Best Credit Cards for Online Shopping (Miles vs Cashback)

Suitesmile rating:

✍️ Short summary
Most specialized cashback cards (offering over 1.7% cashback) require cardholders to meet multiple conditions. The conditions to receive up to 3.33% cashback on the UOB One card, in my opinion, are a little less complicated.

Cardholders can earn up to 3.33% cashback on a wide range of spending categories like online shopping, in-person shopping, dining, groceries, ride-hailing, food delivery, utilities and even phone/internet bills.

Why “up to” 3.33%? Upon meeting certain conditions, cardholders get a fixed cashback amount of $60, $100 or $200 at the end of each quarter.

How to receive up to 3.33% cashback:

• MANDATORY: Make at least 10 transactions per statement month
• Get $60 cashback when you spend at least $600 per month, for 3 consecutive statement months in a qualifying quarter
• Get $100 cashback when you spend at least $1,000 per month, for 3 consecutive statement months in a qualifying quarter
• Get $200 cashback when you spend at least $2,000 per month, for 3 consecutive statement months in a qualifying quarter

In other words, you will only receive exactly 3.33% cashback when you spend exactly $600, $1,000 or $2,000 for 3 consecutive months in a qualifying quarter. For example, a cardholder who spends $1,800/month in that same period, would fall under the $1,000 band and be rewarded with just $100 cashback (equivalent to 1.85%).

Cardholders who meet the conditions for up to 3.33% cashback described above can earn up to 4.67% additional cashback for Grocery spendings and up to 6.67% additional cashback at selected merchants like Grab, SimplyGo and Shopee.

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💸 Annual fee
$196.20
(First year waived)

💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year

🤑 Foreign currency fee
3.25%

❓ When cashback is credited
Receive your cashback in the card by the following statement date after the completion of your qualifying quarter.

📜 Terms & conditions

Suitesmile rating:

✍️ Short summary
This card gives you unlimited 1% cashback, great foreign exchange rates and no foreign currency fees; and it does not come with an annual fee! Note: Cardholders can only receive 1% cashback on non-chosen spending category (personally, I picked the Wellness category to receive 1% cashback on all foreign currency spending other than spas, gyms, pharmacies etc.).

The existence of this card also means that the opportunity cost of using Miles cards for foreign currency spending is now over 4%, as those cards come with around 3.25% in FX fees, and no 1% cashback.

To avoid interest charges on overseas ATM cash withdrawals, follow these easy steps:

1. Apply for the Trust card with code V1WB7T8A
2. Apply for a Trust Savings Account through the Trust app (instant approval). There is no minimum balance, monthly fee or lock-in period to worry about!
3. Deposit enough money into your Trust Savings Account
4. When withdrawing cash from an overseas ATM, be sure to select Savings Account on the ATM screen (i.e. not Current, not Credit Card), and of course, never let the ATM do any currency conversion for you, as the markups are insane

The card also has a highly-complicated and misleading benefit, claiming to offer “up to 15% cashback” on your chosen spending category:

• Dining (e.g. restaurants, bakeries, food deliveries)
• Shopping (e.g. department, clothing, watch stores)
• Travel (e.g. airlines, hotels, travel agencies)
• Wellness (e.g. beauty shops, spas, gyms, pharmacies)
• Transport (e.g. ride-hailing, car rental, petrol)
• Entertainment (e.g. bars, movies, streaming services)

Why misleading? The cashback cap is a lot lower than the minimum spending requirement. Examples here.

To summarize the cashback mechanics:

To receive “15% cashback” on the chosen category, one would need to spend at least $2,000 per month, for 3 consecutive months in a quarter (total of at least $6,000). The cardholder would then be credited with $250 in cashback; that is, IF he/she had spent an average of at least $555 per month, on the chosen category.

This also means that, to unlock the “15% cashback” on $555 worth of spending, one would need to spend $1,445 per month on other things, and only earn 1% cashback on them. So, there’s a huge opportunity cost of not using other superior cards on this amount.

Essentially, this card gives you an effective cashback amount of around 4 to 4.9% on your preferred category, when spending $1,000 or $2,000 per month, for 3 consecutive months in a quarter, far lower than the advertised amount.

Cardholders can choose their preferred bonus category in the Trust mobile app.

📄 Complete review of the Trust Cashback Card

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💸 Annual fee
No annual fee, ever

💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year

🤑 Foreign currency fee
No foreign currency fee

📜 Terms & conditions