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 at the moment stack up anyway, and how one can determine for your self.
On the subject of paying your revenue taxes, the default methodology is for IRAS to deduct these funds through GIRO by way of your checking account. Nevertheless, this default methodology isn’t going to get you miles. So when you have a sizeable tax invoice (a minimum of 4 digits) and wish to get a major quantity of miles for paying your revenue taxes, you’d wish to be smarter and route it by way of a third-party fee processor.
You possibly can both use an unbiased service comparable to CardUp, or a financial institution fee facility i.e. Citi PayAll, SC EasyBill or UOB Cost Facility. This publish compares these choices so you’ll be able to determine what works finest for you.
Right here’s a little bit of historical past: Previously, there was no method you may 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 supplied promotional charges to entice clients to modify away from CardUp to their very own financial institution fee facility, however through the years, these promotional charges have come down considerably, whereas customary price charges and minimal spend necessities have all however gone up.
2025 Comparability
| Cardup | Citi PayAll | SC EasyBill | UOB Cost Facility | |
| Admin Payment | 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.
Prospects with out an current Citi banking relationship should first spend min. S$6,000 on non-tax funds (at 1.6 mpd) to be able to unlock promo charges (2 mpd) for tax funds. |
No possibility for recurring funds i.e. it’s a must to pay your complete 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. Prices and rewards (mpd) varies between UOB playing cards (test 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 among the banks have hopped onto this bandwagon to compete, their promotions and suppleness are nonetheless not as nice as CardUp’s.
The most important trade-off with utilizing a lot 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 Cost Facility
In the event 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 could repay your complete revenue tax invoice in full unexpectedly.
In any other case, in case you’re utilizing every other UOB bank cards, then CardUp might be a more sensible choice as you’ll pay decrease charges (1.75% vs. 2.3%) and you earn a better 1.4 mpd relatively than simply 1 mpd.
What’s extra, you must notice that any quantities charged to the UOB Cost Facility don’t depend 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 price waiver.
UOB Cost Facility is just not the most cost effective method of shopping for miles, so when you have a professional invoice to pay, you may nearly actually earn increased rewards for much less by way of a platform like CardUp.
SC EasyBill
In the event you’re a Normal Chartered cardholder who can repay your complete revenue tax in full unexpectedly and don’t thoughts paying barely increased processing charges (1.9%).
Nevertheless, the earn charges aren’t improbable:
- 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 price (1.75%), I really feel it’s a no-brainer to make use of CardUp as an alternative.
Do notice 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 battle for CardUp’s share of the market vs. its personal Citi PayAll facility, however lately appear to be over.
Not solely have they elevated their charges from 2.2% to 2.6% right this moment, 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 patrons with out an current and energetic 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 dangerous information for you guys who’re simply hoping to pay their taxes and nothing else.
In keeping with The Milelion, a leak means that Citi may 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 depend in direction of the qualifying spend required to your welcome presents and card-related advantages.
For HSBC cardholders
In the event you didn’t already know, HSBC already discontinued its Earnings Tax Cost Programme a couple of years in the past, and have particularly excludes CardUp funds from incomes rewards.
So in case you’re a HSBC cardholder, you’d be foolish to make use of your HSBC card to pay your revenue taxes. Go for a unique card as an alternative.
Use CardUp in case you want recurring funds
In the event you’re paying your revenue tax in month-to-month instalments, CardUp is your best option amongst all the above choices, as a result of you’ll be able to 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 |
| Payment cost | 1.75% | 1.75% |
| Cost sort | 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 Could 2025 |
Many 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 the event you’re utilizing DBS / OCBC / HSBC / BOC / Normal Chartered / Maybank / UOB playing cards to pay your revenue taxes, CardUp is a no brainer possibility so you’ll be able to earn miles.
The way to calculate your value per mile?
A $5,000 tax invoice put by way of CardUp, as an example, can earn 8,000 miles on a 1.6 mpd card at a price 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 an extended record – for much longer than any of the banks’ fee services.
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 largely saved their charges the identical (1.75%) all through the years, the banks have been fickle and gotten much less beneficiant over time.
When you 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 current banking relationship would possibly nonetheless discover the two mpd supply compelling (supplied that the leak proves to be true), however for the remainder of us cardholders, CardUp is a no brainer possibility this yr in 2025.
See this information on tips on how to arrange your revenue tax funds with CardUp right here.
In the event you’re questioning why I’ve not included iPayMy on this record, that’s as a result of they’re nearly much like CardUp (which I personally use). Additionally, the cardboard I exploit for revenue tax funds is a UOB card, which particularly excludes iPayMy so I can not 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 way of the UOB Cost Facility. Nevertheless, because the promotional fee for revenue tax through MasterCard on CardUp this yr is way increased at 2.25%, I might 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 Steel
- 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 the event 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’ll be able to doubtlessly earn a better 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 (primarily based on CardUp’s common admin price of two.6%).
Or use BBTAX25R to get the bottom 1.75% charges to your revenue tax funds.
Like this hack? Bear in mind to share it together 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 while you use my affiliate promo codes BBTAX25R (to your revenue tax) or BUDGETBABE (for each different fee varieties).
Full Disclosure: The hyperlinks embedded right here on this publish are not affiliate hyperlinks, however merely to make it simpler so that you can take a look at extra data on the completely different fee web sites. I'll earn a small affiliate price if you're new to CardUp and use my promo code. I earn completely nothing if you're already an current person and use my code - particularly in case 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 shoppers bought.
With love,
Finances Babe
