Disclaimer: My bias in direction of CardUp is actual, particularly given the way it has been a fail-proof answer for me for the final 8 years. However right here’s how the opposite choices to get miles whereas paying your taxes to IRAS presently stack up anyway, and how one can determine for your self.
Relating to paying your revenue taxes, the default methodology is for IRAS to deduct these funds through GIRO by your checking account. Nonetheless, this default methodology isn’t going to get you miles. So when you’ve got a sizeable tax invoice (at the very least 4 digits) and need to get a major quantity of miles for paying your revenue taxes, you’d need to be smarter and route it by a third-party fee processor.
You may both use an impartial service reminiscent of CardUp, or a financial institution fee facility i.e. Citi PayAll, SC EasyBill or UOB Fee Facility. This submit compares these choices so you may determine what works greatest for you.
Right here’s a little bit of historical past: Up to now, there was no manner you might earn miles in your revenue taxes as funds to authorities establishments had been explicitly excluded from incomes rewards within the T&Cs of your bank cards. CardUp disrupted that once they launched in 2016 with a MAS license, and allowed Singapore residents to earn miles or cashback on previously-excluded funds for the primary time!
Because the banks watched CardUp’s reputation and utilization develop, some banks determined joined in to supply their very own fee processing facility – Citibank, Normal Chartered and UOB. At first, these banks provided promotional charges to entice prospects to change away from CardUp to their very own financial institution fee facility, however through the years, these promotional charges have come down considerably, whereas commonplace payment charges and minimal spend necessities have all however gone up.
2025 Comparability
| Cardup | Citi PayAll | SC EasyBill | UOB Fee Facility | |
| Admin Price | 1.73% (OCBC VOYAGE & Premier Visa Infinite Playing cards) 1.75% (Visa, UnionPay) |
2.6% (beforehand 2.2%) | 1.9% | 1.6% – 4.7% (varies by playing cards and instalments)
1.8% for non-HNW UOB cardholders |
| Downsides | Promo charges final till Aug 2024.
No promo charges for MasterCard or AMEX playing cards. |
Just for restricted Citi playing cards: Citi ULTIMA Card Citi Status Card Citi PremierMiles Card Citi Rewards Card.
Clients with out an present Citi banking relationship should first spend min. S$6,000 on non-tax funds (at 1.6 mpd) as a way to unlock promo charges (2 mpd) for tax funds. |
No choice for recurring funds i.e. it’s important to pay your whole revenue tax in full without delay. | Earns solely 1 mpd with all UOB playing cards.
Promo charges finish the earliest i.e. on 30 April 2025. Fees and rewards (mpd) varies between UOB playing cards (examine right here). |
As a client who has been utilizing CardUp to pay for my revenue taxes (and extra) all this whereas, I’ve been monitoring this scene for the final 8 years and have seen that whereas a few of the banks have hopped onto this bandwagon to compete, their promotions and adaptability are nonetheless not as nice as CardUp’s.
The most important trade-off with utilizing many of the banks’ fee facility is that they both require you to make your tax fee in full for the bottom processing charges, or restrict your rewards to a small handful of bank cards.
UOB Fee Facility
In case you’re a UOB cardholder, the one card that offers you decrease charges than CardUp’s 1.75% is the UOB Reserve Credit score Card, supplied that you would be able to repay your whole revenue tax invoice in full unexpectedly.
In any other case, in the event you’re utilizing another UOB bank cards, then CardUp shall be a more sensible choice as you’ll pay decrease charges (1.75% vs. 2.3%) and you earn the next 1.4 mpd reasonably than simply 1 mpd.
What’s extra, it is best to observe that any quantities charged to the UOB Fee Facility don’t rely in direction of the financial institution’s minimal spend for redeeming your welcome presents, nor are they often counted in direction of the necessities for an annual payment waiver.
UOB Fee Facility will not be the most cost effective manner of shopping for miles, so when you’ve got a official invoice to pay, you might nearly definitely earn larger rewards for much less by a platform like CardUp.
SC EasyBill
In case you’re a Normal Chartered cardholder who can repay your whole revenue tax in full unexpectedly and don’t thoughts paying barely larger processing charges (1.9%).
Nonetheless, the earn charges aren’t incredible:
- StanChart Past Card: 1.5 (Normal) to 2mpd (PB/PP)
- StanChart Visa Infinite: 1 to 1.4 mpd (if min. month-to-month spend of S$2,000 is hit)
- StanChart Journey Card: 1.2 mpd
Different SC playing cards earn lower than 1 mpd, so don’t trouble. Contemplating the very best card on this record can also be eligible to pair with CardUp at a decrease payment (1.75%), I really feel it’s a no-brainer to make use of CardUp as an alternative.
Do observe that SC EasyBill solely helps one-time fee requests, so you can’t use it to pay your month-to-month instalments for IRAS.
Citi PayAll
There was as soon as a time when Citibank used to run extra aggressive promotions to combat for CardUp’s share of the market vs. its personal Citi PayAll facility, however nowadays appear to be over.
Not solely have they elevated their charges from 2.2% to 2.6% at this time, they’ve additionally restricted the rewards to only 4 miles playing cards: Citi ULTIMA Card (by-invitation solely, excessive net-worth people), Citi Status Card, Citi PremierMiles and the Card Citi Rewards Card.
Final yr, for purchasers with out an present and lively Citi banking relationship, Citi imposed a minimal spend of S$5,000 on non-tax transactions on a single card to ensure that cardholders earlier than they might get rewarded for revenue tax funds, however that has since been hiked to $6,000 this yr. That is unhealthy information for you guys who’re simply hoping to pay their taxes and nothing else.
In response to The Milelion, a leak means that Citi is likely to be bumping up the miles earn fee to 2 mpd on tax funds made 18 April – 31 August 2025. Again in 2022, the promotional fee was 2.5 mpd.
In contrast to UOB, Citi PayAll transactions will rely in direction of the qualifying spend required in your welcome presents and card-related advantages.
For HSBC cardholders
In case you didn’t already know, HSBC already discontinued its Earnings Tax Fee Programme just a few years in the past, and have particularly excludes CardUp funds from incomes rewards.
So in the event you’re a HSBC cardholder, you’d be foolish to make use of your HSBC card to pay your revenue taxes. Go for a special card as an alternative.
Use CardUp in the event you want recurring funds
In case you’re paying your revenue tax in month-to-month instalments, CardUp is the only option amongst the entire above choices, as a result of you may arrange recurring funds each month and nonetheless benefit from the promotional charges so long as you’re utilizing a Visa or UnionPay card:
| For month-to-month instalments | For one-off funds | |
| Promo code | BBTAX25R | VTAX25ONE |
| Price cost | 1.75% | 1.75% |
| Fee kind | One-off and recurring | One-off and recurring |
| Expiry date | Should be scheduled earlier than 31 August 2025. See T&Cs right here. |
Final fee on 23 Might 2025 |
A lot of the different choices mandate that you just repay your tax invoice in a single sitting as an alternative.
TLDR: The easiest way to earn miles in your revenue tax funds? CardUp.
In case you’re utilizing DBS / OCBC / HSBC / BOC / Normal Chartered / Maybank / UOB playing cards to pay your revenue taxes, CardUp is a no brainer choice so you may earn miles.
Tips on how to calculate your value per mile?
A $5,000 tax invoice put by CardUp, as an illustration, can earn 8,000 miles on a 1.6 mpd card at a value of $87.50 processing charges. That’s equal to purchasing miles at ~1.09 cents every, which is the bottom amongst all its opponents.
See the eligible playing cards to pair with CardUp right here. It’s a protracted record – for much longer than any of the banks’ fee amenities.
I began with CardUp as a result of they had been the primary to make it attainable for me to earn miles on my revenue tax funds, however through the years, these of you who monitored the scene like I did would have seen that whereas CardUp principally saved their charges the identical (1.75%) all through the years, the banks have been fickle and gotten much less beneficiant over time.
You probably have a OCBC VOYAGE or Premier Visa Infinite card, the financial institution has an ongoing promotion with CardUp at an excellent decrease 1.73% charges. Enter OCBCTAX173 within the promo code.
Citi cardholders with an present banking relationship may nonetheless discover the two mpd provide compelling (supplied that the leak proves to be true), however for the remainder of us cardholders, CardUp is a no brainer choice this yr in 2025.
See this information on arrange your revenue tax funds with CardUp right here.
In case you’re questioning why I’ve not included iPayMy on this record, that’s as a result of they’re nearly just like CardUp (which I personally use). Additionally, the cardboard I take advantage of for revenue tax funds is a UOB card, which particularly excludes iPayMy so I can’t earn rewards and haven’t been ready to make use of it there.
Which bank card must you use on CardUp?
Personally, I’ve used my UOB PRVI Miles with CardUp since 2017 as a result of it has been incomes me a candy 1.4 mpd all through all these years. The identical card will get me just one mpd if I put it by the UOB Fee Facility. Nonetheless, because the promotional fee for revenue tax through MasterCard on CardUp this yr is way larger at 2.25%, I shall be switching to my Visa card for my IRAS funds to get 1.75% as an alternative utilizing the BBTAX25R promo code.
For many of us, 1.4 mpd is the candy spot with many playing cards providing that earn fee on CardUp, together with however not restricted to:
- UOB PRVI Miles
- UOB Visa Infinite Metallic
- Normal Chartered Visa Infinite (on native spend >S$2k a month)
In any other case, the 1.2 mpd class additionally has the widest vary of mass-market playing cards that may be paired with CardUp:
- Citi PremierMiles
- DBS Altitude
- Maybank Visa Infinite
- UOB Krisflyer
In case you’re privileged sufficient to personal a by-invite-only high-end card just like the DBS Vantage, DBS Insignia, Citi ULTIMA or UOB Reserve, then you may doubtlessly earn the next 1.6 mpd in your CardUp funds.
If that is your first time utilizing CardUp, use the code BUDGETBABE to save lots of S$30 off your first transaction with no minimal spend required. This lets you earn free miles on a fee of as much as S$1,154 (based mostly on CardUp’s common admin payment of two.6%).
Or use BBTAX25R to get the bottom 1.75% charges in your revenue tax funds.
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 once you use my affiliate promo codes BBTAX25R (in your revenue tax) or BUDGETBABE (for each different fee sorts).
Full Disclosure: The hyperlinks embedded right here on this submit are not affiliate hyperlinks, however merely to make it simpler so that you can try extra info on the completely different fee web sites. I'll earn a small affiliate payment if you're new to CardUp and use my promo code. I earn completely nothing if you're already an present consumer and use my code - particularly in the event you signed up anytime previous to 2024 (between 2017 to 2024 after I've been actively recommending CardUp, I used to be not paid any affiliate charges or referral advantages aside from the identical referral next-fee-payment-waiver which regular customers obtained.
With love,
Finances Babe
