Best Credit Cards for Big Purchases (Miles vs Cashback)

Suitesmile rating:

✍️ Short summary
Earn uncapped 2.8 miles per dollar on foreign currency spending, when you spend at least S$800 per calendar month on the card.

Earn uncapped 3.2 miles per dollar on foreign currency spending, when you spend at least S$4,000 per calendar month on the card.

Cardholders can also earn uncapped 4 miles per dollar on fuel spending. Given the high amount of cashback (over 20%) that you can get with other cards, this card is best used at Sinopec fuel stations, where all members get between 20% to 23% fuel discounts, regardless of the type of card used.

On top of that cardholders can also receive 4 mpd on non-fuel purchases at the fuel station.

Cardholders also get 4 mpd at selected merchants.

All other transactions earn just 0.4 mpd.

Miles/Points earned on this card are pretty flexible, as they do not expire. Holding other Maybank cards? Having this card will also remove the expiry term of miles/points earned on all your other Maybank cards.

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💸 Annual fee
S$261.60
(First year waived)

💼 Income requirement
S$80,000/year

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%

⏰ Points expiry
Points earned on this card never expire

🫱‍🫲 Transfer partners
KrisFlyer, Asia Miles and Enrich

💯 Transfer ratio
2.5 points = 1 mile

🧮 Transfer block
KrisFlyer: 25,000 points (10,000 miles)
Asia Miles & Enrich: 12,500 points (5,000 miles)

💲Transfer fee
No transfer fee

🤗 Points pooling
Points from this card can be combined with those from other Maybank cards and transferred out together at once.

❓How points are credited
Earn 5 base point per S$5 spent, plus 30/35 bonus points for eligible foreign currency spending (equivalent to 2.8/3.2 mpd in total). Base and bonus points are credited immediately when the transaction is posted.

📜 Terms & conditions

Suitesmile rating:

✍️ Short summary

Cardholders can receive an uncapped earn rate of 2.8 miles per dollar on foreign currency transactions, when spending at least S$800 per calendar month.

On top of that, cardholders can also receive 2.8 miles per dollar on flight bookings, when spending at least S$800 per calendar month. However, this bonus earn rate is capped at S$10,000 per calendar month.

Other whitelisted transactions in SGD earn 1.2 mpd, and non-whitelisted ones just 0.24 mpd.

Miles earned on this card expire after just 1 year, and can only be transferred to 3 Frequent Flyer Programs. Because of its poor flexibility and minimum spending requirement, this card is best used for more-expensive flight bookings in Singapore Dollars and school fees in foreign currencies.

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💸 Annual fee
S$196.20
(First 3 years waived)

💼 Income requirement
S$30,000/year (S’porean/PR),
S$45,000/year (Malaysian),
S$60,000/year (Foreigner)

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%

⏰ Points expiry
1 year from transaction
(No expiry if you also hold the Maybank World Mastercard)

🫱‍🫲 Transfer partners
KrisFlyer, Asia Miles and Enrich

💯 Transfer ratio
2.5 points = 1 mile

🧮 Transfer blocks
KrisFlyer: 25,000 points (10,000 miles)
Asia Miles & Enrich: 12,500 points (5,000 miles)

💲Transfer fee
S$27.25 per transfer

🤗 Points pooling
Points from this card can be combined with those from other Maybank cards and transferred out together at once.

❓How points are credited
Earn 5 base point per S$5 spent, plus 30 bonus points for eligible online transactions (equivalent to 2.8 mpd in total).

📜 Terms & conditions

Suitesmile rating:

✍️ Short summary
This card gives you an uncapped 3 mpd earn rate on Singapore Airlines, Scoot, KrisShop, Kris+ and Pelago.

Cardholders can also receive an uncapped 2.4 mpd earn rate (1.2 base + 1.2 bonus) on everyday spending categories like dining, online shopping, online food delivery, ride-hailing and public transport, as well as travel spending made on selected websites like airbnb.com, booking.com and expedia.com. To receive the 1.2 mpd bonus, cardholders have to spend at least S$1,000 on Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Pelago or KrisShop collectively in a card membership year.

All other transactions earn 1.2 mpd, including foreign currency spending which comes with 3.25% in fees (very poor!).

On top of that, cardholders can also get priority check-in and boarding, free standard seat selection and one-time booking flexibility waiver on Scoot bookings made through flyscoot.com/KrisFlyerUOB.

While this card makes all the right headlines, cardholders should know that bonus miles (1.2 mpd) are only credited within 2 months, after the end of the card membership year. This can be a dealbreaker for many who do not want to wait up to 14 months to receive the bonus miles! The delayed miles crediting can also force you into paying the annual fee (instead of cancelling the card), if a waiver is not granted.

Another obvious point to note is that the miles earned on this card can only be transferred to KrisFlyer, albeit with no transfer fee.

Flexibility is very important in the Miles Game and unfortunately, this card offers very little of that. I recommend maximizing the limits of other 4 mpd cards first, before using this one.

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💸 Annual fee
S$196.20
(First year waived, get 10,000 miles with subsequent annual fee payments but not worth it; always request waiver)

💼 Income requirement
S$30,000/year (S’porean/PR aged 55 and below),
S$15,000/year (S’porean/PR aged 56 and above),
S$40,000/year (Foreigner)

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%

⏰ Miles expiry
3 years from the time they are credited into KrisFlyer account.

🫱‍🫲 Transfer partner
KrisFlyer only

🧮 Transfer block
N/A

💲 Transfer fee
No transfer fee

🤗 Miles/Points pooling
Miles earned from this card cannot be combined with those from other UOB cards and can only be transferred out separately.

❓ How/When miles are credited
Earn 6 base miles per S$5 dollar spent, plus 6 bonus miles for eligible transactions (equivalent to 2.4 mpd in total). Base miles are credited into your KrisFlyer account at the end of each calendar month; bonus miles up to 2 months after the end of card membership year (up to 14 months).

📜 Terms & conditions

Suitesmile rating:

✍️ Short summary
This card gives you 5% cashback on Online (except travel-related), Groceries, Ride-hailing and Public Transport spending upon meeting the minimum spend of S$500 per statement month.

Cashback is capped at S$600 per card membership year. This annual limit gives you the opportunity to get 5% cashback on S$12,000 worth of eligible spending, making this card fantastic for large purchases!

Get just 0.3% cashback for all other spending categories.

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💸 Annual fee
S$196.20
(First 2 years waived)

💼 Income requirement
S’porean/PR: S$30,000/year,
Foreigner: S$42,000/year

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%

❓How cashback is credited
Cash rebates are credited in the form of SMRT$. Cardholders are required to redeem them via SMS (min. S$10).

📜 Terms & conditions

Suitesmile rating:

✍️ Short summary

This card gives you 2% cashback on almost everything, up to S$10,000 worth of spending per calendar month (S$200 cashback cap). No minimum spending is required.

As compared to other general spending cashback cards, this card offers more cashback (2% vs 1.5 – 1.7%) but has a S$10,000 monthly cap.

Take note that there is also a UnionPay version of this card, which has less acceptance worldwide. Pick the Mastercard version for better coverage.

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💸 Annual fee
S$196.20
(First year waived, always request for a waiver after that)

💼 Income requirement
S$30,000/year (S’porean/PR aged 55 and below),
S$15,000/year (S’porean/PR aged 56 and above),
S$60,000/year (Foreigner)

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%

❓How/When cashback is credited
Cashback amount is credited into the card at the end of the statement month.

📜 Terms & conditions

Suitesmile rating:

✍️ Short summary
This card gives you 1.5% cashback on almost everything, with no minimum spending required. Cardholders can receive an additional 1% cashback when they spend at least S$2,000 in a calendar month. Monthly cashback amount is capped at S$70 (S$2,800 worth of spending).

Cardholders also get complimentary access to the ENTERTAINER with HSBC app, where there are over a thousand 1-for-1 deals on dining, entertainment and hotels.

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💸 Annual fee
S$196.20
(First year waived)

💼 Income requirement
S’porean/PR: S$30,000 – S$65,000
Foreigner: S$65,000

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%

❓How/When cashback is credited
Cashback amount is credited into the card at the end of next calendar month.

📜 Terms & conditions