BANKS in Singapore are suddenly falling over each other to give air tickets and other travel perks to credit card holders.

Intense competition has erupted in recent weeks among four key credit card issuers to offer the most attractive schemes for chalking up air miles by using plastic.

Customers are the winners as they now need to charge less than ever before to their credit cards to be eligible for, say, a free flight to Bali.

The four credit card issuers - DBS Bank, United Overseas Bank (UOB), Citibank and American Express (Amex) - have been slugging it out with full-page newspaper advertisements boasting more air miles for each dollar charged.

These schemes may be old hat but Singaporeans' ever deeper love affair with air travel, both business and leisure, makes them a highly lucrative carrot for card issuers.

The DBS Altitude Amex card is touted as the 'fastest way to earn miles', while Citibank insists its PremierMiles Visa card is where you can 'earn the most miles'.

Not to be left out, Amex Singapore and UOB are now offering promotions until the end of the year on their KrisFlyer Gold and UOB Visa Signature cards, respectively.

The battle started in early July when DBS Bank launched its Altitude Amex card which upped the ante.

In the past, travel credit card holders typically qualified for one air mile for every $2.50 charged to the card. The DBS Altitude card offers a much improved conversion rate of 83 cents to one mile.

It was not long before the other issuers tried to match and even better the rate.

Starting last month, cardholders of Citibank PremierMiles get one mile for every 83 cents charged to the card. They earn extra bonus miles every year when they renew their subscriptions. This, together with their annual spending, means they will enjoy attractive conversion rates ranging from 45 cents to 65 cents to one mile.

Growing numbers of Singaporeans are travelling - and spending more with their cards on arrival - so it is no wonder banks are rolling out new travel-related plastic and promotions geared to them.

Amex's promotion means its KrisFlyer Gold customers qualify for one mile if they spend 57 cents, but they must spend more than $10,000 on a card between Aug 16 and the end of the year.

And cardholders of UOB Visa Signature qualify for a mile for every 83 cents charged to the card, if they spend at least $3,000 a month from Sept 1 to Dec 31.

Figures suggest that for every $100 charged to a credit card in Singapore, up to $20 is generated from overseas spending. This is expected to rise as more people fly.

Amex Singapore has registered robust growth in excess of 20 per cent year-on-year in outbound travel, said its vice-president of cards and lending, Mr Shailesh Baidwan.

'With growing affluence and sophistication, consumers in Singapore tend to travel more frequently. We are upbeat on the outlook for travel- related cards and we see demand for such credit cards continuing to grow,' he said.

At its card launch recently, Citibank's business director of credit payment products, Mr Anand Cavale, said travel spending on its credit cards and miles redemption from points won on card spending soared above 15 per cent year-on-year this year.

The competition for frequent travellers appears to continue unabated.

Despite its recent launch in July, DBS is running a promotion on its Altitude card that offers one mile for every 50 cents charged. The catch is, this promotion which began on Monday and will last until February next year, is limited to overseas transactions.

» Deals for miles