Earlier, I was browsing through OCBC Rewards catalogue to find out what are the items worth redeeming based on the points that I have.
This is a pretty tough task as there were not many points on my card, so my options are pretty limited. Nowadays, I prefer cards that is on a cash rebate system. It also saves me the hassle of having to accumulate enough points and having the need to redeem anything before expiry.
I have a habit of comparing between the points system and the cash rebate system. To cut the long story short, I did some simple calculations and was surprised to find that the points accumulated and redeemed would translated into an equivalent of +/- 0.3% rebate generally, depending on what you redeemed.
Previously, the rebate equivalent was about 0.4% to 0.5% generally. At the current 0.3%, it is a little too low for my comfort for all the hassle I have to go through to accumulate and redeem my points. There are other cash rebate cards that offer a clear cut, hassle-free 0.5% rebate.
Even among the other banks’ cards with points system, there are still those that work out to be about 0.4% to 0.5% rebate.
So in conclusion, I’m glad I did this annual review / calculation, and now I know which card will benefit me more for my spending accumulation. However, this is not a suggestion to stop using OCBC cards. Remember a card has to fit our lifestyle for us to reap the best benefits from it. If there are other offers, promotions that we can tap on using OCBC cards, we can still use it. It’s just that the “return” will generally work out to be only 0.3%. There are also instances where charging in foreign currencies to certain OCBC cards will earn 3x more points. So if you have the relevant card, and wants to charge in foreign currencies and there’s no other better card options to charge to, this can still an option. Otherwise, I foresee myself using lesser of my OCBC card.
