Best Cashback/Miles Cards to Buy iPhone Duo (or Other Gadgets)
iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro have been announced! Pre-orders start 12th September at 8PM for iPhone 18 Pro, and 16th October at 8PM for iPhone Duo.
Here are the best cards to rack up cashback and/or miles for your new iPhone (or other devices and electronics in general) and also a few ways to split the transaction to fit your purchase into your cards’ spend caps.
Pricing
Prices start from S$1,899 to an eye-watering S$4,899
| Model | 256GB | 512GB | 1TB | 2TB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro | S$1,899 | S$2,199 | S$2,799 | S$3,699 |
| iPhone 18 Pro Max | S$2,099 | S$2,399 | S$2,999 | S$3,899 |
| iPhone Duo | S$3,099 | S$3,399 | S$3,999 | S$4,899 |
Merchant Category Code
Here are a few places you can buy the iPhone from:
| Store | Merchant Category Code (MCC) | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | 5732 | |
| Challenger iStudio Harvey Norman | 5732 | Use Kris+ for additional miles (counted as online) |
| Amazon Courts | 5999 5712 | Will not work with many specialised cards; use HeyMax vouchers or general cards |
| Shopee | 5262 | |
| Singtel | 4814 | Use DBS yuu for highest cashback/miles |
| KrisShop | 5039 | |
| HeyMax | 5311 | Buy vouchers of Courts, iStudio, and Amazon |
Highlights
Below are my picks to tackle the very pricey iPhones this year. Do note each card’s various terms and conditions and tap on each card to see the sign-up promo:
| Card | Advertised Earn Rate | Monthly Cap | Buy At | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Citi SMRT | 5% cashback | S$600 cashback annually (S$12,000 spend) | Apple or any other online sites | 💲 Minimum spend of S$500 per month 🌐 App/online ❌ Travel and mobile wallet excluded |
 HSBC Live+ (new cardholder) | 8% cashback | S$250 cashback quarterly (S$3,125 spend) | Online shopping sites only | 💲 Minimum spend of S$1,000 in first quarter 📋 MCC 5262, 5311 ❌ No MCC 5732 (Apple and electronics retailers will not qualify) |
 HSBC Revolution | Up to 8 miles per dollar | 9,600 miles (S$1,200 spend) | Apple or any other electronics retailers | 📲 Contactless or online payment 📋 MCC 5732, 5262, 5311 |
 KrisFlyer UOB | 2.4 miles per dollar | Unlimited | Apple or other online shopping sites | 💲 Minimum spend of S$1,000 on Singapore Airlines transactions within membership year (otherwise 1.2 miles per dollar) 🌐 For online transactions 📋 MCC 5732, 5262, 5311 |
General spend cards
General spend cards will qualify for the various places you wish to buy your iPhone from. Most have relatively low monthly spend caps from around S$300 to S$1,000 or so, so do note the max cap for each card (and see if you are able to split your transaction into smaller ones).
Also note that Citi SMRT has mixed reports for Kris+ — some say Citi SMRT gives 5% cashback for Kris+ transactions while others say it does not.
| Card | Advertised Earn Rate | Monthly Cap | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
 UOB EVOL | 10% cashback¹ | S$30 cashback (S$300 spend) per category | 💲 Minimum spend of S$800 per month 📲 Local mobile contactless payment 🌐 App/online |
 OCBC FRANK | 8% cashback¹ | S$25 cashback (S$312.50 spend) per category | 💲 Minimum spend of S$800 per month 📲 Mobile contactless payment 🌐 App/online |
 DCS Flex | 6% cashback | S$25 cashback (S$416.67 spend) per category | 💲 Minimum spend of S$600 per month 📲 Contactless payment 🌐 App/online |
Citi SMRT | 5% cashback | S$600 cashback annually (S$12,000 spend) | 💲 Minimum spend of S$500 per month 🌐 App/online ❌ Travel and mobile wallet excluded |
 UOB One | 3.33% cashback (with bonus on selected partners) | S$200 cashback quarterly S$120 cashback per month for selected partners | 💲 Minimum spend of S$600 / S$1,000 / S$2,000 per month for a quarter |
 Maybank Platinum Visa | 3.33% cashback | Quarterly cap of S$30, S$100 or S$200 | 💲Quarterly mechanic: spend S$300, S$1,000 or $2,000 per month for a quarter |
 SAFRA DBS | 3% cashback | S$50 cashback per month (S$1,666.67 spend) | 💲 Minimum spend of S$500 per month 🫡 Must be SAFRA member 📲 Contactless payment 🌐 App/online |
 UOB Preferred Visa | 4 miles per dollar | S$600 spend per category (2,400 miles) | 💲 Points awarded in blocks of S$5 spend 📲 1st Category: mobile contactless payment 🌐 2nd Category App/online for selected MCCs only |
 UOB Visa Signature | 4 miles per dollar | S$1,200 spend (4,800 miles) | 💲 Minimum spend of S$1,000 per month 📲 1st Category: in-store contactless payment 💱 2nd Category: foreign currency |
 Citi Rewards | 4 miles per dollar | S$1,000 spend (4,000 miles) | 🌐 App/online 💳 In-person through Amaze with 1% fee ❌ Travel and mobile wallet excluded (Apple Pay or Google Pay, even online ones, do not work) |
 DBS Woman’s World Mastercard | 4 miles per dollar | S$1,000 spend (4,000 miles) | 🌐 App/online |
- Advertised rate can be quite misleading. A high cashback rate can be watered down due to a low sub-limit and minimum spend.
Cards for electronics or online shopping sites
Because of the lower spend caps of general spend cards, you may wish to look at the following cards which should work for various retailers:
| Card | Advertised Earn Rate | Monthly Cap | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
HSBC Live+ (new cardholder) | 8% cashback | S$250 cashback quarterly (S$3,125 spend) | 💲 Minimum spend of S$1,000 in first quarter 📋 MCC 5262, 5311 ❌ No MCC 5732 (Apple and electronics retailers will not qualify) |
 DBS LiveFresh | 6% cashback | S$50 cashback (S$877.19 spend) | 💲 Minimum spend of S$800 per month 📋 MCC 5712, 5732, 5262, 5311 |
HSBC Live+ | 5% cashback | S$250 cashback quarterly (S$5,000 spend) | 💲 Minimum spend of S$600 per month for one quarter 📋 MCC 5262, 5311 ❌ No MCC 5732 (Apple and electronics retailers will not qualify) |
 Maybank XL Cashback | 5% cashback | S$80 cashback (S$1,600 spend) | 💲 Minimum spend of S$500 per month 🌐 For online transactions 📋 MCC 5262, 5311 ❌ No MCC 5732 (Apple and electronics retailers will not qualify) |
 HSBC Advance | 2.5% cashback | S$70 cashback (S$2,800 spend) | 💲 Minimum spend of more than S$2,000 (otherwise only 1.5% cashback) 📋 Most MCCs okay except excluded transactions |
 OCBC Rewards | 4 or 6 miles per dollar | 4,000 / 6,000 miles (S$1,000 spend) | 📋 4 miles per dollar: MCC 5311 📋 6 miles per dollar: Shopee, Lazada ❌ No MCC 5732 (Apple and electronics retailers will not qualify) |
HSBC Revolution | Up to 8 miles per dollar | 9,600 miles (S$1,200 spend) | 📲 Contactless or online payment 📋 MCC 5732, 5262, 5311 |
 Maybank XL Rewards | 4 miles per dollar | 4,000 miles (S$1,000 spend) | 💲 Minimum spend of S$500 per month 🌐 For online transactions 📋 MCC 5262, 5311 ❌ No MCC 5732 (Apple and electronics retailers will not qualify) |
KrisFlyer UOB | 2.4 miles per dollar | Unlimited | 💲 Minimum spend of S$1,000 on Singapore Airlines transactions within membership year (otherwise 1.2 miles per dollar) 🌐 For online transactions 📋 MCC 5732, 5262, 5311 |
Buying from Singtel? Use DBS yuu (multiple cards work best)
Likely the highest earn rate you can get, DBS yuu offers 35X yuu Points (17.5% rebates or 9.72 miles per dollar) if you buy your iPhone at Singtel’s online website or at Singtel Shops.
| Card | Earn Rate | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
 DBS yuu | 17.5% rebate or 9.72 miles per dollar capped at S$822.85 spend per month | 💲S$800 minimum spend 📋 Singtel only |
You can also use multiple DBS yuu Cards if the Singtel Shop allows you to split your transaction. Singtel also has a PayLater service that puts your phone cost into your monthly Singtel phone bill, and that is another option to reduce the expense to smaller amounts so as not to exceed your card’s rewards cap.
Pro-tip: using a single card gives you pretty good rewards already, but each person can have two DBS yuu Cards by applying for both the Visa and American Express version.
Splitting into smaller transactions
Because some models can be pricy and exceed the spend caps of quite a few cards above, you may want to split your transaction if possible. There are a few ways to do this:
“Hi can I use two cards for this?”
The first way would be to ask the cashier if you can use multiple cards for a single purchase. From my experience, the staff at Apple has been very okay about this (perhaps they know their phones are expensive too) and you should likely not have any issues if you are doing this in-store. Your mileage may vary when it comes to other retailers.
There is no way to use multiple cards for a single order on the online store, unfortunately.
Using HeyMax vouchers
You can also make use of vouchers to split your spend across cards. For a S$2,099 phone, for example, you could buy S$1,000 of Courts vouchers from HeyMax, and pay the remaining S$1,099 with UOB Visa Signature (make sure you hit S$1,000 of spend within the month!).
Actually, since you get additional miles buying HeyMax vouchers, you could buy as much vouchers as you need for the purchase and split them across the many cards that give cashback/miles for HeyMax vouchers. Just look at cards above that support MCC 5311 and/or online purchases.
Using Kris+
Kris+ is also a good way to pare down the transaction amount. You could use Kris+ to pay a portion of the phone price with one card, then pay the remaining with another credit card.
Cashiers have been iffy about letting you do multiple Kris+ transactions, but one Kris+ transaction and one credit card payment shouldn’t be objectionable.
Look for cards above that support online transactions and/or MCC 5732 for the 3 electronics retailers (Challenger, iStudio and Harvey Norman) that accept Kris+.
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL)
BNPL apps like Atome could be used to split your transactions over a few months, thus making your pricey phone purchase more manageable. Use cards that support online transactions from the general cards above and trigger your repayments manually (i.e. go into the app and make payment for your subsequent months’ bill) so that they code as online. Recurring BNPL transactions that happen automatically tend to become offline transactions.
See the best cards to use for Atome here.
Buying overseas? More card choices
Buying your phone overseas opens up more card possibilities like Maybank World Mastercard, Maybank Visa Infinite, and StanChart Visa Infinite which can give 3.2 miles per dollar with no cap on such spend.
Based on what I can tell, the retail prices for iPhones in Malaysia are about 5% cheaper than Singapore’s. This is more than enough to offset the 3.25% forex fees that these cards charge. I’m thinking it might be worth picking up my phone there since I’m planning to visit our neighbouring county in the near future, so stay subscribed for updates as I explore this further.
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Seth Wee was a licensed financial adviser representative from 2009 to 2025, with over 16 years of experience in Singapore’s financial advisory industry.
He started Sethisfy.com in 2019 to share practical insights on credit cards, banking products, and miles strategies, helping readers identify financial products that deliver the best value. Seth has been featured in CNA, Channel 8, Today, and a host of other publications. In 2025, he was also part of a panel at CPF’s Ready For Life festival.
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Apologies, but correct me if I’m wrong, but the warranty/repair is only applicable in the country of purchase for Apple iPhone? Apple user here, trust their products and never had to rely on warranty but something to note just in case…*touchwood*
Should be international warranty. Check with the store you are buying from
For Citi SMRT, what does “mobile wallet excluded” mean? Will we be entitled to the 5% cashback if we were to buy from the Apple online store directly?
Payments from mobile wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay are iffy so use the card number instead
Hi Seth, if i pair POSB everyday (for $388 cashback) with Kris+ for Iphone 17 purchase at Harvey Norman?
Yes, should count towards the sign-up promo spend requirement
You can’t even buy the iPhone 17 at SingTel at the RRP without any mobile contract. Yuu card is useless. (Source: FAQ 13 https://cdn1.singteldigital.com/content/dam/singtel/personal/products-services/mobile/info/new-iphone-registration-faq.pdf)
It’s available for purchase on their website.
hi Seth! Planning to purchase iPhone from Courts at $1749. Will splitting the voucher purchases across 2 months work? Planning to use DBS LiveFresh and Citi Cashback+
Nov: Purchase $800 Courts voucher from HeyMax with DBS LiveFresh = $48 cash back
Dec: Purchase $800 Courts voucher again with DBS LiveFresh = $48 cash back
Dec: Pay of remainder of $149 with Citi Cashback+ = $2.38
Total Cashback: $48 x 2 + $2.38 = $98.38
No rush to buy so 2 months timeline is okay for me. Thank you in advance! 🙂