Analysis of Cash Rebate Credit Cards

Currently there are many banks in Malaysia are offering cash rebate credit cards. If I am still remember correctly, the first bank that offer this kind of benefit was Public Bank since I own their card way bank in 2001. They offering cash back option for their VISA cards but Mastercard user also able to convert their point rewards (VIP points) to cash back option. However as time goes by, now other banks are offering better cash rebate than Public Bank.

I will try to analyse all the banks that provide this kind of benefit on their credit cards. However, for this post I limit to the banks that provide cash rebate for permanent basis, on all transaction (except petrol) & no carry forward balance is required. Also I exclude RHB Business Platinum Credit Card as it not meant for end user.

Before further analysis, below are the list of cards & banks offering cash back credit cards that includes in the analysis.

• Affin Banks – Generic VISA & Mastercard. Cash back rate tabulated in the table below. I have this card but have not use it so far so I do not know when they credited the cash back to your account.

• Alliance Banks – Generic VISA & Mastercard. Cash back rate tabulated in the table below. For unique card rate is similar to generic platinum card except for the first tier 0.5% instead of 0.6% for platinum cards. Cash back will be credited to account on the following billing month. Normally on the very first day of the following billing month. This card is one of my favorite card. One great advantage for Alliance Cash Back Cards is you still earn Timeless Point together with cash back. I do not see this benefit offer by other back. However, the disadvantage of this cards is Alliance Bank limit the amount of spending that entitle for cash back, RM1,000 for Classic, RM3,000 for Gold & RM5,000 for platinum. Younique card also have a limit at RM5,000.

• CIMB Banks – Only for Petronas Mastercard. The cash back rate is flat at 0.5%. 2% cash back on petrol is excluded from analysis. Cash back is credited to the account on the last day of current billing statement.
• Citibank – 3 cards included in this analysis. All Citibank cards have higher cask back when you have carry forward balance but I omit it in this analysis. I think if you are afford to settle all your statement balance, there is no point of keeping it only to get higher cash back. I do not have any Citibank cards so I do not know when the credited the cask back.

1. Giant Citibank Credit Card cash back rate is 0.5% flat rate for spending made outside Giant. 2% cash back on spending at Giant is not consider in this analysis.
2. Shell Citibank Credit Card cash back rate is 0.75% (gold card) & 0.50% (classic card) flat rate for spending made on non-Shell product. Cash back on spending at Shell fuel is not consider in this analysis.
3. Citibank Cash Back Credit Card cash back rate is 0.5% (gold card) & 0.40% (classic card) flat rate.

• HSBC Amanah – The cash back rate is flat at 0.5%. I do not have this card so I do not know when the credited the cask back.
• Public Banks – Generic VISA & Mastercard. Cash back rate tabulated in the table below. This card is used to be my favorite card until Alliance Bank unveil their cash back card. Cash back credited to your account at the beginning of new billing year. Since it is credited yearly the amonut tend to be quite big. Public Bank also issue ING Credit Mastercard. The cash back rate for this card is 0.6% flat rate for spending on non-ING insurance. 2% cash back on spending on ING insurance is not consider in this analysis.
• UOB – ONE Card offer flat rate 0.3% cash back on other transaction listed in the table below. I try to avoind using this card because their terms is so ridiculously difficult to understand and I believe it made it that way so that at the end bank will benefit. Anyway for this analysis I only count the 0.3% cash back. I don’t want to explain further about this card as it complicated. For more details proceed to UOB ONE Card website here.

After tabulated all the above data in Excel worksheet, I plot a graph Cash Back Rate (%) versus Monthly Spending (RM) so that we can clearly see on which card offer the best cash back. To make the graph less conjested so that it is easy to see, I remove all flat rate cash back percentage except Shell Citibank Card as it is the highest. Click on the image below to view larger size graph.

These are my conclusion in regards to the best cash back credit card that I listed above. This conclusion derive from the above graph.

1. Monthly spending RM1.00 to RM800.00, best card is Shell Citibank Gold Credit Card at cash back rate of 0.75%.
2. Monthly spending RM800.00 to RM1,000.00, best card is Alliance Bank Classic Card at cash back rate between 0.76% to 0.85%.
3. Monthly spending RM1,000.00 to RM3,000.00, best card is Alliance Bank Gold Card at cash back rate between 0.72% to 1.11%.
4. Monthly spending RM3,000.00 to RM5,000.00, best card is Alliance Bank Platinum Card at cash back rate between 0.96% to 1.38%. Following close is Alliance Bank Younique Credit Card at cash back rate between 0.94% to 1.37%.
5. Monthly spending RM5,000.00 to RM100,000.00, best card is Affin Bank at cash back rate of 0.80%..
6. Monthly spending RM100,000.00 and above best card is Public Bank Platinum Card at cash back rate of 0.90%.
7. With refer to above conclusion, you can be more creative mix & match the above card in order to maximize your cash rebate. For example, for monthly spending of RM15,000.00 , charge RM5,000.00 to Alliance Bank Platinum Card, next RM5,000.00 to Alliance Bank Younique Card and the rest to Affin Bank Credit Card. Just use your imagination.

However, if you plan to do your shopping at any particular merchant that have special cash back campaign such at Giant, then it is better to use Giant Citibank Credit Card as they give the highest cash rebate at this particular merchant.

Any feedback or anything you would like to point out, feel free to leave your comments.

Update (11 February 2010)

1. Standard Chartered was launching Standard Chartered JustOne Titanium Mastercard which offer up to 5% cash rebate. Look here for details.

2. Hong Leong Bank have 1% cash rebate card via their VISA Essential Credit Card.