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Welcome to my guide on the best high cashback credit card for fresh grads!
This is the second of a multi-part series where I try to determine the best credit card for different categories, including specialised miles (rewards) cards, general miles cards, high cashback cards, and unlimited cashback cards.
If you haven’t read my beginner’s guide to credit card rewards, I’d recommend you to check that out first!
Trying to choose the best credit card as a fresh grad is often daunting because there are so many things to learn and think about.
As a fresh grad who’s looking to apply for a credit card myself, I thought it was apt to be writing a series of posts about it.
Since there are more credit cards than anyone can count, I’ll be shortlisting the top 3 contenders for each category using certain criteria or guidelines.
I’ll also take into consideration various factors that are important to me when I look for credit cards and give these factors a weightage.
Then, I’ll score the credit cards from 1 – 5, with 5 being the best.
Finally, I’ll tabulate the weighted scores to obtain the final scores out of 5 and crown the best credit card for the category.
What Is A High Cashback Card?
This refers to cards that earn cash back at high rates (5% or higher) but have constraints relating to monthly minimum spending, particular methods of payment, spending categories, and/or other criteria.
Shortlist Criteria
Entry-level
I’ll only be considering credit cards that are entry-level, ie, have an annual income requirement of S$30k.
This is because the majority of fresh grads won’t earn high enough incomes to qualify for more affluent cards that have higher income requirements.
Low Minimum Spending
I’ll also only consider credit cards that don’t have too high monthly minimum spending requirements, ie below $800/month.
This is because fresh grads likely don’t have liabilities or dependents, so their monthly expenses wouldn’t be too high. And even if their monthly spending exceeds $800, a portion of it is likely spent on non-eligible transactions such as cash/QR payments.
Contenders
Even after the 3 shortlist criteria, there are still a number of credit cards that are eligible to contend for the crown.
But after doing some research, I’ve narrowed it down to the following 3 cards.
1: OCBC FRANK
2: UOB EVOL
3: Citi SMRT
Grading Criteria & Weightage
1: Earn Rate – 30%
The first criterion is the cashback earn rate, which refers to how much cashback is being awarded for spending on the eligible categories.
This has the highest and most direct impact on how much cash back you’ll end up earning, so it’s the most important criterion.
2: Categories – 25%
The next criterion is categories, as in what categories of expenses can the credit card earn high cash back for.
Those of you who are savvier with credit card rewards will refer to this as merchant category codes (MCCs). I explained what MCCs are in my beginner’s guide to credit card rewards.
This is the second most important criterion because having a wide variety of eligible categories will allow you to earn cash back on more of your expenses.
3: Minimum Spending – 10%
The drawback of high cashback cards is that they always require monthly minimum spending on eligible transactions to earn cashback.
It’s important to consider this requirement because it dictates how easy or likely it is for you to actually earn cashback on all of your credit card transaction.
There’s no point in having a high earn rate and a wide variety of categories if you don’t end up being eligible for any cashback.
4: Earn Cap – 10%
This criterion refers to the cap on the amount of cashback that these cards can earn within a given period of time.
As mentioned earlier, these cards earn cash back at rates of 5% or higher but are always subject to a cap within a specific timeframe.
This means that the effective cashback rate you actually earn may be lower than what you expect if the amount of cashback you expect to receive exceeds the stipulated cap amount.
The higher the cashback cap is, the more you’re able to take advantage of the high earn rate.
5: Cashback Crediting – 5%
Next, this criterion refers to how the cashback that you’ve earned is awarded to you.
I included this criterion in order to account for the terms and conditions that the cashback reward is subject to and how easy it is for you to realise it.
6: Earn Method – 5%
This criterion refers to the payment method(s) that are eligible with the card to earn cashback at the high rates that are being advertised.
This affects how often and how easily you will be able to earn cashback.
7: Annual Fee – 5%
This criterion refers to how much the annual fee for the respective credit cards is.
While this doesn’t directly affect the cashback you earn, it’s a cost that you’ll likely want to account for if you’re not able to get it waived.
8: Card Benefits – 5%
This criterion refers to the inherent benefits that the credit card entails. These could be benefits that are provided by the issuing bank or the card provider.
This also doesn’t directly affect the cashback you earn, but it’s a way to account for other tangible benefits that you can get out of using credit cards.
9: Promotions – 5%
Finally, this criterion refers specifically to signup promotions that are available for new-to-bank customers.
This could include promotions offered by the issuing bank itself or by financial partners like SingSaver.
Again, this doesn’t affect the cashback you earn and simply takes into consideration other tangible benefits of the credit card.
Criteria Evaluation
Here is the summary of the scores for the various criteria of the contenders.
Below, I’ll go into more detail about why I gave a particular score for each card and criterion.
| OCBC FRANK | UOB EVOL | Citi SMRT | |
| Earn Rate | 4 | 5 | 3.5 |
| Categories | 4.5 | 4.5 | 3 |
| Min Spend | 3.5 | 3.5 | 4 |
| Cashback Cap | 4 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
| Cashback Crediting | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Earn Method | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Annual Fee | 4.5 | 5 | 4 |
| Card Benefits | 3 | 3.5 | 3 |
| Promotions | 3.5 | 3 | 4.5 |
| Total | 4.03 | 4.30 | 3.63 |
| 1: Earn Rate The higher the earn rate, the better the card is because you will be able to earn more cashback with the same amount of spending, given that you meet all other criteria. OCBC FRANKOCBC FRANK awards 6% cashback on selected eligible transactions and 0.3% cashback on other eligible transactions. This is slightly above the threshold rate of 5% and one of the reasons why it beat one of its closest competitors – DBS Live Fresh. Score: 4/5 UOB EVOLUOB EVOL awards 8% cashback on selected eligible transactions and 0.3% cashback on other eligible transactions. This is the highest cashback rate among the cards that meet the shortlist criteria. Score: 5/5 Citi SMRTFinally, Citi SMRT awards 5% cashback on selected eligible transactions and 0.3% cashback on other eligible transactions. Score: 3.5/5 |
| 2: Categories The more categories the card allows you to earn high cashback on, the better the card is because it allows you to earn cashback more easily. Standard rewards exclusion categories apply to all these cards. For more detailed information, refer to the card terms and conditions which I have linked at the end of this table. OCBC FRANKOCBC FRANK awards cashback in 3 general categories. The first is for online transactions and the second is for both mobile contactless transactions and in-store foreign currency transactions with a physical card. They are eligible for 6% cashback. The final category is for other eligible transactions which will earn 0.3% cashback. Overall, there are no strict category restrictions like dining or groceries, so you will be able to earn 6% cashback on most transactions. Score: 4.5/5 UOB EVOLSimilar to OCBC FRANK, UOB EVOL awards cashback in 3 categories. The first is for online transactions and the second is for mobile contactless transactions. They are eligible for 6% cashback. The final category is for other eligible transactions which will earn 0.3% cashback. Overall, there are no strict category restrictions like dining or groceries, so you will be able to earn 8% cashback on most transactions. Score: 4.5/5 Citi SMRTCiti SMRT awards 5% cashback on offline grocery transactions, transport transactions (SimplyGo, EZ-Link auto top-ups, taxis, Grab, Gojek), and online transactions excluding travel-related expenses. Other eligible transactions will earn 0.3% cashback. These categories are significantly more restrictive as compared to OCBC FRANK and UOB EVOL Score: 3/5 |
| 3: Minimum Spending Generally, a lower minimum spending is preferred because it will require you to spend less money in order to earn cashback, and is easier to fulfill. This may be specified within a calendar month or statement month. The former refers to a regular calendar month (ie 1st – 31st), while the latter refers to the interval where you receive your card statement, which usually depends on the date your card is approved (ie 7th – 7th of every month). Also, note that this only includes eligible transactions, that is, transactions outside of the exclusion categories. OCBC FRANKOCBC FRANK has a monthly minimum spending requirement of $600 within a calendar month. If you do not fulfill this requirement, you will only earn 0.3% cashback on your eligible spending. Score: 3.5/5 UOB EVOLUOB EVOL has a monthly minimum spending requirement of $600 within a statement month. If you do not fulfill this requirement, you will only earn 0.3% cashback on your eligible spending. Score: 3.5/5 Citi SMRTCiti SMRT has a monthly minimum spending requirement of $500 within a statement month. If you do not fulfil this requirement, you will only earn 0.3% cashback on your eligible spending. Score: 4/5 |
| 4: Cashback Cap The higher the cashback cap, the better the card is since it allows you to potentially earn more cashback with the same amount of spending. Cashback caps are either applied to each category that is eligible for cashback or as a total across all eligible categories for a given credit card. OCBC FRANKFor each of OCBC FRANK’s 3 categories, the cashback cap is $25, for a total cap of $75. This means that for both 6% cashback categories (online transactions and mobile contactless transactions + in-store foreign currency transactions), a spend amount of $416 will hit the $25 cashback cap. All spending in excess of $416 will not earn any extra cashback. Given that the final category of cashback only yields 0.3%, it is unlikely that you will ever earn the full $75 cashback, and you shouldn’t be trying to. Score: 4/5 UOB EVOLFor each of UOB EVOL’s 3 categories, the cashback cap is $20, for a total cap of $60. This means that for both 8% cashback categories (online transactions and mobile contactless transactions), a spend amount of $250 will hit the $20 cashback cap. All spending in excess of $250 will not earn any extra cashback. As before, given that the final category of cashback only yields 0.3%, it is unlikely that you will ever earn the full $60 cashback, and you shouldn’t be trying to. You may have noticed that spending a total of $500 ($250 on each category) will allow you to earn $40 of cashback, hitting the cap on both 8% cashback categories. However, UOB EVOL’s minimum monthly spending is $600. This also means that it’s not possible for you to enjoy 8% cashback on your entire $600 spending. Instead, the effective cashback rate you end up earning is about $40/$600 = 6.67%. Not quite the 8% that is being advertised, but still the highest rate among its competitors. Score: 3.5/5 Citi SMRTCiti SMRT’s cashback cap is not applied on a per-category basis, but instead on the total eligible spending. Also, instead of a monthly cap, it is a yearly cap which refers to a 12 month period commencing from the date of issuance. The cap stands at a total of $600 over this 12-month period for all its 5% cashback categories and the 0.3% cashback categories. This means that you’re not limited to earning a specified amount of cashback every month like OCBC FRANK or UOB EVOL, but it also means that once you hit the cap of $600, you will not be able to earn any cashback for the rest of the 12-month period. Overall, this adds flexibility for you to still earn the maximum cashback on months where you may end up spending more than usual. Score: 4.5/5 |
| 5: Cashback Crediting The sooner and easier it is for your cashback to be credited, the better the card is. OCBC FRANKAll cashback earned with OCBC FRANK will be calculated to 2 decimal places without any rounding. Cashback will be credited into your card account automatically in the following month from the date that the transaction is posted. That is, all cashback earned is automatically used to offset your statement for the following month, though it may get confusing with cashback being calculated based on calendar month. Score: 4/5 UOB EVOLCashback earned with UOB EVOL will be calculated and rounded to the nearest 2 decimal places. Cashback is automatically credited into your card account in the following statement based on the total eligible transactions in a statement month. That is, all cashback earned within a statement month is automatically used to offset your statement for the following month. Score: 4/5 Citi SMRTCiti SMRT has quite an awkward cashback crediting process. To begin with, unlike OCBC FRANK and UOB EVOL which directly earn cashback, Citi SMRT is actually a cash rebate card, where you earn rebate in the form of SMRT$, and 1 SMRT$ = $1. You have the option of redeeming your SMRT$ for SMRT Reward Vouchers or cash that will be used to offset your statement. There are several things you need to take note of here. Firstly, you need a minimum of 10 SMRT$ before you can redeem them for SMRT Reward Vouchers or cash, and redemptions can only be made in blocks of 10 SMRT$. Next, all SMRT$ earned during a 12-month period (the same 12-month period used to denote the period for calculating the cashback cap) are only valid for 15 months from the start of 12-month period. In other words, SMRT$ earned during the 1st month will be valid for 15 months, but SMRT$ earned during the 11th month will only be valid for 4 months. Redemption of SMRT$ for SMRT Reward Vouchers can be done via Citibank Online and vouchers will be valid for 3 months from the date of issue. Redemption of SMRT$ for cash to offset your statement has to be done via SMS, following the format “RWDS <last 4 digits of card number> <redemption amount keyword>” to 72484. Also, the amount for redemption has to be done in blocks of $10, $50, or $100, where the corresponding keywords are “SMRT10”, “SMRT50”, and “SMRT100” respectively. So if you want to redeem $50 of cashback, you need to send an SMS that looks like this: “RWDS 5678 SMRT50”, without the inverted commas. This means that if you want to redeem cashback of $40, you need to send the SMS to redeem $10 4 times – because there’s no keyword for redeeming $40 at a time. Also, since SMRT$ redemption can only be done in blocks of $10, it’s quite likely that you end up having orphan points, that is SMRT$ that you don’t get to redeem because you’re unlikely to have a nice, even balance of SMRT$. Overall, the process for redeeming SMRT$ for cash is more tedious than what most people would like it to be. Score: 3/5 |
6: Earn MethodOCBC FRANKOCBC FRANK earns 6% cashback on eligible offline mobile contactless payments (excluding card), offline foreign currency card payments, and online payments. This means that paying with the physical card, whether it is contactless or not, will not earn 6% cashback, even if it is an eligible category. The only time that physical card payments will earn 6% cashback is for foreign currency card payments made in-store, which is only likely to happen overseas. Given the prominence of contactless payments, I don’t think this is much of an issue – store your card at home and don’t bring it out so you won’t give yourself the chance to make this mistake. Score: 4/5 UOB EVOLUOB EVOL earns 8% cashback on offline mobile contactless payments (excluding card) and eligible online payments. This means that paying with the physical card, whether it is contactless or not, will not earn 8% cashback, even if it is an eligible category. Again, I don’t foresee this being much of an issue since it’s extremely easy to add a card to your smartphone/smartwatch for contactless payment. Just be sure to store your card at home and don’t bring it out – so you won’t give yourself the chance to make this mistake. Score: 4/5 Citi SMRTCiti Rewards earns 5% cashback on all its eligible categories (offline groceries + transport + online excluding travel), regardless of payment method. This ensures that you will be able to earn 5% cashback where it is due without needing to think about whether you need to pay via contactless payment or not. Score: 5/5 |
7: Annual FeeOCBC FRANKOCBC FRANK has its annual fee waived for the 1st 2 years, 1 year longer than the standard 1 year. Subsequently, its annual fee is chargeable at $80/year, which is significantly lower than the standard fee of $192.60/year. Even though it should be relatively easy to waive, having a low annual fee is reassuring on the off chance that you don’t manage to get it waived. Score: 4.5/5 UOB EVOLUOB EVOL’s annual fee is $192.60 with a guaranteed first-year waiver, which is pretty standard for entry-level credit cards. However, what sets UOB EVOL apart from its competitors is that simply by making 3 transactions per statement month every month for 12 consecutive months prior to your card’s anniversary date, this annual fee will be automatically waived. In other words, simply by using the card 3 times every statement month, you will never have to pay the annual fee. This pretty much guarantees that your annual fee will be waived as long as you’re actually using the card for your daily expenses. Score: 5/5 Citi SMRTSimilarly, Citi SMRT’s annual fee is also at $192.60 but comes with a guaranteed 2 year waiver. Citibank waives its annual fee quite easily as long as you make a call to the phone banking hotline, given that you’ve been using the card. Score: 4/5 |
8: Card BenefitsOCBC FRANKAs an OCBC card, you get to enjoy bank-specific deals that selected merchants offer. Since OCBC FRANK is a Visa Platinum card, there are other benefits offered by Visa, though none, in particular, stand out. Score: 3/5 UOB EVOLUOB also offers various dining/shopping deals with selected merchants, though they don’t appear to be fantastic. However, as UOB EVOL is a Visa Signature card, it comes with more significant benefits than Visa Platinum cards like free night stays, free room upgrades, preferential rates, and more at selected hotels, among others. Score: 3.5/5 Citi SMRTAgain, Citibank offers several dining and shopping deals with selected merchants. As a Visa Platinum card, there are other benefits offered by Visa, but again, none stand out in particular. Score: 3/5 |
| 9: Promotions Sign-up promotions are usually only for new-to-bank customers, which tend to be defined as customers who are not currently primary cardholders and have not cancelled cards for which they were primary cardholders for the past 12 months. This exact definition varies from bank to bank and can be found under the respective promotion terms and conditions. OCBC FRANKOCBC isn’t too big on signup promotions, but once in a while, they do have them. The current promotion from SingSaver is a cashback reward of $100 and $50 of GrabFood vouchers for being the first 200 applicants who spend $300 by the end of the following month from the card approval date. From OCBC, the current promotion is a cashback reward of $50 for being the first 1500 applicants who make 2 qualifying transactions by the end of the following month from the card approval date. Score: 3.5/5 UOB EVOLUOB doesn’t frequently have signup promotions, nor do they often partner with SingSaver. And when UOB does decide to have signup promotions, it’s along the lines of “first X customers who apply between this date and that date and spend $Y within 30 days from card approval”. The problem is that there’s a cap on the number of rewards given out with no way to know how many rewards have been given out during the promotion period. The current promotion is a cashback reward of $150 if you’re an existing UOB customer who doesn’t have a UOB credit card yet, and $300 if you’re a new UOB customer for the first 100 customers who applied from 16 Aug – 30 Sep 2021 and spend $1500 within 30 days from card approval. This reward almost doesn’t seem worth the effort since $1500 is a huge sum for fresh grads, and especially so when you have no way of telling whether you’re still eligible for the reward. Score: 3/5 Citi SMRTCitibank is probably the most generous and aggressive bank when it comes to issuing signup rewards. They’ve been known to give out rewards like Apple Airpods Pro, Dyson Cooling Tower Fan, and cash of up to $350, in partnership with SingSaver. The current promotion from SingSaver is a choice of either a Nintendo Switch Lite or $350 cash with minimum spending of $200 within 30 days of card approval. This is an amazing deal because you’re literally getting paid to spend money – by receiving $350 in cash for only spending $200. Citibank also has their own promotion where they are awarding $120 of cash for spending $1200 within 3 months of the end of the month where the card is approved, ie if you apply in August, you have until the end of November to fulfill this requirement. However, this reward pales in comparison to that offered by SingSaver, so you should definitely go for that instead. Score: 4.5/5 |
For more specific details regarding each of these cards, refer to their terms and conditions: OCBC FRANK, UOB EVOL, and Citi SMRT.
My Pick
Personally, I’m more into collecting miles than cashback. Also, my average expenses are not high enough to consistently fulfil the minimum spending criteria that are required for high cashback cards.
So I wouldn’t actually use a high cashback credit card.
But objectively speaking, if I were to pick among these high cashback cards, I’d pick both UOB EVOL and Citi SMRT.
The only reason for me picking Citi SMRT is to take advantage of its amazing signup reward with SingSaver.
As I mentioned, receiving a cash reward of $350 for spending only $200 is basically getting paid to spend money, and there’s no reason not to take advantage of it.
Once I have fulfilled the criteria for Citi SMRT’s signup reward, I’ll use UOB EVOL for my daily expenses since it gives me the highest amount of cashback.
A Word of Caution
If you intend to use a high cashback credit card, make sure that you’re able to hit the monthly minimum spending requirement comfortably.
This means that you shouldn’t be spending money that you otherwise wouldn’t spend just for the sake of meeting this requirement.
It’s completely counterintuitive because the cashback you earn for doing so will likely be much less than what you need to spend.
Note that even if your monthly expenses consistently exceed the monthly minimum requirement, that’s not quite enough.
You need to make sure that your credit card-eligible transactions, that is, excluding cash/QR/exclusion payments, exceed this monthly minimum in order to be eligible for cashback.
If you’re not able to do so, then an unlimited cashback credit card may be more suitable for you.
To summarise,
OCBC FRANK and UOB EVOL are great cards to add to your wallet if you’re looking to rake in some nice cashback on various categories of expenses, while Citi SMRT isn’t quite as good due to its limited eligible categories.
I think that UOB EVOL is the overall best entry-level card for fresh grads because of its high cashback rate, versatility in categories, and card benefits as a Visa Signature card.
Of course, remember that you don’t have to pick just 1 card to use – there’s nothing wrong with picking up a few.
In fact, you’ll probably need to have more than 1 eventually, since the cashback cap on these cards is fairly low and you will eventually exceed them as you get older and start having to pay for more expenses.
Again, remember that you should only use these cards if you can meet the spending requirements comfortably, ie they fit into your current lifestyle.
Which high cashback card will you pick? Let me know in the comments below!
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