Card of the Year 2024: Trust Cashback Card

The Trust Cashback Card launched in August 2024 with simple yet game-changing features that challenge the existing credit card market in Singapore.

Let’s have a look at the main reasons why this is Suitesmile’s Card of the Year for 2024.

No foreign currency fees + 1% unlimited cashback

Most Singapore credit card providers charge over 3% in foreign currency fees. The Trust Cashback Card breaks this trend by eliminating these fees entirely and offering 1% unlimited cashback that is credited immediately when the transactions post.

So, just by using this credit card over others, you are saving over 4% on your foreign currency spending, without the need to track potentially complicated criteria such as:

• Minimum spending
• Maximum spending (cap)
• Spending category eligibility
• Spending category cap
• Transaction MCC
• Transaction date
• Posting date
• Calendar month
• Statement month

Related: Best Cards for Foreign Currency Spending

How It Compares to Multi-Currency Cards

You can use great cards with no FX fees like YouTrip and Wise; but they come with several disadvantages:

• No permanent benefits of earning miles and cashback
• They require a digital wallet top-up (extra step)
• They are debit cards (not ideal, if cashflow is important to you)
• In cases of fraudulent transactions, your money is immediately deducted, until the card provider returns them during/after the investigation

However, since the Trust Cashback Card has an income requirement of S$30,000 per year, it may not be accessible to everyone, such as students or retirees.

But I want Miles! 😡

Well, me too. But do I want to lose (an unreasonable amount of) money to earn them? No.

Because the Trust Cashback card exists, you are now “paying” about 4.25% in opportunity cost by using a Miles card for foreign currency spending (3.25% FX fee + 1% cashback).

So, how much are you paying, per mile?

With a 4 mpd earn rate, it’s about 1.1 cents per mile (not horrible, not amazing either).

But with a 2.4 mpd earn rate, the cost per mile increases to 1.8 cents. At this price point, you might as well buy miles during public offers. And remember, you can earn even more miles/cashback when using the right cards to buy them.

tl;dr: Stop using General Spending Miles cards for Foreign Currency spending.

Related: Values of Miles and Points

No annual fee, ever

While most useful credit cards charge hundreds of dollars in annual fee, this card does not come with one.

Is it bad to have an annual fee?

Of course it is. Annual fees “eat” into the overall value that you receive in miles, cashback or other benefits.

✍️ For many years, I’ve considered the Citi Prestige card the only card in Singapore with an annual fee that justifies its benefits.

Can’t I just ask for an annual fee waiver?

Sure you can. But have you faced the headache of a rejected annual fee waiver request? This is particularly troublesome with miles/rewards cards, and of course, the KrisFlyer UOB card, which has delayed bonus miles crediting.

It’s nice to have one less thing to think about.

Free unlimited overseas ATM withdrawals

Trust Cashback cardholders can get unlimited free ATM cash withdrawals from their Trust Savings accounts.

This beats competing debit cards like YouTrip, Wise and Revolut, which have monthly limits between $350 and $400.

Related: Best Cards for Overseas ATM Cash Withdrawals

Mini review of the Trust Cashback Card

💡 Click on the + Card Summary buttons below to view the key details of each card.

Trust Cashback

No FX fees, 1% cashback and free overseas ATM cash withdrawals

Apply now

🎁 Sign-up bonusUse code V1WB7T8A during the application to get a scratch card worth up to $1,000.

A one-time spend (any amount) is required. Pro Tip: Adding this card to your Grab app would trigger as first spend, due to the verification hold.

+ Card Summary

More information on the

Trust Cashback Visa Card

Suitesmile rating:

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✍️ 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!

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.

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💸 Annual fee
No annual fee, ever

💼 Income requirement
$30,000/year

🤑 Foreign currency fee
No foreign currency fee

📜 Terms & conditions

Bottom line

With the introduction of the new Trust Cashback Card, it no longer makes sense to use most popular general spending credit cards for foreign currency spending. For better value, stick to specialized Miles or Cashback cards, or use the Trust Cashback card.

General Spending Miles cards:

❌ UOB PRVI Miles (2.4 – 3mpd)
❌ HSBC TravelOne (2.4 mpd)
❌ Citi PremierMiles (2.2 mpd)
❌ DBS Altitude (2.2 mpd)
❌ DBS Vantage (2.2 mpd)
❌ OCBC 90°N (2.1 mpd)
❌ Citi Prestige (2 mpd)
❌ AMEX KrisFlyer Ascend (1.2 mpd)
❌ AMEX KrisFlyer (1.1 mpd)

General Spending Cashback cards:

❌ UOB Absolute (1.7%)
❌ Citi Cash Back+ (1.6%)
❌ OCBC INFINITY (1.6%)
❌ AMEX True Cashback (1.5%)
❌ HSBC Advance (1.5%)
❌ Standard Chartered Simply Cash (1.5%)

Multi-Currency Wallets (unless if earning under S$30,000/year):

❌ YouTrip
❌ Wise
❌ Revolut

Don’t have a Trust Cashback card yet? Download the Trust app and use referral code V1WB7T8A to get a scratch card worth up to S$1,000 and a chance to win S$1 million. Offer ends 31 Dec 2024.