What makes you decide on using a credit card over another? it’s the benefits you get out of the card right? Don’t know about you, but the one thing I want from a credit card is cash rebate. Fanciful marketing does nothing to move me and i believe this is also true for most people. I’m sure banks noticed that, as there are now more cards that give you high cash rebate (>0.5%) than ever before. So the next question is, which credit cards give you the most cash rebate?
Before I continue, standard disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated to any company mentioned in this article and opinions expressed are solely my own. The accuracy of the content below is subject to change and is on a best effort basis. Alright, let’s get straight to the point – i use Bank of China’s (BOC) Shop!, Standard Chartered’s (SCB) Manhattan, Maybank’s Family and Friends and POSB’s Everyday cards. I did a search to see what others have to say about the best credit cards with high cash rebate in the market and found a few other popular cards – OCBC’s Frank, Citibank’s SMRT, Standard Chartered’s SingPost and UOB’s One. There is also another recently introduced card that looks promising – ANZ Optimum. Now, that’s 9 credit cards to compare and consider. (Update 28 Jan 2016: please see my survey of Singapore credit cards for a more updated review on the best credit cards)
These cards can be divided into two general groups – blanket (all spending count towards the high cash rebate) and category specific (only one or two categories of spending, such as online purchases, groceries, dining etc. give you the high cash rebate). The SCB Manhattan and UOB One fall under the ‘blanket’ group. Here’s how they compare:
SCB Manhattan
Maximum rebate of $200 per quarter
3% rebate provided you spend more than $3000 in a single month, otherwise 1% for above $1000 spend and 0.5% for above $500
Cash rebates also awarded on payment of recurring charges (e.g. insurance installment)
Pros: $200 per quarter is the highest rebate amount available in the market
Cons: Only useful when you know you are going to spend above $3000 (up to $6667) in a particular month to earn the 3% rebate, otherwise getting 1% or 0.5% rebate is not attractive
UOB One
Maximum rebate of $150 per quarter
3.33% rebate. Either $150, $80 or $30 rebate provided you spend $1500, $800 or $300 respectively per month for 3 months consecutively
Minimum 3 transactions per month
Cash rebates also awarded on payment of recurring charges (e.g. insurance installment)
Additional 2% awarded on foreign currency spending overseas (spending capped at $5000 per year)
Pros: Decent rebates for $300 spending per month which should be easy to hit for most people especially when recurring charges are allowed.
Cons: All spending above $300 (or $800 or $1500) does not earn you any further rebate, so you have to switch to using another card once you exceed $300 (or $800 or $1500).
Winner: It depends on how much you spend. UOB One is good for recurring charges while SCB Manhattan is good for the occasional over $3000 spending.
Under the ‘category specific’ group, for online transactions we have
BOC Shop!
Maximum rebate of $50 per month with 5.5% rebate for the first $1000 spent on online transactions or Departmental store transactions, thereafter 1%
Minimum spending of $500 per month required
0.5% rebate for other spend
Pros: No restriction on type of online transaction which makes it easy to hit the $500 minimum spending (e.g. telco bills paid online, HDB parking)
Cons: None
Update 29 July 2016: The cashback associated with online transaction is revoked with effect from 1 Aug 2016.
OCBC Frank
Maximum rebate of $60 per month with 6% rebate on online transactions
Minimum spending of $500 per month required
3% rebate on entertainment spending (5% during weekends)
Also awards 3% rebate (capped at $6) on first two NETS Flashpay Auto Top up transactions
0.3% rebate for other spend
Pros: 0.5% higher rebate compared to BOC Shop! card
Cons: Long list of online transactions that do not earn you rebate, quoted from OCBC Frank’s terms and conditions – (a) Payments made via telephone or mail order; (b) Subscription and recurring payments; (c) Payments to government institutions; (d) Payments to financial institutions (including banks and brokerages); (e) Payments to insurance companies; (f) Utility bill payments; (g) Donations; h) Payment of funds to prepaid accounts and merchants who are categorised as “payment service providers”; (i) Payments to schools, hospitals, professional services providers and payments for parking lots (j) Payments of membership fees to clubs and associations; (k) Payments made via online banking;
SCB SingPost
Maximum rebate of $60 per month with 7% rebate on online transactions
Minimum spending $600 required
Also rewards 2% on Supermarket transactions (as good as useless)
0.25% rebate for other spend
Pros: Highest rebate for online transactions
Cons: Excludes insurance premium payments, utilities, EZ-link transactions and online bill payment
Winner: OCBC Frank is likely to be more useful with the rebates given on entertainment.
For groceries, we have
Maybank Family and Friends
Maximum rebate of $600 per year
Minimum spending of $500 per month required
5% rebate at Fairprice and Cold Storage, plus leading petrol stations and hypermarts in Malaysia
0.3% rebate for other spend
Additional 3% rebate if $1000 spent in that month
Pros: Cash rebate is automatically credited into the account, no need to do redemption. Good for occasional trips to Malaysia for those who drive. Maximum rebate calculated on a per year basis which is better than on a per month basis. Additional 3% rebate is actually useful for those months you have to spend on items that don’t otherwise give you any rebate (e.g. medical bill).
Cons: No rebate if $500 minimum requirement not met
Citibank SMRT
Maximum rebate of $280 per year
Minimum spending of $600 per month required, otherwise rebate will be 0.3% less
5% rebate at FairPrice, Giant and Sheng Siong, 5% for Town Council conservancy charge, 2% for EZ Reload Auto Top-up, 15% at selected Coffee joints, 1% for telco and selected insurance bills
0.3% rebate for other spend
Pros: If the $600 minimum spend is not met, the rebate is merely 0.3% less, which is insignificant, so one need not bother about it
Cons: You might easily hit the $280 annual cap on rebates without knowing it. If you do the math, you can only spend $466 per month! The “minimum spend of $600 to get the full rebate” clause is really just a psychological trick. Also, you need to do redemption of vouchers which is a hassle, and there’s always the risk that you forget to do the redemption or use the vouchers before their expiry.
Winner: If you are able to chalk up $500 of spending every month, Maybank Family and Friends seems to be the better deal. Plus, it gives you the flexibility earn additional 3% rebate when you spend more than $1000. Otherwise, you “fall back” on Citibank SMRT.
Next we have 2 other cards that are each unique in it’s own right:
POSB Everyday
The only card that allows you to make recurring payments to SP Services (i.e. utilities bills) and earn 1% rebate at the same time. There is also 5% rebate (capped at $50 per month) at Sheng Siong with no minimum monthly spend required.
ANZ Optimum
5% rebate on dining (restaurants, hotels, bars and cinemas), travel (airlines, travel agencies, and online travel portals), Shopping (fashion boutiques and online fashion stores) or groceries (supermarkets). 1% on all other spend (as a comparison, you have to spend a minimum of $1000 in a month on SCB Manhattan to get 1%). There is no limit on your cash rebate earnings, but there is a maximum of 30 Optimum$ (each equivalent to S$1 currently) awarded per transaction, which allows spending up to $600 per transaction (may not be enough when buying flight tickets for example). No minimum spend is required, which is a good thing. Note that the cash rebate isn’t credited into your account automatically and you have to make a minimum redemption of $50 each time (which can take some time to accumulate). As with all rewards redemption programme, there is an expiry date on the accumulated cash rebate, which is 3 years from account opening. In case you are not able to accumulate $50 worth of rebate before the expiry date, you will lose it all. There is another catch (they’re a bank afterall.. all out for your money): in order to receive the 5% rebate, you are supposed to select your preferred category before the start of every calendar quarter (i.e. Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct), failing which you will not get the 5% rebate (just 1% instead) for the whole quarter. There is also a nasty clause in the terms and conditions that states that the Optimum$ accumulated may be deducted automatically to offset the annual fee. Even with all these conditions in place, i think the careful consumer still stands to benefit from this card.
Here’s the strategy that works for me:
Accumulate $500 worth of online transactions in a month (telco bills and HDB parking payment help, especially when you can pay for a few months of HDB parking at one go to make up for the shortfall to $500) and pay them using BOC Shop! card.
Accumulate >$350 worth of recurring payments in a month (insurance premium payment) and pay them with Maybank Family and Friends card. Usually the groceries spending in a month will be more than $150 and that will take me beyond the $500 minimum required to get the 5% rebate on groceries at FairPrice.
Pay recurring SP Services bill through POSB Everyday card. i also use this card to pump petrol at SPC stations.
Use the newly launched ANZ Optimum card for rebates on dining. This used to be the only category of spending i don’t get much rebates on. Also, use this card for all other spend to get 1% rebate (including online transactions).
If i know i am going to spend more than $3000 in a month (excluding dining), then i will use the SCB Manhattan to get 3% rebate.
I guess everyone has a different pattern of spending, but i’m sure you’ll be able to formulate a winning combination using some of the above mentioned cards.
Update: please see the follow up post ANZ Optimum World credit card test drive results for more on the 5% cash rebate.
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