Can i pay my insurance with a credit card

If you adore credit cards as much as I do, then you will certainly find joy in figuring out the best way to pay your insurance premium. After all, these are fixed expenses in your life. For that reason, why not leverage on the situation and make your dollar work harder for you? With this intention in mind, let’s find out seven popular ways to pay insurance premium in Singapore.

Table of Content

1. Problem with paying Insurance Premium
2. ipaymy
3. AXS m-Station
4. Citi PayAll
5. SC EasyBill
6. GrabPay Card
7. PayNow QR code
8. Maybank’s Credit Card
9. Final Thoughts

Disclosure: This post on Best Way to pay Insurance Premium contains a referral code. Hence, I may get some money for coffee when you use my referral code to sign up for their services. But nope, there is no additional cost to you. In fact you will get a $30 referral bonus too! In any case, I will only recommend products or services that meets my needs and expectations.

One Minute Summary:

• Generally, most credit cards do not give any credit card rewards for payments made to an insurance company.
• Consequently, you will need to rely on a third party platform to make these payments if you insist on earning credit card rewards.
• However, most of these platforms charge a one-time processing fee of between 1.9% to 2.6%.
• Of course, there are also options where you do not have to pay a processing fee to make these payments.

Part 1: Problem with paying Insurance Premium

To begin with, let’s understand two problems that you may face when you pay insurance premium. Firstly, this is a fixed expense that you need to pay over a pre-defined period (usually in the long term). As a result, it decreases your net cash flow for other usage. Secondly, if you adore credit card rewards in the same way as I do, then you will soon realise that most credit cards do not give any rewards for these transactions. In general, they fall under the category of Insurance Sales, Underwriting and Premium (MCC 6300). To put it another way, you are not able to optimise the dollar value of your spending. Based on the presented problems, there are seven common solutions to that end.

Part 2: ipaymy

Part 2.1: What is ipaymy?

To explain, ipaymy is a third party platform that allows you to use your credit card to perform various types of payment. For example, it can be to pay rent, an invoice, insurance premium, and even income tax! Through ipaymy, you get credit card rewards for the otherwise excluded merchant category codes (MCC).

Part 2.2: Benefit and Cost

To point out, ipaymy has a ‘Points Guarantee’ policy. In essence, if you fulfil its terms and conditions but do not receive the due credit card rewards, then ipaymy will issue a full refund for the fee paid for that transaction. By and large, this will certainly boost your confidence to make a payment through ipaymy.

At this time, ipaymy charges a platform fee of 2.25% for each transaction. Given that rate, we will choose a credit card that reduces the cost of paying the platform fee. For example, I will use my backup cashback credit card, Standard Chartered MANHATTAN Platinum/World Mastercard for its 3% cashback. After accounting for ipaymy’s platform fee, I can still earn a net cashback of 0.75%.

On the other hand, if you are a miles collector, then there are a lot more credit cards to choose from. To illustrate, Citi PremierMiles will give 1.2 miles per dollar for the transaction.

Part 2.3: Processing Time

Generally, ipaymy takes two business days to present the payment to the merchant. After the payment has been completed, ipaymy will send an email to notify you.

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Part 2.4: Step-by-Step Guide

If you are new to ipaymy, then consider signing up using my referral code. In effect, you get a $30 promo code for your first transaction. Thereupon, this will cover the platform fee for transactions of up to $1,333. As usual, here is a step by step guide:

1. At the main page (after logging in), click Make Payment (top righthand corner).
2. From the dropdown menu, select Domestic.
3. Next, select Invoices as the payment category. Click Move forward.
4. Given the two toggle, select Add supplier and enter the merchant’s details, i.e. Supplier’s company Name, Supplier’s Unique Entity Number (UEN), Bank, and Account Number.
5. Thereafter, you will be able to see the Supplier’s information on the screen.
6. Click on the Supplier that you wish to make the payment to, and then Move forward.
7. Under the Note to Supplier, enter your insurance policy number, and the amount that you wish to pay.
8. Upload a copy of your insurance policy’s premium notice, or any relevant proof. Thereafter, click Move forward.
9. At this stage, you can choose the option that fits your needs. Generally, I choose One-Time Payment, and this is followed by the earliest Payment Date. Click Move forward.
10. Click Add card for this payment and enter your credit card details.
11. If you have a promo code, enter it in the box as well.
12. After checking that all the information are correct, click Pay.

Part 3: AXS m-Station

Part 3.1: What is AXS m-Station Pay Any Bills

Together with Singapore E-Business Pte Ltd (SGeBIZ), AXS launched the Pay Any Bills service. In detail, you are able to make a payment to any corporate organisation for goods and services using the company’s Unique Entity Number (UEN). To this end, you are able to earn credit card rewards for each successful transaction.

Part 3.2: Benefit and Cost

Unlike ipaymy, there is almost no restriction on which credit card that you may use to make the payment through AXS m-Station’s Pay Any Bills. Consequently, you don’t have to apply a new credit card or to reshuffle your existing credit card deck to make these payments.

However, such flexibility comes at a cost as AXS m-Station charges a whopping fee of 2.6% for each transaction! Furthermore, you must pay at least $300 in each transaction.

Part 3.3: Processing Time

Summing up, AXS m-Station takes five business days to process the payment. For this purpose, it will transfer the payment to the recipient’s UEN via PayNow. Thereupon, the recipient will receive en email notification of the payment. It is important to realise that all successful payments are non-refundable. With this in mind, be sure to check and confirm that the recipient’s details are correct before you proceed!

Part 3.4: Step-by-Step Guide

After downloading the AXS Payment app on your mobile phone,

1. From the third row under AXS Life, tap Pay Any Bills.
2. Read through the description and tap Send Payments.
3. Read through the terms and conditions and tap Agree.
4. Enter your particulars, the recipient’s name, UEN, and email address. Moreover, enter the amount, purpose, and remarks for the Recipient.
5. Tap Submit.

Part 4: Citi PayAll

Part 4.1: What is Citi PayAll

If you are holding onto a Citibank credit card, then Citi PayAll is for you. In detail, you can earn Citi Miles, Citi ThankYou Points or Cash Back when you pay for expenses such as rent, insurance premiums, education expenses, and taxes, with your Citi Credit Card.

Part 4.2: Benefit and Cost

Through Citi PayAll, you will earn credit card rewards for each payment at the base earn rate of the card used. For example, if you use Citi PremierMiles, then you will earn 1.2 miles per dollar spent.

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At this time, Citi PayAll charges a fee of 2% for each transaction. In truth, if you are a Citibank customer, then it makes more sense to use Citi PayAll as compared to ipaymy or AXS m-Station’s Pay All Bills.

Part 4.3: Processing Time

In general, Citibank takes four business days to process the payment. Thereafter, your recipient will receive the payment via a bank fund transfer. This also means that your recipient can be anyone and does not necessarily have to be a Citibank customer in order to receive the payment.

Part 4.4: Step-by-Step Guide

To begin with, you will need to download the Citibank SG app on your mobile phone. Thereafter,

1. On the main screen, tap Payments at the bottom of the navigation menu.
2. Under Payments & Transfers, select Citi PayAll.
3. On the Active tab, tap New Payment.
4. Scroll through the Purpose of Payment and tap on Insurance.
5. Select the insurer that you wish to make the payment to.
6. Enter the Policy Number, Policy Owner’s Full Name, Contact information and all the fields that you see on the next screen.
7. Tap the right arrow to proceed.

Part 5: SC EasyBill

Part 5.1: What is SC EasyBill

Meanwhile, if you are holding onto a Standard Chartered credit card, then the SC EasyBill Payment Programme is for you. For this purpose, you may use your Standard Chartered credit card to make payments to education institutions, insurance premiums, rental or the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (“IRAS”).

Part 5.2: Cost

Through SC EasyBill, you will earn credit card rewards for the payments made to the above mentioned institutions. For example, if you use Standard Chartered Unlimited Cashback card, then you will earn 1.5% cashback for the transaction.

At this time, SC EasyBill charges a processing fee of 1.9% for the transaction. Similar to Citi PayAll, the processing fee is non-refundable. Hence, you will need to pick the correct credit card to beat the processing fee.

Part 5.3: Processing Time

To sum up, Standard Chartered bank may take up to seven business days to process the payment. Given that long processing time, you should plan your payments in advance to ensure that it will reach your recipient on time!

Part 5.4: Step-by-Step Guide

Unlike Citibank, you will need to apply to Standard Chartered bank for its SC EasyBill programme. In order to apply, you must have a mobile number that is registered with Standard Chartered Bank. Thereafter, send the following SMS to 77222: SMS ‘BILL’ 77222. Thereafter, you will receive an automatic SMS from Standard Chartered to acknowledge your SMS request. This comes together with the URL to apply for the SC EasyBill programme.

Part 6: GrabPay Card

Part 6.1: What is GrabPay Card

In summary, Grab and Mastercard offers a prepaid Mastercard known as GrabPay card. Accordingly, you may use this card to make a payment at any online or physical store worldwide. This is so long as the merchant accepts MasterCard at its terminal. Thereupon, the amount will be deducted from the balance in your GrabPay wallet. To clarify, this works in similar fashion to any ordinary debit card that you may have owned already.

Part 6.2: Cost

For the most part, there is no cost to getting the digital GrabPay card (which is all that you need to pay insurance premium). However, GrabPay card does not work on its own. To clarify, you need to top up money into the GrabPay wallet first. For this purpose, I use UOB Absolute Cashback as it gives 1.7% cash back for the top-up transaction. Now, in order for this method to work, the insurer must accept the payment via one of the following three terminals:

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1. The insurer’s online portal, and it must accept payment via Mastercard;
2. The insurer’s credit card authorisation form (similar to the above point); or
3. AXS e-Station or m-Station app (Pay Bills > Insurance).

Although there is no GrabRewards point for the transaction, it is not a huge deal breaker in my opinion. This is because you can still earn 1.7% cash back indirectly (from the Grab Wallet top-up).

On the other hand, you may also use American Express® True Cashback card to top up your GrabPay wallet. To this end, you will earn 1.5% cash back for the wallet top-up transaction.

Part 7: PayNow QR code

Meanwhile, some insurers accept payment via PayNow. Accordingly, you may also use GrabPay to scan the PayNow QR code to that end. In like manner, you will also earn up to 1.7% cash back indirectly. Not bad huh?

Part 8: Maybank’s Credit Card

As soon as I posted this article, a community reader informed me that Maybank gives credit card rewards for payments made to an insurance company. Surprised by such generosity and encouraged by his words, I started my research right away. Indeed, there are a couple of credit cards that don’t exclude Insurance Sales, Underwriting and Premium (MCC 6300) in their terms and conditions. Given that omission, I would boldly assume that Maybank does give credit card rewards for these payments.

Part 8.1: What is Maybank Platinum Visa Card

For example, Maybank’s Platinum Visa is a cashback credit card that allows you to earn 3.33% cashback on your local and foreign currency spend. For this purpose, you will need to spend at least $300 on eligible retail transactions each month in a calendar quarter. At the writing of this article, the Platinum Visa card does not exclude cashback for Insurance Sales, Underwriting and Premium (MCC 6300) in its terms and conditions. Hence, you should be able to get cashback by paying your insurance premium through the card.

Part 8.2: Cost

Although Maybank does not charge an annual fee for the Platinum Visa card, you need to pay a $20 service fee every quarter. Despite that, if you make a charge to your credit card at least once every quarter, then Maybank is happy to waive this service charge for you. Now, i order to earn the cashback, the insurer must accept the payment via one of the following two terminals:

1. The insurer’s online portal, and it must accept payment via Visa; or
2. The insurer’s credit card authorisation form (similar to the above point);

Part 9: Final Thoughts

Ever since UOB One excludes transactions from ipaymy from earning cashback, it is no longer the best way to pay insurance premium in my case. To illustrate, I used to be able to earn 2.75% in net cashback by paying my insurance premium through ipaymy. However, based on my current credit card deck, I’m only able to earn 0.75% net cashback with Standard Chartered MANHATTAN Platinum/World Mastercard.

As a result, it makes more sense to take on a more prudent approach to use the combination of GrabPay Mastercard with UOB Absolute Cashback card instead. This is so long as I work within GrabPay’s annual limit of $30,000. In any case, most of us don’t spend that hefty amount on insurance premium. If you do, then you are probably overspending on insurance premium already.

Of course, now that we know Maybank doesn’t exclude MCC 6300 for some of its credit cards, you should probably take full advantage of it while you can. But please be sure to read the latest terms and conditions again before you proceed!

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