Hi Anon,
It's been awhile since your post, not sure if you're still thinking about it.
I totally get what you mean about not knowing if you'll rack up enough miles quick enough - after all, we don't want to stretch our spending just to get more points. Anyway, here's my thoughts:
While it may seem like an impossible task, I would say it's doable.
My suggestion is to not only rely on high earn rate cards like the UOB PPV, but also sign-up bonuses from general miles cards. This could be Citi PM/DBS Altitude. Currently, Citi PM is offering 45k miles as a sign-up bonus with $9k spending in 3 months.
I know $9k sounds crazy, but all it takes is some planning. Some ideas on how you can hit the $9k spending:
wedding expenses (assuming you're not married yet)
big ticket expenses (home renovations, new furniture, new electronics)
university tuition fees (Citibank has a payment facility known as Citi PayAll, which allows you to earn points for a range of expenses that typically will not earn any points. A nominal fee of 2% is applied, but that's a small price to pay for the large chunk of bonus miles you will get)
volunteer to pay first when you eat out with friends
Note that these expenses don't all have to come from yourself - it could be family members or close relatives as well.
If you're able to fulfil this, that's almost half the miles you need to accumulate. The other half can definitely be earned from high earn rate cards like UOB PPV and HSBC Revolution. Both of these cards earn 4mpd on a wide range of spending.
Assuming your monthly expenses are ~$500, and 80% of that or $400 are eligible card transactions, you will earn:
1.6k miles/month
19.2k miles/year
76.8k miles in 4 years
Couple this with the 45k bonus miles from earlier, you're looking at 121.8k miles. This is enough to get you a biz class ticket to Japan, Korea, Africa, NZ and Australia.
Granted, this is only enough for 1 ticket - so you and your partner should be doing this together.
Even if you don't get the sign-up bonus from a general miles card, I would say that it's still worth it to get a card like UOB PPV if you can't hit the monthly spending for cashback cards. You actually earn UNI$ with the card, not miles. This can be redeemed for other rewards like vouchers at various merchants.
This way, at least you will earn something, and you can decide what to do with it later on.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
thefrugalstudentāāā
Hi Anon,
It's been awhile since your post, not sure if you're still thinking about it.
I totally get what you mean about not knowing if you'll rack up enough miles quick enough - after all, we don't want to stretch our spending just to get more points. Anyway, here's my thoughts:
While it may seem like an impossible task, I would say it's doable.
My suggestion is to not only rely on high earn rate cards like the UOB PPV, but also sign-up bonuses from general miles cards. This could be Citi PM/DBS Altitude. Currently, Citi PM is offering 45k miles as a sign-up bonus with $9k spending in 3 months.
I know $9k sounds crazy, but all it takes is some planning. Some ideas on how you can hit the $9k spending:
wedding expenses (assuming you're not married yet)
big ticket expenses (home renovations, new furniture, new electronics)
university tuition fees (Citibank has a payment facility known as Citi PayAll, which allows you to earn points for a range of expenses that typically will not earn any points. A nominal fee of 2% is applied, but that's a small price to pay for the large chunk of bonus miles you will get)
volunteer to pay first when you eat out with friends
Note that these expenses don't all have to come from yourself - it could be family members or close relatives as well.
If you're able to fulfil this, that's almost half the miles you need to accumulate. The other half can definitely be earned from high earn rate cards like UOB PPV and HSBC Revolution. Both of these cards earn 4mpd on a wide range of spending.
Assuming your monthly expenses are ~$500, and 80% of that or $400 are eligible card transactions, you will earn:
1.6k miles/month
19.2k miles/year
76.8k miles in 4 years
Couple this with the 45k bonus miles from earlier, you're looking at 121.8k miles. This is enough to get you a biz class ticket to Japan, Korea, Africa, NZ and Australia.
Granted, this is only enough for 1 ticket - so you and your partner should be doing this together.
Even if you don't get the sign-up bonus from a general miles card, I would say that it's still worth it to get a card like UOB PPV if you can't hit the monthly spending for cashback cards. You actually earn UNI$ with the card, not miles. This can be redeemed for other rewards like vouchers at various merchants.
This way, at least you will earn something, and you can decide what to do with it later on.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
thefrugalstudentāāā