UOB Absolute Cashback Card — MoneySmart Review 2022

Who doesn’t love a straightforward cashback card that doesn’t require complicated math? You, me, your mom, my mom, your ah ma and mine!

The UOB Absolute Cashback Card is one of several unlimited cashback cards on the market. These just give you a flat cashback rate on all spending — without minimum spending requirements, cashback caps and all that rot.

Among the unlimited cashback options, the UOB Absolute Cashback Card has the highest flat rate of 1.7%

Should we all abandon our former allegiances for this new contender for the throne? Let’s find out.

Contents

1. UOB Absolute Cashback Card: Summary
2. UOB Absolute Cashback Card: Annual Fee, Minimum Income
3. UOB Absolute Cashback Card Minimum Spend
4. UOB Absolute Cashback American Express Card
5. UOB Absolute Cashback Card Benefits
6. UOB Absolute Cashback Card Terms and Conditions
7. How to maximise my UOB Absolute Cashback Card?
8. Other cards better than UOB Absolute Cashback Card
9. Should I get UOB Absolute Cashback Card?
10. UOB Absolute Cashback Card Promotions

1. UOB Absolute Cashback Card: Summary

The UOB Absolute Cashback Card was launched in May 2021 and is currently Singapore’s most generous entry level unlimited cashback card, thanks to its generous cashback rate of 1.7%.

Another of its biggest draws is the lack of the usual exclusions, meaning you can earn cashback on almost anything, including taxes, school fees and insurance premiums.

2. UOB Absolute Cashback Card: Annual Fee, Minimum Income

The UOB Absolute Cashback card is a pretty friendly and affordable credit card with minimum income requirements at $30,000 per year.

	UOB Absolute Cashback Credit Card
Annual Fee	$192.60
Annual Fee Waiver	First year
Supplementary Card Annual Fee	$96.30 (waived for first card)
Interest Free Period	21 days
Annual Interest Rate	26.9%
Late Payment Fee	$100
Minimum Monthly Repayment	3% or $50, whichever is higher
Foreign Currency Transaction Fee	3.25%
Cash Advance Transaction Fee	8% with minimum fee of $15
Overlimit Fee	$40
Minimum Income	$30,000
Card Association	American Express
Contactless Payment	Eligible except mobile wireless payments

3. UOB Absolute Cashback Card Minimum Spend

If you’ve been trawling MoneySmart for credit cards, you should already have an inkling of what unlimited cashback cards are. They basically give you a flat cashback rate on all spending, usually with no minimum spending requirements or cashback caps.

The UOB Absolute Cashback Card is one such card, and at the moment, it’s the most generous of its kind, at least as far as entry level cards go. It magnanimously offers a bounteous 1.7% cashback on all your spending.

One of the great things about these kinds of cards is their simplicity. They’re so easy to use that even a kindergartener could figure it out. There’s no need to worry about meeting minimum spending requirements or figure out what spending categories to use the card in.

When it comes to unlimited cashback cards, there’s no need to collect them all—one is more than enough.

• Back in the day, the Standard Chartered Unlimited Cashback Card and American Express True Cashback Card were the main unlimited cashback cards on the market, offering a 1.5% unlimited cashback.
• Then Citi Cash Back+ entered the scene, one-upping the competition by offering 1.6%.
• Now, UOB Absolute Cashback has completely upstaged its competitors by offering a cool 1.7% unlimited cashback. And this is a war we’re completely enjoying.

So far, the UOB Absolute Cashback Card sounds perfect. But as with all things in life there’s a catch… it’s an American Express card. Nooo! Why?

Read more: 5 Best Unlimited Cashback Credit Cards in Singapore (2022)

4. UOB Absolute Cashback American Express Card

Don’t get me wrong, AMEX is still pretty widely accepted. But there are still lots of merchants who only accept Visa or MasterCard, especially smaller businesses.

You see, credit card networks/associations like Visa or MasterCard require merchants to pay a service fee—that’s how they make money. The issue with AMEX is that the service fee they charge merchants is higher than Visa’s and MasterCard’s. The result is that fewer shops are willing to use AMEX.

That said, in places that do accept AMEX, you can’t find a better unlimited cashback card than UOB Absolute Cashback thanks to the 1.7% rebates.

Another of the card’s strong points is that it lets you earn cashback on insurance premiums, school fees, rental, healthcare and even e-wallet top ups like Grab Pay, all of which are usually excluded by other credit cards.

5. UOB Absolute Cashback Card Benefits

The cashback benefits the UOB Absolute Cashback Card offers are pretty damn straightforward. There are no bonus cashback rates that you’ll have to memorise or contend with.

UOB Absolute Cashback Card Benefits	Cashback amount
Base Cashback Rate	1.7%
Bonus Cashback	–
Petrol Cashback	–

6. UOB Absolute Cashback Card Terms and Conditions

Most unlimited cashback cards have certain exclusions that you cannot earn cashback on.

But according to the UOB Absolute Cashback Card’s terms and conditions, there are hardly any exclusions. That means you can earn cashback on almost anything except the following:

• NETS or NETS-related transactions
• Installment payment plans and SmartPay transactions
• Cash advances
• Fees and/or charges imposed by UOB (eg. late payment charges)
• Personal loans, balance and/or fund transfers
• Any transaction that is subsequently cancelled, voided, refunded or reversed
• Amounts which have been rolled over from any preceding month’s statement

So, this is one of the few cards that gives you cashback for school fees, hospital bills, taxes and insurance premiums!

7. How do I maximise my UOB Absolute Cashback Card?

The 1.7% cashback offered by the UOB Absolute Cashback Card is good, but it’s not as good as the rebates, rewards and air miles offered by some cards for specific spending categories like dining or shopping.

If you’ve got other cards that you prefer to use for certain types of spending, by all means use them. The UOB Absolute Cashback Card has no minimum spending requirement, so you can just keep it on hand for spending that you have no other card for. 

Of course, if this is your only credit card, you can go ahead and use it to pay for any transaction that accepts AMEX. There is no cap on the cashback you can receive, so you can spend millions on it if you want! You can also consider using it for big purchases like wedding dinners since there is no cashback cap.

8. Other cashback cards better than UOB Absolute Cashback Card

If you’re new to the world of cashback cards, 1.7% cashback might sound good, but it’s actually quite miserly compared to the generous rebates being dangled by other cashback cards, which can offer up to 6% or 8%.

But the difference is that these cashback cards tend to come with minimum spending requirements and limit the cashback to certain spending categories like dining or groceries

This makes it more complicated to know what to card to use when.

Here’s a cautionary tale: When I first started earning enough to qualify for credit cards, I signed up for 7 credit cards and created a spreadsheet of all the benefits and minimum spending requirements. At times, I’d find myself stuck at the cashier counter trying to pull up the spreadsheet on my phone so I’d know which card to use.

Within a year, the banks started to change the credit cards’ terms and conditions, and all my research went down the drain. So if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like the hassle of tracking your expenses—or switching credit card strategies when the banks inevitably change their terms and conditions, earning 1.7% on everything seems like a perfectly reasonable trade-off.

9. Should I get the UOB Absolute Cashback Card?

The UOB Absolute Cashback Card is a good credit card for most of us, no matter the spending habits. 

Whether you want to use it for huge purchases or just as a back-up card for spending you have no other card for, it’s useful to have on hand.

10. UOB Absolute Cashback Card Promotions

Sign up for the UOB Absolute Cashback Card as a new-to-UOB customer and receive $150 cash credit when you spend $1,500 within the first 30 days.

Here’s how their sign-up promotion compares to what’s being offered by the other unlimited cashback cards.

Unlimited Cashback Credit Card	Promotion	Base Cashback Rate
Citi Cashback+ MasterCard	Additional 8.4% cashback (capped at $225) in first 2 months	1.6%
Standard Chartered Unlimited Cashback Credit Card	Additional 5.7% cashback (capped at $140) in first 30 days when you spend at least $200	1.5%
American Express True Cashback Card	Additional 1.5% cashback (capped at $75) in first 6 months	1.5%
UOB Absolute Cashback Card	$150 cash credit when you spend $1,500 in the first 30 days	1.7%

Instead of giving you additional cashback, the UOB Absolute Cashback Card just offers $150 cash credit straight up. This is fairly generous compared to the other cards—only Citi Cashback+ MasterCard has the potential to reward you with more money, though theirs comes in the form of cashback.

However, the requirement that you spend $1,500 within the first 30 days is quite a big one. As such, you might want to sign up for the card just before making a big purchase.

Alternatives to UOB Absolute Cashback Card

Still shopping around for a cashback credit card? Here are UOB Absolute Cashback credit card’s main competitors that you can consider as well:

• Citi Cashback+ MasterCard: 1.6% cashback on everything with no minimum spending requirement and no cashback cap. Generous welcome bonus.

• SCB Unlimited Cashback Card: 1.5% cashback on everything with no minimum spending requirement and no cashback cap.

• AMEX True Cashback Card: 1.5% cashback on everything with no minimum spending requirement and no cashback cap.

Found this article useful? Share it with your friends and family.