DBS Black Visa Card – MoneySmart Review 2022

DBS Black Card Review

Your parents might think it’s bad luck to wear black. But that sure hasn’t hurt DBS Black Visa Card’s popularity. The card itself looks pretty sleek and is marketed as ideal for shopaholics, letting you earn up to 3X DBS Points (or 6 miles) on local contactless payments. But how useful is it really? Let’s take a look.

DBS Black Visa Card terms & conditions

DBS Black Visa Card
Annual fee & waiver $192.60 (waived for 1 year)
Supplementary annual fee $96.30
Interest free period 25 days
Annual interest rate 26.80%
Late payment fee $100 
Minimum monthly repayment 3% or $50, whichever is higher
Foreign currency transaction fee 3.25%
Cash advance transaction fee 8% or $15, whichever is higher
Overlimit fee $40
Minimum income $30,000 (Singaporean) / $45,000 (non-Singaporean)
Card association Visa (also available as American Express)
Wireless payment Visa payWave, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay

How the DBS Black Visa Card works

The DBS Black Visa Card is a rewards credit card. Using it lets you earn DBS Points at a standard rate of $5 = 1 DBS Point (2 miles). Not terribly attractive, to be frank.

You can earn points a bit faster if you use Visa PayWave, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Google Pay. This will get you $5 = 3 DBS Points (6 miles). Because you get 3 times the number of rewards points, keep your eyes open for opportunities to do so. Fortunately, PayWave is widely accepted these days at supermarkets, restaurants, shops, taxis, and even some food courts.

There are some drawbacks though. For a start, points are awarded for every $5 spent, so you may want to make sure your total shopping bill is a nice number — definitely not “$4.99”.

More importantly, 3X points is really low compared to the competition. Many competing rewards cards are offering 5X or even 10X points for many spending categories. (Even DBS’ other rewards card, the DBS Woman’s Card, gets you 5X DBS Points, although it’s for online spending.) We’ll cover some of the more competitive cards later on.

Conversion of DBS Points to your airline’s programme requires an administrative fee of $26.75.

What rewards can you redeem with DBS Points?

So how useful are DBS rewards points? Here are some of the things you can redeem those points for till 31 December 2020.

  • $350 Credit for 25,000 DBS points
  • $10 NTUC Fairprice voucher for 690 DBS points
  • $50 Takashimaya voucher for 3,200 DBS points
  • 1 Golden Village ticket for 750 DBS points

But the thing is, there are some cashback credit cards can get you more than 1.5% rebates, without having to go through the trouble of redeeming vouchers.

Other credit cards for shopping

As far as shopping credit cards go, the DBS Black Visa Card is mediocre at best.

Here are some other cards that also reward you for retail spending. Depending on your spending habits, you might find these more attractive than the DBS Black Visa Card.

Citi Rewards Card Get 10x rewards (4 miles) for every $1 spent on clothes, bags or shoes, or at department stores or online shopping websites. As you can see, the earn rate for shopping is way more generous than DBS Black Visa Card’s, and you also get rewarded for shopping online. The main drawback is that you need to spend on clothes, bags and shoes, so tough luck if most of your retail spending goes to anything else.

Citibank logo
MoneySmart Exclusive
LUCKY DRAW | Faster Gift Redemption
Shopping and Online Spend, including Food Delivery and Groceries
S$1= 10X Points
Grab and Gojek
S$1= 10X Points
All Other Spend
S$1 = 1 Point
MoneySmart Exclusive:

Apply and Spend $500 to get a Nintendo Switch OLED (worth S$549) OR 15,000 KrisFlyer miles (worth one-way ticket to Bali) OR S$300 Cash via PayNowPLUS stand a chance to win a ROLEX or PlayStation 5!!! T&Cs apply.

Valid until 31 Mar 2023

DBS Woman’s Card If you really want to get a DBS credit card, consider the DBS Woman’s Card as well. It gets you 5X points (10 miles per $5) online, and 1X for everything else. If you spend a lot of money online, this is a good complement to the DBS Black Visa. However, there’s a spending cap of $1,000 a month.

DBS logo
Online Promo
Online Shopping
on Online Spend
S$5 = 5 DBS Points
on Other Spend
S$5 = 1 DBS Point
on Overseas Shop & Dine
Extra 5% Cashback
Online Promo:
Welcome Gift: Get S$150 Cashback when you apply with promo code 150CASH and make the min. spend of S$800 within 60 days of card approval. T&Cs apply.
Valid until 30 Jun 2023

UOB Preferred Platinum Card – If you like the fact that you can get bonus rewards points on mobile contactless and online transactions, the UOB PP is another credit card that offers this perk. It’s better than the DBS Woman’s Card, giving you a UNI$10 per $5 on mobile contactless payments and online spending and entertainment.

UOB logo
Online Promo
on Online Shopping, Entertainment & Contactless Payments
S$5 = 10X UNI$
on All Other Spend
S$5 = 1X UNI$
Rewards to Miles Conversion
1 UNI$ = 2 Miles
Online Promo:
Get S$350 worth of Grab vouchers when you are the first 200 new-to-UOB credit card customers who successfully apply for an eligible UOB Credit Card and spend a min. of S$1,000 for 2 consecutive months from their card approval date. T&Cs apply. 
Valid until 31 Mar 2023

HSBC Revolution Credit Card – This card beats the DBS Black Visa Card with 10X Reward points when you shop online, order food delivery or make future travel bookings. Although there’s just 1X Reward point for other types of spending, there’s no cap on the points you can earn on them.

HSBC logo
Online Promo
Earn Points for Everyday Spending
Rewards
S$1= 10 Points
Rewards
S$1= 4 Miles
Min. Spend
S$0
Online Promo:
Receive Samsonite Prestige 69cm Spinner Exp with built-in scale (worth SGD670) or SGD200 cashback for new HSBC cardmembers. Existing HSBC cardmembers receive $50 cashback. Min. spends of S$500 upon card approval required. T&Cs apply. 
Valid until 30 Apr 2023

Notice that almost every credit card trumps the DBS Black Visa Card. But if you’ve made up your mind to get this card, you can apply here:

Do you have the DBS Black Visa Card? Share your reviews in the comments.