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 UOBâs 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!
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 UOBâs 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!