Points that never expire and a sign-up bonus worth 38,000 miles, on a card with nothing to track
| Min income | Base earn | Overseas earn | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| S$30,000S$45,000 for foreigners | 1.3 mpdlocal, uncapped | 2.2 mpdforeign currency, uncapped | Noneon either rate |
| Annual fee | Fee returns | Points expiry | Transfer blocks |
| S$196.20first year waived | 10,000 mileson paying the renewal | Neverunique to Altitude | 10,000 miles5,000 points, S$27.25 |
Altitude has been the same card for as long as I have been paying attention, and that was always the point. No categories to track, no caps, no minimum spend, and DBS Points that never expire. It is the card you get so you can stop thinking about cards.
Then on 1 August 2026 DBS discontinued the spend-based renewal waiver across its miles range, this card included. The S$25,000 route out of the annual fee is gone. It is a small change in money and a real one in character, because the running cost is now a decision every year rather than a side effect of spending.
The thing worth holding it for is unchanged though, and it is genuinely rare: DBS Points on Altitude never expire. Every other balance in this lineup is on a clock of one to three years. This one waits.
Annual Fee
S$196.20, first year waived, and from 1 August 2026 there is no longer a way to spend your way out of it.
| Card | First year | Second year on |
|---|---|---|
| Principal card | Waived | S$196.20 |
| What the fee gives back | Nothing | 10,000 miles |
The maths still works, and arguably works better without the waiver muddying it. 10,000 miles for S$196.20 is under two cents a mile, which is cheaper than buying them and roughly what a decent redemption is worth. Pay the fee, take the miles.
I am guessing DBS pulled the waiver precisely because the renewal credit made it redundant: people who spent S$25,000 were taking the free waiver and skipping the 10,000 miles, which costs the bank a customer relationship and gains it nothing. Removing the choice makes everyone take the miles. Cynical, and not actually worse for the cardholder.
There is a trap inside the replacement that DBS is explicit about and nobody repeats. Paying the S$196.20 credits 10,000 bonus miles as 5,000 DBS Points within a working day. But cardholders on the automatic waiver "will not be eligible" for them, and where a waiver is approved later the 10,000 is reversed within three working days. DBS also reserves the right to claw back at S$0.0388 a point if you have already spent them.
So the waiver and the bonus are mutually exclusive, and the bonus is worth more. That also qualifies the 38,000-mile sign-up figure this card is sold on: 28,000 of it is the welcome offer and 10,000 is the fee bonus, so the full number only exists if you pay.
One more thing worth knowing that has nothing to do with fees. DBS counts an overseas transaction converted to Singapore dollars at the terminal as local spend, so saying yes to "pay in SGD?" abroad drops you from 2.2 mpd to 1.3 without any warning. Always choose the local currency.
Welcome Bonus
DBS Altitude
Welcome bonus: pick one of 2
- S$680 Samsonite MINTER 80/30 Trunk Luggage
- 38,000 miles Bonus milesTransferable to airlines
Welcome bonus: pick one of 5
- S$320 Cash via PayNow
- S$350 eCapitaVoucher
- 22,000 miles Max Miles by HeyMaxTransferable to airlines
- S$479 Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds
- S$599 Dyson Purifier Cool TP10
Offer ends 2026-08-31
Welcome bonus: pick one of 5
- S$320 Cash via PayNow
- S$350 eCapitaVoucher
- 22,000 miles Max Miles by HeyMaxTransferable to airlines
- S$479 Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds
- S$599 Dyson Purifier Cool TP10
Offer ends 2026-08-31
Sign-up rewards change often, so confirm the current offer before you apply. New customers only, meaning no card from DBS in about the last 12 months.
Sign-up offers move monthly and almost always carry a "new to bank" condition, meaning no DBS or POSB credit card in the past 12 months.
How many miles do I earn?
1.3 miles per dollar locally and 2.2 overseas, neither of them capped.
| Spend | Rate | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign currency and overseas | 2.2 mpd | Uncapped |
| Everything else, local | 1.3 mpd | Uncapped |
| Utilities, insurance, education | Nothing | Excluded |
1.3 mpd is the best uncapped local rate of the general-purpose cards here, ahead of the 1.2 that PremierMiles and TravelOne pay. It is a small edge and it applies to every dollar with no ceiling, which is where small edges add up.
The Waiver Just Died
This is the only thing about Altitude that has moved in years, so it deserves the slot. Until 31 July 2026 you could clear S$25,000 of spend in your membership year and DBS waived the renewal fee. From 1 August that route is closed on Altitude, Woman’s World and Vantage alike.
| Your year | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Spend S$25,000 or more | Fee waived, no miles | Pay S$196.20, get 10,000 miles |
| Spend less than S$25,000 | Pay S$196.20, get 10,000 miles | Pay S$196.20, get 10,000 miles |
Read the top row properly, because it is the surprising one. A heavy spender used to get the fee waived and forfeit the 10,000 miles that paying it would have earned. On any sensible valuation that waiver was the worse outcome, so losing it costs those cardholders S$196.20 and gains them something worth more.
For everyone under S$25,000 nothing changed at all. This is the rare product change that reads worse in a headline than it is in a statement, and I would not switch cards over it.
Set a calendar reminder for your renewal month and confirm the 10,000 miles landed, because a credit you did not check is a credit you did not get.
Transfer Partners
The headline feature and the reason the card survives every reshuffle: DBS Points on Altitude never expire. Not three years, not thirty-seven months. They sit there until you have somewhere to put them.
| Programme | Points for 10,000 miles |
|---|---|
 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 5,000 |
 Cathay Asia Miles | 5,000 |
 Qantas Frequent Flyer | 5,000 |
 AirAsia Rewards | 5,000 |
Four partners is a thin list next to the twenty TravelOne reaches, and that is the real trade. You get unlimited time and limited destinations, which is the right way round if you know you are flying Singapore Airlines or Cathay and the wrong way round if you want to shop the whole award market.
Transfers cost S$27.25 in blocks of 5,000 points, which is 10,000 miles. On 1.3 mpd that is about S$7,700 of local spend to reach the first block, so this is a card that rewards patience rather than one you dip into.
How to use it. As the floor of the wallet. Everything that does not fit a bonus category goes here, and the balance simply accumulates because there is no clock forcing a decision. It is the one card where the points need no thought until you want them.
Before any redemption, always check the route you want is actually available. The worst thing you can do is diversify into another mileage programme with no redemption in mind.
What should I pair it with?
Altitude is the opposite shape to the 4 mpd cards. It never pays spectacularly and it never stops, so on any month above roughly S$1,500 of bonus-category spend a capped card has already run out and this one has not.
Worth being honest that on a small, well-targeted month a Revolution or a Citi Rewards will beat this comfortably. Altitude is the base of a wallet, not the whole of one.
A 4 mpd category card for the first S$1,000 a month, and let Altitude take the rest.
This is a base card, so the pairing question is which specialist sits on top of it. Anything with a bonus category and a cap works, because Altitude picks up cleanly wherever that cap runs out.
| The gap | What it costs you | What closes it |
|---|---|---|
| Online shopping | 1.3 mpd where others pay 4 | HSBC Revolution, Citi Rewards |
| Dining and transport | 1.3 mpd | HSBC Revolution |
| Groceries | 1.3 mpd | UOB Preferred Visa |
| Only four transfer partners | No fallback if space is gone | HSBC TravelOne, which reaches about 20 |
Build your miles card stack
One card never covers everything. Put in what you actually spend and see which cards to hold together, and what to put on each.
Build my stack→The verdict, restated
Still the most restful card in the lineup. Nothing to track, nothing to clear, nothing to miss, and a points balance with no expiry date attached to it, which no other card here can say. Losing the spend-based waiver is a change worth knowing about and not one worth acting on: paying the fee returns 10,000 miles, which was always the better deal. Hold it under a category card and let it catch everything else.
Sources
DBS Altitude product page and card T&Cs, checked 8 July 2026. Earn rates, the uncapped structure, the never-expire points policy, the 10,000-mile renewal credit and the transfer block correct as of that date. The removal of the spend-based renewal waiver takes effect 1 August 2026 and is confirmed in DBS’s own notice. The Visa Signature and American Express versions of this card carry the same reward but are separate applications. This guide shares my own experience for education, it is not financial advice, and card terms change: always verify with the bank before applying.