DBS Black Visa Card – MoneySmart Review 2022

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

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.

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.

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Citi Rewards Card

on Online & Shopping Purchases

S$1= 10X Points

for all other purchases

S$1= 1X Point

Rewards Conversion

10X Points = 4 Miles

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More Details

Key Features

• 10X Points for online purchases (for online grocery, food delivery, ride-hailing and more). Excludes mobile wallet and travel-related transactions. Bank's T&Cs apply

• 10X Points for shopping purchases (for department store, clothing stores and more). Bank's T&Cs apply

• 1X Point for all other purchases Bank's T&Cs apply

• For every 10X Points Eligible Transaction charged to the Eligible Card, an Eligible Cardholder will be awarded:

• (i) 1 Base Point for every S$1 of a 10X Points Eligible Transaction (“Base Points”); and

• (ii) 9 Bonus Points for every S$1 of a 10X Points Eligible Transaction (“Bonus Points”).

• Points shall be calculated on the amount of each 10X Points Eligible Transaction, rounded down to the nearest S$1.

• Base Points are not subject to any cap. However, Bonus Points are subject to a cap of 9,000 Bonus Points per statement month.

• 10X Points = 4 Miles

See all card details 

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.

Online Shopping

DBS Woman's Card

on Online Purchases

S$5 = 5 DBS Points (2 Miles per S$1)

on Other Purchases

S$5 = 1 DBS Point (0.4 Miles per S$1)

e-Commerce Protection for Online Purchases

Complimentary

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More Details

Key Features

• 5X DBS Points per S$5 online purchases

• 1X DBS Points per S$5 / 0.4 miles per S$1 on other purchases

• Complimentary e-Commerce Protection on online purchases

• Enjoy first year annual fee waiver

See all card details 

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 Preferred Platinum Visa Card

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

Read More

More Details

Key Features

• Up to UNI$10 per S$5 spend on online shopping and entertainment

• Up to UNI$10 per S$5 spend via mobile contactless payment

• Earn UOB$ cashback on all purchases in-store at over 1,000 participating merchants(across all categories islandwide) and use it to offset your next purchase

• At MoneySmart, we strive to keep our information accurate and up to date. This information may be different from what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider, or specific product site. MoneySmart shall not be liable to compensate the Customer should the information is not as updated as our Partner.

See all card details 

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.

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HSBC Revolution Credit Card

on Online Spend and Contactless Payments

S$1 = 10X Points

on All Other Spend

S$1 = 1X Point

for every 10 Points

Earn 4 Miles

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Valid until 30 Apr 2024

Apply Now

More Details

Key Features

• 10X Reward points (equivalent to 4 miles or 2.5% Cashback) on online purchases and contactless payments.

• 1X Reward point for all other types of spending.

• No min. spend required.

• No annual fee

• Receive complimentary access to ENTERTAINER with HSBC app, with over 1,000 1-for-1 deals on dining, lifestyle and travel worldwide.

• Cap of 10,000 rewards points per calendar month on eligible purchases. Other terms apply.

See all card details 

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.