Most renewals happen almost by reflex. Your agent typically messages a month or two before the lease ends, you agree on the new rent, you sign, and everything else carries on exactly as before — including how you pay. That last part is the quiet missed opportunity. If you're renewing this year and you keep paying rent the way you always have, by bank transfer or PayNow, your single biggest monthly bill will keep earning you nothing for another twelve months. Change how you pay at the moment you re-sign, and the same rent you were going to pay anyway can start turning into air miles. Renewal is the natural moment to make that switch, because you're already stopping to rethink the arrangement — so this guide walks through why the timing is worth a look in 2026, and how to set it up once.
Why lease renewal is a good moment to switch
A renewal is really a reset. For the next lease, whatever defaults you lock in now are the ones you'll live with — the rent, the terms, and the payment method you barely think about after the first month. That's exactly why it's a sensible time to reconsider how the money moves. You're already reviewing the lease, already talking to your landlord or agent, already updating the standing arrangement. Slotting in a better way to pay costs you nothing extra in effort when you're doing it alongside the re-sign, whereas mid-lease it's the kind of admin that never quite makes it to the top of the list.
The timing is worth paying attention to in 2026, too. Singapore's private rental market has become more balanced than it was around the 2023 peak. URA data shows the vacancy rate for completed private homes rising from 6.0% at the end of 2025 to 6.4% by the second quarter of 2026, while non-landed private rents rose just 0.4% quarter on quarter. In the Rest of Central Region they were flat, and in the Outside Central Region they fell 0.3%. That doesn't mean every tenant will be able to negotiate a lower rent, but it does mean renewal is a sensible moment to check comparable rents and have the conversation rather than automatically accepting the first figure offered. Once the rent itself is settled, it's also a natural time to reconsider how you'll pay it for the next lease.
What "earning on your rent" actually means
It's worth being concrete, because "earn miles on rent" can sound like marketing until you put a number on it. Rent is large and predictable, which is precisely what makes it such a good source of rewards. Take a renter paying S$3,500 a month: that's S$42,000 of rent over a 12-month renewal — a large recurring expense that could earn rewards instead of passing through unnoticed. Miles are only abstract until you convert them, and a year of rent routed the right way can be the difference between paying full fare for a year-end trip and booking it partly on rewards you earned just by living where you already live.
When you pay rent through Rently, you earn Max Miles on the amount — a flexible rewards currency that can be transferred to a wide range of airline and hotel loyalty programmes, including KrisFlyer. If you pay by credit card, you may also be able to earn your card's own miles or points on top of the Max Miles earned through Rently, depending on your card issuer's reward terms — a potential double-dip on a bill you were always going to pay. The point isn't a clever hack; it's that the money can show up later as real trips rather than as a number that meant nothing at the time.
Two ways to pay: card or eGIRO
Renewal is a convenient trigger to reconsider how you actually move the money, and there are two main options. Paying by credit card lets you aim for your card's miles on top of Max Miles, which suits renters who already optimise their spending and know which card they want to feed. Card rent payments carry an admin fee, because your landlord receives an ordinary bank payment rather than a card swipe, so it's worth checking that the reward you earn comfortably clears the fee — and confirming with your bank that the payment qualifies for its rewards — before you rely on it.
The second option is eGIRO. Instead of funding your rent with a credit card, you authorise Rently to collect the amount from a supported Singapore bank account. Rently collects the rent ahead of your scheduled payment date, then deposits it into your landlord's bank account on that date — so the money runs from your bank, through Rently, to your landlord, rather than straight between the two of you. You can still earn Max Miles this way without needing a miles credit card. Whichever method you pick, the Earn Rewards plans currently earn 0.3, 1, or 1.7 Max Miles per S$1 of rent depending on the plan you choose, so it's worth matching the plan to how much you expect to earn back over the year.
Set it up once, then it runs hands-free
Here's the part that makes the switch stick rather than becoming another good intention. Once it's set up at renewal, Rently collects your rent automatically ahead of each scheduled payment date and then deposits it into your landlord's bank account on that date, and your Max Miles accrue in the background without you initiating a bank transfer each month. That routine matters for more than convenience: paying on schedule protects the relationship with the landlord you've just re-signed with, and it removes the small monthly risk of a forgotten transfer. The rewards are the reason to switch; the automation is what makes it easy to keep. You decide once, at the point you're already signing paperwork, and from then on you no longer need to remember to initiate the transfer manually every month — just keep the funding account topped up, since an automated collection can still fail if there isn't enough in it.
Trust is a fair thing to want here, since this is real rent moving each month. Payments use established infrastructure — eGIRO for supported bank-account payments and Stripe for card processing — while identity verification is handled through Singpass, the same login you already use for government and banking services. None of that is exotic; it's the ordinary plumbing you'd expect for money this important, which is the point.
Do the renewal maths first
One sensible order of operations: settle the rent itself before you settle how you'll pay it. Because the market is more balanced this year, it's worth a straightforward conversation with your landlord about the renewal figure first — checking comparable rents nearby and asking whether the number is negotiable. For a landlord, keeping a reliable tenant avoids the cost and uncertainty of finding a replacement and the risk of a vacant month, so there's little downside to asking. Once the number is agreed, then choose how you'll pay it: card if you're aiming to stack your card's rewards, eGIRO if you'd rather earn Max Miles without a card. Getting the rent right first means every reward you earn afterwards is genuine upside rather than something quietly offset by a rent you could have negotiated down.
Getting started at your next renewal
If your lease is up this year, the move is simple enough to fold into the re-signing itself. Confirm the new rent, decide whether you'll pay by card or eGIRO, set it up once, and let it run. You were going to renew regardless; the only change is that the rent you'd have paid anyway now earns Max Miles month after month, with your landlord paid on the scheduled date throughout. In a year when the rental market has cooled a little and renewals are worth a second look, it's a small decision at exactly the right moment — reconsidering a payment habit you'd otherwise leave on autopilot, and getting something back for it.
