The OCBC INFINITY Cashback Card runs on one promise: 1.6% back on every dollar, with no minimum spend and no monthly cap, credited straight to your card account. As of June 2026 that flat rate is what makes it easy to reason about, and it is the headline OCBC leads with. What the front page skips over is the merchant-code exclusion list. Utility bills, insurance premiums, school and university fees, hospital and clinic charges, government payments, top-ups to GrabPay, YouTrip and EZ-Link, and a dozen other categories earn nothing at all. For a lot of Singapore households those are some of the biggest swipes of the month. This guide works through the real 1.6% maths, the full exclusion list, the S$196.20 fee and its waiver, the overseas catch, and exactly who the card suits.
The pitch is simplicity. You earn 1.6% Cashback for every S$1 charged to the card, the cashback is credited automatically to your card account, and you never chase a quarterly minimum or a category cap. There is no minimum spend before the rate applies and no ceiling on how much cashback you can earn in a month, which OCBC spells out in the card's own programme terms.
That puts the INFINITY in the flat-rate camp, the same lane as cards that pay you back on everything rather than rewarding one category heavily. The trade-off is the rate itself. At 1.6%, a tiered card that pushes 3% to 8% inside dining, groceries or online spend will out-earn the INFINITY in its own niche, sometimes by a wide margin. The INFINITY's case rests on never making you think, not on topping any single table.
Where flat-rate cards usually win is the absence of zero-earn blind spots. The INFINITY weakens that advantage, because its exclusion list is unusually long. Before you treat it as a catch-all card, read the next section closely, since the categories it refuses to reward are exactly the recurring bills many people most want covered.
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Cashback rate | 1.6% for every S$1 spent on eligible transactions |
| Minimum spend to earn | None |
| Monthly cashback cap | None |
| Local and overseas spend | Both earn 1.6% on eligible transactions |
| How cashback is paid | Credited automatically to the card account |
This is the part the marketing line glosses over, and it is the single most important thing to understand before applying. The 1.6% does not apply to everything you charge. OCBC's programme terms strip cashback from two groups: specific transaction types, and a list of merchant category codes (MCCs) that the bank's systems read off the merchant.
On transaction type, no cashback is paid on card fees and charges, annual and membership fees, balance transfers, Cash-on-Instalment and instalment payment plans, income tax payments, interest, late charges, GST, cash advances, and bill payments made through internet banking. Top-ups to prepaid accounts and payment-service-provider wallets are also excluded, and OCBC names EZ-Link, NETS FlashPay, eNETS, SAM, Transit Link, AXS, GrabPay, YouTrip, Shopee Pay and Singtel Dash specifically.
On merchant code, the list is broad. Utilities, insurance premiums, all levels of schooling from primary to university, hospitals and medical or dental suppliers, charities and religious or membership organisations, government services and tax payments, parking and road tolls, securities brokers, rental agents, and gambling all sit on the no-earn list. If a meaningful share of your monthly spend runs through those categories, a flat 1.6% on the rest may be thinner than it looks. It is worth mapping your real outgoings with the personal budget calculator before you assume the headline rate covers your bills.
The principal card carries a S$196.20 annual fee including GST, waived for the first year. A supplementary card is S$98.10 a year, also waived for the first year. From year two, OCBC waives the principal fee automatically if you charge at least S$10,000 in the preceding year, counted from the month after the card was issued. That is a spend-based waiver rather than a phone-call request, so the cleaner test is simply whether you put about S$834 a month through the card.
If you do not clear the S$10,000 spend bar, you pay the S$196.20 fee, and you need cashback to recover it. At 1.6%, earning back S$196.20 takes S$12,263 of eligible spend across the year, which is more than the S$10,000 waiver threshold itself. In practice that means the waiver is the line that matters: hit S$10,000 of eligible spend and the fee disappears; fall short and you are likely paying a fee your cashback cannot fully offset. The savings goal calculator is a quick way to sanity-check whether your real card spend clears that monthly figure.
Eligibility follows the standard OCBC credit-card bar. You must be at least 21. Singapore citizens and permanent residents need S$30,000 a year if aged 21 to 55, or S$15,000 if older. Foreigners need S$45,000 a year. The card runs on Mastercard, so acceptance is wide at local merchants, unlike Amex-network cashback cards that some smaller shops reject.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Annual fee (principal) | S$196.20, waived first year |
| Supplementary card | S$98.10, waived first year |
| Fee waiver from year two | Charge at least S$10,000 in the prior year |
| Foreign currency transaction fee | About 3.25% of the converted amount |
| Cash advance charge | S$15 or 8% of the amount, whichever is higher |
| Minimum age | 21 years |
| Income (citizen/PR, aged 21-55) | S$30,000 a year |
| Income (citizen/PR, above 55) | S$15,000 a year |
| Income (foreigner) | S$45,000 a year |
| Card network | Mastercard |
OCBC markets 1.6% on local and foreign currency spend alike, and that is true at the cashback layer. The problem sits one level up. Foreign currency transactions on the INFINITY attract a fee of around 3.25% of the converted amount, made up of the Mastercard scheme fee plus OCBC's own margin. So on a S$100 overseas purchase you earn S$1.60 of cashback and pay roughly S$3.25 in fees, a net loss of about S$1.65 before you have bought anything.
That is not unique to the INFINITY, almost every Singapore cashback card charges a similar 3.25% on foreign currency, but it does mean the 1.6%-on-overseas line should not pull you toward this card for travel. For trips, a multi-currency card or account that skips the FX margin will beat a cashback card net of fees. If you want to see how the maths shifts across cards, the cashback credit cards guide lays out the local-spend comparison the INFINITY actually competes in.
The honest read: treat the INFINITY as a local everyday card. The overseas cashback is real but the FX fee swamps it, and the card has no travel perks, lounge access or miles conversion to make up the difference.
The INFINITY's closest rival is the UOB Absolute, the other no-frills flat-rate card. The Absolute pays a slightly higher 1.7% and, crucially, still returns 0.3% on the very categories the INFINITY excludes outright, such as insurance, school fees and utilities. Against tiered cards like the UOB One, both flat cards lose on optimised spend but win on simplicity and on never failing a quarterly minimum.
The choice comes down to your bill mix. If your spend is mostly ordinary retail, dining, groceries and online shopping that runs through normal MCCs, the INFINITY's 1.6% with no cap and a clean S$10,000 waiver is genuinely low-effort. If a big chunk of your month is insurance, tuition, town council or utility bills, the INFINITY pays you nothing on those while the Absolute still pays a token rate, and that gap can decide it.
Use a single yardstick: take your real monthly spend, subtract the excluded categories, and apply 1.6% to what is left. That eligible-only number, not the headline rate, is what the card actually returns.
| Card | Headline rate | Excluded-category rate | Annual fee | Fee waiver |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OCBC INFINITY Cashback | 1.6%, no cap | 0% (broad MCC exclusions) | S$196.20 | S$10,000 annual spend |
| UOB Absolute Cashback | 1.7%, no cap | 0.3% on most excluded bills | S$196.20 | Usually on request |
As of June 2026 OCBC is running a sign-up promotion valid till 30 June 2026: a welcome gift package the bank values at over S$800 for a minimum S$300 spend within 30 days of approval, plus a bonus S$180 cashback for an additional S$300 spend in the same window, on top of the first-year annual fee waiver. Promotion gifts, values and thresholds change frequently, so confirm the exact offer, qualifying spend and end date on OCBC's official sign-up page before applying.
A welcome gift is a one-off. It should sweeten a card you would keep on its ongoing maths, not be the reason you pick it. If you would not hold the INFINITY for its 1.6% after the gift lands, the offer is not doing the work the rate has to.
Apply directly through OCBC online using Singpass Myinfo, which auto-fills your income and identity for most salaried applicants. Approval is usually quick for existing OCBC customers; first-time applicants may need to upload payslips or a recent notice of assessment. Before you commit, check it against the wider field in our best credit cards in Singapore roundup.
The OCBC INFINITY Cashback Card pays a flat 1.6% on every S$1 of eligible spend, with no minimum spend to earn and no monthly cap on cashback. Cashback is credited automatically to the card account, but a long list of merchant categories earns nothing at all.
No cashback is earned on utilities, insurance, school and university fees, hospital and medical charges, government and tax payments, charities, parking and tolls, securities, or rental agents. Wallet and transit top-ups such as GrabPay, YouTrip and EZ-Link, plus instalments, balance transfers, cash advances and internet-banking bill payments, are also excluded.
The S$196.20 principal annual fee is waived for the first year. From the second year, OCBC waives it automatically if you charge at least S$10,000 in the prior year, counted from the month after the card was issued. That works out to roughly S$834 a month of eligible spend.
Not really. You earn 1.6% on foreign currency spend, but the card charges about 3.25% in foreign currency fees, so you lose money net of fees on overseas purchases. A multi-currency card or account that skips the FX margin is a better fit for travel.
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.