Paying your helper’s salary with your credit card through CardUp

Managing household chores isn’t always easy, in addition to juggling the many other aspects of work and family, as well as looking after your loved ones young and old.

Many families are turning towards hiring a domestic helper for that extra pair of hands to help out at home. In fact, there are more than 250,000 foreign domestic workers currently being employed in Singapore as of December 2018 – or approximately one in every five households!

While this process of getting a live-in helper can be pretty straightforward, there are also various costs that you ought to be aware of, as well as the levy concessions that can help with some of these:

• Helper agency fees
• Settling-in costs (for first-time helpers)
• Work permit application
• Work permit issuance
• Foreign Domestic Worker Levy
• Security deposit
• Helper insurance
• Monthly salary
• Living expenses

Opening a bank account for your helper

As of January 2019, employers of foreign domestic helpers are no longer allowed to safe-keep any money belonging to their helpers, a positive step in preventing any money-related disputes. With this regulation in place, it makes sense to open a bank account for your helper to: 

• Keep an electronic record of salary payments for both parties
• Save time by going cashless and setting up recurring payments
• Provide more security for their money and helps your helper with personal finance management 

You can also assist your helper in opening a POSB Payroll Account through the Centre for Domestic Employees, without requiring any prior relationship with the bank, and no minimum deposit and monthly balances are required. 

New: Paying your helper’s salary with your credit cards through CardUp!

While a fixed bank transfer payment to your helper’s bank account can be convenient, why not make the process rewarding too? 

CardUp now lets you put your helper’s salary on your credit card through our platform, allowing you to enjoy these benefits and more:

• Earn more rewards on your existing credit cards (both miles and cashback)
• Maximise your rewards by contributing to your card’s monthly minimum spend requirements, if any
• Set up payments on a recurring schedule
• Have full visibility on all past and future payments on the CardUp dashboard

How much can you earn on your Helper Salary payments with CardUp?

Based on certain estimates and our personal experiences, the cost of hiring a helper can average around $650 per month. While CardUp charges a fee per transaction, many times the potential rewards earned on your cards will easily outweigh this fee. Here are three scenarios to illustrate how:

Scenario 1: Miles card users

Let’s say you already have a monthly spend of about $1,550 on your existing miles card, which earns you 1.4 miles per dollar spent. With this spend amount, you’re able to get 26,040 air miles within a year, which is not sufficient for a return business class ticket. 

By putting your monthly helper salary of $650 onto your credit card through CardUp, you’re now able to earn sufficient miles to fly business class each year!

Scenario 2: Miles card users with other CardUp spend

CardUp also allows you to shift other payments normally made by cash or bank transfers to your credit card, including payments such as rent, insurance, education fees, taxes and more. 

By putting all of these spend on your credit card through CardUp, here’s how you’re able to earn over 94,000 air miles - which can then be redeemed for a return business class flight to Tokyo, Japan!

This flight is worth about $4,000 when purchased off the airlines, while it ‘costs’ you only $1,480 in CardUp fees; essentially letting you fly business class for less than half the price!

Scenario 3: Cashback card users

A popular cashback card in the market is the Maybank Platinum Visa card, which gives up to 3% cashback on all online payments, CardUp spend included. Making your payments through CardUp (e.g. your monthly helper salary of $650, and insurance premium value of $350) – should easily allow you to hit the spend of S$1,000 every month for each quarter to qualify for the maximum S$100 quarterly cashback (i.e. S$400 yearly cashback).

How do you pay helper's salary on CardUp?

Here’s how you can get started:

1. Sign up for a free CardUp account

If you're an existing CardUp user, log in to your account.

2. Schedule a payment

Start scheduling your payment by selecting the Helper Salary payment category

3. Under “Purpose”, select Helper Salary and fill in your helper’s details. Required documents to process this payment are a copy of your helper’s:

1. • Valid work permit card (front and back) issued by MOM
   • Bank statement, showing the name and bank account number

4. Fill in the payment amount and schedule a monthly recurring payment to your helper

5. Select your credit card, review and confirm your payment!

With this new credit card payments type, you’ll be able to rack up even more rewards on your favourite credit cards faster. 

Know of someone else in your community with helper salary payments? Refer them to CardUp and earn with each new user you bring onto our platform!