I've decided to do another one in relatively the same format as previously.
Primary Card : UOB One card
Benefits
Most important benefit : 2.43% interest on UOB One account for deposits up to SGD50,000
Need to spend SGD500 per month + 3 GIRO transactions from the UOB One account.
3.33% return on spending or 5% if >SGD2000
Tier 1, Spend SGD500 per mth for 3 mths in a row and on the third mth, SGD50 will be off set from your credit card bill.
Tier 2, Spend SGD1000 per mth for 3 mths in a row and on the third mth, SGD100 will be off set from your credit card bill.
Tier 3, Spend SGD2000 per mth for 3 mths in a row and on the third mth, SGD300 will be off set from your credit card bill.
Earns SMART$ at Shell and other participating merchants
Spend SMART$ at Cold Storage as the rate of earning is low
Cons
Miss 1 month of spending and your reward will drop to the lower tier.
Require constant monitoring to keep the balance at a certain level.
This card is STILL my primary card, my wife has this card as well.
Our handphone bills are charged to this card.
I monitor the card regularly online to make sure we hit the SGD500/mth each.
All spending is put on this bill except for instances where credit card is not accepted or if there is a direct immediate discount more than 3.33% for a particular card. (ie, 10% discount off dinner bill is using Standard Charted Card). After spending breaches SGD500 for the month for both our cards, I will switch over to my secondary card.
SGD500 is very easy to hit on both the cards.
We don't consolidate the expense anymore as it is better to have 2.43% interest on both our bank accounts.
This card is not useful if you cannot maintain a constant spending or are unwilling to monitor the balance constantly.
Problem is credit card cut off is 24 of the month to 23 of the next month.
For UOB One Account, you need to spend SGD500 within the calendar month.
So I need to spend SGD500 within 1st to 23rd of the month.
Any spending from 24th onwards will either
1) Will be included in next months 3.33% credit card rebate. But won't be counted to the SGD500 spend for bonus interest on the account next month.
OR
2) Will be included in THIS months bonus interest for the One account but not be valid for this months 3.33% card rebate.
So there is some "wastage" when spending between 24th of the month til the end of the month.
So I switch to my secondary card from 24th onwards.
Secondary Card : ANZ Optimum Card
Benefits
5% rebate on the selected category
Every calendar quarter you can select one of the 4 categories. Any spend from that category will earn 5% rebate for that quarter.
Dining & Leisure – Restaurants, hotels, bars and cinemas
Travel – Airlines, travel agencies and online travel portals
Shopping – Fashion boutiques, online fashion stores
Groceries – Supermarkets
There is NO minimum spend
There is NO maximum on earned rebate except for the time period (max SGD30 rebate on one transaction meaning if you spend more than SGD600, any amount more than that will not earn rebates)
Cons
You can only redeem the rebates SGD50 at a time to offset your credit card bill
1% rebate on other retail spending <- this isn't too bad considering Standard Chartered Manhattan requires SGD1k spending to get 1% rebate.
Used as my secondary card after hitting SGD500 on both our UOB One cards.
Our main discretionary spending is on food anyway so we just select the Food category and gain 5% on any spending on our food. Great that there is no minimum spend to get the rebates as this is used only for secondary so the spending is pretty inconsistent as it is just some additional spending above the SGD1000 mentioned above.
Tertiary Card : Standard Chartered Manhattan World card
Benefits
0.5% rebate on spending under SGD999
1% rebate on spending between SGD1000 - SGD2999
3% rebate on spending more than SGD3000 (to a max of SGD200 rebate per 3 mths)
Rebates will accumulate every month and will offset the bill on the third mth.
Some restaurants have direct discounts for Standard Chartered cards so it makes sense to hold one of the cards for immediate discounts when possible.
Cons
No real use of this card as One card provides 3.33% rebates. Unless there is an exceptional spending like a wedding to prepare for or renovation of the house which would push normal spending to above SGD3000.
ANZ Optimum card is better than this already at 1% on retail spending along with 5% for selected category.
Probably useful only for big ticket items which are significantly above the usual spending.
Or for people with inconsistent spending. ie, online + dining + travelling + retail, etc but all adds up to above 1k.
As ANZ Optimum rebate is only for retail + selected category.
The value of this card has really dropped from its previous glory days.
Quite an Awesome Card : OCBC 365 Card
Benefits
Spend SGD600 to earn the below bonus and rebates
Bonus 2.2% on 360 account (Realistically 1.2% salary credit + 0.5% GIRO + 0.5% spending of SGD500)
6% rebates on dining on weekend dining
3% on dining
3% online spending
3% groceries, watson, unity, body shop
3% recurring telco bills
5% on petrol
Cons
Need to spend SGD600. Not too big a sum so not too bad.
0.3% on other spend
This is a pretty awesome card. With bonus interest and good rebates which offset the credit card bill directly. You don't need to monitor the spending as the rebates will just build up as spending increases.
(The UOB One card is tiered so any spending between the tiers isn't earning additional rebates.)
With this card you don't really need a secondary card. I was using this card for the rebates and bonus interest until I left my job again a few years back. Since I left my job, I do not gain the additional 1.2% which I could earn from salary credit so I do not get the best from this card. Similarly, the company my wife works for is not able to credit the salary to an OCBC account as they only use DBS.
Really, this is a really really good card if you can credit your salary
(your company needs to use the codes PAY or SAL) else it doesn't count
and you can spend SGD600 which isn't hard
and you don't need to monitor the spending too much
Specialized Card : POSB Everyday Card
Benefits
Rebates at Watson. Accumulate Daily$. Watson will have days when rebates might be 3%, 6%, 10%.
Wait for the 6% or 10% days and spend on this card.
Rebates will be stored on the card and value can be used to offset next spending at Watsons or participating outlets.
OR even better you can redeem these Daily$ by logging into your DBS online and offset your credit card bill.
I also use this for 5% rebates (in terms of Daily$) at Sheng Shiong
Also good for SPC petrol 5% rebate in Daily$ as well.
Doubles up as an ATM card
Also can be used as a EZLink Card. (That is Singapore's card for transportation on public transport.)
No minimum spend required for rebates
Cons
No real cons. Quite a versatile card. Just good as a primary card for general spending
I use this only when spending at Sheng Shiong and SPC until I realized this
Specialized Card : Citibank Cashback card (Used to be Dividend card)
Benefits
Able to accumulate "cashback" which will be offset on the next bill once the total dividend has reached SGD50.
Cashback will never expire.
Petrol: Savings of up to 20.88% at Esso, up to 20.8% at Shell and 8% cash back at all other petrol stations
Grocery: 8% cash back at all supermarkets and grocery stores worldwide
Dining: 8% cash back at all restaurants, cafes, food and beverage outlets globally
All other retail spend: 0.25% cash back
10% rebate in terms of Citi Rebate when spending at Starbucks
Citi Rebate has no expiry
Accumulate at Starbucks at 10%, spend at Sheng Shiong as Sheng Shiong rebate rate is low
Cons
Terrible cashback rate of only 0.25% for other spending.
Min spend of SGD888 to qualify for the cashback
Max cashback of SGD25 per category Petrol, Grocery, Dining, meaning max SGD312.50 per category.
Estimated spending
Petrol = SGD60 x 4 weeks = SGD240
Dining = SGD100 x 4 weeks = SGD400
Groceries = SGD60 x 4 weeks = SGD240
Total = SGD880
Total cashback = (240 x 8%) + (Max 25) + (240 x 8%) = approx SGD63
The amount of monitoring to make this efficient is terrible. I mean I do monitor my spending an all that but seriously to track each category is ridiculous. Anyway, without bonus interest in bank accounts, this card is also not much use unless used as specialized card for Starbucks.
Specialized Card : OCBC Frank Card
Benefits
6% rebates on online spending ONLY FOR PARTICIPATING MERCHANTS.
Can be used to book trips for Tiger Air and other online merchants but must be careful on the merchant.
Rebate will offset NEXT bill.
Cons
This card is almost useless you need to spend SGD400 for the month EXCLUDING online spending. Meaning to get the benefit for this card you need to use this card as the main card and yet the main attraction of online spending cannot be used to accumulate the spending.
Specialized Card : OCBC Robinsons Card
Benefits
5% rebate on spending in Robinsons/Marks & Spencer offsets against the current month bill.
Special member's discount during certain events in Robinsons/M&S.
Cons
No other real use for this card.
I don't use this card anymore. The bank did not want to waive my annual fee and since I do not use this card actively there is no reason to hold on to it.
Other Uses of Credit Cards
-Free Cash
-Some cards have free gifts when signing up.
Notes
Reward cards typically give a poorer return than cash rebate cards.
We have done research on if we spend the same amount on other reward cards and somehow convert the points to value the result is the rewards is lower than if you use cash/dividend rebate cards.
Unless you are a very heavy spender and your spending hits all the maximum rebates on the credit cards, in such case, you probably wouldn't be on this blog in the first place.
OK. The above are the usual cards which I use/carry around now. This is an update from a previous post.
I still sign up many cards just for the promotions/incentives. I don't use those cards after that and cancel them in due course.
Like my previous post, pls remember, like fire, it is a good servant but poor master. Control your credit card and use it to your advantage. Pay off your bills at the end of the month and never let the balance roll. 2% interest rate per month is an insane amount.
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