Best Credit Cards For Paying Insurance Premiums In Singapore (2021)

Get protected and rewarded at the same time, by designating these credit cards to your recurring insurance premium payments.

Insurance is an integral part of our personal finances. As much as it is a must-have to get protected against misfortunes, that makes insurance premiums a recurring fixed cost, something that can add up.

What’s not so commonly known is that there are a handful of credit cards that will reward you for paying your insurance bills (most credit cards exclude insurance premiums from earning rewards). Here is a summary of the best credit cards for paying insurance premiums in Singapore.

Best For 0% Instalment Plans: OCBC Great Eastern Cashflo Card
Best For Unlimited Cashback: AMEX True Cashback Card
Best For Miles: Maybank Horizon Visa Card
One To Consider: UOB Absolute Cashback Card

Best credit cards for insurance premium payments in Singapore

Best for 0% instalment plans: OCBC Great Eastern Cashflo

If your cash is tied up with other urgent needs and you require cashflow easing, the Great Eastern Cashflo Credit Card can give you a leg up on the insurance premium front.

Of course, as its name evidently points out, this would apply only for your Great Eastern insurance plans. The card will automatically split your insurance bills for Great Eastern Life and Overseas Assurance Corporation plans over 3, 6 or 12 months – at 0% interest. Better yet, you earn 0.3% cash rebate on eligible insurance premiums.

The same 0% interest installment feature is also available for your non-insurance spends. If you can hit S$1,000 and above each month, you’ll earn up to 1.2% cash rebate.

Just some conditions to take note of: the choice of a 3-month 0% instalment plan is only applicable for purchases of between S$100 and S$1,000, whereas the 6-month 0% instalment plan is only for purchases over S$1,000.

Best for unlimited cashback: American Express True Cashback

There are cashback cards, and then there are unlimited cashback cards. The latter is best for individuals going through major life transitions, such as getting married, buying a home, or having a baby. If that’s you, the American Express True Cashback Card is the card to get.

Since we’re talking about insurance premiums, here’s how the American Express True Cashback card sweetens the pot: your recurring insurance payments aren’t exempt from earning cashback, as opposed to most other credit cards. So, be quick to link your American Express True Cashback card to any of your insurance plans because you get cashback in the same month’s statement.

For new cardmembers, you get 3% cashback for the first 6 months with no minimum spend before it reverts to 1.5%. Make full use of these 6 months; by going through major life events as mentioned above, you’ll likely need to procure new insurance plans. This would be especially advantageous if you’re opting for lump sum insurance payments.

Best for miles: Maybank Horizon Visa Signature

Yes, it’s possible to play the miles game and inch closer to your dream holiday by paying insurance premiums. That’s provided you do it with the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Card.

Every dollar of local spend (including insurance premium payments) nets you up to a stellar 3.2 air miles, or 8X TREATS Points that you could use to redeem for a host of privileges. But this earn rate would only apply for certain categories, such as dining, petrol, Grab or taxi rides and Agoda hotel bookings. For foreign currency transactions and flight bookings, you’d be earning 2 miles, or 5X TREATS Points per dollar.

You might have noticed that insurance isn’t an eligible category for the accelerated miles rate, but it technically contributes to your miles accumulation under the ‘Others’ category. Every S$1 spent gets you 1 TREATS Point in this instance. Considering that many other miles credit cards don’t even include insurance payments (look out for MCC code 6300 on your bill) under eligible transactions and how Maybank doles out annual fee waivers, the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Card might serve you better than you think.

One To Consider: UOB Absolute Cashback Card

Miles chasers might still be lamenting the loss of an excellent dining credit card in the form of UOB's Preferred Platinum AMEX, but it's replacement is definitely dressing to impress. The UOB Absolute Cashback Card grants an unlimited 1.7% cashback on any spend without a minimum spend required. There is no catch whatsoever and UOB is making sure that you're aware of it.

Naturally, this 1.7% cashback applies to insurance premiums too, but before you swap out your current payment arrangement with this card, there's something to take note of. Not all insurers accept American Express credit cards as a form of payment and it's not certain whether they'll begin to do so. At this point in time, the only insurers doing so are AXA and AIA.

And for the latter insurer, it only accepts both American Express and Visa credit cards for either new applications or when you're adding a rider onto your existing policy. This limits the use case of the UOB Absolute Credit Card, but it's still one to consider if you have insurance plans with AXA. Alternatively, you could top up your favourite mobile wallet with this card before paying your insurance premiums as a way to earn that 1.7% cashback.

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