OCBC 90°N Review (2026)

OCBC 90°N was released in 2019 with quite a bit of a splash. Back then, it not only offered 4 miles per dollar on flights and overseas spend, it also gave a staggering 8 miles per dollar on accommodation booked with the likes of Airbnb, Agoda and Expedia. If you think these earn rates are crazy, they were shockingly uncapped.

At that time, I had a friend who needed to spend in the region of S$10,000 on Airbnb, and since he couldn’t qualify for credit cards, we worked out a beautiful arrangement for me to pay on his behalf. I even encouraged people to book their holidays ahead of time if they could, but I can’t be blamed for not seeing a travel-stopping global pandemic hitting soon after.

The past aside, how is the OCBC 90°N holding up in 2026?

1.3 miles per dollar on local spend, including CardUp and ipaymy

While it debuted with a base earn rate of 1.2 miles per dollar, the headline earn rate for OCBC 90°N has since been tweaked up ever so slightly to 1.3 miles per dollar on local transactions. There is no monthly cap on the amount of 90°N Miles you can earn.

This applies to all transactions except a list of commonly excluded transactions. Among the exclusions are the usual suspects of insurance, utilities, hospitals, education, and government payments.

Unfortunately, OCBC 90°N also specifically excludes MCC 4111 which means SimplyGo transactions for bus and MRT rides do not earn miles for this card. Not that you should be using this card for that since there are many options available.

Cards that give a broad base earn rate generally do not give a particularly exciting one, and that is the case here. At 1.3 miles per dollar, you’re earning roughly a third of the 4 miles per dollar minimum I generally think people should aim for where possible.

Works with payment services

The saving grace is that cards like this can be useful for transactions where higher earn cards do not work like certain payment services. For instance, OCBC explicitly supports earning 1.3 miles per dollar through CardUp, while ipaymy currently lists both the OCBC 90°N Visa and Mastercard as cards eligible to earn rewards. This lets you earn miles on things like tax, rent, insurance and other bills which would normally be excluded when charged directly to the card.

The economics have become less attractive though. CardUp and ipaymy’s fees for Singapore-issued cards have increased in recent months. At 1.3 miles per dollar, that works out to more than 2 cents paid per mile at the standard rate, so I would only consider doing this when there is a sufficiently good CardUp or ipaymy promotion.

OCBC 90°N also officially works with AXS Pay + Earn (not to be confused with normal AXS transactions), though it only earns just 1 mile per dollar for such transactions. The service fee is 2.5% which works out to a cost per mile of 2.5 cents, well beyond what one should reasonably pay for miles.

2.1 miles per dollar overseas, but don’t bother

Foreign currency transactions earn 2.1 miles per dollar. This is with a 3.25% foreign currency fee, leading to an effective cost per mile of 1.55 cents per mile.

You can also choose to pair the card (only the Mastercard version) with Amaze which lowers the cost to around 2% (Amaze does not charge a fee, but the markup on its exchange rates is usually around 2%), but you end up earning 1.3 miles per dollar since Amaze converts overseas transactions to SGD ones. With a 2% markup, it to around 1.53 cents per mile depending on the exact markup you receive at the time of your transaction.

It’s not the worst rate to get miles at, but other like local spending, other cards that give you at least 4 miles per dollar for your spend should take priority. UOB Preferred Platinum Visa or UOB Visa Signature gives you 4 miles per dollar with the same 3.25% fee, while Citi Rewards can be paired with Amaze for 4 miles per dollar with around 2% markup.

Beware the S$5 rounding

There is another quirk that can make the earn rate even worse than advertised: OCBC awards 90°N Miles in blocks of S$5 per transaction.

Instead of awarding 1.3 miles per dollar spent, OCBC 90°N awards 6.5 miles per S$5 spend. This means that a S$4.99 transaction earns nothing, and a S$9.99 transaction only earns 6.5 miles for the first S$5 which is effectively 0.65 miles instead of 1.3 miles per dollar.

This matters much less for a S$2,000 transaction than it does when you’re using the card for smaller purchases coffee, meals and other small everyday purchases, but it is just another annoyance that does not make sense especially when the earn rates are already lacklustre.

Bonus miles on Agoda

While the generous launch promotions are long gone, OCBC still offers some travel-related promos for the card from time to time.

At the time of writing, OCBC 90°N gives 7 miles per dollar on Agoda bookings charged in foreign currency and 6 miles per dollar when charged in SGD. Bookings have to be made through OCBC’s dedicated Agoda page by 10th October 2026, for stays completed by 31st December 2026.

There are a few catches to note. The booking must be prepaid, and the promotion cannot generally be stacked with cashback portals, other loyalty programmes or promotions. Shopback, for instance, can offer quite substantial cashback during promotional periods that could be more attractive than the bonus miles.

It is also worth noting that such dedicated booking sites can sometimes have prices that are more expensive. I did a cursory look at an upcoming stay I wish to book, and prices seem the same as the normal Agoda site. Nonetheless, I would advise you to check and compare with various platforms before making your booking.

Bonus miles are only credited within two calendar months after you check out.

Miles do not expire and transfer in 1,000 blocks

OCBC 90°N does away with some of the annoying things about miles. For instance, 90°N Miles do not expire.

Cardholders can also transfer their 90°N Miles to airlines for as low as 1,000 minimum. After the first 1,000 miles, you can convert from as little as 100 miles for each airline partner except for Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer which only allows for conversions in blocks of 1,000 miles.

This makes point conversion significantly more flexible than many cards that only allow conversions in blocks of 10,000 miles.

Conversion fees and non-pooling

The conversion fee is S$25 – an unfortunate addition since OCBC 90°N launched with fee-free conversions.

90°N Miles also do not pool with OCBC$ earned by other OCBC cards like OCBC Rewards, so you will have to convert them separately (and incurring fees each time).

Airline partners

One thing that has improved since the launch of 90°N would be the choice of airline transfer partners which now stands at 6. This improvement, however, is largely a letdown owing to the poor ratios for most of the airlines:

Airline	90°N Miles : Miles	OCBC Rewards Earn Rate
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer	1,000 : 1,000	1.3 miles per dollar / 2.1 miles per dollar
AirFrance/KLM Flying Blue	100 : 100	1.3 miles per dollar / 2.1 miles per dollar
British Airways Avios	100 : 90	1.17 miles per dollar / 1.89 miles per dollar
Etihad Guest	100 : 90	1.17 miles per dollar / 1.89 miles per dollar
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles	100 : 75	0.98 miles per dollar / 1.58 miles per dollar
United Airlines MileagePlus	100 : 70	0.91 miles per dollar / 1.47 miles per dollar

A travel card without free airport lounges

Despite the word “travel” featuring heavily in how the card is marketed, OCBC 90°N cardholders do not get complimentary airport lounge visits.

The Mastercard version comes with access to DragonPass’ airport lounge network, but there are no complimentary visits given each year.

This feels increasingly strange for a travel-branded card especially when the card’s nearest competitors like Citi PremierMiles, DBS Altitude, UOB PRVI Miles, HSBC TravelOne, and StanChart Journey all offer 2 visits a year.

Mastercard or Visa?

There are Mastercard and Visa versions of OCBC 90°N. They now earn the same 1.3 miles per dollar locally and 2.1 miles per dollar overseas, and miles earned across the two cards pool together.

The Mastercard currently includes three complimentary 1GB five-day Flexiroam data plans each calendar year, together with Mastercard Travel Rewards, which offers cashback at more than 400 participating overseas merchants after you activate the relevant offers.

The Visa instead has perks such as Travelgoogoo global messaging/data, Trip.com discounts and participating Visa dining offers.

I personally prefer the Mastercard version since there’s the option of using Amaze with it, but the Visa version can be added to HeyMax for the purpose of spend tracking (which probably isn’t that important for an uncapped card).

Works with OCBC 360 for bonus interest

One reason OCBC 90°N may be more useful to existing OCBC customers is that spending on the card counts towards the OCBC 360 Account’s Spend bonus. Charge at least S$500 a month to eligible OCBC cards, including OCBC 90°N, and you earn an additional 0.25% p.a. on the first S$100,000 in your 360 Account. This can make otherwise mediocre 1.3 miles per dollar spending slightly easier to justify if you were going to spend S$500 on an OCBC card anyway.

The attractiveness of this depends highly on the rates of OCBC 360 itself, and the account has been nerfed like many others along with the fall in interest rates in recent times. At a bonus interest of 0.25% p.a, every S$10,000 of monthly average balance generates roughly S$2.08 of bonus interest per month.

One could conceivably use this card for payment services like CardUp and use the bonus interest as a form of subsidy for the fees. A S$500 payment would cost around S$13 to S$15 depending on which service (and promo code) you use. With a balance amount of S$70,000 in OCBC 360, you would receive around S$14.50 of monthly interest which more or less offsets the fee.

As an uncapped, low earn rate card, OCBC 90°N was perhaps never meant to be exciting beyond its crazily good launch promos, but it also feels like it has become particularly lacklustre and uncompetitive over the years.

Not only does it impose S$5 blocks, it also weirdly doesn’t give miles on SimplyGo transactions. Worse, unlike counterparts in the same category, it does not offer at least two free lounge visits a year.

OCBC 90°N does have some nice things like non-expiring miles and small conversion blocks, but there isn’t really a compelling reason to use this card unless you are an OCBC 360 accountholder with a significant amount of savings in the account. Even then, you would likely prioritise spend on cards like OCBC Rewards first which offer substantially higher rewards.

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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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