Ranked: Best Cards to Maximise Cashback/Miles (August 2020)

The most significant update over the past month was Visa reclassifying Grab top-ups, rendering GrabPay MasterCard all but dead as we move into August.

Tiers

Tier	Cashback	Miles	Winner
1	UOB One (8.33% to 10%) Maybank FnF (8%)	–	Cashback
2a	OCBC FRANK (6%)	–	Cashback
2b	UOB One (5%) DBS LiveFresh (5%)	All 4 mpd: DBS Woman’s World CitiRewards UOB Preferred Platinum OCBC Titanium Rewards HSBC Revolution CitiRewards	Draw
3	UOB One (3.33%) Amex True Cashback (3%+0.8%)¹	UOB KrisFlyer (3mpd)	Draw
4	SC Spree (2%)	–	Cashback
5	Citi Cash Back+ SC Unlimited Cashback	1.2 to 1.4 mpd	Miles

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The logic of the tiers are simple: if you are a cashback person, you’d obviously put all your spending on Tier 1 cards, followed by Tier 2 when your Tier 1 cards are fully maximised. A miles person would focus on the Miles column, and someone who is Team Value like me would see whether miles or cashback wins in the specific tier.

Tier 1 & Tier 2A

People who chase miles might vehemently disagree, but there simply isn’t any compelling miles cards now to rival the top tier cashback cards. You could quite easily get between 6 to 10% in this category, while mile cards offer 4 mpd at best.

Also, miles are considerably lousier during a pandemic where travel is out of the question. Further hurting mile cards is that CitiRewards Visa no longer gives 4 mpd on Grab top-ups, making a 4+0.4 mpd earn rate no longer possible.

If you can satisfy UOB One’s condition of $2,000 per month for three consecutive months, and shop often at Dairy Farm outlets, it may be your best pick, but the best cards at this tier for most people are Maybank Family and Friends as well as OCBC FRANK.

Tier 2B

Tier 2B is largely unchanged, with DBS LiveFresh at 5% – overtaken by OCBC FRANK but still makes a good supplement card if your FRANK is maxed. UOB One works well for bigger spenders who can hit $2,000 monthly.

As usual, there are a plethora of 4 mpd cards you can use for miles. CitiRewards sadly falls back to this tier after being the sole card to award 4 mpd on Grab top-ups for months.

Tiers 3 to 5

These are cards you go to if your Tier 1 and 2 cards have been maxed or don’t qualify. StanChart Spree takes a hit, unfortunately, due to the Visa-Grab situation. This makes Amex True Cashback a stand out for being the sole card that still give rewards on Grab top-ups.

Promos affect tiers

Noteworthy is that banks run promos from time to time that can drastically change the position of a card. For instance, for July and August, DBS is giving an additional 8% in cashback or vouchers for hitting a certain spend goal. This would make DBS LiveFresh potentially give more rewards than OCBC FRANK.

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