Review: OCBC Infinity – Unlimited 1.6% Cashback, Works For OCBC 360 Account
Good news: yay, new credit card! OCBC has just released a new cashback card (nice) that works with OCBC 360 Account (great)!
Not-so-good news: its earn rate is a paltry 1.6% (sigh). In a world of 5% to 18% cashback, 1.6% is not just terribly unexciting; it’s almost a waste of time.
Nonetheless, if you are an OCBC 360 Account user with a preference for cashback and want something really fuss-free, I suppose the OCBC Infinity is made for you.
Anyway, reminder: all-time high $350 for CIMB credit cards ending soon!
Card details
| Card | OCBC Infinity Cashback Card |
| Earn Rate | 1.6% cashback except excluded categories |
| Minimum Spend | N/A |
| Maximum Rewards | N/A |
| Annual Fee | S$194.40 (free for first year) |
| Annual Income Requirement | S$30,000 |
As the card name suggests, OCBC Infinity gives an unlimited amount of cashback, and there is also no minimum spend to worry about. It’s meant to be a simple, fuss-free credit card, and its lack of conditions and low earn rate reflect that.
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The card is still subject to a list of exclusions commonly seen in other credit cards. As expected, things like MCC 6540 is excluded, so yeah no need to wonder: Grab top-ups will not get any rewards.
Of late, education and school-related expenses have also been gradually excluded by many credit cards, and this is also true of OCBC Infinity.
| MCC | Description |
|---|---|
| 4784 | Tolls and Bridge Fees |
| 4829 | Wire Transfer Money Orders (WTMOs) |
| 4900 | Utilities–Electric, Gas, Heating Oil, Sanitary, Water |
| 5047 | Medical, Dental, Ophthalmic and Hospital Equipment and Supplies |
| 5199 | Nondurable Goods (Not Elsewhere Classified) |
| 5960 | Direct Marketing Insurance Services |
| 5993 | Cigars, Stores and Stands |
| 6010 | Member Financial Institution–Manual Cash Disbursements |
| 6012 | Member Financial Institution–Merchandise and Services |
| 6051 | Quasi Cash–Merchant (Non-Financial Institutions – Foreign Currency, Non- Fiat Currency, Cryptocurrency) |
| 6211 | Securities–Brokers and Dealers |
| 6300 | Insurance Sales, Underwriting and Premiums |
| 6513 | Real Estate Agents and Managers–Rentals |
| 6540 | Non-Financial Institutions – Stored Value Card Purchase/Load |
| 7349 | Cleaning, Maintenance and Janitorial Services |
| 7523 | Automobile Parking Lots and Garages |
| 7995 | Gambling – Betting, including Lottery Tickets, Casino Gaming Chips, Off-Track Betting, and Wagers at Race Tracks |
| 8062 | Hospitals |
| 8211 | Schools, Elementary and Secondary |
| 8220 | Colleges, Universities, Professional Schools and Junior Colleges |
| 8241 | Schools, Correspondence |
| 8244 | Schools, Business and Secretarial |
| 8249 | Schools, Trade and Vocational |
| 8299 | Schools and Educational Services–Not Elsewhere Classified |
| 8398 | Organizations, Charitable and Social Service |
| 8651 | Organizations, Political |
| 8661 | Organizations, Religious |
| 8675 | Automobile Associations |
| 8699 | Organizations, Membership–Not Elsewhere Classified (Labor Union) |
| 9211 | Court Costs Including Alimony and Child Support |
| 9222 | Fines |
| 9223 | Bail and Bond Payments |
| 9311 | Tax Payments |
| 9399 | Government Services–Not Elsewhere Classified |
| 9402 | Postal Services–Government Only |
| 9405 | Intra-Government Purchases–Government Only |
In fact, I might be mistaken but this is probably the longest list of exclusions I’ve seen in a credit card’s terms and conditions.
The competition
Talking about exclusions, one of the OCBC Infinity’s most high-profile competitors has to be the UOB Absolute. The latter gives a higher 1.7% cashback with virtually no exclusions except for Grab top-ups, and even then it gives a better-than-nothing 0.3% cashback (though new-to-bank cardholders do get 10% for a limited amount).
The only reason OCBC Infinity has a fighting chance is the fact that it is a Mastercard which has wider acceptance than UOB Absolute’s American Express network, and that it works for the OCBC 360 Account (more on that later).
UOB Absolute
🔥 👍🏼
- 10% cashback: For new-to-UOB Credit Cardmembers who successfully apply for UOB Absolute Cashback Card by 31 August 2023, enjoy 10% cashback (equivalent to S$100) on the first S$1,000 spend within thirty days from card approval date. No cap on the number of eligible customers. Full terms and conditions apply. Works with Grab top-ups!
- S$350 cash credit: For the first 200 new-to-UOB Credit Cardmembers who successfully apply for a selected UOB credit card by 31 August 2023 and they have spent a minimum of S$1,000 per month for 2 consecutive months from card approval date, they will receive a one-time cash credit of S$350. Full terms and conditions apply.
Get 1.7% cashback on nearly anything excluding Grab top-ups which get 0.3% instead.
Other cards that do favourably against the OCBC Infinity would be DCS Cashback card which gives 2% cashback without any minimum spend, and the temporarily buffed CIMB World Mastercard which can give unlimited 2% cashback if you hit S$2,500 of spend within the month.
Fortunately, OCBC Infinity does well against its StanChart and Citibank counterparts in this space. StanChart Simply Cash and Citi Cash Back+ both aren’t as good, but that’s not saying much. Both aren’t great cards, and StanChart is slightly inferior at 1.5% while Citi Cash Back+ has a weird redemption system that is unnecessarily complicated.
Do tap on the link of each card too as the sign-up promo makes a significant impact to their value proposition. Also, I intend to have a shootout between all cashback cards soon, so stay subscribed if you want updates on such content and more great deals.
Works with OCBC 360 Account’s Spend bonus… but is it the best card for that?
Perhaps one of the strongest things going for the OCBC Infinity is that it works as one of the eligible cards to qualify for OCBC 360 Account’s Spend requirement.
It’s quite an awkward situation however, because OCBC 360 isn’t quite the strongest savings account right now. UOB One Account continues to dominate the space for condition-based savings accounts (comparison here), and if you had to choose one you’d probably go for UOB One given its higher interest rate, easier conditions, and better credit cards.
For whatever reason you do have an OCBC 360 Account, having extra 0.6% p.a. does make spend on an OCBC credit card significantly more attractive:
| Balance Amount | Approximate Monthly Interest at 0.6% p.a. | “Cashback” Rate on $500 of spend |
| S$100,000 | S$50 | 10% |
| S$75,000 | S$37.50 | 7.5% |
| S$50,000 | S$25 | 5% |
When you have a sizeable amount in your OCBC 360 Account and have a choice to make between putting S$500 of spend on an eligible OCBC card or some other credit card, the extra interest from achieving the Spend category can tip the scales quite heavily in OCBC’s favour.
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The question is then whether OCBC Infinity is the card to pick amongst the bunch of eligible OCBC credit cards. If you don’t want miles, the almost equally fuss free OCBC 90°N is probably out of the picture (and if you do want miles, I’m not sure why you are this deep in a 1.6% cashback card review).
That leaves one of the other cards which are harder to use, even if they come with higher earn rates, and I guess that’s why people might consider the OCBC Infinity after all.
Want a simple, easy-to-use cashback card to go with your OCBC 360 Account? Take your paltry 1.6% cashback and be on your merry way, I guess.
Sign-up promo
The card is supposed to have a launch promo, but OCBC seems to have paused the roll out for now. It’s all very strange, but regardless, the promo for this card didn’t seem all that exciting especially when you look at the ongoing promo for its other cards.
Even if you want this card, I would first get one of the other OCBC cards for their sign-up promo first before getting the OCBC Infinity.
Conclusion
I don’t quite know how to feel about this card and wonder whether I’ve already spent too much time on something so boring.
I do, however, get why it exists: there’s probably a segment of people out there who simply can’t be bothered with min/maxing their card rewards, and 1.6% is surely better than nothing. But as someone who didn’t know better and once put a S$11,000 transaction on a 1.5% cashback card many moons ago, it’s hard to get over a disdain of low-earn cards like this.
And perhaps that’s the point of such cards in the first place – for those who don’t care, or for those who don’t know.
The good:
- Works with OCBC 360’s spend category
- Simple and fuss-free
The bad:
- Earn rate is too low
The ugly:
- I once put S$11,000 of spend on a 1.5% cashback card… the shame.
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