As we dine out more often in recent years, diners have become more receptive to purchasing dining discount programs such as Entertainer and Burpple Beyond. Restaurant reservation apps such as Chope and Quandoo have also become an important feature of everyday dining. Personally, as I look to maximise savings and accumulate reward points on every possible occasion, we can maximise our returns while dining out too, by using the right credit cards to pay for our dining expenses. And nothing beats cash rebates, in my opinion. For miles chasers, this is perhaps not the article for you.

Many credit cards will advertise on the maximum percentage rebates for dining, although what you might perhaps miss out reading in their fine prints or the pages-thick terms and conditions are the minimum qualifying spend and capped maximum rebate.

Simply by looking at percentage of cash rebates, both CIMB Visa Signature and BOC Family Card give you the highest cash rebates of 10% on dining spend. Although for CIMB, you do have to make at least 8 transactions on your card of S$30 each, and clock a minimum qualifying spend of S$500. For BOC, the minimum qualifying spend is higher at S$700, and rebates on dining expenses is capped at S$30.

Considering the restrictions in place, and assuming you meet the minimum qualifying spend on each of the credit cards, the maximum percentage rebates on each of the card as detailed in the above table will give you an idea of which card performs best for you based on your average dining spend.

It is obvious that CIMB Visa Signature credit card continues to top this, with its generous 10% cash rebates and a capped rebate of S$60. Do note though, as a reminder, you do need to make at least 8 transactions on your card of S$30 each on the card to enjoy the high cash rebates. Otherwise if your dining expenses is low (i.e. S$200 monthly), the BOC Family Card gives you the 10% cash rebates. With monthly dining expenses above S$500, the OCBC 365 Credit Card gives you 6% rebates and a very generous cap of S$80 on rebates from dining expense.

To note though, while the UOB YOLO Card only provides 3% rebates for weekday dining, you get to enjoy 8% rebates during the weekends! And with rebates on the card capped at S$60, this card could well be your choice weekend go-to credit card, while you can use another card to clock the weekday expenses.

If you have read my earlier article on the Best Savings Account in Singapore, do make very sure that you complement your dining expenses with your savings account. In this case, the BOC Family Card, UOB YOLO Card and OCBC 365 Credit Card can further maximise your returns through clocking the minimum spend on the credit card required for either BOC SmartSaver, UOB One Account or OCBC 360 Account.

To add, I am personally using OCBC 365 Credit Card and the UOB YOLO Card.

Ranted by The Rantee