CardUp and ipaymy are raising fees.
Is buying miles still worth it?

If you use CardUp or ipaymy to earn miles on insurance premiums, income tax, or rent, this affects you. Both platforms announced fee increases effective June 2026, and the numbers are not small.

This article does three things. First, I break down exactly what changed and when, sourced only from official CardUp and ipaymy pages. Second, I run the actual numbers on the two cards I personally use. Third, I share my honest verdict on whether buying miles this way still makes financial sense in 2026, because I think the honest answer has shifted significantly.

CardUp: from 13 June 2026

CardUp's standard fee rises from 2.6% to 2.9%. Every single promotional rate also increases. The table below is sourced directly from the CardUp Help Centre.

One important gap in the new structure: there is no insurance-specific promotional code. Insurance recurring payments now fall under the generic recurring promo at 2.35% (REC235), up from 1.85%.

Sign up for CardUp with code HONEYMONEY for a discounted fee on your first payment.

ipaymy: from 11 June 2026

Source: ipaymy current promotions and ipaymy personal pricing page.

Existing Mastercard users have a promotional code SGMC225 for 2.25%. The income tax promo code TAXMC2026 at 1.99% for Mastercard remains valid until 31 August 2026 for IRAS payments.

Sign up for ipaymy with code HONEYMONEYSG for $30 off your first transaction fee.

How to calculate your CPM

CPM, or cost per mile, is the number that tells you whether buying miles through these platforms is actually worth it. Here are both versions of the formula. The technically correct one is slightly better because you also earn miles on the fee amount itself.

Example using DBS Vantage at 1.5 mpd and the new recurring rate of 2.35%:

• Simplified: 2.35 ÷ 1.5 × 100 = 1.57 cents per mile
• Correct: (0.0235 ÷ 1.0235) ÷ 1.5 × 100 = 1.53 cents per mile

I use the technically correct method throughout the examples below. My personal thresholds: buy at 1.25 CPM or below, redemption value at 1.50 CPM.

My personal calculations

I hold two cards I use for these platforms: DBS Vantage Visa Infinite (1.5 mpd on both CardUp and ipaymy) and UOB PRVI Miles Visa (1.4 mpd on CardUp only, not ipaymy).

Scenario 1: Annual insurance premium, $3,000 lump sum

Insurance recurring payments fall under the general recurring promo at 2.35% (REC235) under the new CardUp structure.

Scenario 2: Monthly income tax via GIRO, $1,000 per month

The 1.73% and 1.79% income tax promos from earlier this year are no longer available for new payments after 13 June. Recurring tax payments on CardUp now fall under the general recurring promo at 2.35% (REC235).

The alternatives

Citi PayAll is Citi's own bill payment platform. The Q2 2026 promotion offers a fee rebate of 0.2% to 0.7% depending on card tier, plus $80 eCapitaVouchers at $8,000 of spend. It is limited to Citi cards and runs seasonally, but given how much CardUp and ipaymy have moved, Citi PayAll is now more competitive than it has been in years. Source: Citi PayAll official page.

UOB Payment Facility charges a flat 1.8% admin fee with no documents required. The catch: it earns a flat 1 mpd on all UOB cards, regardless of the card's normal earn rate. Even if you hold the UOB PRVI Miles at 1.4 mpd normally, you only get 1 mpd here. At 1.8% fee and 1 mpd, CPM works out to roughly 1.77 cents, which is above my buying and redemption thresholds. Source: UOB Payment Facility official page.

ipaymy Mastercard income tax promo (TAXMC2026, 1.99%): If you have a Mastercard with a remaining IRAS tax bill, this remains valid until 31 August 2026 and is currently one of the better remaining deals. Mastercard fees on ipaymy have not changed.

Full comparison table

*UOB PRVI Miles does not earn UNI$ on ipaymy. CPM figures use the technically correct formula. "Worth it" is relative to a buying threshold of 1.25 CPM.

Platforms covered in this article

CardUp → Code: HONEYMONEY ipaymy → Code: HONEYMONEYSG ($30 off) Citi PayAll → UOB Payment Facility →

My honest verdict: the miles game is getting harder to justify

I want to be direct here, because most miles content focuses on the upside without doing the full math.

At the new fees, I am not using CardUp or ipaymy as a systematic miles-buying strategy. The best-case CPM I can achieve on my own cards is 1.53 cents, which is above my 1.25 CPM buying threshold and only marginally below my 1.50 CPM redemption value. In other words, the margin has essentially gone to zero on a good day and is negative on a bad one.

But beyond the fee increase, there are three bigger reasons I think the miles game in general deserves a harder look in 2026:

• Redemptions are getting harder. More Singaporeans are collecting miles than ever. More content creators, more awareness, more competition for the same limited pool of Saver award seats. The supply of miles is going up. The supply of genuinely good redemption seats is not keeping pace. If you cannot find the seats, the miles are theoretical.
• The opportunity cost is real money. Every dollar you pay in fees is a dollar not invested. $282 in annual CardUp fees put into a global index ETF instead, compounding at 7% annually over 20 years, becomes roughly $1,090. That is one example. Add up all the platforms, all the transfer fees, all the annual fee costs across your miles cards, and the number grows. The hours you spend optimising miles could be spent reviewing your actual investment portfolio. I personally use Interactive Brokers for global equities and UCITS ETFs, and I would rather put dollars there than into fee payments chasing miles at 1.53 CPM.
• Your time has a cost too. Tracking promo codes, monitoring fee changes, managing points expiry, chasing transfer partners, calculating MPD across card stacks. This is real mental overhead. Some people enjoy it as a hobby. But if you are doing it purely for the financial return, the ROI per hour has dropped sharply after this round of increases.

When does it still make sense? Miles still work well for people who fly frequently in Business or First Class, where redemption values of 3 to 5 cents per mile are achievable. At that level, even 1.53 CPM represents a solid return. For economy redemptions or infrequent travellers, the math is increasingly hard to defend.

If you continue using these platforms, be selective: target new user promos where first-payment fees are heavily discounted, use the highest-MPD Visa card you hold, and only commit when you have a specific high-value redemption in mind. Do not buy miles speculatively.

This article is not sponsored

Rather invest than chase miles?

If you found this article useful and want to support HoneyMoneySG at no cost to you, open an Interactive Brokers account via my referral link. IBKR is the brokerage I personally use for US stocks and UCITS ETFs. You pay nothing extra.

Open IBKR → hmsg.link/ibkr

Quick reference summary

CardUp new rates from 13 Jun 2026: Recurring 2.35% (REC235) · One-off Visa 2.45% (OFF245) · One-off MC/AMEX 2.59% (OFF259) · Rent 2.30% (RENT23)

ipaymy new Visa rates from 11 Jun 2026: One-time 2.95% · Recurring 2.60%
ipaymy Mastercard tax promo: 1.99% with code TAXMC2026, until 31 Aug 2026

My buying threshold: 1.25 CPM · My redemption value: 1.50 CPM

UOB PRVI Miles holders: use CardUp only. ipaymy does not earn UNI$ on UOB cards.

Referral links & codes

CardUp → Code: HONEYMONEY ipaymy → Code: HONEYMONEYSG ($30 off) Citi PayAll → UOB Payment Facility → IBKR (support HMSG) →

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Information in this article is accurate as of 11 June 2026 based on official sources: CardUp Help Centre, ipaymy Help Centre, ipaymy personal pricing, UOB PRVI Miles T&Cs, and UOB Payment Facility. Fee rates are subject to change. This article contains affiliate and referral links. Clicking them costs you nothing extra. This article is for educational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.