[EXPIRED] 5% Off Overseas PayWave Transactions with Singtel Dash

Disclaimer: This post contains a referral code. For each person that uses my referral code, I will receive $2 Singtel Dash credit. Use of my referral code is the same for you as the user – you will get $5 off your first transaction regardless. Referral Link, or promo code: DASH-ULO3Y (that’s a capital “o”)

Last Updated:

• 1 July 2020 – After being initially dropped from an extremely generous 10% cashback to 5%, and after being available for over a year, this deal now appears to finally be over!
• 6 May 2020 – Extended again. Now until 30 June 2020. I’m not complaining!
• 28 January 2020 – This deal has been extended several times since the last updated, and has a current end date of 31 March 2020.
• 3 July 2019 – This deal has been extended until 30 September 2019, with the same restriction of $5 per transaction. Don’t forget about the monthly transaction limit I discovered which I elaborate on below.
• 9 May 2019 – This deal is now back, but at a reduced cashback discount of 5% off until 30 June 2019. The $5 cashback per transaction cap remains the same, but means your optimal point (transaction value wise) is now $100 SGD instead of $50 SGD. Don’t forget the monthly transaction limit cap of 30 that I pointed out below in my previous update.
• Now that I think about it – I wonder if I misinterpreted the limit of 30. Was that a flat transaction limit for the month, as opposed to specifically an overseas transaction limit? I’m not sure. I’ll update if I get clarity on it.
• I’ve updated the deal rating to 7/10 (from 8/10) due to the reduced cap and the monthly transaction limit.
• 19 March 2019 – I hit some sort of limit recently when I was making transactions overseas. The error message was not meaningful, merely advising me I had hit some sort of limit. What limit? Monthly payment limit? Monthly transaction limit? Overseas spend transaction limit? Anyway, I had to call to find out, because the FAQ section does not state it at all, anywhere. The monthly limit for overseas transactions is 30, and I had hit this limit. I must say – the error messages within the Singtel Dash app are very poor and not very meaningful. It doesn’t specify what the error is!

Deal Rating: 7/10 – Easy to use, but its rating gets dragged down because it’s only relevant if you are going overseas, you need a compatible NFC device (which is not all NFC devices! read more below), and the $5 cashback cap per transaction. Oh – a monthly cap of 30 (overseas?) transactions per Singtel Dash account drags this down a bit further.

Summary/TLDR

• 5% Cashback via Singtel Dash for contactless payments using your phone/Apple Watch, or via QR Code
• The QR Code option, I believe, is only available in Thailand
• Cap of $5 cashback per transaction, so break your transaction up into multiple smaller ones if the merchant allows it, or if there’s a way you can do it by splitting multiple items up
• Yes, there is a foreign transaction fee, which is stated as “1.5%” + a “maximum flat fee of $0.80 SGD”, so it’s still low enough for this deal to be worth it.
• Only valid for “in-person” transactions, not valid for online transactions
• Promotion Expiry: 30 June 2020

5% Cashback on Overseas Transactions via Singtel Dash

If you have not signed up for Singtel Dash yet, assuming you’re going overseas and have a compatible device, this promotion alone is probably a good enough reason to sign up. Don’t forget, you get a $5 SGD credit after your first transaction.

Think about this for a moment – what is the highest cashback you can typically get in Singapore with relatively few conditions? It’s either 3% for the first 6 months and first $5000 on the AMEX True Cashback, or 3.5% as an HSBC Advance customer that also holds the HSBC Advance Credit Card, up to $125 per month… or… 3% cashback on contactless transactions with the DBS Visa Debit Card.

5% on overseas transactions, for context, is actually quite high/generous, which is why I give this deal a 7/10. There is indeed a foreign transaction fee, and just so you can see the exact wording, here it is:

Processing fees for overseas transactions includes a flat fee per transaction and a percentage of the transaction value, depending on the transaction value. The maximum flat fee is 0.80 SGD and the maximum percentage is 1.5% per transaction.

What exactly does this mean? I am actually not sure. It sounds like there are two fees – which is up to $0.80 SGD, and in addition, a 1.5% surcharge. It’s not clear how the “maximum flat fee” is calculated, but the fact that it’s referred to as a maximum flat fee suggests it is probably a percentage and is more often than not lower. I will see if I can get clarification on this from Singtel Dash.

In any case, let’s assume the fees add up to 3.5%, which is definitely on the more expensive side, this is still a great deal giving you 1.5% net cashback!

So – use Singtel Dash to make payments overseas either via Visa PayWave with your phone/Apple Watch or via QR Code, and get 5% cashback, capped at $5 SGD per transaction, until 30 June.

The QR Code option, I believe, outside of Singapore is only available in Thailand, as Singtel Dash seem to have managed to arrange some sort of private agreement with Thai merchants.

I used this several times in Malaysia, and can confirm that I received the cashback after about ~2 business days.

Because of the $5 SGD cashback cap per transaction, my recommendation for larger transactions is to logically request for it to be separated (if possible) to allow you to get the maximum possible cashback. You will have to make some rough assumptions on the SGD cost that you’ll be charged because there’s still some ambiguity around how much exactly you’ll be charged in foreign transaction fees. If you happen to know, let me know!

There is a cap of 30 overseas transactions per Singtel Dash account per month.

On the other hand, one of the biggest restrictions of this promotion is that the cashback is only restricted to transactions made “in-person” – so manually keying in the card number on a website that charges you in foreign currency will not earn you cashback, according to their T&Cs.

Another significant restriction is only certain NFC devices can use the contactless payment feature of Singtel Dash. I do not have a list of eligible devices, but I say this from personal experience. I will elaborate below.

Not all NFC Devices Can Utilise Singtel Dash’s Contactless Payment Technology

Why? I do not know why – but this is what I was told by customer service. I did not believe it. NFC is NFC and my device has NFC. I use it for Google Pay.

However, this was explained to me specifically because I was having issues with using Singtel Dash contactless payments on my NFC device – Sharp Aquos S2.

I tested this theory, because it sounded unbelievable to me, so the payment on my device failed and the error message was not clear – it said something along the lines of “enrollment error”.

I then used my partner’s Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – and it worked! I went back to my phone and tried it on a subsequent transaction some time later, and again it failed, with the same error message as I saw the first time.

Again, I went back to the Galaxy Note 8, which was once again accepted – so not all NFCs are made the same, it seems!

As far as I am aware, if you have a mainstream device, including Huaweis, Samsungs and iPhones with Apple Pay, these will all be eligible.

I guess that’s my punishment for using cheap phones…

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