If you’re a National Serviceman, there’s good news coming your way with the arrival of a new credit card that also offers you lifestyle benefits. 

Paid-up members of SAFRA (Singapore Armed Forces Reservists Association) – and there are somewhere in the region of 500,000 of you – are being offered the card as part of a collaboration between the recreational association and DBS Bank.

Available from early in 2014, the new card will have the immediate attraction of being free of an annual fee, and offers discounts and privileges at around 1,700 retailers and merchants across the island. These benefits span just about anything you need from shopping to travel to everyday purchases like groceries, the announcement by government minister Chan Chun Sing said.

SAFRA membership, open to anybody who has completed their mandatory National Service and is now and operationally ready NSman, is already notably cheap, costing as little as $40 per year. Membership already gives generous benefits such as financial services, legal advice and healthcare offers, on top of what it likes to call a “country club lifestyle”, so it’s not surprising that DBS Bank should go into partnership with SAFRA to offer a quality credit card with no joining fee.

It’s a smart move for DBS Bank, as they’re getting ready access to half a million potential new customers (and their families), as well as a steady stream of newly qualified NSmen who are going to see a welcoming credit card offer as part of their welcome package to SAFRA.

Mr Chan, who is also president of SAFRA noted that the new card isn’t solely for NSmen, pointing out that it’s for the benefit of their families as well. Families are a part of the national service network, he said, which is why “we consciously make sure that we have packages for the NSmen and their families.”

Of course, if you’re not a member of SAFRA, there are many other appealing credit card deals available for you on our website.

Article by Jason Taylor – [email protected]