purchases in the bonus categories. Effectively you could spend all $12,000 of your annual cap in a single month if you like (potentially useful for a large electronics or furniture purchase, for example).

Unfortunately in June 2020, OCBC shifted to a S$5 earning block policy for miles accrual on its Titanium Rewards cards. That annoying policy means you effectively get a lower earn rate if your transaction is not in an exact block of S$5.

For example, a S$9.90 transaction will only earn the same number of OCBC$ as a S$5 transaction, while a S$4.90 transaction won’t earn anything at all! Smaller purchases are most adversely affected.

For years OCBC$ only converted to the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer frequent flyer program, but in July this year OCBC finally added eight new partners to its list of options.

Unfortunately the transfer ratios for most useful partners are very disappointing, especially for Asia Miles where OCBC cardholders take a surprising 25% hit compared to a KrisFlyer transfer, but at least the additional options are there if you wish.

Also worth noting is the fee to convert OCBC$ to KrisFlyer miles, which is S$25 per transfer, no matter how many ‘blocks’ you are converting. Clearly it makes sense to convert as large a quantity as possible to dilute the conversion cost per mile.

There is no transfer fee for the bank’s eight new partners from now until 30th October 2023.

For further details, see our full review of these cards.

If you’re new to OCBC credit cards in the last six months, you can pick up a new OCBC Titanium Rewards card and earn 6 mpd for online and offline spending in selected categories for the first three months, capped at S$2,000 per monthly period.

APPLY HERE

If you don’t currently have any OCBC credit cards in your wallet, this could be a good time to apply and pick up a relatively easy 12,000 bonus miles, but don’t delay because the best offer stacks with an application via SingSaver for additional gifts between now and 30th August 2023.

(Cover Photo: Supplied)

Happiest in a First or Business Class bed flying to a faraway place, and even happier when it's using miles or points.View all posts by Andrew