Being one of the biggest banks in the Philippines, BPI surprisingly has limited credit card options with a total of only 10 credit cards. I only. Here is what I think about BPI's best credit card the Visa Signature.
I first got this card in 2019 when it was offered to me with a 3-year waived annual fee for being a BPI-preferred client. I thought it was a pretty good deal since most banks only offer the first year of the annual fee to be waived for their best cards. Of course, the more basic credit cards have free annual fee-for-life promos but the perks and rewards of those cards are minimal.
Spend-to-mile ratio
If you know me then you know that I almost only get travel credit cards, and the most important thing about a travel credit card is its spend-to-mile ratio because that's how we can get free flights.
BPI recently underwent a change with its rewards program. Points earned used to be called Real Thrills Reward points and Real Thrills Rewards Premium points, it's a mouthful to say and a horrible way to name them, to be honest. Good thing they simplified it to BPI points.
So the BPI Visa Signature's earn rate is 2 BPI points for every ₱20 spend, which is the best among the BPI credit cards right now. But points to miles is not always 1 is to 1. I've gone through the tedious task of calling BPI to get the updated redemption values for the 3 airlines BPI partners with since it can't be found on their website.
Philippine Airlines - 16,000 BPI points for every 1,000 Mabuhay Miles
₱160 spend for 1 Mabuhay Mile
Singapore Airlines - 25,000 BPI points for every 1,000 KrisFlyer Miles
₱250 spend for 1 KrisFlyer Mile
AirAsia - 8,000 BPI points for every 1,000 AirAsia points
₱80 spend for 1 AirAsia point
(10 working days processing time)
As you can see above the earn rate is absolutely abysmal. This wasn't the case before and the earn rate was pretty good before. Read about my old review of the BPI Visa Signature
here.
I currently have 192,958 BPI points accumulated over the past couple of years as seen here on the VYBE app by BPI (which sucks). If I were to convert that to Mabuhay Miles, I would only get 12,000 Mabuhay Miles which really isn't much considering I spent ₱1.9M and I can only redeem it for roughly a roundtrip flight from Cebu and Manila.
Lounge access
Unlimited lounge access is granted in the PAGSS lounges in NAIA T1 and T3 with one companion. The PAGSS lounge in T1 is decent, to say the least, but the one in T3 is basically a small room dark room with just 2 food choices, soft drinks, coffee, and tea. Still better than waiting in the boarding gate I guess and at least the wifi was good.
Low foreign transaction fee
A bright side of the card is its low foreign transaction fee of just 1.85% compared to other credit cards here in the Philippines. This makes it nice to use when you're abroad or when you're buying something online with a different currency.
Travel Insurance
The Visa Signature card does have a ₱20M free travel insurance if you book your travel with the card, but I do suggest booking a separate travel insurance and not relying on the free credit card insurance as they are usually loaded with very specific fine prints that may make you ineligible. Claiming can be a pain in the butt as well so make sure you read the terms and conditions first.
Visa Luxury Hotel Collection
Visa's counterpart to the hotel section of Mastercard's Travel and Lifestyle Services, The Visa Luxury Hotel Collection enables you to get elite status-like benefits at participating luxury hotels worldwide.
Standard perks include:
Best rate guaranteed
Room upgrade upon arrival, when available
$25 or food and beverage credits
Complimentary breakfast for 2
Late check-out, when available
VIP guest status*
*varies per property
As somebody who likes staying in nice hotels it's an amazing perk to have. I have however never tried booking through the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection since I prefer the Mastercard Travel and Lifestyle version. You can read more about my experience with the Mastercard equivalent here.
Other Visa Signature perks
Include specific Visa promos in participating stores, restaurants, and websites as well as concierge and airport meet & greet services, which I think most of us won't ever use since it's just a discount.
Bottomline
It's a sad fall from what was once a good travel card to a below-average travel credit card. Lounge access is only at PAGGS lounges in 2 locations and the spend to mile earn rate is horrible. Match that with the heavy annual fee of ₱5,500 and it just isn't worth it unless you shop a lot abroad and make back the annual fee through savings with the low foreign transaction fees.
My personal advice is it's a horrible way to earn airline miles and if you're paying the annual fee it's not worth having.
Follow me on Instagram @gerald.quintos to see what I'm up to!
Check out The Points Society playlist on Youtube.
Get back the 5500 annual fee?
Just use the card to eat 3-4x in a 50% off discount then its almost worth the annual fee of 5500.
Ex. 3000 min spend, you pay only 1500 + service charge which is less than 2000.
1500 per promo x 4 is 6000 which is way more than the annual fee. It has a huge selection of restos and you can use it as long as the promo is available where the duration of a restaurant promo takes at least a month.
The lounge access are not that appealing since I also have them with my other cards. That 5500 annual fee if you eat at restos is better than the capped cashback…
Check the miles conversion again sa BPI website, they have bonus miles if your using BPI Sig. The conversion of peso to miles is Php 50.
Thanks for this review. What would you consider to be the best travel card now?