facebookShould I get the CIMB Platinum Mastercard or the UOB Visa Signature Card to spend on petrol? - Seedly

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Anonymous

17 Mar 2020

Credit Cards

Should I get the CIMB Platinum Mastercard or the UOB Visa Signature Card to spend on petrol?

I understand that the CIMB Plat Mastercard will give me a 10% cashback rate for amount spent on petrol, and the UOB Visa Card will give me 4mpd. I'm not really into the miles game, but am thinking of getting in because I travel often, especially for recurring spend such as petrol. Which card would be better for me, and what would be the determining factor that'll help me pick one over the other?

Discussion (1)

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Brandon Ho

17 Mar 2020

Community Lead at Seedly

Hi Anon!

It's quite rare that I see a miles card and a cashback card being directly compared. Personally, I think that you should choose to focus on one rewards system- whether it's cashback/rebates, or miles. This is especially the case for miles, as it will take quite a bit of effort to effectively hack miles. However, the possible rewards you can get is really worth it, especially since you travel often!

Let me try and break down these cards for you.

CIMB Platinum Mastercard

  • 10% Cashback- Dining, Petrol, Taxi Rides, Flights & Hotels (overseas, foreign currency), Health & Medical, Electronics (Best Denki, Ikea, Challenger etc)

  • HOWEVER, you need a minimum spend of $800 to qualify for the 10%

  • 10% Cashback capped at $100 per month, $20 per category

  • Any other transactions after this cap will receive the base 0.2% cashback

  • No annual fees

If you're planning on getting this card to use just for petrol, don't bother. The minimum spend of $800 to qualify for the 10% cashback won't be achieved by spending solely on petrol- the average monthly cost is about $200 per month. Moreover, if you do hit the minimum spend, but end up spending over $200 per month on petrol, you'll end up getting the less than desirable 0.2% cashback rate for all other petrol transactions, as your cashback will cap out at $20 per month. However, if you're thinking of making this your primary card, it may be worth a shot, although I personally would look at the CITI Cashback Card instead- which offers an 8% Cashback on similar expenditure categories, capped at $25 per category ($5 more).

UOB Visa Card

  • 10 X UNI$ (4 mpd)- Petrol, Overseas Spend, Local Paywave

  • Cat 1: $1000 min spend on Petrol/Paywave- to qualify for 4mpd on these 2 transactions

  • Cat 2: $1000 min spend on Overseas Spend- to qualify for 4mpd on the overseas spend expenditure category

  • Remember that UOB’s definition of foreign currency/overseas spending requires the transaction to be processed outside of Singapore

  • Points capped at $4000 max spend per statement cycle- split into $2000 per Cat^

  • UOB UNI$ are earned in blocks of $5, hence anything below $5 won't get you points

  • $214 annual fee, first-year waiver

Okay this is an interesting one. The minimum spends are both pretty high, and this card definitely caters more towards higher SES individuals. If you're not willing to splurge once in a while on dining or other expenses that can use paywave, you really shouldn't bother with this card. Based off your question, it seems that petrol will be the main expenditure category that you're looking at, but for the UOB Visa Card, petrol would be more of a secondary category instead of your primary one due to the high minimum spend. I'd look at the Maybank Horizon Visa Signature Card instead, which offers a much more achievable 3.2 mpd for petrol expenses.

Ultimately, it depends on your overall credit card strategy, and your cashflow/spending patterns. If you're looking to get into the miles game, I'd suggest your hone in and focus solely on that. All the best!

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