OCBC Frank Credit Card – MoneySmart Review 2022

The OCBC Frank credit card’s website copy says it will help you “navigate adulthood”. That alone tells you who this card is targeted at. Move aside aunties and uncles! (Just kidding, this is not the job market, so there’s no age discrimination.)

The card happens to be one of the most generous online shopping credit cards out there, with a cash rebate rate of 6%. The rebates are also offered in other gloriously broad spending categories, namely mobile payments and overseas expenditure.

The OCBC Frank card used to have a very unattractive mechanism forcing you to spend on things that couldn’t earn cashback in order to meet the minimum spending requirement. But they’ve since done away with that nonsense, and the card is now so much better!

OCBC Frank Card Terms & Conditions

OCBC Frank Credit Card
Annual fee & waiver	$80 (waived for 2 years, then waived if at least $10,000 is spent in a year)
Supplementary annual fee	$40 (waived for 2 years)
Interest free period	23 days
Annual interest rate	26.88%
Late payment fee	$100
Minimum monthly repayment	3% or $50, whichever is higher
Foreign currency transaction fee	3.25%
Cash advance transaction fee	6% or $15, whichever is higher
Overlimit fee	–
Minimum income	$30,000 (Singaporean) / $45,000 (non-Singaporean)
Card association	Visa
Wireless payment	Visa payWave, NETS FlashPay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, Fitbit Pay, Garmin Pay

How the OCBC Frank Credit Card works

One of the major selling points of the OCBC Frank Credit Card is that it gives you 6% cashback on online shopping. Virtually everything is bought online these days, from groceries to air tickets to your daily entertainment via Netflix. So this is honestly a great deal.

The next 6% cashback category is for in-store mobile contactless payments. Basically, that means when you pay with a mobile device using Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, Fitbit Pay or Garmin Pay. For those late-adopters who haven’t been motivated enough to try mobile payments, this card is a good reason to make the switch.

Finally, you also get 6% cashback when you make in-store foreign currency transactions. Now that travel is starting to sputter to life again, this could actually come in handy.

The minimum monthly spending requirement is $600, which is actually quite achievable, especially considering how much of your spending can fall under online shopping or mobile payments.

The biggest drawback, though, is that there is a cashback cap of $25 in the online category and $25 in the mobile payments and foreign currency spending category. That means you can get 6% cashback on a maximum of $416.67 worth of online spending and $416.67 worth of mobile payments/foreign currency spending.

Who should use the OCBC Frank Credit Card?

Don’t get scared off by OCBC Frank’s rather juvenile brand image. Whether you’re truly young, just young at heart or shamelessly old and grumpy, the card is frankly very useful for just about anyone.

Between the online shopping cashback and the mobile payments cashback, the bulk of your purchases are covered.

Even if you don’t shop much online and refuse to start using mobile payments, the card can still be useful to have on hand when you finally go on an overseas holiday, as you can use it to get 6% cashback on your air tickets, hotel bookings and overseas spending.

One major drawback is that the cashback cap is annoying low, probably because the card is targeted at first-jobbers who don’t have the cash to spend that much. If you’re a high roller, you can probably find a more exclusive card with a higher cashback cap.

Alternatives to the OCBC Frank Card

There are quite a few other cards targeted at young people, some with very attractive cashback offers on online shopping and more.

DBS Live Fresh Card – Get 5% cashback on online shopping and contactless payments so long as you can satisfy the $600 minimum spending requirement. However, like the OCBC Frank Card, the cashback requires a bit of micromanaging due to the split cap of $20 each. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

UOB EVOL Card – Previously known as the UOB YOLO Card, this card offers 8% cashback on mobile contactless spending and 8% on online spending. It also comes with a similar minimum spend of $600 and split caps of $20 each. Blech.

HSBC Revolution Card – This rewards cards gives you 10X rewards points (equivalent to 4 miles or 2.5% cashback) for every dollar of online and contactless spending. Finally, a card with no minimum spending requirement or split cashback caps to manage! There is, however, a $1,000 monthly expenditure cap, so don’t go too wild.

As you can see, the DBS, UOB and OCBC entrants are all neck-and-neck and all require a bit of micromanaging. If you’re okay with that, the OCBC Frank Card offers a slightly higher cashback rate and cap.

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