I’ve written about the best credit cards for overseas spend (one of the more popular posts on this site) and also about credit cards that earn you the most cash rebate (it is slightly outdated already). Here’s my personal take on all the credit cards in the market. Note that corporate credit cards and cards aimed at specific demographic or special-interests or tied to specific merchants are generally excluded (e.g. high rollers, students, golfers, petrol, departmental store etc.). Cards for accumulating air miles are also excluded. Let me be honest about this – i don’t believe in accumulating air miles, since i am never insistent on sticking with any particular airline for flights. Even when you use your miles, you will still be paying taxes and levies, which can sometimes amount to as much as the price of a discounted flight ticket.
In terms of the benefits you get from a credit card, there are generally two categories of credit cards – either it gives you cashback or reward points. To meaningfully compare cards from both categories, the reward points has to be converted to dollar terms. I do this by calculating the percentage you get, relative to the spend amount, when you redeem the reward points for cash credit. Usually, the reward points required for exchanging into cash credit is not as favourable as, say, restaurant vouchers, but for comparison sake, it is more objective to do so.
| Rank | Bank/Card | Verdict | Main Feature | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Citibank Dividend | Highest cashback (8%) if you spend about $300 per month on each of groceries, petrol and dining | Cashback | 8% cashback | Minimum $888 retail spend per month, maximum $25 cashback for each of petrol, grocery and dining categories, meaning you need to spend around $300 on each of the categories |
| 1 | UOB One | 3.33% cashback with just minimum of $500 spend per month for 3 consecutive months | Cashback | 5% cashback for 3 consecutive months of $2000 spent per month, or 3.33% for 3 consecutive months of $500 or $1000 spent per month | A hassle to keep track of spending so as not to exceed $500, $1000 or $2000 by too much |
| 1 | OCBC 365 | 3% cashback on dining, online, groceries and telco bills, with minimum of $600 spend. Quite a wide range of categories included for earning cashback, including S$ online spend which is rare | Cashback | 3% cashback on dining (6% on weekends), online retail transactions, groceries, recurring telco bills, medical (for Child Development Account Trustees) with minimum $600 retail spend per month | Except fro Telco bills, recurring charges are not included in the calculation of the minimum $600 spend per month |
| 2 | Citibank SMRT Platinum Visa | Best for Town Council conservancy charges and groceries | Cashback | Up to 7.3% rebates on groceries, 5% on Town Council Service and Conservancy Charges payment, 1% on other bill payments, 2% on EZ-Reload | Requires performing voucher redemption |
| 2 | UOB Delight | Similar but not as good as Citibank SMRT Platinum Visa | Cashback | 8% cashback on groceries with $800 spend per month, otherwise 3% rebate with $400 spend, 3% rebate on payWave transactions and 3% on Telcos, Insurance (UOI and Prudential only), Town council bill with $400 spend | Maximum $50 rebate per month |
| 2 | UOB Visa Signature | Best card for overseas spend | Cashback and Rewards | 5% cashback on foreign currency spending (overseas and online, with minimum of S$1000 in foreign currency spent in the month) and Visa payWave, capped at S$100 of cashback per month, which allows one to spend up to S$2000 in a month | Redemption of UNI$ is in multiples of S$100. The “leftover” UNI$ can be used to redeem other vouchers (get a $10 voucher starting from $312.5 worth of spending) |
| 2 | SCB Manhattan World MasterCard | Fantastic when you’re going to spend more than $3000 in a month | Cashback | 3% cashback for above $3000 spending in a month, otherwise 1% for above $1000 and 0.5% for above $500 spending (capped at $200 per quarter) | |
| 3 | Maybank Family & Friends Platinum MasterCard | Good for groceries, and if you drive into Malaysia often | Cashback | 5% rebate at Cold Storage, Fairprice and leading petrol stations and hypermarts in Malaysia (valid till Dec 2015) with minimum $500 spend per month (recurring charges is included in the calculation though not awarded cash rebate). Additional 3% rebate when spending more than $1000 in a month. | |
| 3 | Citibank M1 Platinum Visa | For M1 customers and for overseas retail spend (applicable to non M1 customers) | Cashback | 1.5% and above rebates on M1 bill, 5% rebate on overseas retail spend with minimum of $3000 spend (no need to be m1 customer) | |
| 3 | Maybank Platinum Visa Card | If your monthly retail expenditure is about $300 | Cashback | 3.33% cash rebate with minimum spending of $300 (or $1000) every month in a quarter which is quite easily attainable | A hassle to keep track of spending so as not to exceed $300 (or $1000) by too much, $20 service fee per quarter if there is no transaction in the quarter which is a hassle also |
| 3 | CIMB Platinum MasterCard | The only card that offers cashback on insurance payment | Cashback | 3.8% cashback on health and wellness, insurance and home furnishings and applianes (till May 2016) with $500 spend | |
| 4 | POSB Everyday | The only card with rebates on SP Services | Cashback | 5% cashback on dining, 3% on groceries (till Dec 2015) with minimum $500 spend, 2% on EZ-Reload, 1% on SP Services | |
| 4 | HSBC Visa Platinum | 5% cashback on recurring mobile/cable TV/internet bill payment | Cashback | 5% cashback on recurring mobile/cable TV/internet bill payment, 3% cashback on groceries and 1% on dining with $400 spend/month (or 5% on groceries and 2% on dining with $800 spend/month) for all 3 months in a quarter | |
| Citibank Rewards | Don’t bother | Rewards | Assuming you only use the card on items that qualify for 10x rewards, then you are getting the equivalent of 2.7% cashback | 10x rewards only for shoes, clothes, bags, departmental and online retail stores | |
| Citibank Clear Platinum Card | Don’t bother | Rewards | Works in a similar way as the Citibank Rewards Card, but with only 5x rewards, which is equivalent to 1.35% and above rebates | ||
| FRANK | 6% cashback for online purchases is nice but to exclude the online spend amount in calculating the monthly minimum spend is mean | Cashback | 6% cashback on online retail transactions, 3% cashback at bars, cinemas, KTVs, clubs and selected cafes (5% on weekends) | Minimum $400 retail spend excluding online transactions | |
| CIMB Visa Signature | Don’t bother | Cashback | 3.8% cashback on dining and entertainment and online spend in foreign currency (minimum $50 per transaction) and Visa payWave with minimum 3 transactions and $500 spent in the month, complimentary one-way airport transfer with $500 spent within 3 months or 90 days (quite worthwhile if you stay in the west) | 3.8% cashback on dining and online foreign currency transactions is already lower than the 5% offered by other cards, and there is still a requirement to spend at least $50 to earn it | |
| OCBC Platinum | Don’t bother | Rewards | 0.286% cash rebate, lower than the industry wide minimum of 0.3% | ||
| DBS Live Fresh Visa | Don’t bother | Rewards | 6% cashback for online purchases (till Dec 2015), 3x rewards for online purchases, overseas spend, EZ-reload and Visa payWave | Only 0.5% cash rebate when accumulating 3x points, what a joke | |
| DBS Black | Don’t bother | Rewards | 3x rewards on Visa payWave and 2x rewards on all spend | Similar to the Live Fresh card, only 0.5% cash rebate when accumulating 3x points | |
| DBS Woman’s World Mastercard | Don’t bother | Rewards | 10x rewards on online retail spend, 3x rewards on overseas spend | 1.6% cash rebate | |
| UOB Preferred Platinum Visa | Skip this and go with UOB Visa Signature | Rewards | Equivalent to 2% cashback for online retail purchases, Visa payWave and selected merchants | ||
| UOB Lady’s Platinum | Don’t bother | Rewards | Equivalent to 1% cashback for departmental store, overseas and online retail transactions | ||
| SCB Platinum Visa/MasterCard | Don’t bother | Rewards | Equivalent to 0.3% cashback | ||
| SCB SingpPost Platinum Visa | Don’t bother | Cashback | 7% cashback for online transactions with minimum $600 spending in a month (capped at $60) | Insurance, utilities, online bill payments and such do not qualify for 7% cashback, only 2% cashback on groceries | |
| HSBC’s Revolution | Don’t bother | Rewards | 5x rewards on online (10x on Wednesday), local dining and local entertainment | No reward on Visa payWave, equivalent to 2.5% cashback with the 10x rewards | |
| American Express True Cashback | Don’t bother | Cashback | 1.5% cashback on all spending with no minimum spend and no cap | You’re likely to gain more with the ANZ Optimum card which gives you 5% on dining and 1% on everything else (just 0.5% short of this card) | |
| American Express Platinum | Could offer some decent F&B discounts | Rewards | Seemingly extensive F&B privileges programme | Most of the dining discounts are only 15% which barely offsets the GST and service fee, rewards are equivalent to only 0.6% cashback | |
| American Express Rewards | Don’t bother | Rewards | Equivalent to 0.48% cashback |
(Visited 590 times, 1 visits today)
Leave a Reply