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8 Essential Tips for Comparing Credit Cards I Wish I Knew Earlier

essential tips for comparing credit cards you should know
essential tips for comparing credit cards you should know

Since I started working at MoneySmart, I’ve learnt a lot about credit cards. Specifically, what credit cards are hiding from you. Behind every shiny new card promising up to 10% cashback or up to 10 miles per dollar spent, there lies a plethora of terms and conditions which limit the rewards you can earn.

It’s easy to see the good, especially when they’re marketed to us front and centre. But how many of us know when our credit card rewards points expire? Do you earn per every $1 spent, or per $5? What’s your earn cap every month? Or wait…is it calculated by every quarter?

These are some of the considerations I want to bring to your attention today. I won’t have the time or space to go through the fine print for every single credit card in Singapore (read our credit card reviews for those kinds of details), but I will bring up several cards in this article as examples. That doesn’t mean they are bad or good cards; depending on one’s money habits, they simply suit some people more and others less. The point here is to equip you with vital knowledge—here’s an essential list of 8 things you need to consider when deciding on the best credit card for you.

 

8 Essential Tips for Comparing Miles and Cashback Credit Cards

  1. Earn rates—Do you earn per $1 or $5 spent?

  2. How are your rewards or rebates issued to you?

  3. Are there conversion fees?

  4. Are there conversion blocks?

  5. What are the spend exclusions?

  6. How long is the earn period?

  7. What are the cashback caps for each spend category?

  8. When do your points or miles expire?

 

1. Earn rates—Do you earn per $1 or $5 spent?

This affects miles cards or rewards cards more than cashback cards. Why? The former 2 earn you rewards in the form of air miles or rewards points that can then be converted to miles, gifts, vouchers, or cashback. While cashback is usually calculated as a percentage of your total spending, miles and rewards points may be calculated as X miles/points per $5 spend.

Here’s a real-life example assuming I spend $99 on shopping in Singapore:

Earn rate

Rewards earned from a $99 local transaction

DBS Altitude Card

3.25 DBS Points for every S$5 local spend
Conversion: 1 DBS Point = 2 miles

61.75 DBS Points (123.5 miles) earned from the first $95 spent

DBS Live Fresh Card

6% cashback on shopping (with $800/month minimum spend)

$5.94 earned from the full $99 spent

While the DBS Altitude Card advertises its 1.3 miles per dollar local earn rate, when you get down to how the miles are earned, you’ll realise that you earn per $5 and not per dollar. This is laid out in the card’s terms and conditions. Not the kind to read T&Cs? You can also find this kind of important information summarised for you on our DBS Altitude Card credit card page.

DBS logo
DBS logo

Online Promo

Earn Miles That Never Expire

DBS Altitude Visa Signature Card

Local Spend

S$1 = 1.3 Miles

Overseas Spend (made in foreign currency)

S$1 = 2.2 Miles

On Travel Spend at Agoda

S$1 = Up to 4.3 Miles

Apply Now

More Details

Key Features

  • Earn up to 4.3 miles per S$1 on eligible spends

  • Enjoy first year annual fee waiver

  • Receive 10,000 bonus miles when you pay for your annual fee of S$196.20 (inclusive of GST)

  • Earn Miles for Life! DBS Points earned do not expire.

  • Miles are awarded in the form of DBS Points which are awarded for every S$5 spent (1 DBS Point = 2 miles) on a per transaction basis.

  • Enjoy exclusive dining, shopping and travel offers

  • At MoneySmart, we strive to keep our information accurate and up to date. This information may be different from what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider, or specific product site. MoneySmart shall not be liable to compensate the Customer should the information is not as updated as our Partner.

See all card details 

For comparison, I also included the DBS Live Fresh Card in the example above. This is just to show you that with cashback cards that earn you a percentage rebate, you earn rewards based on the full amount spent.

DBS logo
DBS logo

Online Promo

Shopping and Transportation

DBS Live Fresh Card

on Shopping & Transport Spend

Up to 6% Cashback

Min. Spend

S$800

Cashback Cap

Up to S$70

Apply Now

More Details

Key Features

  • Score up to 6% cashback on your shopping sprees & daily commutes

  • Up to 6% cashback on Shopping & Transport Spend

  • 0.3% unlimited cashback on All Spend

  • Enjoy first year annual fee waiver

  • At MoneySmart, we strive to keep our information accurate and up to date. This information may be different from what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider, or specific product site. MoneySmart shall not be liable to compensate the Customer should the information is not as updated as our Partner.

See all card details 

Back to top

 

2. How are your rewards or rebates issued to you?

You might have noticed in the previous section that with the DBS Altitude Card, you earn DBS Points and not miles directly. This leads me to my next point: take note of how you earn your rebates.

How do you earn rebates with miles cards?

You can either earn points to be converted to miles (e.g. the DBS Altitude Card above or the OCBC 90°N Card that earns you Travel$) or miles directly (e.g. KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card that earns you KrisFlyer miles directly).

Tricky cases: The Citi Miles you earn with cards like the Citi PremierMiles Card and 90°N Miles you earn with the OCBC 90°N Card convert 1:1 with airline miles, but are categorised as the banks’ own miles currencies and still need to be converted.

Citibank logo
Citibank logo

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Citi PremierMiles Card

Local Spend

S$1 = 1.2 Miles

All Foreign Currency Spend including Retail and Online

S$1 = Up to 2 Miles

Selected Online Hotel Bookings

S$1 = Up to 10 Miles

MoneySmart Exclusive:

[FLASH DEAL | FASTER GIFT FULFILMENT]
Get UPSIZED CASH REWARDS of S$380* or 5,100 SmartPoints + S$80 Trip.com Coupon, in as fast as 5 weeks from meeting the S$500 spend criteria! T&Cs apply.
 
Use 5,100 SmartPoints to fully redeem a product from our Rewards Store. If the product costs more, redeem with your points and top up the rest by purchasing additional SmartPoints e.g. get an Apple 10.9-inch iPad Wi‑Fi 64GB (10th Generation) at only S$104 on top of your earned SmartPoints.

Valid until 18 Jul 2024

Apply Now

More Details

Key Features

  • S$1 = 1.2 Citi Miles on Local spend (no min. spend)

  • S$1 = 2 Citi Miles on Foreign currency spend

  • Earn 10,000 Citi Miles upon renewal of annual membership and payment of annual fee

  • Citi Miles never expire

  • Principal Cardholder gets to enjoy 2 complimentary visits every year to over 1,300 airport lounges worldwide.

  • At MoneySmart, we strive to keep our information accurate and up to date. This information may be different from what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider, or specific product site. MoneySmart shall not be liable to compensate the Customer should the information is not as updated as our Partner.

See all card details 

How do you earn rebates with rewards cards?

You earn rewards points. Each bank has their own points “currency” with their own conversion rates for conversion to cashback, miles, gifts, merchant rebates, and more. For example, the points currency used in UOB’s ecosystem for cards like the UOB Lady’s Card is UNI$.

UOB logo
UOB logo

MoneySmart Exclusive

Online Promo

LUCKY DRAW | Earn up to 6 Miles per S$1

UOB Lady's Card

Base Earn Rate

S$5 = 1X UNI$ (or 2 miles)

Category of Choice

S$5 = Up to 25X UNI$ (equivalent to 10 miles per S$1)

Min. Spend

S$0

MoneySmart Exclusive:

[LUCKY DRAW]
Stand a chance to win a Cartier Santos-Dumont Watch - Large Model, Blue (worth S$6,000) or an Apple 11-inch iPad Air WiFi, 128GB (worth S$899) or a Sony PlayStation 5 SLIM Digital Edition (worth S$669) when you apply and spend a min. of S$1,000 in Eligible Transactions each month for the first two consecutive months from the card approval date. T&Cs apply.
 
PLUS get S$350 Cash Credit from UOB when you are the first 200 new-to-UOB credit card customers in July 2024 who successfully apply for an eligible UOB Credit Card and spend a min. of S$1,000 per month for 2 consecutive months from their card approval date. T&Cs apply.

Valid until 11 Aug 2024

Apply Now

More Details

Key Features

  • Up to 25X UNI$ for every S$5 spend (equiv. to 10 miles per S$1) on your preferred rewards category(ies) with no minimum spend required. Choose from Beauty & Wellness, Dining, Entertainment, Family, Fashion, Transport and Travel.

  • 10X UNI$ (4 miles per S$1) + additional up to 15X UNI$ (6 miles per S$1) when you save with UOB Lady's Savings Account

  • Flexibility to change your Preferred Category(ies) Spending every quarter.

  • UOB Lady's LuxePay Plan 6 or 12-month installment plan with no interest or processing fees

  • Free e-Commerce protection for online purchases up to USD$200

  • Earn up to 6.0% p.a. interest with UOB One Account

  • At MoneySmart, we strive to keep our information accurate and up to date. This information may be different from what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider, or specific product site. MoneySmart shall not be liable to compensate the Customer should the information is not as updated as our Partner.

See all card details 

How do you earn rebates with cashback cards?

The cashback will either be automatically used to offset your next credit card statement (e.g. OCBC INFINITY Cashback Card) or will appear in your credit card account as rebate you can redeem (e.g. Citi Cash Back+ Card, POSB Everyday Card).

POSB logo
POSB logo

Online Promo

Earn Cash Rebates that Never Expire

POSB Everyday Card

Cash rebates on Online Food Delivery

Up to 10%

Cash Rebates on Groceries from Sheng Siong & RedMart

Up to 5%

Fuel Savings at SPC

Up to 20.1% + 2%

Apply Now

More Details

Key Features

  • Up to 10% cash rebates on your daily essentials when you dine, shop online or purchase groceries

  • 50% off family attractions and other exclusive deals

  • Save up to 20.1% on fuel at SPC

  • At MoneySmart, we strive to keep our information accurate and up to date. This information may be different from what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider, or specific product site. MoneySmart shall not be liable to compensate the Customer should the information is not as updated as our Partner.

See all card details 

 

Why does all this matter?

Some people might prefer having the control to convert their points when they want to and to what type of reward they want. Others might be too lazy to convert their rewards points—if that’s you, consider miles cards that earn you miles directly or cashback cards that automatically offset your next bill without you having to lift a finger. For the latter, don’t forget to think about your exit strategy when you want to give up the credit card.

As far as your earnings go, the most important reason you should know how your rebates are issued to you is that they can come with conversion fees.

Back to top

 

3. Are there conversion fees?

Credit cards usually only have conversion fees for miles cards. Cashback, gifts and merchant rebates are generally free and easy to convert.

Most banks charge about $25 ($27.25 for some due to GST) for miles conversions. Here’s a quick guide to miles conversion fees for the major banks in Singapore:

Bank and their points/miles currency

Miles conversion fee (per conversion, GST included)

Amex (Membership Rewards points)

$20.38

Citibank (Citi ThankYouPoints/Miles)

$27.25

DBS (DBS Points)

$27.25

HSBC (HSBC Reward points)

Free until 31 Jan 2025 (they used to have a $40++ Mileage Programme annual fee)

Maybank (TREATS Points)

$27.25

OCBC (OCBC$ / 90˚N Miles)

$25

Standard Chartered (360° Rewards points)

$27.25

UOB (UNI$)

$25

 

 

4. Are there conversion blocks?

Remember we talked about how you might earn rebates per $5 spent instead of per $1 spent? The same may apply for the redemption side of things.

Banks will only let you redeem your rebates in blocks. The minimum block can vary widely—for example, the minimum number of points you need to make a conversion for Amex is 450 points (250 miles). For other banks like HSBC and OCBC, the minimum is 25,000 points (10,000 miles).

This isn’t just for miles cards. For example, the Citi Cash Back+ Card shows you the cashback you’ve earned on the Citibank mobile app. You can then redeem it in $10 blocks as a cash rebate that will offset the next statement. I’ve used this card and the app myself, so I can testify it’s at least a smooth process.

Citibank logo
Citibank logo

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Citi Cash Back+ Card

Cash Back on Eligible Spend

1.6%

Min. Spend per month

S$0

Cash Back Cap per month

Unlimited

MoneySmart Exclusive:

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Get UPSIZED CASH REWARDS of up to S$380* OR 5,040 SmartPoints + S$80 Trip.com Coupon, in as fast as 5 weeks from meeting the S$500 spend criteria! T&Cs apply.
 
Use 5,040 SmartPoints to fully redeem a product from our Rewards Store. If the product costs more, redeem with your points and top up the rest by purchasing additional SmartPoints e.g. get an Apple 10.9-inch iPad Wi‑Fi 64GB (10th Generation) at only S$110 on top of your earned SmartPoints.

Valid until 18 Jul 2024

Apply Now

More Details

Key Features

  • 1.6% cash back on your eligible spend all year round

  • No minimum spend required and no cap on cash back earned

  • Cash back earned does not expire

  • Redeem your cash back instantly on-the-go

  • Earn 0.4% Bonus Cash Back on your eligible spend if you are a Citi Plus customer who is the Primary Account Holder of a Citi Interest Booster Account

  • With Citi PayAll, you can earn and accumulate Citi Miles, Citi ThankYou PointsSM or Cash Back quickly when you pay your big-ticket bills such as rent, insurance premiums, education expenses, taxes, utilities and more. T&Cs apply.

  • At MoneySmart, we strive to keep our information accurate and up to date. This information may be different from what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider, or specific product site. MoneySmart shall not be liable to compensate the Customer should the information is not as updated as our Partner.

See all card details 

Back to top

 

5. What are the spend exclusions?

Some transactions are pretty much always excluded from rebate-earning: taxes, insurance premiums, education, medical expenses, donations, top-ups to prepaid or stored value accounts, and the like. But beyond that, you’re more likely to see which spend categories or merchants are included rather than excluded.

Credit cards like the CIMB World Mastercard give you a list of categories instead of a list of merchants:

  • Wine & Dine and Online Food Delivery

  • Movies and Digital Entertainment

  • Taxi and Automobile

  • Luxury Goods

You need to go into their cashback programme’s terms and conditions to find out more, such as the specific retailers and the merchant category codes (MCCs) eligible. Every transaction you make is tagged with an MCC, and that MCC is how your bank figures out whether you get to earn rebates on that purchase or not.

CIMB logo
CIMB logo

Online Promo

Unlimited 2% Cashback

CIMB World Mastercard

Unlimited Cashback on the following categories (Wine & Dine, Online Food Delivery, Movies & Digital Entertainment, Taxi & Automobile, Luxury Goods)

Up to 2%

Min. spend per month to qualify for 2% Unlimited Cashback

S$1,000

Cash Rebate cap

Unlimited

Apply Now

More Details

Key Features

  • 2% Unlimited Cashback on Wine & Dine, Online Food Delivery, Movies & Digital Entertainment, Taxi & Automobile, Luxury Goods.

  • 1%* Cashback on all other spends.

  • Access to Over 1,300 Airport Lounges via Mastercard Travel Pass App provided by Dragonpass

  • 50% Off Green Fees at golf courses across the region

  • No annual fees for life

  • Apply for up to 4 supplementary cards and have annual fees waived for all supplementary cards

  • Access to over 1,000 regional deals & discounts across Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia

See all card details 

Other credit cards spell out exactly which merchants you can earn your rewards at. For example, the HSBC Live+ Card earns you 5% cashback on petrol at only Shell and Caltex—not Esso or SPC. The Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card offers up to 6% cashback at these merchants, as listed in their terms and conditions:

  • Fast food: McDonald’s, KFC, Subway, Burger King

  • Coffee and toast: Ya Kun Kaya Toast, Toast Box

  • Transport: Bus/MRT via SimplyGo

  • Subscriptions: Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, Disney+

You’ll notice joints like MOS Burger, Popeyes, Jollibee, Killiney, and Heavenly Wang don’t count.

HSBC logo
HSBC logo

MoneySmart Exclusive

Up to 8% Cashback

HSBC Live+ Card

on Dining, Shopping and Entertainment

8% Cashback*

on fuel at Caltex and Shell gas stations in Singapore

5% Cashback*

on All Other Spends

0.3% Cashback*

Apply Now

More Details

Key Features

  • Enjoy up to 8% cashback* when you dine, shop and live your life, both locally and overseas.

    - 8% cashback* on dining, shopping and entertainment

    - 5% cashback on fuel at Caltex and Shell gas stations in Singapore

    - 0.3% cashback on other spends

  • Savour sweet deals of 15% discount at over 200 restaurants through our curated Live+ Dining Programme

  • Enjoy 1-for-1 dining, travel and lifestyle partners through your complimentary ENTERTAINER with HSBC app

  • Enjoy savings when you purchase movie tickets and HSBC's Movie Cards at any Golden Village multiplexes in Singapore.

    *Min. spend and other terms and conditions apply. Valid till 31 Dec 2024.

See all card details 

Standard Chartered logo
Standard Chartered logo

MoneySmart Exclusive

Up to 6% Cashback

Standard Chartered Smart Credit Card

Cashback from Netflix, Spotify, fast food joints and more. *T&Cs apply.

6%*

Annual Fee

S$0

Minimum Spend

S$0

MoneySmart Exclusive:

Get S$200 Cash via PayNow  or 2,990 SmartPoints when you apply and spend a min. of S$500 in eligible transactions within 30 days from card approval date. T&Cs apply.
 
Use 2,990 SmartPoints to fully redeem a product from our Rewards Store. If the product costs more, redeem with your points and top up the rest by purchasing additional SmartPoints e.g. get an Apple 10.2-inch iPad Wi‑Fi 64GB (9th Generation) at only S$205 on top of your earned SmartPoints.

Valid until 31 Jul 2024

Apply Now

More Details

Key Features

  • 6%* cashback on your everyday spend at your favourite merchants across fast food dining, coffee and toast, digital subscriptions and on your daily commute (Bus/MRT). No minimum spend requirement. *T&Cs apply.

  • No Annual Fees ever

  • 3-month interest-free instalments with no service fees

  • Enjoy dining and shopping discount privileges at over 3,000 outlets in Asia with Standard Chartered’s The Good Life Program

  • Complimentary travel medical insurance - Have a peace of mind when you travel with complimentary travel insurance coverage of up to S$500,000. Simply charge your full travel fare to your card before you go abroad. Terms and conditions apply.

  • At MoneySmart, we strive to keep our information accurate and up to date. This information may be different from what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider, or specific product site. MoneySmart shall not be liable to compensate the Customer should the information is not as updated as our Partner.

See all card details 

Back to top

 

6. How long is the earn period?

Aside from $0 minimum spend unlimited cashback cards, most cashback and rewards cards require you to hit a minimum spend per month in order to be eligible for the higher tier cashback or rewards rates. Sounds pretty simple, right? 

Not exactly. Some cards require you to spend $XXX a month for every month in a quarter before you can earn at your preferred cashback rate. The new HSBC Live+ Card and the popular UOB One Card are good examples. For the latter, you need to spend $2,000 each month for a whole quarter in order to hit the highest cashback rate of 10%. (Actually, the UOB One Card has a very complex mechanism in general—read all about it in our UOB One Card review.)

UOB logo
UOB logo

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Online Promo

LUCKY DRAW | Up to 10% Cashback

UOB One Card

Cashback on McDonald's, DFI Retail Group, Grab, Shopee, SP and more

Up to 10%

Cashback Cap per quarter

Up to S$500

Min. Spend per month

S$500

MoneySmart Exclusive:

[LUCKY DRAW]
Stand a chance to win a Cartier Santos-Dumont Watch - Large Model, Blue (worth S$6,000) or an Apple 11-inch iPad Air WiFi, 128GB (worth S$899) or a Sony PlayStation 5 SLIM Digital Edition (worth S$669) when you apply and spend a min. of S$1,000 in Eligible Transactions each month for the first two consecutive months from the card approval date. T&Cs apply.
 
PLUS get S$350 Cash Credit from UOB when you are the first 200 new-to-UOB credit card customers in July 2024 who successfully apply for an eligible UOB Credit Card and spend a min. of S$1,000 per month for 2 consecutive months from their card approval date. T&Cs apply.

Valid until 11 Aug 2024

Apply Now

More Details

Key Features

  • Up to 10% cashback on McDonald's (including McDelivery®)

  • Up to 10% cashback at Shopee Singapore (excludes ShopeePay)

  • Up to 10% cashback at DFI Retail Group (Cold Storage, CS Fresh, Giant, Guardian, 7-Eleven & more)

  • Up to 10% cashback at Grab (including GrabFood, excludes Grab mobile wallet top-ups)

  • Up to 10% cashback (bus and train rides)

  • Up to 10% cashback on UOB Travel

  • Up to 4.33% cashback on Singapore Power utilities bill.

  • Up to 3.33% cashback on all retail spend (based on S$500, S$1,000 or S$2,000)

  • Fuel savings of up to 22.66% at Shell and SPC

  • Exclusions and T&Cs at uob.com.sg/onetncs

  • At MoneySmart, we strive to keep our information accurate and up to date. This information may be different from what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider, or specific product site. MoneySmart shall not be liable to compensate the Customer should the information is not as updated as our Partner.

See all card details 

Back to top

 

7. What are the cashback caps for each spend category?

To my knowledge, the highest cashback rate you can get with no cashback cap belongs to the CIMB World Mastercard (which has a minimum spend instead). Any rate higher than that, and the cashback you can earn every month or quarter will have a ceiling.

That in itself isn’t tricky. What’s tricky is realising that that cap can be split into separate caps for different spend categories. That’s the case for the OCBC FRANK Card, which has a minimum spending requirement of $800 in a month, with a monthly cap of $100 cashback. To further break down the $100 cap, it’s actually a $25 cap per category among these 4 spend categories:

  1. Foreign spending (8% cashback, capped at $25)

  2. Local online transactions and mobile payment (8% cashback, capped at $25)

  3. Spending at green merchants (additional 2% cashback, capped at $25)

  4. All other spending (0.3% based cashback, capped at $25)

UOB logo
UOB logo

MoneySmart Exclusive

Online Promo

LUCKY DRAW | Up to 10% Cashback

UOB EVOL Credit Card

on Online, Mobile Contactless, Overseas in-store FX spend

10% Cashback

Cash Back Cap per month

Up to S$80

Min. Spend per month

S$800

MoneySmart Exclusive:

[LUCKY DRAW]
Stand a chance to win a Cartier Santos-Dumont Watch - Large Model, Blue (worth S$6,000) or an Apple 11-inch iPad Air WiFi, 128GB (worth S$899) or a Sony PlayStation 5 SLIM Digital Edition (worth S$669) when you apply and spend a min. of S$1,000 in Eligible Transactions each month for the first two consecutive months from the card approval date. T&Cs apply.
 
PLUS get an Apple Watch SE 2nd Gen with CASETiFY Impact Band (worth S$453) from UOB when you are the first 50 new-to-UOB credit card customers in each calendar month from 7 June 2024 to 31 July 2024 to successfully apply and spend a min. of S$1,000 per month for the 2 first consecutive months from their card approval date. T&Cs apply.

Valid until 11 Aug 2024

Apply Now

More Details

Key Features

  • 10% cashback on online/mobile contactless spend and overseas in-store FX spend.

  • No annual fees when you make 3 transactions per month consecutively for 12 months before your card annual fee charge date

  • S$80 cashback cap (capped at S$30 for Online/Mobile Contactless spend; $20 for overseas in-store spend in foreign currency; and $30 Other spend)

  • With min. S$800 spend per statement monthy, otherwise base on base cashback of 0.3% will be awareded. Exclusions and T&Cs at uob.com.sg/evoltncs

  • At MoneySmart, we strive to keep our information accurate and up to date. This information may be different from what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider, or specific product site. MoneySmart shall not be liable to compensate the Customer should the information is not as updated as our Partner.

See all card details 

Another example is the UOB EVOL Credit Card, which I want to use as an illustrative example. This card offers a generous 10% cashback on online, mobile contactless, overseas in-store foreign spending. The minimum you need to spend is $800 a month, and the cashback cap is $80 a month. Doesn’t that sound convenient? $80 is 10% of $800!

Wrong. Of that $80 cashback cap, only $50 is useful to you if you travel, and only $30 is useful to you if you don’t. That’s because the last $30 of the total cap belongs to all other spending, on which you earn a paltry 0.3% cashback.

UOB EVOL cashback

Cashback cap per statement month

10% cashback on Online Spend and Mobile

Contactless Spend

$30 ($300 spend)

10% cashback on Overseas in-store FX

spend

$20 ($200 spend)

0.3% cashback on all Other Spend

$30 ($10,000 spend)

Total

$80 ($10,500 spend)

Source: UOB EVOL Credit Card terms and conditions

If you earn $80 cashback on $10,500 worth of spending, your cashback rate is a meagre 0.76%! 

This is why knowing the cashback caps per category is crucial—it’ll affect your spending strategy. What’s the game plan with the UOB EVOL Credit Card then? Ideally, you want to max out the caps for the first 2 categories, then spend the minimum required to hit $800 total:

UOB EVOL cashback

Cashback earned if you spend an optimal $800 in a statement month

10% cashback on Online Spend and Mobile

Contactless Spend

$30 ($300 spend)

10% cashback on Overseas in-store FX

spend

$13.50 ($200 spend)
– Less: $6.50 from 3.25% foreign currency transaction fee

0.3% cashback on all Other Spend

$0.90 ($300 spend)

Total

$44.40 ($800 spend)
– Less: $6.50 from 3.25% foreign currency transaction fee

Now you earn a cashback rate of 6.36% on your $800 spending. Much better.

If you don’t make any foreign spending, the rest of that $800 minimum spend will earn the base cashback rate of 0.3%. Your overall cashback is now $31.50 on $800 spent, which is a cashback rate of 3.94%—not fantastic, but still higher than an unlimited cashback card.

UOB EVOL cashback

Cashback earned if you spend $800 in a statement month but avoid foreign spending

10% cashback on Online Spend and Mobile

Contactless Spend

$30 ($300 spend)

10% cashback on Overseas in-store FX spend

$0

0.3% cashback on all Other Spend

$1.50 ($500 spend)

Total

$31.50 ($800 spend)

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8. When do your points or miles expire?

Unless you’re looking at a cashback card that automatically uses the cashback earned to offset the next month’s bill, you must know your credit card points/miles expiry date. After all, it’s your job to use them before the banks swallow them back up. You also need to know the expiry dates to be sure you can accumulate enough points to make a redemption before the lot of them expire—see the section on conversion blocks above.

Here’s a summary of when your points/miles will expire for different banks in Singapore.

Bank 

Points and miles expiry

Amex

Amex Membership Rewards points do not expire.

Citibank

– Citi Miles never expire.
– Citi ThankYou Points expire 3 years after the end of the year in which you earned them.

DBS

DBS Points will expire one year from the quarterly period in which they were earned.

HSBC

*takes a deep breath* HSBC Rewards Points expire at the end of 37 months that begins from the month after the month in which you earned the Points.
For example, if you earned your points any date in Oct 2023, they will expire on 30 Nov 2026.

Maybank

TREATS Points expire 1 year from the quarterly period in which you earned them.

OCBC

– 90°N miles do not expire.
– OCBC$ expire on the last day of the 24th calendar month starting from the month you earned them.

Standard Chartered

360° Rewards Points awarded are valid for 3 years from the date of opening of the credit card account to which the points are credited to (“Initial Period”)

UOB

UNI$ expires 2 years from the last day of the quarter in which you earned them.

For miles chasers, you also want to take note of when your airline miles expire. For example, KrisFlyer miles expire after 3 years. If you were to convert your expiring credit card’s points/miles to KrisFlyer miles, the counter resets to 3 years.

Note that premium credit cards often have no points/miles expiry. You’ll recognise these cards by the higher annual fees, higher income requirements, and (usually) their sleek black card faces.

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About the author

Vanessa Nah is a personal finance content writer who pens articles on the ins and outs of buying your first home, the T&Cs of credit cards, and the ups and downs of alternative investments. She’s a researcher at heart and leaves no stone unturned when it comes to breaking down complex finance concepts and making them easy to understand for the everyday Singaporean. When Vanessa’s not debunking finance myths, you’ll find her attending dance classes, fingerpicking a guitar, or (most impawtently) fulfilling her life mission to make her one-eyed cat the most spoiled and loved kitty in the world.


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