Which Singapore Credit Card Wins for Your Spending?

It depends entirely on your spending pattern. UOB One gives the best raw cashback rate (up to 10%) if your spending is concentrated in Grab, utilities, and online, but requires $2,000/month minimum and caps at $100/month. OCBC 365 is the most balanced card for everyday spending (dining, groceries, transport) with a $80/month cap. SC Simply Cash at 1.5% with no minimum or cap often beats tiered cards for moderate, spread-out spending. Enter your monthly amounts in the calculator above to see which card wins for you.

Miles cards generally beat cashback when: (1) you redeem for business class where miles have very high value ($0.04–$0.10/mile), (2) you travel frequently overseas, and (3) you can consistently transfer miles to a frequent flyer programme. Cashback is simpler and better for: people who don't fly often, who want guaranteed dollar value without expiry risk, or who can't reach the minimum balance for free flight redemptions. For most Singaporeans doing 1–2 leisure trips a year, a good cashback card often wins on simplicity and certainty.

UOB One requires a minimum monthly spend to unlock bonus cashback. At $500/month you earn 3.33% on everything. At $1,000 you earn 5%. At $2,000 you unlock 10% on select categories (Grab, utilities, online) and 3.33% on everything else, capped at $100/month total cashback. The cashback is credited quarterly. The minimum is per calendar month: one month below $500 drops that month's tier regardless of the quarterly total.

HSBC Revolution is arguably the best no-annual-fee miles card in Singapore. At 4 miles per dollar on online and contactless payments (which covers most dining, Grab, and e-commerce), it earns miles faster than most paid miles cards on typical spending. The catch: miles must be transferred to Krisflyer or other programs (conversion fee applies), and the bonus is capped at about 9,000 miles/month from the 4mpd categories. For frequent miles collectors who want no annual fee, it's a strong choice.

Most Singaporeans benefit from 2 cards: a specialist card that maximises returns on your biggest spending category, and a flat-rate card (like SC Simply Cash at 1.5%) for everything else. A common combo is OCBC 365 (high dining/groceries cashback) + SC Simply Cash (catch-all). Or HSBC Revolution (online/contactless miles) + a flat-rate cashback for offline spend. Avoid spreading spend across too many tiered cards, you may miss the minimum spend on each and earn nothing.

For Singapore Citizens and PRs: most banks require a minimum annual income of $30,000 (equivalent to $2,500/month gross). Foreigners typically need $40,000–$45,000. Exceptions: secured credit cards (backed by a fixed deposit) are available to those below the income threshold. Students can apply for student cards with no income requirement. Citi, DBS, OCBC, and UOB all follow MAS guidelines setting the unsecured credit limit at 4× your monthly income, capped at an aggregate of 12× monthly income across all banks.