The Best Credit Cards for Weekend Dining

For many of us, after a long week at work chained to our desks, the weekend is the only thing we look forward to. And being Singaporeans, nothing defines weekends like food and drinks at the newest café in town. By using these three weekend dining credit cards, you don’t just get to reward yourself with a great meal, but with significant rebates as well.

But wait, can’t we just use a regular dining credit card?

Of course you can, assuming you’re used to settling for second-best in life.

These weekend dining credit cards are better than regular dining credit cards. Why? They reward you significantly more for spending on weekends.

So, if you and your friends can only find time to meet up and hang out during the weekend, here are the credit cards you can’t miss out on.

	UOB YOLO Credit Card	Citi Cash Back Card	OCBC 365 Credit Card
Weekend Dining Cashback Rate	8+8%	8%	6%
Minimum Spend per Month	$600	$888	$600
Maximum Cashback Cap	$100	$25 (bonus cashback cap for dining)	$80

 

1. UOB YOLO Credit Card

The UOB YOLO Credit Card has always been one of the best cards for weekend dining with an impressive 8% rebate when it was first launched in 2016.

But from now till 31 December, that already unbeatable 8% rebate has doubled to become a 16% rebate.

What that means is you now stand to earn up to $16 for every $100 you charged to the UOB YOLO Card when you dine out on weekends. No need to think twice about whether you want to have dessert or not.

And it’s not limited to just dining alone – you also enjoy the same high rebates for entertainment spend such as movies, concerts or just chilling with drinks at a bar.

In addition to the current 8 + 8% promotion for weekend dining, you can also enjoy 3% rebates for weekday dining and entertainment, as well as 3% rebates for online transactions at fashion and key travel websites such as Singapore Airlines, Scoot,  Agoda, Expedia etc

 

What’s the catch?

To enjoy the high rebates of the UOB YOLO Card, you need to make sure you spend at least $600 in total a month. Spend less than $600 and your rebates drop to a measly 0.3%.

The rebates are capped at $60 for the regular rebates, and $40 for bonus rebates. That means you’ll never get more than $100 in rebates a month.

To illustrate, if you spend $500 on weekend dining and entertainment, you’ll get $80 in total rebates. That’s a 16% rate.

To enjoy the 16% rebates, however, you’d need to spend at least S$600 within a statement month on your UOB YOLO Card and during the qualifying period of the bonus rebate campaign. However, you can easily skirt around this little problem, simply by putting your essential spend such as phone and insurance bills on the card, as they also contribute towards the minimum spend requirement. What’s more, apply for recurring payment for your bills and you can meet your minimum spend with even less hassle.

Do note that you will only earn 0.3% rebates on these spending categories.

Also, you need to note that the bonus rebate promotion will only last until 31 Dec ‘17, after which you resume earning 8% rebate on your weekend dining and entertainment. The maximum rebate you can earn after the promotion ends will be capped at S$60, which is a drop from the current cap of S$100.

 

2. Citi Cash Back Card

It’s a testament to the Citi Cash Back Card that it doesn’t even need to offer a special weekend dining benefit to still be among the best credit cards to use on Saturday and Sunday.

That’s because you can earn up to 8% in dining cashback rebates with this card. What’s more, from now till 19 December, you can earn up to 20% if you order via UberEATS and charge it to the Citi Cash Back Card.

On top of your dining benefits, you can also earn up to 8% on all Grab rides, groceries, and petrol with the Citi Cash Back Card.

 

What’s the catch?

The Citi Cash Back Card has a pretty steep $888 minimum spend requirement each month, much higher than most credit cards here. If you don’t meet this $888, you can say bye-bye to all your hard-earned cashback rebates.

What’s more, the additional cashback you can earn is capped per category. That means you can only enjoy 8% rebates up to a total of $25 for dining, groceries, petrol and Grab rides. Because it’s a promotion, UberEATS counts as a separate category, with its own $25 cap.

That means any spend more than $127 on UberEATS, and $259 on any other category, will only earn 0.25% cashback.

 

3. OCBC 365 Credit Card

The OCBC 365 Credit Card used to be the best for weekend dining when it first launched in 2014.

Over the past 3 years, OCBC has consistently given 6% rebates for weekend dining, which used to be one of the highest dining rebates in the market.

Unfortunately, they’ve since been overshadowed by the Citi Cash Back Card and the UOB YOLO Credit Card.

That said, the OCBC 365 Credit Card is still very popular, and much of that is due to its versatility, especially for the younger working adult.

On top of the 6% for weekend dining, the OCBC 365 Credit Card also offers 3% rebates for weekday dining, online shopping, groceries and telecommunications bills, it makes it very easy to hit the monthly minimum spend of $600.

What’s more, the annual fee is waived for the first two years.

 

What’s the catch?

As mentioned earlier, the OCBC 365 Credit Card has a minimum spend of $600. It also has a maximum cashback cap of $80 a month. While this is a relatively high amount, the card also does not earn cashback as quickly, which means you need to spend more to earn the same amount of cashback.

 

Meeting friends for weekend dining and entertainment? Here’s a MoneySmart tip

When the bill comes, offer to pay first and have your friends reimburse you later. If you foot the bill with one of these credit cards above, you’re on the way to earning a significant amount of cashback rebates. You could even offer to pass on the savings to them by absorbing the GST or service charge.

And don’t worry about them never getting around to paying you back. These days, with services like PayNow, there’s no excuse for your friends not to refund you on the spot.

 

Which is your preferred weekend dining credit card? We want to hear from you.