The Credit Card Rebate Shootout - Part 1 - Monthly Regular Spendings

This is the first part of the credit card rebate shootout series.

We have recently gotten credit cards to handle expenses post-marriage as we foresaw the need to pay attention to those incurred from our expected regular spending and big ticket items. Prior to that, my wife and I playfully debated which card(s) would best suit our lifestyle expenditure.

She was particularly keen on Standard Chartered's Unlimited Card for its unlimited 1.5% cashback. While impressed of the card's utility, I myself was leaning towards studying all the other compelling cards out there to target and maximise cashback/rebate based on the nature of our expected expenditure.

Hence this inspired my write-up to do a comparison. Who would win? (Pardon the meme haha)



Assumptions

• Spending categorised based on cards benefits and general expected spending with reasonable accessibilities (e.g. Groceries for select reasonably accessible supermarkets) during the month.
• Intending to get only 1 of these cards for monthly expenditure management
• Annual card fee is not taken into consideration
• Does not take into account other card benefits
• Spending Pattern based on several scenarios of expected expenses after we settled down in our new home
• Any other assumptions are stated in Remarks in the shootout

Spending Categorisation and Expected Spending to charge to credit card(s)

Category	Spending
Weekend Dining	$150
Weekday Dining	$150
Petrol	$0
Overseas Dining	$0
Online Purchases	$50
Groceries	$100
Recurring Telco Bill	$200
Ez-Link	$200
Others (Paywave/Contactless)	$100
Others	$50
TOTAL	$1,000

Shootout Candidates

• OCBC 365
• Standard Chartered Unlimited
• UOB Delight
• HSBC Advance (as a non HSBC Advance-banking customer)

Shootout

		OCBC365		SC Unlimited		UOB Delight		HSBC Advance (Non HSBC Advance Banking customer)
Category	Spend	Cashbk %	Amount	Cashbk %	Amount	Cashbk %	Amount	Cashbk %	Amount
Weekend Dining	$150	6.00%	$9.00	1.50%	$2.25	3.00%	$4.50	1.50%	$2.25
Weekday Dining	$150	3.00%	$4.50	1.50%	$2.25	3.00%	$4.50	1.50%	$2.25
Petrol	$0	5.00%	$0.00	1.50%	$0.00	3.00%	$0.00	1.50%	$0.00
Overseas Dining	$0	3.00%	$0.00	1.50%	$0.00	0.30%	$0.00	1.50%	$0.00
Online Purchases	$50	3.00%	$1.50	1.50%	$0.75	0.30%	$0.15	1.50%	$0.75
Groceries	$100	3.00%	$3.00	1.50%	$1.50	8.00%	$8.00	1.50%	$1.50
Recurring Telco Bill	$200	3.00%	$6.00	1.50%	$3.00	3.00%	$6.00	1.50%	$3.00
Ez-Link	$200	0.30%	$0.60	1.50%	$3.00	3.00%	$6.00	1.50%	$3.00
Others (Paywave / Contactless)	$100	0.30%	$0.30	1.50%	$1.50	3.00%	$3.00	1.50%	$1.50
Others	$50	0.30%	$0.15	1.50%	$0.75	0.30%	$0.15	1.50%	$0.75
TOTAL SPEND	$1,000	$25.05		$15.00		$32.30		$15.00
Minimum Monthly Spend		$600 to meet non-0.3% items		No minimum spend		$800 to meet 8% for Groceries		>$2000 to meet 2.5%
						$400 to meet 3% Items		No Minimum for 1.5%
Cashback/Rebate Cap		$80		No Cap		$50		$70

More Shootout Assumptions

• We assume dining is paid via PayWave or other contactless means (due to UOB Delights)
• We grayed out Petrol and Overseas Dining as it's not applicable to us.

Other useful notes

• As a HSBC Advance Banking customer, you get an extra 1% rebate/cashback (hence 2.5% with spending of $2000 and under, 3.5% with spending above $2000) and your rebate cap is increased to $125.
• For Standard Chartered Unlimited to beat the Rebate Cap of UOB Delight and OCBC 365, you need to spend above $3333 and $5334 respectively.
• For Standard Chartered Unlimited to beat the Rebate Cap of HSBC Advance at 2.5%, you need to spend above $4667.
• For HSBC Advance (non-HSBC Advance Banking member) to beat the Rebate Cap of UOB Delight and OCBC 365, you need to spend above $2000 and $3200 respectively. This also nicely competes aganst UOB Delight's Rebate Cap.

Conclusion

• The cards' benefits are maximised when played to their cards (pun!). Select credit cards that can most seamlessly integrate into your current or expected lifestyle needs.
• For Standard Chartered Unlimited and HSBC Advance, their biggest strength lies in their utilitarian nature, making them versatile and reducing the need for multiple different cards.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for Part 2 of Credit Card Rebate Shootout - Big Ticket Items!