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7 Best Credit Cards in Singapore – MoneySmart Writers Pick Our Favourites

7 Best Credit Cards in Singapore – MoneySmart Writers Pick Our Favourites

It’s been over a year since I joined MoneySmart, and I’ve only just realised that, although we’ve got “best of” lists for the different types of credit cards (like cashback, miles, and rewards) we haven’t come up with a list of the best best credit cards in Singapore, period.

The problem is that it’s pretty damn hard to say what’s best in Singapore. So you know what? We’re just going to pick our favourites instead.

Of course, since we scrutinise boring credit card terms & conditions for a living, you can be sure our recommendations aren’t just randomly plucked out of thin air. Our favourite credit cards are all the best for some reason, as you’ll find out later on.

7 best credit cards in Singapore

Best credit card in Singapore

Why we love it

CIMB Visa Signature Card

Highest cashback card in Singapore

Citi SMRT Card

Best cashback card with no minimum spend

UOB KrisFlyer Credit Card

Earn KrisFlyer miles with day-to-day spending

OCBC Titanium Card

Earn miles with new home purchases

Maybank Family & Friends

Family-oriented cash rebates in both SG & MY

HSBC Advance Credit Card

Hassle-free backup cashback card

DBS Visa Debit Card

Debit card with actual cashback benefits

Best cashback card: CIMB Visa Signature Card

When I asked the MoneySmart editorial team for their favourite credit card, I got a chorus of: “CIMB VISA SIGNATURE CARD”.

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To give you an idea of our profiles, we’re all in our early stages of married/family life, and we all find this credit card an indispensable tool in our #adulting adventures.

I mean, it gives 10% cashback on three major spending categories:

  • Online including GrabPay, FavePay, travel bookings

  • Groceries including online supermarkets

  • Dining

The relative lack of restrictions means that pretty much everything in our daily lives, from diapers to pet food, can be covered as long as you purchase them through the right platform.

Before entering this life stage, the minimum spending requirement of $600 might have been tough to hit. (Not that we were super frugal or what lah – it’s just that you don’t spend money with clockwork regularity while single.)

But paying for a household allows you to easily hit that amount.

From then, it’s a simple matter of watching the rebates (up to $100 each month) roll in. I can’t tell you how great it feels to see something like $98 credited to your statement.

See the full review of the CIMB Visa Signature Card here.

Best no minimum spend card: Citibank SMRT Card

It was probably a bad decision for Citibank to co-brand their card with SMRT (don’t quote me though, I haven’t exactly done any ~brand uplift~ studies).

But although you would hardly whip out your Citi SMRT Card to impress the chicks/dudes, it’s probably the best cashback credit card in Singapore with no minimum spending requirement.

Well, technically, there’s a “minimum spend” of $300, but going below it doesn’t significantly affect your rebates. Your rebate goes down 0.3% (e.g. from 5% to 4.7%), that’s all.

The list of places where you can get rebates is really impressive. I’m just going to rattle off some names right now: McDonald’s, Starbucks, ToastBox, NTUC FairPrice, Giant, Cathay, GV…. Even Pet Lovers Centre is in there.

To top it all off, you can also get some cashback on online spending (2.7% or 3%) and your EZ-Link top-ups (1.7% or 2%). That’s really not bad considering you’re not forced to spend a certain amount each month.

For comparison, similar cashback cards in Singapore require a minimum spend of at least $600 (some impose $800) a month. If your expenses fall below that, then it’s definitely a good idea to use the Citi SMRT Card rather than be forced to overspend.

See the full review of the Citibank SMRT Card here.

Best miles card: UOB KrisFlyer Credit Card

And the winner for best miles card in Singapore? This might ruffle a few feathers, but I’m going to go with the freshly-launched UOB KrisFlyer credit card.

This baby is official co-branded with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, so it’s one of the few credit cards that lets you earn KrisFlyer miles directly – no conversion needed. Now, UOB could have left it at that, but they didn’t.

No, what makes this card legitimately good is that you can earn 3 miles per $1 spent on:

  • Dining including food delivery

  • Online shopping (fashion websites)

  • Major travel booking sites

  • Transport both public & private (taxis, Gojek)

That’s a whole lot better than most other miles cards, which just give you 1.2 miles per $1 spent locally and 2 miles overseas. How are you supposed to rack up the miles if you’re just a normal office worker who doesn’t travel every week, right?

Surely it’s way easier to earn miles with the UOB KrisFlyer miles card. Just think about how much you spend on your daily Daily Cut lunches and ASOS shopping sprees and multiply by 3.

This being UOB, there are naturally some T&Cs you need to fulfill. But for once, the conditions are quite reasonable and clearly laid out. You need to spend $500 a year on Scoot or SQ, and the miles are credited only after a year. Apart from that, there’s no minimum spend or cap.

See the full review of the UOB KrisFlyer Credit Card here.

Best for new home owners: OCBC Titanium Card

Do you already have an entire Google Drive filled with pictures of minimalist homes? Have you already made a wishlist of every. single. item you’re planning to get from IKEA?

In other words, are you counting down the days to your BTO key collection day?

Then you should probably arm yourself with a credit card especially for this wallet-busting (but oh so exciting) major event in your life. Because, apart from the renovation, you’re probably also going to be spending a lot of money on Taobao, Lazada and at IKEA.

The OCBC Titanium rewards card was practically made for this purpose, as it explicitly awards 10X rewards points (equivalent to 4 miles per $1) spent on merchants like:

  • Lazada

  • Qoo10

  • Shopee

  • Taobao

  • EZBuy

  • Amazon

  • IKEA

  • Courts

  • Mustafa Centre

Plus the following retailer categories: department stores, fashion, kidswear, and electronics stores.

So yeah, if you’re going to be spending loads of money on furniture, homeware and electronics, and even baby stuff, I can’t think of a better credit card to use.

Additionally, there’s no monthly cap on your points, just an annual cap of 120,000 OCBC$. That’s good for up to $12,000 of spending and you won’t have to worry about spreading it out.

Find out why the OCBC Titanium Card is one of the best rewards cards in Singapore here.

Best for parents: Maybank Family & Friends Card

Apart from becoming home-owners for the first time, the other majorly money-burning life stage for most Singaporeans is “starting a family”. Which is a euphemism for “henceforth sacrificing 100% of your time, money, and personal needs to your adorable but completely ungrateful offspring.”

To stay sane and save a little bit here and there, it’s a good idea to get a cashback card that helps you save on essentials like groceries, toiletries, petrol… and assessment books.

Of the many cashback cards available in Singapore, the Maybank Family & Friends card is the one that ticks all the boxes for young parents.

It gives you either a 5% (minimum spend $500) or 8% ($1,000) rebate on the following:

  • Groceries: NTUC FairPrice & Cold Storage

  • Toiletries: Watsons, Guardian & Unity

  • Enrichment: Popular bookstore, Yamaha Music, Toys R Us

  • Food delivery: Foodpanda, McDelivery, KFC, Pizza Hut

  • Transport: Petrol, taxis, public transport

Plus, if you drive over to JB often to stock up on cheaper groceries and the like, it also gives you rebates at Malaysian hypermarkets (Giant, Aeon, Tesco) as well as Malaysian petrol kiosks and even their theme parks (including Legoland).

See a more in-depth review of the Maybank Family & Friends Card here.

Best backup card: HSBC Advance Credit Card

The benefits of the HSBC Advance Credit Card (which is open to non-HSBC Advance customers, too, by the way) pale in comparison to most of the credit cards listed above, but I still really like having it around as a security blanket.

That’s because it’s a no minimum spend cashback card that you can use for those random expenses that don’t fall under any category, especially one-off expenses like annual insurance premiums and minor emergencies.

Non-HSBC Advance customers get 1.5% cashback on all purchases (there are the usual exclusions, e.g. tax payments, brokerages). If you spend at least $2,000 that month, the cashback is bumped up to 2.5%. (HSBC Advance customers get higher cashback.)

Unlike credit cards like the Standard Chartered Unlimited card or the Amex True Cashback card, the HSBC Advance card does have a cap of $70. But that’s OK if you use it as a backup, once-in-a-while card like I do.

There are tons of similar “1.5% cashback” cards on the market, it’s true, but most of these exclude insurance premiums, while the HSBC one doesn’t. Also, none of them give you higher rebates if you spend a lot that month.

See the full review of the HSBC Advance Credit Card here.

Best debit card: DBS Visa Debit Card

Surprise! The last of the “best credit cards in Singapore” is not actually a credit card – it’s a debit card.

I feel the need to include at least one debit card option, because not everybody can afford a credit card. Even those who meet the income qualifications may still opt to use a debit card, which offers the convenience of a credit card without the potential loss of control over your spending. (Plus, no annual fees ever!)

Though DBS has a number of credit cards in its stable, I actually think their strongest card is the DBS Visa Debit Card.

Unlike most debit cards, which offer no benefits whatsoever, it actually gives you 5% cashback on contactless payment. That’s Visa PayWave, Apple Pay, Google Pay – any payment mode where you just wave your card over a reader.

Since contactless payment is accepted by most major merchants anyway, this means practically every aspect of your day-to-day life can be covered – such as dining, getting coffee, buying groceries, shopping, etc.

You do need to hit a minimum spending of $400 a month, and limit your cash withdrawals to $400, to get the rebate, so it’s not for everyone.

See the full review of the DBS Visa Debit Card here.

Related articles

The 13 Best Cashback Credit Cards in Singapore (2019)

The 7 Best Air Miles Credit Cards in Singapore (2019)

The 7 Best Rewards Cards in Singapore (2019)

The post 7 Best Credit Cards in Singapore - MoneySmart Writers Pick Our Favourites appeared first on the MoneySmart blog.

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