Summary (last update June 2026)
Traditional GIRO payments for bills like rent typically earn zero rewards, while routing a credit card through a third-party payment platform costs a high 1.4¢–1.8¢ per mile.
Most Singaporeans miss out on earning rewards from their single largest monthly expense — rent — because standard payment methods offer no value.
A direct eGIRO-to-miles payment method offers transparent, fixed pricing and turns a major expense into a productive asset for travel — without needing a credit card.
Rently's Earn Rewards on Rent program lets you earn air miles on rent from 1.30¢ per mile via eGIRO (Standard Plan), or keep fees as low as 0.4% on the Basic Plan — no credit card required.
If you've ever set up a GIRO arrangement in Singapore, you already know the frustration. As one Reddit user on r/singaporefi put it bluntly: "Just a warning that it's very difficult to cancel GIRO with the various banks if you want to stop the arrangement." Another chimed in: "I'm surprised at how bad the Singapore system is, when other first world countries let people cancel their direct debits on internet banking easily."
And now, just as Singaporeans were figuring out how to squeeze a little value out of the system, banks are quietly pulling the rug: "FYI - new T&C, no more GIRO cashback wef 1 Nov 2025."
So here's the question that's increasingly on every miles hacker's mind: With cashback drying up, does eGIRO spend earn air miles — and what does each mile actually cost you?
This article breaks it all down. We'll cover the traditional credit card-linked route, introduce a direct eGIRO-to-miles channel most people overlook, and give you a clear decision guide based on your situation. The goal is simple: find the lowest cost per mile (CPM) possible via eGIRO in Singapore.
Part 1: The Traditional Route — Credit Cards + GIRO Bill Payments
Let's be clear about how this method actually works. When most people talk about "earning miles via GIRO," they typically mean one of two things:
Paying your credit card bill via GIRO — the bank auto-debits your savings account to pay off the card, and you separately earn miles by charging your recurring bills to the credit card itself.
Using a third-party payment platform — which processes your GIRO-linked payments through a credit card network, charging a fee (typically 1.75–2.8%) in exchange for making non-card-eligible bills (like rent) earn miles.
The problem with path #1 is that many recurring bills — government payments to IRAS, HDB, and town councils — simply don't accept credit cards. You're stuck with plain GIRO and earn nothing. On top of that, several cards specifically exclude categories like utilities and insurance from earning miles altogether.
The problem with path #2 is that the fees eat into your returns. As one r/singaporefi user put it: "You can't beat a general spend card cashback % — it's too low to cover the platform's fees. It's mainly used for miles." And even then, the math is murky: "Why these 3 data points [card, fees, CPM] are not simply available? Is there something I'm missing?"
Let's do that math for you. Here's how the top miles-earning credit cards stack up for general bill payments, using their current 2026 rates and fees:
Miles Card Comparison: Earn Rates, Fees & Cost Per Mile
KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card
Local (general spend) Earn Rate: 1.2 mpd
Annual Fee: S$196.20 (first year waived)
Effective CPM (est.): ~1.5–1.8¢
DBS Altitude Visa
Local Earn Rate: 1.3 mpd
Annual Fee: S$196.20 (first year waived)
Effective CPM (est.): ~1.4–1.7¢
Note: utilities and insurance premiums are excluded from earning miles.
Citi PremierMiles Card
Local Earn Rate: 1.2 mpd
Annual Fee: S$196.20 (first year waived)
Effective CPM (est.): ~1.5–1.8¢
Note: paying rent/tax via Citi PayAll earns only the 1.2 mpd local rate at a ~2.6% fee — roughly 2.17¢ per mile outside of promo periods.
How CPM is estimated: A platform fee (e.g. ~1.75–2.1%) divided by the card's earn rate gives the headline cost per mile. If you also pay the annual fee, S$196.20 ÷ 10,000 renewal miles (≈1.96¢) blends in as additional drag. Most miles hackers request an annual fee waiver, but the bonus categories on these cards generally don't apply to rent or bills anyway, so you're earning the base 1.2–1.3 mpd rate on this spend.
The honest takeaway? For bill payments, you're typically paying between 1.4¢ and 1.8¢ per mile through the traditional credit card route — and that assumes no excluded categories, no failed GIRO arrangements, and consistent high spend. For most people, the real-world CPM sits at the top of that range.
Part 2: The Direct eGIRO Method — Turning Rent into Miles with Rently
Here's where things get genuinely interesting — especially if you're one of the hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans paying rent every month.
Rent is typically your single largest recurring expense, ranging from S$1,800 to S$6,000+ monthly depending on where you live. And via traditional GIRO? It earns you exactly zero miles. Zero cashback. Nothing.
Rently changes that equation entirely.
Rently is a Singapore-based fintech that sits between tenants and landlords as a financial intermediary. Their base product, Pay with Rently, lets you set up an eGIRO from any Singapore bank account — Rently collects your rent, then pays your landlord on time via standard FAST transfer. No landlord approval needed. No new paperwork for them.
Layered on top of that is their Earn Rewards on Rent add-on: a tiered program that lets you earn Max Miles — a flexible rewards currency — on every dollar of rent paid. Max Miles are provided via HeyMax, never expire, and are transferable to over 30 airline and hotel programs including KrisFlyer (often at 1:1 during promo periods) and Velocity.
Rently's eGIRO Plans: The Cost Per Mile Breakdown
This is where Rently genuinely stands out. Unlike the opaque math of credit card platforms, the CPM here is fixed and transparent — and crucially, it requires no credit card and no annual fee:
Basic Plan
Miles per S$1: 0.3 Max Miles
Fee: 0.4%
Cost Per Mile (eGIRO): 1.33¢
Lowest fee — minimal cost, fewer miles.
Standard Plan
Miles per S$1: 1.0 Max Mile
Fee: 1.3%
Cost Per Mile (eGIRO): 1.30¢
Lowest cost per mile, balanced miles volume.
Premium Plan
Miles per S$1: 1.7 Max Miles
Fee: 2.3%
Cost Per Mile (eGIRO): 1.35¢
Highest miles volume per dollar of rent.
At 1.30¢ per mile on the Standard Plan, you're matching or beating most credit card-linked bill payment strategies — without needing to hold any specific card, pay a platform's variable fees, qualify for a premium product, or worry about excluded spend categories. And if your goal is simply to keep costs as low as possible, the Basic Plan caps your fee at just 0.4%.
And if you're already a credit card miles collector? Rently also offers a Credit Card option (2.8% fee), where you earn your base card miles — up to 4 miles per dollar, depending on your card — plus an additional 0.3 Max Miles per dollar stacked on top, simultaneously. That dual-stacking is structurally impossible for other payment routers — it only works because Rently functions as a full financial intermediary, not just a transaction processor.
A Real-World Example: S$3,000/Month Rent Over 12 Months
Let's say you're paying S$3,000/month in rent — a common figure for a 2-bedroom in a mid-tier area. That's S$36,000 a year.
Traditional GIRO (no card)
Annual Rent: S$36,000
Fee Paid: S$0
Miles Earned: 0
Effective CPM: ∞ (nothing earned)
Typical payment platform (1.75%) + 1.2 mpd card
Annual Rent: S$36,000
Fee Paid: S$630
Miles Earned: 43,200
Effective CPM: ~1.46¢
Rently Standard Plan (eGIRO)
Annual Rent: S$36,000
Fee Paid: S$468
Miles Earned: 36,000 Max Miles
Effective CPM: 1.30¢
Rently Basic Plan (eGIRO)
Annual Rent: S$36,000
Fee Paid: S$144
Miles Earned: 10,800 Max Miles
Effective CPM: 1.33¢
On the Standard Plan, Rently saves you about S$162 in fees per year versus a standard payment platform setup, while delivering a comparable volume of miles at a lower cost per mile (1.30¢ vs ~1.46¢). On the Basic Plan, your fee drops to just S$144 a year — the cheapest way to keep earning something on rent that would otherwise earn nothing at all.
Decision Guide: Your eGIRO Miles Strategy
As the r/singaporefi community knows, "the idea is to keep the cost per mile as low as possible." Here's how to apply that principle to your specific situation.
If your eGIRO bills currently earn zero miles...
This is the reality for most Singaporeans. Government bills, utilities, and rent via direct GIRO all earn nothing.
Your move: Your rent is the single largest untapped opportunity. Setting up Rently's eGIRO Standard Plan is the most effective, lowest-CPM way to make that expense productive — at 1.30¢ per mile, that's cheaper than most credit card strategies, with no card to qualify for and no annual fee. If you'd rather minimise out-of-pocket cost, the Basic Plan keeps your fee at just 0.4%.
Use Rently's interactive miles calculator to see exactly how many KrisFlyer miles your monthly rent can generate annually.
If you're already a serious miles optimizer...
You've got cards, you track CPM obsessively, and you use every trick in the book.
Your move: Rently isn't a replacement — it's an upgrade to your rent line item specifically.
For lowest CPM on rent: Use Rently's eGIRO Standard Plan. At 1.30¢ per Max Mile (transferable to KrisFlyer, often 1:1 via HeyMax on promo days), it's competitive with anything you'll find for general spend in Singapore — and it doesn't touch your card's bonus caps.
For maximum miles volume: Use Rently's Credit Card option. Pay rent via your highest-earning card (e.g. DBS Altitude, Citi PremierMiles, or a 4 mpd card), earn your card miles as normal, and get 0.3 additional Max Miles per dollar stacked on top. No other platform in Singapore offers this dual-stack structure.
Stop Leaving Miles on the Table
The GIRO system in Singapore has long frustrated savvy consumers — clunky to manage, difficult to cancel, and now increasingly stripped of the cashback perks that made it worthwhile. But the rise of eGIRO and platforms built on top of it means there's a smarter path forward.
For most recurring bills tied to government bodies, you're out of luck — those will always be rewards dead zones. But for rent, which is likely your biggest monthly outgoing anyway, there's no reason to keep earning nothing.
Rently's Earn Rewards on Rent program via eGIRO offers transparent, fixed-cost miles starting at 1.30¢ per mile — with the option to keep fees as low as 0.4%. The rates are fixed, the Max Miles never expire, and it works with any Singapore bank account — no premium card required.
Set it up once. Pay your rent. Earn your miles. It really is that straightforward.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest way to earn miles on GIRO payments in Singapore?
For a major recurring GIRO payment like rent, the lowest cost per mile is Rently's eGIRO Standard Plan, which earns miles at a fixed 1.30¢ per mile — below the typical 1.4¢–1.8¢ cost associated with routing a credit card through a third-party payment platform. If your priority is minimising the fee itself rather than CPM, the Basic Plan charges just 0.4% (earning 0.3 Max Miles per dollar at 1.33¢ per mile).
How can I earn miles on my monthly rent payments?
You can earn miles on rent by using a financial intermediary service like Rently. Rently lets you pay rent via eGIRO from any Singapore bank account and, through its "Earn Rewards on Rent" add-on, converts your rent into flexible Max Miles. These miles can then be transferred to over 30 airline and hotel loyalty programs, including KrisFlyer.
Do I need a specific credit card to use Rently?
No. You don't need a credit card to earn miles with Rently's eGIRO plans — you can set up an eGIRO payment from any Singapore bank account to pay your rent and earn miles. This makes it accessible even if you don't hold a premium miles card or want to avoid annual fees. A separate Credit Card option exists for those who want to stack card miles on top.
What are Max Miles and can they be converted to KrisFlyer miles?
Max Miles are a flexible rewards currency provided by Rently's partner, HeyMax. They never expire and offer broad flexibility. Yes, Max Miles can be transferred to numerous airline programs, with Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer being a key partner. Transfers are often 1:1, especially during promotional periods.
How is Rently different from other rent payment platforms?
First, its core offering is eGIRO-based, so you don't need a credit card. Second, its cost per mile is fixed and transparent, starting at 1.30¢ on the Standard Plan, with fees from as low as 0.4% on the Basic Plan. Finally, for credit card users, Rently offers a unique dual-stacking feature where you earn your base card miles (up to 4 mpd) plus an additional 0.3 Max Miles per dollar — something other platforms don't offer.
Does my landlord need to sign up for Rently?
No. You set up the eGIRO payment to Rently, and Rently then pays your landlord on time via standard FAST transfer. The process is seamless for your landlord, who continues to receive rent as usual without any changes to their workflow.
👉 Calculate your annual miles at Rently.sg
You can also earn miles on your rent: pay by credit card or eGIRO with Rently and turn your biggest monthly expense into travel rewards. Learn more at rently.sg/earn-rewards.