Shopping in Singapore - 7 Best Credit Cards for Miles & Cashback (2019)

January 11, 2019

Does the thought of going to Muji or Uniqlo for the upteenth time spark intense joy? Do you “stop by” your neighbourhood shopping mall on the way home every day, without fail? And do you have crazy strong biceps from all the huge shopping bags you carry?

If you answered “yes” to answer of these, you’re a confirmed shopaholic. High five!

But before you head to Orchard Road, make sure you also arm yourself with the best credit cards for shopping in Singapore. These let you earn air miles, rewards points, vouchers or cash rebates every time you swipe your plastic.

7 best credit cards (& 1 debit card) for shopping in Singapore

Credit card	Benefits for shopping
Citi Rewards Card	Earn 4 miles per $1 at dept stores & fashion
OCBC Titanium Rewards Card	Earn 4 miles per $1 at dept stores, fashion, electronics, kidswear
UOB Preferred Platinum Card	Earn 20 miles per $5 on contactless payment
DBS Live Fresh Card	5% cashback on contactless payment
DBS Visa Debit Card	5% cashback on contactless payment
Amex True Cashback Card	3% cashback on first 6 months up to $5,000
Amex CapitaCard	3% to 8% rebates at CapitaMalls, free parking
OCBC Robinsons Credit Card	5% rebate at Robinsons, Zara, Marks & Spencer, Royal Sporting House

Citibank Rewards Card

The Citi Rewards Card is one of the best rewards cards out there for shopaholics – you get 4 miles for every $1 spent on fashion (clothes, bags and shoes) and department stores, both locally and overseas. (I say miles, but you can also choose to convert your rewards points to vouchers or gifts if you don’t fancy flying.)

There’s pretty high monthly cap of 10,000 points per month, which equates to $1,000 spent. That’s probably a reasonable limit for most people unless you have a serious penchant for designer clothing.

See the full review of the Citibank Rewards Card here.

OCBC Titanium Rewards Card

The OCBC Titanium Rewards Card is perfect for young couples and new parents, because it gives you 4 miles per $1 spent at IKEA, Courts, baby/kidswear stores, electronics stores and even Mustafa Centre(!) on top of the usual department stores and fashion.

As a bonus, you get the same rewards earn rate online on all the major e-commerce sites: Lazada, Amazon, Shopee, Taobao and EZbuy.

Go ahead and charge all your baby and new home expenses to this because there’s no monthly cap – there’s just an annual cap of 120,000 points. That’s good for up to $12,000 of spending.

UOB Preferred Platinum Visa Card

If you’re not a big spender, but your retail therapy takes the form of “little bits of random stuff” (impulse purchases from Miniso, for example), a better option would be the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa Card.

This card lets you earn 20 miles per $5 when you pay by contactless payment, as well as online shopping. Since Visa PayWave is widely accepted at tons of retailers, this card covers just about everything. Bonus points are capped at 2,000 per month (= $1,000 spent).

Note that you only get points for every $5 spent, so if you buy a $39.90 shirt at Uniqlo, you only earn points for $35.

See the full review of the UOB Preferred Platinum Card here.

DBS Live Fresh Card

Similar the UOB Preferred Platinum card, the DBS Live Fresh card also rewards online spending and contactless payment. But instead of miles/points, you earn 5% cashback.

There’s a minimum spend requirement of $600, but that’s not difficult to meet thanks to the combination of online and offline rebate categories. The thing to look out for is the cap: $20 each for online and contactless, which means you can only spend up to $400 in each category each month.

See the full review of the DBS Live Fresh Card here.

DBS Visa Debit Card

Okay, this isn’t a credit card, but hear me out: The DBS Visa Debit Card is one of the rare debit cards that actually have some sort of cashback benefits.

You get 5% cashback on contactless payments (up to $200 per transaction) as long as you meet the minimum spend of $400 a month. Rebates are capped at $50 a month, so it’s good for up to $1,000 in purchases.

The one catch is that you cannot withdraw more than $400 a month from your POSB/DBS account(s). But this is easy enough to work around: Get cash from Cash-Points (supermarkets, 7-11) or just open an account with another bank.

See the full review of the DBS Visa Debit Card here.

American Express True Cashback Card

If you’re dismayed by the tiny cashback caps on the previous two cards, try the Amex True Cashback Card instead.

It’ll give you 3% cashback on up to $5,000 for the first 6 months, after which the rate goes down to 1.5%. Best of all, there’s no need to fuss over any sort of special spending categories – it’s 3% on EVERYTHING.

See the full review of the Amex True Cashback Card here.

American Express CapitaCard

I’m not a fan of retailer-specific credit cards (like the DBS Takashimaya Card and Metro-UOB Card) but the Amex CapitaCard is an exception, because I think most Singaporeans spend a lot of time and money at CapitaMalls.

How does it work? Spend money at CapitaMalls on this card to earn CapitaMall vouchers, so that you can spend EVEN MORE at CapitaMalls! Obviously.

You’ll get the equivalent of a 3% rebate at most CapitaMalls merchants, except preferred “Star-Xtra” merchants which get you 8% rebate.

Also, spend at least $1,200 on this card a month and you get free parking for 3 hours at CapitaMalls all day, every day. Meaning you can keep on shopping and dining at CapitaMalls to your heart’s content.

OCBC Robinsons Credit Card

The OCBC Robinsons Card sounds really auntie, and, well, it is lah. But I think it’s a pretty good standby card to have around if you shop at Robinsons, Marks & Spencer, Zara or Royal Sporting House.

It gives you an instant 5% rebate at retailers under the Robinsons Group. The rebate is unlimited and there’s no minimum spend or any other conditions you have to meet.