Earn airmiles on your rent, tax & school fees

Getting something back for your rent

As an expat living in Singapore, a substantial part of your income will go on paying rent. Mine is not too high, but it still adds up. With my current rent of $3,600 a month, it means I spend $43,200 a year. Over the 22 years I’ve lived here that amounts to around $950,000! If you’re thinking I could have bought an apartment for that, I did actually buy off-plan years ago. But then when it was built, I realised my bed and bedside tables wouldn’t fit in the master room. So I sold it and went back to renting.

If you’re paying rent of around $8,000, you’re spending nearly $100,000 a year. So, if you could get something back from this spend, it would be great. The good news is that you now can. With Citi PayAll you can pay your rent (and more) on your card with a fee of up to 2% and earn air miles or rewards points on it. Think of how many air miles or rewards points you’d get on $100,000! That could get you a return flight to the US in economy class or to Japan or South Korea in business class* – or a shopping spree!

To give another example, if you’re spending $4,200 on Citi PayAll a month on either rent or school fees, here’s a rough idea of the ways you can treat yourself:

• Economy Class to the Maldives in 8 months^*
• Business Class to New Zealand in 25 months^*

Earn airmiles on other bills too

If you pay your own school fees, tax and utilities – and, if you own your own apartment, condo management fees – they can all be paid this way too. So, the amount you’re getting points on could easily triple. Looking at just electricity bills as a portion of it (as I think most people have to pay their own), while I’m not sure what the average is, our utility bills are always over $500 a month. So, that’s another $6,000 you could earn air miles or rewards points on.

All of these things are easily payable, too, through the Citi Mobile®App – so, it’s pretty simple.

This article is brought to you in collaboration with Citibank Singapore Limited. However, please note that any views or opinions expressed and any figures quoted are the author’s own, based on her personal experience. Citi PayAll Service Terms and Conditions apply.

^*Disclaimer: The number of Citi Miles required to redeem a business class air ticket and the air ticket fare depends on destination, airline and period in which the booking is made. These examples are for illustration purposes only, based on 5,040 Citi Miles earned on a monthly Citi PayAll spend of S$4,200 on a Citi PremierMiles Visa Card, and an assumption that the Citi Miles are redeemed under a Participating Travel Loyalty Program pursuant to our Citibank ThankYou Rewards Program Terms and Conditions. Actual number of Citi Miles required to redeem an air ticket may differ at time of redemption. A Citi PayAll fee is applicable.

Rebecca Bisset

Heading up Expat Living, Rebecca started off in photography and video. A bit of a nomad before Singapore, she likes to travel when she can but she finds looking at properties as exciting! One day she's going to build her own house...