Source:
Grok 3:
Summary
Education expenses—such as childcare, enrichment classes, school fees, tuition, and university costs—are a significant financial burden. However, most banks have progressively excluded these transactions from earning credit card rewards, with major issuers like DBS, Citibank, UOB, Standard Chartered, HSBC, and American Express adding education to their exclusion lists between 2017 and 2023. This reluctance stems from education transactions typically coding under Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) like 8211, 8220, 8241, 8244, 8249, and 8299, which have lower processing fees and thus lower profitability for banks.
Despite this, a few credit and debit cards still offer rewards on education spending, primarily from Maybank, select UOB cards, and certain American Express options. Additionally, "education-adjacent" expenses (e.g., childcare, music, or sports enrichment) often fall under different MCCs, making them eligible for rewards with the right cards. Workarounds like bill payment services (e.g., CardUp) and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platforms (e.g., Atome) also provide ways to earn miles by altering the MCC or enabling rewards where direct payments don’t.
Credit Cards That Earn Rewards on Education
The following cards still award miles or points for education transactions (MCCs 8211–8299):
- Maybank Visa Infinite: 1.2 miles per dollar (mpd) locally, 3.2 mpd foreign currency (FCY).
- Chocolate Visa Platinum Debit Card: 2 mpd on all spend (including education), capped at S$1,000/month, then0.4 mpd; no FCY fees.
- UOB Reserve Card: 1.6 mpd locally, 2.4 mpd FCY (invitation-only).
- UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card: 1.4 mpd locally, 2.4 mpd FCY (S$120,000 income requirement).
