If you want the best dining rewards credit card in Singapore for 2026 and you eat out or order in regularly, the HSBC Live+ is the cashback pick for most people: 5 percent cashback on dining (8 percent for new cardholders in the first two quarters), capped at S$250 a quarter, on a S$600 monthly minimum spend. If your monthly card bill is S$800 or more, the Citi Cash Back Card pulls ahead with 8 percent on dining, capped at S$80 a month. Pick miles over cashback and the HSBC Revolution earns 4 miles per dollar on contactless and online dining. And if you keep eating at the same chains, the DBS yuu card pays up to 18 percent back at its partner merchants. The best card is whichever matches your monthly spend and where you eat, so this guide gives you the verified 2026 rates, caps and minimum spends to match a card to your own bill.
There is no single best dining card because the winner changes with how much you charge each month and where you eat. The headline rate a card advertises is the ceiling, not the average. It applies only to dining transactions, only up to a monthly or quarterly cap, and usually only after you clear a minimum spend. Two people holding the same card can earn very different returns.
Map your dining spend before you compare. Add up restaurants, hawker stalls that take cards, cafes and food delivery for a typical month. That single number, plus your total monthly card bill, decides which card pays you the most. The personal budget calculator sorts your spending into categories such as dining so you can see the figure clearly.
Banks decide whether a transaction earns the dining rate by its merchant category code, the four-digit MCC the payment network assigns to each business. Restaurants are usually 5812, fast food is 5814, and drinking places (bars) are 5813. A cafe inside a bookshop or a hotel might code as retail or hotel, not dining, so you can pay at what looks like a restaurant and still earn only the base rate.
This matters most for delivery and hawker spend. Food delivery apps like GrabFood, foodpanda and Deliveroo are sometimes coded as dining and sometimes not, and the answer changes from card to card. Many hawker stalls accepting PayNow or NETS do not code as 5812 at all, so they earn nothing extra.
Before you assume a card covers your meals, check which MCCs it rewards and test a small transaction. The detail on how these codes work is in the guide to MCC codes for Singapore credit cards. The cards below differ on exactly this: OCBC 365 does not pay its dining rate on the fast-food code 5814, while HSBC Live+ and Citi Cash Back do.
These are the cards with the strongest published dining rates as of mid-2026, with verified rates, caps, minimum spends and fees. Rates and promotions change often, so confirm the current terms on each issuer's own page before you apply. All annual fees include 9 percent GST.
| Card | Dining rate | Cap | Min. monthly spend | Annual fee (incl. GST) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HSBC Live+ | 5% (8% new cardholders, first 2 quarters) | S$250/quarter total bonus | S$600 (S$1,000 for 8%) | S$196.20 (1st yr waived) |
| Citi Cash Back | 8% on dining | S$80/month total bonus | S$800 | S$196.20 (1st yr waived) |
| OCBC 365 | 5% on dining (excl. fast food 5814) | S$80/mth at S$800, S$160/mth at S$1,600 | S$800 | S$196.20 (1st 2 yrs waived) |
| DBS yuu | Up to 18% rebate at partner merchants | S$144/month bonus rebate | S$600 | Free for life |
| Trust Cashback | Up to 15% on chosen category | S$250/quarter on category | S$2,000 | Free (no fee) |
| HSBC Revolution | 4 mpd (8 mpd with HSBC EGA) on contactless + online dining | S$1,000/mth qualifying spend | None | Free for life |
| POSB Everyday | 5% dining out, 10% online food delivery | Category daily caps apply | S$800 | Check issuer (waiver common) |
The HSBC Live+ earns 5 percent cashback on dining, entertainment and shopping when you spend at least S$600 a calendar month, with cashback capped at S$250 per calendar quarter across all bonus categories combined. That S$250 cap is higher than most monthly-capped rivals once you spread it over three months, so it suits people whose dining and shopping together run a few hundred dollars a month.
New cardholders get a stronger deal for the first two calendar quarters from issuance: the rate rises to 8 percent (5 percent base plus 3 percent bonus) on at least S$1,000 a month, then reverts to 5 percent at S$600 a month. The base rate outside bonus categories is 0.3 percent. The annual fee is S$196.20 with the first year waived, and the foreign transaction fee is about 3.25 percent, so this is a card for local spending rather than overseas meals.
The income requirement is S$30,000 a year for Singaporeans and PRs. Because the S$250 cap is quarterly and pooled across dining, entertainment and shopping, the Live+ rewards you most if you concentrate those three categories on it. If your dining alone is heavy, compare it against the Citi Cash Back below.
The Citi Cash Back Card pays 8 percent cashback on dining, including overseas dining, plus 8 percent on petrol and 6 percent on groceries. The catch is the cap: total bonus cashback is limited to S$80 a calendar month, and you must spend at least S$800 in the statement month to earn any bonus at all. Spend less than S$800 and you get only the 0.25 percent base rate on everything.
That S$80 monthly cap is the constraint to plan around. At 8 percent, S$1,000 of dining spend fills the cap; beyond that, dining earns only the base rate. The S$80 is shared with the petrol and grocery bonuses, so using the card broadly fills it faster. The annual fee is S$196.20 with the first year waived, and the income requirement is S$30,000 for Singaporeans and PRs or S$42,000 for foreigners.
Against the HSBC Live+, the Citi card wins on rate (8 versus 5 percent) but loses on cap flexibility, since S$80 a month is tighter than S$250 a quarter when spending is uneven. The rule of thumb: spend S$800 or more a month with dining as a large slice and Citi pays more; spend less or lumpy and Live+ is safer.
The OCBC 365 earns 5 percent cashback on local and overseas dining, including online food delivery, when you spend at least S$800 a calendar month. Cashback is tiered: up to S$80 a month at S$800 of spend, rising to a maximum of S$160 a month once you spend at least S$1,600. Below S$800 you drop to a flat 0.25 percent.
The gap to know is fast food. The OCBC 365 pays its dining rate on restaurant code 5812 but not on fast-food code 5814, so McDonald's, KFC and similar chains earn only the base rate. If a chunk of your eating is fast food, that quietly cuts your return. The card also pays bonus rates on groceries, transport, utilities and more, which makes it a good single card for someone who wants everyday cashback rather than a dining specialist.
The annual fee is S$196.20, waived for the first two years, then waived on at least S$10,000 of annual spend. If your eating skews to sit-down restaurants and delivery rather than fast food, the OCBC 365 holds its own against the Live+ and Citi cards while also rewarding groceries and bills. For the grocery side, see the best grocery credit cards guide.
If your eating skews to fast food and apps rather than sit-down restaurants, the popular dining cards quietly underpay. The OCBC 365 excludes the fast-food code 5814, and several cashback cards treat delivery as online spend or general retail rather than dining, so the meal that felt like a dining transaction earns the base rate instead.
The POSB Everyday Card is the cleaner fit here. It pays 5 percent cash rebate on dining out and 10 percent on online food delivery, alongside rebates on petrol, transport and selected groceries. The delivery rate is the standout: at 10 percent, an S$80 monthly delivery habit returns S$8 versus the S$4 a 5 percent dining card would pay if it even codes delivery as dining. Category daily caps apply, so the 10 percent rewards regular small orders rather than one large one, and you accelerate rebates by hitting S$800 of monthly spend. Confirm the current annual fee and waiver on the issuer's page before applying.
The catch with every delivery rate is the merchant category code. GrabFood, foodpanda and Deliveroo each charge through their own merchant account, and the code they pass to the bank decides whether your card sees a dining, online or general purchase. The same app can earn the dining rate on one card and the base rate on another. The fix is the same as for hawker spend: run one small order, check the statement, and only then route your regular delivery to that card. The mechanics are in the guide to MCC codes for Singapore credit cards.
These two pay the highest dining rates on this list, but only if your habits match their rules.
The DBS yuu card pays up to 18 percent cash rebate (36 yuu Points per dollar) at participating yuu merchants when you spend at least S$600 a month and transact at four different participating merchants in the calendar month. Without the S$600 minimum you still earn a 5 percent base rebate (10 yuu Points per dollar) at those merchants. From 1 October 2025, the bonus rebate is capped at S$144 of cash rebates per calendar month (15,600 bonus yuu Points). The card has no annual fee for life and can instead earn up to 10 miles per dollar if you redeem yuu Points for miles. The high rate applies only inside the yuu merchant list, so it suits people who eat and shop at those brands.
The Trust Cashback Card pays up to 15 percent cashback on one category you choose each quarter, such as dining, capped at S$250 per quarter on that category. To unlock the 15 percent you must spend at least S$2,000 a month for three consecutive months, a high bar. From 1 March 2026 it also pays up to 1 percent unlimited cashback on all eligible local spend and 0.5 percent on foreign spend, with no cap, and charges no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee. So even if you miss the S$2,000 target, the base 1 percent and zero foreign fee make it a reasonable everyday and travel card.
If you would rather collect miles than cashback, the HSBC Revolution is the strongest dining card. It earns 4 miles per dollar (10X reward points) on contactless and online spend, which covers most dining since restaurants increasingly take contactless and you can pay delivery online. The bonus is capped at S$1,000 of qualifying spend per calendar month, equal to 4,000 miles, with a base rate of 0.4 mpd on everything else. The card has no annual fee for life.
If you hold an HSBC Everyday Global Account and keep an average daily balance of at least S$50,000 in it for the month, the bonus rate jumps to 8 mpd and the cap rises to S$1,200 of spend. Most people will not park that much cash, so treat 4 mpd as the realistic number. Charge the meal as contactless or pay delivery online; a chip-and-pin or magnetic-swipe transaction earns only the base 0.4 mpd.
Whether miles beat cashback comes down to redemption. A KrisFlyer mile redeemed for economy is worth roughly 1 to 1.5 cents, so 4 mpd on dining is about 4 to 6 cents per dollar, comparable to a 5 percent cashback card but only if you redeem. Redeemed for business or first class the miles are worth more, which is where the Revolution pulls ahead. Let them expire and they are worth nothing. For the wider comparison, see the best miles credit cards in Singapore.
Run your own number rather than trusting the headline rate. Take your typical monthly dining spend, apply each card's dining rate up to its cap, value any miles at a realistic redemption rate (about 1 to 1.5 cents for economy), subtract the annual fee spread over the year, and compare the results. The card with the highest net figure is your winner.
A worked example: spend S$500 a month on dining with a S$700 total card bill. The Citi Cash Back needs S$800 to earn anything, so it pays nothing. The HSBC Live+ at 5 percent on S$500 pays S$25 a month, within its quarterly cap, and clears its S$600 minimum on total spend, so it wins. Raise the total bill to S$1,200 with S$700 of dining and Citi at 8 percent pays S$56 against the Live+ at S$35, so Citi pulls ahead.
Two cards is usually enough: one cashback card for local dining and a free-for-life card for the gaps. Holding more means tracking more minimum spends, caps and fees than the extra rewards are worth. The free-for-life HSBC Revolution and DBS yuu make easy second cards because they cost nothing to keep.
The card rate is one of three layers that can sit on the same bill, and people who maximise dining rewards rarely rely on the card alone. The other two are the restaurant's own promotion and the bank's seasonal dining campaign, and they add on top of your cashback rather than replacing it.
The restaurant layer is the discount the venue runs through Chope, Eatigo, the Entertainer, an SAFRA or NTUC membership, or a 1-for-1 deal. You pay the discounted bill, then earn your card cashback on that lower amount. The bank layer is the rotating offer the issuer runs with specific chains, often an extra rebate or a set-meal price for cardholders, and you have to check the bank's promotions page each quarter because these change. Pay the bill with the card whose dining rate is highest for that merchant code, and all three layers land on one transaction.
Two habits make this reliable. Spend a minute before a meal out checking whether the venue is on a discount platform, since the saving is usually larger than the cashback. And keep a free-for-life card in reserve for merchants that code as retail or fall outside your main card's cap, so the bonus never simply lapses.
Income and credit-limit rules are set by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and apply across every bank. To hold a principal card you must be at least 21, and Singaporeans and PRs aged 55 and below need a minimum annual income of S$30,000. Foreigners are set higher, commonly around S$42,000 to S$45,000.
Most dining cards charge a S$196.20 annual fee with a first-year waiver, while the DBS yuu, Trust Cashback and HSBC Revolution are free for life. Where a fee applies, it is usually waivable, either automatically on a spend threshold or by calling the bank to ask. The guide on how to waive your credit card annual fee has the script.
No dining reward is worth carrying a balance. Outstanding balances are charged roughly 25 to 29 percent a year, which dwarfs any cashback or miles, so one month of revolving debt can wipe out a year of dining rewards. Pay the full statement balance within the grace period of about 20 to 25 days and you pay no interest. Set up a GIRO arrangement to clear the full balance each month, and re-check your card choice once a year as your spending and the offers change.
For most people the HSBC Live+ is the best dining cashback card: 5 percent on dining (8 percent for new cardholders in the first two quarters) on a S$600 monthly minimum, capped at S$250 a quarter. If your monthly card bill is S$800 or more, the Citi Cash Back Card pays a higher 8 percent on dining, capped at S$80 a month. The right card depends on how much you spend and where you eat.
On headline rate, the DBS yuu card pays up to 18 percent at participating merchants and the Trust Cashback pays up to 15 percent on a chosen category, but both have strict conditions (yuu is merchant-locked; Trust needs S$2,000 a month). Among broad dining cards, the Citi Cash Back at 8 percent is the highest, followed by HSBC Live+ and OCBC 365 at 5 percent.
It depends on the merchant category code. Food delivery (GrabFood, foodpanda, Deliveroo) sometimes codes as dining and sometimes not, varying by card. Many hawker stalls accepting PayNow or NETS do not code as dining (MCC 5812) at all, so they earn only the base rate. Test a small transaction if hawker or delivery spend is a big part of your eating.
Cashback is simpler because a dollar back is always worth a dollar, which suits people who do not travel much. Miles on a card like the HSBC Revolution (4 mpd on contactless and online dining) are worth chasing only if you fly and redeem, since an economy KrisFlyer mile is worth roughly 1 to 1.5 cents and miles that expire are worth nothing.
It varies by card. HSBC Live+ needs S$600 a month (S$1,000 for the new-cardholder 8 percent rate), Citi Cash Back and OCBC 365 need S$800 a month, DBS yuu needs S$600 plus four different participating merchants, and Trust Cashback needs S$2,000 a month to unlock 15 percent. Fall short and you drop to a base rate of around 0.25 to 0.4 percent.
No. The OCBC 365 pays its 5 percent dining rate on restaurant code 5812 but excludes fast-food code 5814, so McDonald's, KFC and similar chains earn only the base rate. If a large share of your eating is fast food, the HSBC Live+ or Citi Cash Back, which do reward 5814, are better fits.
The POSB Everyday Card pays 10 percent cash rebate on online food delivery, the highest delivery rate among the mainstream cards, on a S$800 monthly spend with category daily caps. Other cards vary: delivery apps sometimes code as dining, sometimes as online or general retail, so the rate you actually earn changes from card to card. Run one small order and check the statement before routing your regular delivery to any card.
Two is usually enough: one cashback card for local dining and a free-for-life card such as the HSBC Revolution or DBS yuu for the gaps your main card misses, like fast food, retail-coded cafes or spend above the cap. Holding more means tracking extra minimum spends, caps and annual fees, and the additional rewards rarely cover that effort.
Singaporeans and PRs aged 55 and below generally need a minimum annual income of S$30,000, and you must be at least 21 for a principal card. Foreigners are set higher by each bank, commonly around S$42,000 to S$45,000. These thresholds are set by MAS and apply across all banks.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.