Best Air Miles Card for Singapore Expats and Top Places to Park Cash

💳 Card & Miles Hack of the Week

Moving to Singapore, many expats can find it intimidating to understand what credit card gives them the best rewards for their card spending.

That’s because the natural inclination is to just get credit cards with the bank that they’ve got an account with in Singapore. The problem with that is that it can lead to individuals getting a sub-optimal card for their spending.

One of the biggest cards that marketed to expats in Singapore (or actually anyone) is the American Express KrisFlyer credit card, which gives cardholders 1.1 miles per dollar of spend – or 1.2 miles per dollar if you have the slightly higher tier.

Forget that, though. Instead, the best miles card for expats in Singapore is going to be the UOB Visa Signature credit card.

That’s because it gives anyone who has it a whopping 4 miles per dollar on all contactless spending – whether that’s with your iPhone/Google Pay device or the actual physical card.

The only two catches are that this 4mpd rate is only available for the first S$2,000 of contactless spend and there’s a minimum spend of S$1,000 per statement month to get this. For most expats in Singapore, that should be an easy figure to hit.

If you can stay in between both of those, you’re set because S$2,000 of contactless spend on the UOB Visa Signature will earn you 8,000 KrisFlyer miles (in the form of 4,000 UOB bank points).

To get the same 8,000 miles with the American Express KrisFlyer card? You’d have to spend close to S$7,300, nearly 270% more.

To find out more about why this is the best credit card for expats in Singapore, check out my latest TikTok post here.

🎯 Personal Finance Quick Action

Despite stock markets flirting with all-time highs, it doesn’t feel like the general vibe in the global economy is one of optimism. That’s mainly down to the trade war but also slowing growth and a more challenging employment market.

Given this, more of us are hoarding cash. As the saying goes; “Cash is King” and investors should have a cash buffer anyway via an emergency fund that is a minimum of 6 months’ worth of expenses (if not 12 months).

But we should be getting a yield on this cash. So what are the best options right now, given cash yields are falling everywhere? There are four key ones that individuals in Singapore can go out and put their money into.

1. Singapore Savings Bonds (SSBs) – These are issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and fully backed by the Singapore Government. Right now, they’re yielding a 1^st-year interest rate of 2.06% per annum (p.a.) and a 10-year average (if you hold to maturity) of 2.49%. Remember, you have a S$200k holdings cap on SSBs.

2.   Singapore Treasury Bills (T-bills) – Issued by the MAS and fully backed by the Singapore Government, these short-term bills give investors a yield for either 6 months or 1 year. Like SSBs, though, the yield is relatively pathetic. The latest 6-month T-bill was giving investors an annualised yield of 2.05%.

3.  High-Yield Savings Accounts (HYSAs) – These can be had via banks like OCBC and UOB, the two of the big trio that offer the highest rates with the lowest hurdles. The UOB One account gives you an effective 3.3% p.a. for the first $150k in deposits as long as you credit your monthly salary and spend $500 a month on a selection of its credit/debit cards.

4.  Money Market Funds (MMFs) – This can be a more liquid alternative and (in some cases) can give slightly higher yields with no caps. However, the higher yields come with slightly higher investment risk given many can be short-duration, investment grade bond funds.  

For a more detailed breakdown of all the options, check out my latest TikTok post here.

📈 Market Money Moves

Keppel DC REIT (SGX: AJBU) is set to rejoin Singapore’s Straits Times Index (STI) as a new constituent member from 23 June 2025, part of the index’s latest quarterly review.

The data centre REIT will replace old-school conglomerate Jardine Cycle & Carriage (SGX: C07), which will fall out of the STI.

Tim’s Take: The inclusion of Keppel DC REIT in the Straits Times Index in Singapore is indicative of the power of REITs in the Singapore stock market.

After a two-year hiatus, the REIT returns to the STI and – after its inclusion – REITs will make up over 10% of the weighting in Singapore’s benchmark. It’s no surprise that Keppel DC REIT has made it back in.

The tech-focused REIT has managed to grow its assets under management (AUM) by nearly five-fold since its IPO in 2014, up from S$1 billion back then to S$4.9 billion as of its latest quarter.

With 24 data centres across 10 countries, it’s a property-focused play in Singapore on the tech theme – a market that is notoriously bereft of such investment options. Many of its data centre properties are in Asia, with a significant chunk of its portfolio in Singapore itself.

However, it has been growing impressively. Distribution per unit (DPU) for its latest Q1 2025 period expanded by 14.2% year-on-year to 2.503 Singapore cents, backed by a 59.4% year-on-year increase in distributable income.

That hasn’t gone unnoticed by investors, with Keppel DC’s shares up nearly 28% over the past year alone. That’s also brought its trailing dividend yield down to below 4%, although if it can maintain its impressive dividend growth that yield could rise on a forward basis.

As for Jardine Cycle & Carriage (C&C)? It’s a sign of the troubles the legacy conglomerate faces. Out of touch and irrelevant in the new age of tech-focused consumerism in Southeast Asia, the Jardine family of companies have been terrible long-term investments over the past 10 years.

Shares of Jardine C&C are down 11% over the past year and have only increased by 9% over the past 5 years. Investors are also sitting on a 50% loss if they had bought shares at its all-time high, hit in 2013.

In investing, irrelevancy leads to value destruction. Jardine C&C is a great example of that.