Yes, I am that free to dedicate a farewell post to my beloved CIMB Credit Cards that I’ve been using diligently since Dec 2018.
Through the past 6 months, I’ve managed to accumulate almost $700 in terms of cash rebates from their generous 10% cashback benefits.
I just thought of penning down my comparison thoughts; just in case the CIMB team decides to revert to their old mechanics some day.
CIMB Visa Signature
| Old | New | |
| 10% Cashback for eligible Categories |
|
|
| Spend Criteria and Cashback Cap |
|
|
Based on the new terms above, they have removed ‘Wine & Dine‘, which is the easiest category I fulfill on a monthly basis.
The remaining dining cashback cards are pales in comparison – YOLO giving 8% on weekend dining and OCBC giving 6% on dining (min. $800/month)
The so-called ‘new benefits’ categories are pretty pathetic.
- Beauty and Wellness spending shall include all local and overseas transactions made at all
Personal Care Facilities, Pharmacies, Cosmetic Stores (excluding department stores),
Hairdressers, Massage Parlours, Health and Beauty Spas only. - It would be difficult to clock $200/monthly spend as most services are on package module which makes you pay lump sum. Maybe it’s better off to use a lower cashback amount card with no cap?
- Grocery spending shall include all local and overseas transactions made in supermarkets. All
grocery transactions made online will be eligible under this category. (Yay for Redmart and FairPrice online?) - Online Shopping shall include all local and overseas online retail transactions made via
shopping websites that sell clothes, accessories, shoes, bags and electronics as its main
business activity, including card-not-present transactions like e-commerce/mail/phone
order/mobile application transactions. For the avoidance of doubt, transactions must be
performed at retail establishments that fall within any of the following Merchant Category
Codes (MCC) with POS Entry Mode ‘01’:
o MCC 5611: Men’s and Boys’ Clothing and Accessories Stores
o MCC 5621: Women’s Ready to Wear Stores
o MCC 5631: Women’s Accessories and Speciality Stores
o MCC 5641: Children’s and Infants’ Wear Stores
o MCC 5651: Family Clothing Stores
o MCC 5655: Sports Apparel Stores
o MCC 5661: Shoe Stores
o MCC 5691: Men’s and Women’s Clothing Stores
o MCC 5699: Miscellaneous Apparel and Accessories Stores
o MCC 5732: Electronic Stores
o MCC 5311: Department Stores
This excludes all other online websites, not limited to movies, food & beverage, travel, airline,
government, brokerages/securities, insurance, tuition and online gambling websites.
(Gosh this is so strict.. meaning tickets bought from sportshub/sistic will be excluded?)
On top of the above MCCs, transactions made online for the following merchants will also be
eligible under the Online Shopping category:
o Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, Daigou, Ezbuy, Razor, Shopee (no mention of Qoo10?) - Pet Shops and Veterinary Services spending shall include all local and overseas
transactions made at all Pet Shops and for Veterinary Services.
This category is totally useless for me. - Cruise spending shall include all local and overseas transactions made for Cruise Lines.
Is it even possible that the cruise spending is kept within $200? Bad Bad Bad category. In fact, it is almost redundant.
Conclusion
The only category I can confirm hit is for online.. but spending $800 to get $20 cashback is like 2.5% which is BAD.
Alternative for online? I can get 5% with DBS Live Fresh Card (min. $800 spend) so let’s see if it will be a good alternative.
Adios CIMB Visa Signature.
CIMB MasterCard Platinum
| Old | New | |
| 10% Cashback for eligible Categories |
|
|
| Spend Criteria and Cashback Cap |
|
|
Based on the new terms above, they have removed ‘Beauty & Wellness‘ and transferred it to the CIMB Visa Card.
Let’s scruitinize the fine-prints.
- Wine and Dine spending shall include all local and overseas transactions made at Caterers,
Bars, Lounges, Clubs, Fast-Food Restaurants, Eating Places & Other Restaurants, except
where they are made for Wedding Banquets and where such Bars, Lounges, Clubs,
Restaurants, and other eating places are within hotels. For avoidance of doubt, Food Delivery
Service merchants whose main business nature is delivery of food are excluded. This
includes, but is not limited to Deliveroo, Foodpanda, WhyQ and Mealpal transactions. - Travel in Foreign Currencies spending shall include all Overseas Transactions (as defined
below) made at Airlines, Hotels, Travel Agencies, and Railways only. This does not include
transactions made for Cruise Lines. Overseas Transactions refers to transactions performed
in non-Singapore Dollar Currency only and includes transactions made both online and
offline.
Local Hotel staycation is not included. When you make booking at hotels.com/booking.com; you need to make sure that you pay in foreign currency.
So.. air tickets paid in SGD is not included?! This is just.. pathetic. - Health and Medical spending shall include all local and overseas transactions made at
Nursing and Personal Care Facilities, Doctors, Dentists, Optometrists, Opticians and
Chiropractors only. This does not include transactions made at government hospitals, clinics
or polyclinics. WHY?
- Transport and Petrol spending shall include all local and overseas transactions made in
transportations in the form of bus, train, private hires, taxicabs and limousines, ferries as well
as transactions made at petrol kiosks. This does not include transactions with descriptions
containing “Ez Link”, “Transit” and “Transitlink” and top-ups of funds to payment service
providers (this includes but is not limited to GrabPay transactions). Goodbye GrabPay Topup.
- Electronics and Furnishing spending shall include all local transactions made at Harvey
Norman, Best Denki, Challenger, Ikea, Courts and Parisilk only.
This is totally so so so so so restrictive.
Grab transactions? I’m falling back on UOB One Card.
Travel transactions? Maybe DBS altitude which lets me earn points for miles.
Petrol I guess I’ll stick to POSB Everyday card or UOB One.
Adios CIMB Master Platinum.
There’s nothing attractive at all for these cards. Let me cancel the card after utilizing my balance rebate credits after 12 June.
Please join me in canceling your CIMB card so they can wake up from their bad decisions and perhaps give us something that.. make more sense?
HIGHLIGHTED BY HardWareZone User ‘Targaryen’:
Don’t cancel your CIMB cards if you received $120 during their promo.
“19. CIMB Bank reserves the right to reverse the Gift credited to the Cardmember’s card account should (i) the credit card transaction(s) used for the Promotion be cancelled or withdrawn for any reason whatsoever; or (ii) the same credit card transaction(s) be used for the Promotion and other CIMB Bank promotions; or (iii) the Cardmember no longer qualifies or is eligible for the Gift; or (iv) the Credit Card(s) applied for under this Promotion is cancelled within 12 months from the end of the Promotion Period; or (v) the Cardmember breaches any of the terms and conditions contained herein.”
