Two cards, two annual fees — usually
When you add a supplementary cardholder (commonly a spouse, parent, or adult child) to your credit card account, most Singapore banks charge a separate annual fee for the supplementary card, distinct from the principal cardholder's fee. Some cards include one supplementary card fee-free as a stated benefit; others charge for every card issued, principal or supplementary.
This is worth checking specifically in your card's terms, because the two fees are not always symmetrical — a supplementary card fee is sometimes lower than the principal fee, sometimes identical, and occasionally waived entirely as a standard benefit of a specific card tier.
Can a supplementary card fee be waived independently?
Yes — and this is the detail most people miss. A supplementary card's annual fee waiver is typically assessed as its own request, separate from the principal card. This means:
- Waiving the fee on your principal card does not automatically waive the supplementary card fee
- You (as the principal cardholder, since supplementary cardholders generally can't authorise account changes themselves) need to raise the supplementary fee as a distinct part of the call, or as a separate call entirely
- The Total Relationship Value used to assess the waiver is calculated at the account level, factoring in combined spend across principal and supplementary cards — so a supplementary card with healthy usage can actually help the principal cardholder's case, and vice versa
A common mistake: assuming the supplementary card doesn't matter
Because the supplementary cardholder isn't the one paying the bill directly in most household arrangements, it's easy to forget the card carries its own fee line that needs the same annual attention as the principal card. Cardholders who only think to ask about "my" annual fee often leave the supplementary fee sitting on the statement unaddressed, year after year.
If you manage the account, treat the supplementary card fee as a second, separate line item to check every year — not an afterthought bundled with the principal fee.
What to say when calling about both
When you do call, it's worth explicitly separating the two asks: confirm the principal card fee status first, then ask specifically, "Is there also an annual fee on the supplementary card, and can that be waived as well?" Bundling them into one vague question sometimes results in only the principal fee being addressed.
The clawbacks.ai approach
When you register a card with clawbacks.ai, our system tracks the fee status of each card independently — principal and supplementary — so a supplementary card fee doesn't quietly go unaddressed while the principal card gets attention.