OCBC Rewards Review (2026)

The OCBC Rewards Card has changed quite a bit since I first reviewed it more than six years ago. But rather than revisit its entire history, let’s focus on the question that matters: is it still worth using in 2026?

With an excellent earn rate that can go up to 6 miles per dollar with no minimum spend, the short answer is yes… provided your spending fits a specific list of eligible merchants and transactions.

Only 13 MCCs and 12 merchants

The list of eligible merchants are indeed very specific because OCBC Rewards gives its bonus earn rate on just 13 Merchant Category Codes (MCC) and 12 merchants.

The 13 MCCs are:

MCC Code	Category Description
5309	Duty Free Stores
5311	Departmental Stores
5611	Men’s and Boys’ Clothing and Accessories Stores
5621	Women’s Ready to Wear Stores
5631	Women’s Accessory and Speciality Stores
5641	Children’s and Infants’ Wear Stores
5651	Family Clothing Stores
5655	Sports and Riding Apparel Stores
5661	Shoe Stores
5691	Men’s and Women’s Clothing Stores
5699	Miscellaneous Apparel

On top of merchants with one of the 13 MCCs, OCBC Rewards specifically lists 12 merchants by name that are also eligible for the card’s bonus earn rate:

Category	Eligible Merchants
🛍️ Shopping	Alibaba Shopee AliExpress Lazada Taobao Amazon Mustafa Centre TikTok Shop Ezbuy
💊 Pharmacies	Guardian NTUC Unity Watsons

And in case you’re wondering: ShopeePay transactions are specifically excluded in the terms and conditions.

The relatively sparse list of eligible categories and merchants makes the OCBC Rewards quite a narrowly focused card meant just for shopping.

Boosted earn rate on specific merchants

Where OCBC Rewards shines is its promotional earn rate of 75X OCBC$ per S$5 spent which translates into 6 miles per dollar or 4.16% cashback. There is no minimum spend or minimum balance to be maintained in a bank account – requirements which cards offering more than 4 miles per dollar tend to impose.

Instead, OCBC gives a list of eligible merchants that can earn this higher rate, often on a quarterly basis. While the promo can change each quarter, the bank has kept the current list pretty much the same for the past few quarters.

As of July 2026, the selected merchants will continue to be Watsons, Lazada, Shopee, Taobao, and TikTok Shop until 31st March 2027.

Quarter	Promo Earn Rate
Q1 2025 Q2 2025	Watsons and MCC 5311
Q3 2025 to Q1 2027	Watsons, Lazada, Shopee, Taobao, and TikTok Shop

If you are a heavy spender at any of these merchants, OCBC Rewards’ 6 miles per dollar earn rate is pretty difficult to beat. Though the list is small, given how you can buy just about anything on Lazada and Shopee, I think this does boost the card’s value proposition quite a bit.

Increasing the card’s versatility with HeyMax

Because OCBC Rewards supports MCC 5311, a lot more options are opened up by the means of buying vouchers through HeyMax. For those who are unfamiliar, HeyMax offers useful tools for earning card rewards, and among those tools is the sale of vouchers of things like Grab, FairPrice, Pets Lover Centre and more.

Every single voucher sold is coded MCC 5311 which earns the usual bonus points of OCBC Rewards. This allows cardholders to expand the categories of things their card can earn 4 miles per dollar on by buying the vouchers on HeyMax, then spending the vouchers on the various merchants. There are also bonus Max Miles to be earned on the voucher purchases.

OCBC$ points are given for every S$5 spent

OCBC Rewards gives its rewards in the form of OCBC$. Instead of awarding points per dollar spent, OCBC goes with the annoying mechanism of awarding points for every S$5 spent.

This means that a S$19.99 transaction will earn the same amount of points as a S$15 one, and a S$4.99 transaction will earn nothing. As annoying as this mechanic is, as a shopping card I think it is easier to avoid smaller transactions than a card one would use for daily expenses like UOB Preferred Visa.

OCBC$ expire 2 years after they are earned, and they are credited according to this timeline:

Type	Points	Cap	Timeline
Base Points	5 OCBC$ per S$5 (0.4 miles per dollar)	Unlimited	Credited when transaction is posted
Bonus Points	45 OCBC$ per S$5 (3.6 miles per dollar)	10,000 OCBC$ (S$1,115 spend)	Credited following month (usually 3rd or 4th week)
Promo Bonus Points	25 OCBC$ per S$5 (2 miles per dollar)	5,000 OBCC$ (S$1,000 spend)	Credited following month (usually 3rd or 4th week)

A few airline partners to choose from, but transfer ratios are not ideal

While many banks offer miles conversion to Singapore Airlines and possibly one other airline, OCBC partners with 6 airlines. Here’s what 25,000 OCBC$ can get you:

Airline	OCBC$ : Miles	OCBC Rewards Earn Rate
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer	25,000 OCBC$ : 10,000 miles	4 or 6 miles per dollar
AirFrance/KLM Flying Blue	25,000 OCBC$ : 10,000 miles	4 or 6 miles per dollar
British Airways Avios	25,000 OCBC$ : 9,000 miles	3.6 or 5.4 miles per dollar
Etihad Guest	25,000 OCBC$ : 9,000 miles	3.6 or 5.4 miles per dollar
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles	25,000 OCBC$ : 7,250 miles	2.9 or 4.35 miles per dollar
United Airlines MileagePlus	25,000 OCBC$ : 7,250 miles	2.9 or 4.35 miles per dollar

Because of the poor transfer ratios to Cathay Pacific and United Airlines, these are probably not airlines you would consider transferring OCBC$ to.

Instead, Singapore Airlines, AirFrance, and KLM are the airlines OCBC Rewards cardholder should transfer their miles to. The transfer ratio for British Airways isn’t ideal, but it is good to at least have the option to transfer points into Avios (which can also be used for airlines like Qatar Airways and Finnair). There are occasional transfer bonuses that could make this conversion more sensible, and it is very possible to get good value from Avios redemptions so I consider having this transfer partner a good thing despite the 10% haircut.

You can use the miles transfer calculator for more info.

Cash rebate is one of the highest among miles cards

While many would no doubt be using OCBC Rewards for miles, it is possible to use OCBC$ for cashback.

Cash Rebate	OCBC$ Required
S$10	3,600
S$20	7,200
S$50	18,000
S$100	36,000

The minimum number of points required is 3,600 OCBC$ for S$10 cash rebate, and the ratio is the same for all other redemptions. This means that the 4 or 6 miles per dollar that OCBC Rewards translates into 2.77% or 4.16% cashback.

It’s worth noting that these are one of the highest cashback rates given by what is normally a miles card, save a few cards like DBS yuu, UOB Lady’s, and HSBC Revolution. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are people who would use this as a fuss-free Shopee card for easy 4.16% cashback.

Regardless, you’d probably still want to use the OCBC$ you have accumulated for miles. Even for rebates, KrisFlyer miles can be used for rebates through channels like KrisShop, KrisPay, or even paying for Scoot flights at 1 cent each, which makes a 6 miles per dollar earn rate equivalent to 6% in rebates, albeit captive to Singapore Airlines’ ecosystem.

Works with OCBC 360 for higher interest

Lastly, the OCBC Rewards is one of several OCBC credit cards that unlocks bonus interest for the OCBC 360 account. As of May 2026, spending at least S$500 on one of the eligible cards would meet the Spend requirement of OCBC 360, getting a bonus interest of 0.25% p.a. For every S$10,000 of monthly average balance, this is S$2.08 of bonus interest.

It’s not fantastic, but to be fair, OCBC 360 isn’t the only high-yield savings account that has been nerfed in recent years. I would first take a look at the current landscape of high-yield accounts, but if you still conclude that OCBC 360 is the best fit for you, then it does provide an added reason to prioritise spending on OCBC Rewards over other cards.

Sign-up Promo

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The Verdict

While OCBC Rewards has a short list of eligible MCCs and merchants, the merchants the card does work with like Shopee and Lazada allow you to earn the card’s rewards on a wide variety of things one would want to buy. 6 miles per dollar (or 4.16% cashback if you really want) with no minimum spend and bank balance requirements is a great earn rate to have.

It’s far from being a card one could use on everyday expenses like dining or groceries, but the ability to buy vouchers on HeyMax extends the card’s versatility quite a fair bit.

There is, of course, an HSBC Revolution-sized elephant in the room, but I think OCBC Rewards is a good complementary card to have. Depending on how much savings you have with OCBC 360 (and HSBC EGA, since HSBC Revolution’s higher earn rate is dependent on that), OCBC Rewards might well be the primary card you use for your monthly Shopee shopping sprees.

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Seth Wee was a licensed financial adviser representative from 2009 to 2025, with over 16 years of experience in Singapore’s financial advisory industry.

He started Sethisfy.com in 2019 to share practical insights on credit cards, banking products, and miles strategies, helping readers identify financial products that deliver the best value. Seth has been featured in CNA, Channel 8, Today, and a host of other publications. In 2025, he was also part of a panel at CPF’s Ready For Life festival.

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