New to credit cards here. How do I pay my bills each month, and is there any way to set up an automatic payment such that I don’t miss any single bill payment?

Credit card is one of the best way to manage your expenses. It is actually a form of debt as the bank will pay on your behalf first, and you will pay back the bank after receiving the monthly credit card statement. It will be a healthy debt as long as you learn how to manage it properly, no spending beyond your limits and no late payments.

Yes. You will be able to see every single line of your transactions. It will be under your credit card section of your iBanking. These days, with seamless technologies, sometimes you can see the transactions almost immediately, but usally 1 to 2 days. This also meant that you can track your transactions easily.

One of the difference between debit and credit card is that the debit card is tagged to your bank balances. If your bank has no money, you will not be able to spend anymore. Credit card comes with a credit limit which is usually tagged to your income. You can always continue to use your credit card up till the credit limit so there is a possibilty of over spending if you are not careful.

An other great function of credit card is the ability to pay by installment. Once again, this is also a tool that must be carefully managed to avoid a situation where your overall installment payment plans exceed what you can afford to.

As for automatic payment, there is GIRO so you do not need to worry about missing your payments unless your bank account does not have enough money for deduction. Personally, I do not use GIRO. I will literality monitor each and every single transactions and will make a manual payment to them directly as I want to be in control of my cash management. There are also situations where I will immediately pay off the transactions after i swipe the credit card. Call me silly, but this is how I feel I can manage my cash position well.

1. No, credit cards (or some debit card for that matter) generally requires a few days to post the transaction and the amount do not get deducted from your account immediately. It is prudent to track your expenses with an app (e.g. seedly) to make sure you do not get carried away with spending.
2. Most credit card have an option to GIRO your bill automatically. Ensure that you have sufficent funds to avoid late payment fee or the insane interest rates they will charge you in an event of a failed deduction. It is good practice to inspect your bill to ensure there are no fraudent transactions as well.
3. DBS altitude card has plenty of terms and conditions that exclude the earning of miles so if you are intending to "game the system" to earn miles, please read the terms and conditions carefully first.
4. If the automatic payment is not available from DBS, you can generally request from the service company for a credit card payment form to complete and mail back to them. (e.g. M1)