Mall loyalty programme comparison: Frasers Experience vs CapitaStar vs ShopFarEast vs Lendlease Plus

If your SOP at the mall is to swipe your card, grab your purchases and leave, you may well be leaving money on the table. That’s because many malls operate loyalty programmes, schemes that allow shoppers to earn bonus rebates on their purchases, on top of credit card rewards. 

But how do these work, and what’s the effort-reward ratio like? We’ll explore these in this post. 

Which malls offer loyalty programmes?

There are currently four major mall rewards programmes in Singapore, run by CapitaLand, Far East, Frasers and Lendlease. Collectively, they cover more than 50 malls across Singapore, meaning you’re almost certain to visit one of them regularly. 

Below are the summarised key aspects of each rewards program.

Features	CapitaStar	ShopFarEast (SFE)	Frasers Experience (FRx)	Lendlease Plus
Earn Rate*	$1 = 5 STAR$	$1 = 1 SFE point	$1 = 1 FRx point	$1 = 10 Plus$
Min. Spend to Earn Points	$20($10 at Jewel)	$10	$10	$10
Max. Earn Per Day	5,000 STAR$	1,000 SFE points	500 FRx points	10,000 Plus$
Spend required for $5 voucher	$1,000	$500	$1,000(S$500 if FRx elite)	$1,000($500 if Premium)
Points Expiry	12 – 15 months	Six – 18 months	Three – 15 months	Six – 18 months
Free Parking	Spend $1,200 in a month for three hours free parking per day in the following month	350 points = Two hours parking	10 points = $0.05 carpark credit	Plus$ can be used to redeem parking
Third Party Partnerships	– AMEX CapitaCard– GrabRewards– Singapore Airlines	N/A	– STACK Rewards	N/A

*Lower accrual rates may apply at supermarkets

Let’s go through each of those terms to understand their implications.

Earn rate

This is pretty much self explanatory: the earn rate is the number of points you earn for every $1 spent at the mall.

The main thing to take note of here is that malls offer fewer points for spending at supermarkets as they do for other tenants. With CapitaStar, for instance, you earn one STAR$ per $1 spent at supermarkets, instead of 5 STAR$ elsewhere.

The simple reason is that supermarkets are valuable anchor tenants that draw customers to a mall. Mall operators therefore give them concessionary rental rates, which also reduces the scope to offer rewards on purchases. 

Min. spend to earn points

All four programmes require members to meet a certain minimum spend in order to accumulate points. This is set at $10 per receipt across all programmes except CapitaStar, which requires a minimum of $20. 

Max. earn per day

All four programmes cap the maximum number of points you can earn in a day. I don’t understand why, as it penalises those purchasing big-ticket items, behaviour which you’d think the malls would want to reward. 

The cap is set at $1,000 of daily spend across all programmes except FRx, where the cap is $500.

Points expiry

Your hard-earned points won’t last forever, and the expiry timelines can be quite confusing. You’ll notice I’ve indicated a range for each of the programmes above. That’s because expiry depends on when your points were accrued. 

To put it in greater detail:

• CapitaStar: STAR$ points expire at the end of the calendar quarter one year after they were earned. For example, points earned from Jan 1, to March 31, 2021 will expire on March 31, 2022, i.e the validity ranges from 12 to 15 months. 
• SFE: SFE points expire on June 30 of the following year. For example, points earned from 1 Jan to 31 Dec 2021 will expire on June 30, 2022, i.e the validity ranges from six to 18 months.
• FRx: FRx points issued from Oct 1 of the current year to Sept 30 of the following year must be redeemed by Dec 31 of the following year, i.e the validity ranges from three to 15 months.
• Lendlease Plus: Plus$ points will expire on June 30 of the following year. For example, points earned from Jan 1, to Dec 31, 2021 will expire on June 30, 2022, i.e the validity ranges from six to 18 months.

Free parking

This category is also self-explanatory. Rewards points can be used to redeem complimentary parking at participating shopping malls.

Third-party partnerships

Certain loyalty programmes have tied up with third parties to allow for accrual of points even when you’re not at the mall.

For example, AMEX CapitaCard members will earn 5 STAR$ per $1 spent outside of CapitaLand Malls, and GrabRewards & KrisFlyer members can also convert their points and miles into STAR$.

Likewise, FRx is part of the STACK Rewards platform, where users can convert points from OCBC credit cards, Great Eastern UPGREAT and Millennium Hotels & Resorts. 

Spend required for $5 voucher

Since we’re dealing with different rewards currencies here, the best way to compare 1 STAR$ to 1 SFE point to 1 FRx point to 1 Plus$ is to use a common denominator: how much do you need to spend to earn a S$5 shopping mall voucher?

ALSO READ: Loyalty programmes to keep shoppers keen

SFE is the most generous here, requiring $500 of spending to earn a $5 voucher. This works out to be an effective rebate of one per cent, double of what you get with the three other programmes. one per cent isn’t life-changing by any means, but it’s important to remember that you earn this on top of your credit card rewards, and it costs you nothing extra to earn those points. 

Which one is the best?

It’s hard to pinpoint an objective best programme, but I will make the following observations:

• CapitaStar has the most developed ecosystem by far. In addition to being the only programme here with its own cobrand card, members can convert Grab or KrisFlyer rewards points into STAR$. It’s just a shame it has the highest minimum spend required to earn points.

• SFE has the lowest spending threshold out of all four programmes in order to earn a $5 shopping voucher. Its main handicap is that its malls are mostly located outside the central core region. One unique feature of this programme is that members can use their points to redeem staycations at participating Far East properties like The Clan Hotel and The Barracks Hotel.

• FRx points have potentially the shortest validity, with some expiring a mere three months after being earned. While being on the STACK Rewards platform is an advantage, I’d advise against converting OCBC credit card points to FRx – you’d do much better by using them for miles instead

• With just four malls in total, Lendlease Plus has the smallest footprint out of all the four programmes. Their rewards catalogue is also very limited, making it a marginal player at best.

For those looking for an immediate payoff, I would recommend making big-ticket purchases at Far East malls, since they have the highest rebate at 1 per cent. Just be careful of any purchases over $1,000, which will trigger the daily points cap.

Conclusion

Mall rewards programmes are a useful way to pick up additional rebates, on top of whatever you earn with your credit card. They can be a hassle sometimes, what with all the tracking and receipt scanning, but if you’re disciplined enough you’ll be able to squirrel away a good chunk of points over time.