Does the Citibank SMRT card offer good rebates for travel related online spending?

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.

The AMEX Express Singapore Airlines Solitaire PPS Credit Card gives a First Year Fee Waiver for you to enjoy and also for your supplementary card members. In addition there are no transfer fees and all the KrisFlyer miles you can earn are directly transferred automatically to your KrisFlyer account with no transfer fee. I would recommend this card for these few reasons which could really make the difference.

A 5% cash rebate on fuel purchases and a 16% instant discount is a great deal for me I must say, the HSBC VISA Platinum Credit Card indeed makes driving more fun for me as i always look forward to the 16% instant discount plus 5% cash rebate on all fuel spend at Caltex and Shell stations

The delivered on the promise of purchase Protection of up to 90 days when ensured reimbursement on an eligible online purchases I made with my Amex Express Gold Card. Irrespective where you buy online or shopping at the local supermarket, their Purchase Protection offers repair, replacement or reimbursement on eligible purchases made with the Card, that has been damaged or stolen within 90 days of purchase.

I have held this card for quite a long time and one thing I like about the card is the fact that it is used for CapitaLand malls and they are almost everywhere. So I enjoy dining taking advantage of the 10x rewards merchants to accumulate the points faster. Imagine getting close to 6.5% rebates on dining. Not to forget their sign up bonus of $60 rebates in vouchers when you spend $1,500. That's a 4% rebate excluding the points you will earn which will convert into vouchers too.

This is my first credit card and I was pleased with the process as the application was absolutely stress free and smooth with customer care service at top notch. I actually felt taken care of and it appeared I could rely on customer care service for virtually any issue. Plus they have a simple tracking system of cashback rewards, with a good App and web UI/UX.

I am quite very disappointed with this card as I have never received the vouchers for all the points I have accumulated so far. I have on several occasions made complaints via the phone and even in person, but all to no avail. I would not recommend this card to anyone for this reason, i have to say unfortunately.