Who can confirm for me if the card-issuing bank can help me to stop payment and cancel the remaining IPP transactions on my Citibank SMRT Card with the merchant that I have signed up?

This is one of those rare online shopping cashback cards with no minimum spend. However, you shouldn’t use this card for online travel bookings as it’s excluded from the online category. Also, when buying movie tickets or fast food online, your spending could come under online shopping rather than their original spend categories, for which you will earn 2.7% for a total spend below $300 or 3% for a total spend above $300. If monthly spending is at least $300, you enjoy up to 3% savings on online shopping 2.7% + 0.3% that is if monthly card spend is at least $300.

That’s where the Citibank SMRT Card stands out from the pack as this is a card for average Singaporeans who are not interested in cultivating a lifestyle to impress their peers, and also for young and budget-conscious families it also works as an all-purpose cashback credit card. The main drawback is that it doesn’t really reward you for some of the more extravagant expenses in life. For instance, air tickets and hotel stays are quietly excluded from their cashback offer for online shopping, as are all restaurant dining and entertainment.

When you get the card, it will automatically have EZ-Reload enabled on it. There’s no convenience fee for EZ-Reload auto top-up transactions, and you can get up to 1.7% or 2% (if you hit the min. spend of $300) in rebates. It used to be that one can exchange the SMRT$ (rebate) for vouchers to top up the EZ-Link card, but they stopped that. Now can only can use it to exchange other kind of vouchers like Giant and Popular.

Lately I noticed that the card allows for the exchanging of the rebate for cash rebate. This to me is the actual crowd pleaser as compared to exchanging for vouchers at shops that I don’t want to shop at in the first place. The cash rebate has to be done via SMS anyway and you can glance their product page for the exact details.

Very impressed by the complimentary night stay I got after I made bookings for a five nights stay at a resort I spent my birthday at in Malaysia. Even more pleasing was the complimentary golf games at a high quality golf courses in Malaysia. As a matter of fact, I had as much as six complementary golf games.

This card offers a few thrills if you are one for accumulating miles as you can earn 1.3 KrisFlyer miles for every S$1 equivalent in foreign currency spent overseas on eligible purchases up to S$3,800 each month. On such purchases above S$3,800 each month, you can earn 2 KrisFlyer miles. Furthermore the card allows earnings of 1.3 KrisFlyer miles for every S$1 spent locally in Singapore dollars on eligible purchases up to S$3,800 each month. On such purchases above S$3,800 each month, earnings are 1.4 KrisFlyer miles. Highly recommended for those who seek to accumulate miles.

The Citi SMRT card is a pretty decent card for spending but they unfortunately exclude travel related online merchants. This to me is the downside of the card and may be a reason to get another card for travel websites.

I like the idea that I can receive 40,000 Membership Rewards points when I get to successfully refer any of my friends to the card. Even more so as my friends can also receive 40,000 Membership Rewards points upon spend of S$5,000 in the first 3 months of their Card Membership. I think that is pretty much a win-win situation.

If you are like me an HSBC Premier client and also a frequent traveller that can maximize the number of priority pass visits, limo and meet-and-assist services as well as your supplementary cardholders too, then this is the card for you. The reduced general mile earn rate is worth the trade-off for the unlimited priority pass memberships, as well as the high number of limo and meet-and-assist services that you can use.

I fancy the OCBC 365 credit because it has cash rebate of $80, but only after you full fill their criteria. They require a minimum spending of $800 per month which in turn earns interest from different spending. This card suits me just fine being that I have broad spending habit and in the process it gives me $80 cash rebates every month. My only dislike is the rebate on the general spending which is 0.3%.