Best credit card GSS promotions

The Great Singapore Sale may not be as huge an affair as, say, 11.11 or Black Friday, but I doubt anyone's complaining about any excuse to shop.

While the "official" Great Singapore Sale 2019 dates are from 21 June to 28 July 2019, some banks have already started rolling out a small onslaught of GSS promo codes and discounts, for both online and offline shopping.

Let's find out what GSS promotions your favourite credit card has to offer, shall we?

GREAT SINGAPORE SALE 2019 - BEST CREDIT CARD PROMOTIONS

UOB CREDIT CARD PROMOTIONS - MUJI, TAOBAO, SEPHORA, BOOK DEPOSITORY

UOB's got some of the best credit card promotions right now, which is great news if you just got one of their newly (re)launched cards, the UOB KrisFlyer credit card and UOB Lady's Card.

UOB's landing page for fashion and beauty-related credit card privileges is chock full of Great Singapore Sale offers, with a wide array of boutique brands, blogshops, lingerie stores and makeup/beauty shops.

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There are also lots of big name crowd-pleasers, too, like Muji (10 per cent off, min. spend $100) and Sephora ($8 return voucher, min. spend $120). These are on top of the big name e-commerce sites like Qoo10 ($10 coupon) and Zalora (20 per cent off, min. spend $120).

If you're planning a big Taobao haul, set an alarm for 10am on 16 Jun: UOB is doing a one-off $12 off $100 promo + 3 per cent service fee waiver + extra 55RMB off with promo code TBUOBGSS.

I like that UOB also has a couple of promos for bookworms too: 20 per cent off sitewide on BooksActually and 10 per cent off on Book Depository.

DBS / POSB PROMOTIONS - AMAZON PRIME NOW, TIMBERLAND, CHARLES & KEITH, CLUB21

Although not as good as UOB's, the range of DBS / POSB credit card promotions right now isn't too shabby either.

In addition to the usual suspects like Zalora, your DBS/POSB credit card also gets you discounts at brands like Charles & Keith ($10 off $100), Fred Perry (15 per cent off), Kate Spade (10 per cent off, min. spend $450) and Club 21 (10 per cent off, min. purchase 2 items).

But my favourite DBS deal is a $20 off $60 coupon on Amazon Prime Now for new customers. Not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you think "GSS", but a really good deal nonetheless.

CITIBANK PROMOTIONS - LOVE BONITO, HARVEY NORMAN, CITY SQUARE MALL, SUNTEC CITY

Like almost every other bank in Singapore, Citibank has pretty good promo codes and coupons for e-commerce giants like Qoo10 ($10 off $60) and Zalora (20 per cent off, min. spend $120).

Other noteworthy mentions are the GSS exclusives for popular blog shop Love Bonito ($15 off $120) and electronics megastore Harvey Norman ($20 NTUC FairPrice vouchers with min. spend $999).

They also have tie-ups with shopping malls City Square Mall ($10 voucher, min. spend $200) and Suntec City ($10 voucher, min. spend $150) so if there ever was a time to go wild at Don Don Donki, it's now. You can check out the other Citibank GSS promotions here.

HSBC PROMOTIONS - HIPVAN, LOVE BONITO, ZALORA, ASHLEY SUMMER

For those looking to shop for clothes, HSBC credit cards have a few good promotions this GSS. There's Zalora ($20 off $110) of course, as well as blogshop Love Bonito (8 per cent off storewide) and lingerie store Ashley Summer (15 per cent off, min. spend $80).

If you're looking to spruce up your home, HSBC also has a HipVan promo code for 8 per cent off with no minimum spend.

Although HSBC doesn't have quite as many promo codes and discounts, they've partnered with rebate sites Shopback and RebateMango to give you store credit rebates when you shop on global e-commerce sites.

HSBC x Shopback has sites like ASOS, Book Depository, iHerb, Net-a-Porter, while HSBC x RebateMango has Sephora, Reebonz and Charles & Keith. You can see the full range here.

MAYBANK PROMOTIONS - REEBONZ, PIERRE CARDIN, HIPVAN, CLUB 21 OUTLET

Not too many people in Singapore use Maybank credit cards, which is a shame as they have a really wide range of shopping-related credit card promotions, especially for small online boutiques like Me-in.KR, LeChicSG, Gnome & Bow and Ashley Summer.

Some highlights this GSS are Pierre Cardin (20 per cent off), Outlet by Club 21 (10 per cent off) and Reebonz ($60 off $500). There are also the more typical promotions with Zalora ($22 off $120) and Qoo10 ($10 off $60).

By the way, if you're looking to revamp your home, Maybank credit cards also give you 10 per cent off Hipvan with no minimum spend - that's the best Hipvan credit card deal I've found so far.

AMEX PROMOTIONS - ION ORCHARD, JUNCTION 8, MR PORTER, URBAN DECAY, KIEHL'S

American Express has tie-ups this GSS with two major shopping malls - Ion Orchard ($50 voucher with min. spend $450) and Junction 8 (free luggage or CapitaLand STAR$ with min. spend).

For beauty junkies, another notable offer Amex has is a $15 off $150 promotion at Kiehl's, Urban Decay, Shu Uemura, YSL Beauty and/or Giorgio Armani Beauty.

There's also a Father's Day promotion on Mr Porter (10 per cent off Mr. P products) and legendary American department store Bloomingdale's website (free shipping + 10 per cent off).

STANDARD CHARTERED PROMOTIONS - TANGS, ZALORA, ASOS, SEPHORA, NET-A-PORTER

Sadly, Standard Chartered falls a bit short compared to most other banks when it comes to Great Singapore Sale promotions. The best one I found was this Tangs promotion ($15 voucher with min. spend $200).

Similar to HSBC, Standard Chartered has a tie-up with online rebate platform RebateMango. You can get partner rebates when you shop online on Charles & Keith, Macy's, Net-a-Porter, Sephora, and ASOS, with the better discounts concentrated among the last 3.

Apart from that, Standard Chartered credit cards will also net you some discounts at the "big 4" e-commerce sites - Zalora (15 per cent off, min. spend $100), Lazada ($20 off $250), Qoo10 (coupons every Thursday) and Shopee ($6 off $50).

OCBC PROMOTIONS - NIKE, REEBONZ, ZALORA, SEPHORA, ASOS

I'm hoping that OCBC will update its promotions page with more GSS promotions soon, because the current ones are not terribly inspiring.

Apart from the usual promotions for the likes of Zalora (15 per cent off, min. spend $100) and Shopee ($3 off $30), the only ones that caught my eye are 10 per cent discount at Nike and 6 per cent at Reebonz - hardly cause for a shopping spree.

OCBC also has tie-ups with RebateMango for sites like Sephora, iHerb, Lazada, Under Armour and ASOS, so you can get a rebate in store credit when you shop at these sites.

This article was first published in MoneySmart.