Would you choose cashback or miles for your credit card? Please explain why too so that it can help me with my decision making?

Hi anon,

I find that cashback, while simple to understand, is just that. A rebate of some form. Miles actually presents a kind of game that's easy to pick up but difficult to master.

Cashback, you spend, you get cash back. Done. Sometimes, you don't get a lot due to the lack of your minimum spend. Sometimes you get a lot, but then you get capped. It's pretty much instant gratification and easy to understand.

Miles, you spend, you get your miles. No matter how much you spend, a little or a not (I'm not about to go into the finer details here, such as the fact that spending $4.99 on a UOB Priv miles doesn't get you anything). Not only that, you are effectively not capped on how many miles you can earn. If you want to play the game simply, just spend normally and you'll eventually 'farm' enough miles to get a nice business class redemption. If you want to kick the notch up a little, spend time learning and maximizing the rules of the game, and your redemption comes a lot sooner than you think. And miles are the key to unlocking experiences that you would not typically pay for. For example, no one goes out there and pays for a business class ticket for their personal vacation. But with miles you can.

So, miles for me.

Cashback for me. I have not reached the stage where I spend enough to claim the goodies from miles.