OCBC INFINITY Cashback card review: what 1.6% on everything adds up to

The OCBC INFINITY Cashback is a flat card: 1.6% on almost everything, local and overseas, with no minimum spend and no cap. The catch sits around the rate, not in it. 1.6% doesn't cover a card surcharge or the 3.25% foreign currency fee, and the annual fee needs $10,000 of spending a year to be waived.

Here's how the 1.6% is worked out, what it doesn't cover, the annual fee and its waiver, and a worked year you can redo with your own spending.

The OCBC INFINITY at a glance

Figures from the INFINITY programme terms (updated 18 August 2023), OCBC's credit card fee schedule (version date 1 October 2025) and the product page, checked 1 Nov 2026.

How much cashback does the OCBC INFINITY give?

Clause 1.1 of the terms is one line: 1.6% cashback for every $1 spent on the card. Clause 1.2 says there's no minimum spend, and clause 1.3 says there's no cap on what you can earn in a month. The product page adds that the rate is the same on local and overseas spending.

No bonus categories, no tiers, no "spend $800 first" condition. A $100 dinner earns $100 × 1.6% = $1.60. So does $100 at a hardware shop, a pharmacy or an online store, as long as the purchase isn't on the excluded list further down.

Bottom line: this card is built around the absence of conditions, not the size of the rate.

Why a $1.40 kopi still counts

Clause 1.6 works the opposite way to most miles cards. Cashback is applied to the sum of the month's posted transactions, then rounded to two decimal places.

So nothing is rounded away per purchase. A month of small purchases earns exactly 1.6% of their total:

$460.80 × 1.6% = $7.3728, which rounds to $7.37. Cards that work in $5 blocks per purchase, such as the DBS Altitude or OCBC 90°N, would earn nothing on those 22 kopis.

Bottom line: a flat rate on the month's total keeps every cent of the advertised rate. Not every card counts small purchases this way, so check yours.

When a surcharge beats the cashback

Say a renovation contractor's final invoice is $9,000, and card payments carry a 3% surcharge while PayNow carries none. Made-up figure, but the arithmetic works the same at any size.

• PayNow: $9,000, no surcharge, no cashback.
• Card: $9,000 + 3% surcharge = $9,000 + $270 = $9,270 charged.
• Cashback on the card: $9,270 × 1.6% = $148.32.
• Cost of paying by card: $270 − $148.32 = $121.68 more than PayNow.

The surcharge is part of what the merchant charges you, so it posts as part of the purchase and earns cashback too. It doesn't help much: 1.6% of $9,270 is about 1.65% of the original $9,000, against a 3% surcharge.

There's a simple way to see where the line is. Cashback covers a surcharge only when the surcharge is smaller than the cashback rate on the surcharged amount. At 1.6%, that break-even surcharge is 1.6% ÷ (100% − 1.6%), which is about 1.63%. Anything above that and paying by card costs more than paying without the surcharge.

Two more things on big payments like this: - Instalment plans earn nothing. Clause 1.4.1 excludes Instalment Payment Plans and Extended Payment Plans, which is how some contractors and furniture shops offer to spread a bill. - The merchant's code decides. Clauses 1.16 and 1.17 say cashback follows the merchant category code (MCC), a four-digit code the merchant's bank assigns to the business, and OCBC doesn't set it. MCC 7349, cleaning, maintenance and janitorial services, is on the excluded list in clause 1.5. A renovation business coded that way would earn nothing at all.

Bottom line: put the surcharge and your card's rate side by side first. With a 1.6% card, any surcharge above about 1.63% means the card costs more.

Paying overseas

The 1.6% applies to foreign currency spending too. So does OCBC's foreign currency fee: its fee schedule lists a 1% card network charge and a 2.25% OCBC administrative fee, 3.25% in all. Clause 1.4.1 excludes card fees and charges from cashback, so the fee itself earns nothing.

A $2,000 hotel bill paid in foreign currency: - Fee: $2,000 × 3.25% = $65. - Cashback: $2,000 × 1.6% = $32. - Net: $65 − $32 = $33 more than the hotel's price in Singapore dollars before fees.

OCBC's schedule also lists a separate 1% fee on Singapore dollar transactions processed overseas, which includes choosing SGD at a terminal abroad and some overseas websites that bill in SGD.

Bottom line: 1.6% softens the foreign currency fee, it doesn't cover it. Count the fee as part of what a trip costs.

The annual fee and the $10,000 waiver

The principal card's fee is $196.20 including GST, waived for the first year. After that, the product page says it's automatically waived when you spend at least $10,000 in a year, counted from the month after the card is issued.

The waiver matters on a flat 1.6% card. Spend $8,000 in a year with the fee charged, and you earn $8,000 × 1.6% = $128 against a $196.20 fee, so the card costs you $68.20 net. At $10,000 the fee goes away and the $160 of cashback is all yours.

Bottom line: if your yearly spending on the card is near $10,000, check where you'll land before the card year ends.

How the cashback is paid

Clause 1.6 says the cashback shows on your monthly statement and is offset against that month's bill. Clause 1.7 says it's credited in the following month, based on posted transactions. A few details: - Purchases that haven't posted by the end of the month count in the next one (clause 1.9). - Refunds are deducted from the month's total, and any cashback reversed shows on the next statement (clause 1.10). - Supplementary cardholders' cashback goes to the principal card account (clause 1.7).

The product page also lists a related bonus: 0.4% a year extra interest on the first $100,000 in an OCBC 360 Account in months when you charge at least $500 to the card. That's a savings account rule, not part of the card's cashback.

Bottom line: cashback comes off the bill on its own, a month later.

What doesn't earn cashback

The terms list what earns nothing in clause 1.4 and the MCC table in clause 1.5. They include: - card fees, interest, income tax payments, cash advances, instalment plans and bill payments made through internet banking; - top-ups and payments through EZ-Link, NETS FlashPay, eNETS, AXS, GrabPay, YouTrip, ShopeePay and Singtel Dash; - insurance premiums, utilities, hospitals, schools, rent, parking, tolls, charities and government services.

Bottom line: a big insurance premium or a tax bill on this card earns nothing. "1.6% on everything" means everything that isn't on this list.

How it compares on cashback per $1

Flat cashback cards with no minimum spend, ranked by cashback per $1, as at 24 Oct 2026, from each bank's terms as Sum's card catalogue reads them. Cards like these sit at around 1.5% to 1.7%:

The network matters more than the decimal: fewer shops accept American Express than Mastercard. Category cards pay 5% to 8% in their categories, with a minimum spend and a cap. The HSBC Live+ review works through one of those.

A worked year

Say Mei Ling is 29 and puts $2,000 a month on the card in Singapore dollars, plus a $3,000 holiday in foreign currency, and pays her $1,800 yearly insurance premium on it too. Made-up example.

Her cashback works out to $432 on $28,800 of spending (the insurance premium earns nothing), which is 1.5% of everything she put on the card. If she spent $700 a month instead, $8,400 a year, the fee would be charged and the card would earn $134.40 against $196.20.

Bottom line: swap in your own monthly spending, trips and big yearly payments. The calculator page runs the same sums: OCBC INFINITY on the card rewards calculator.

Three things to remember

1. 1.6% on almost everything, local and overseas, with no minimum and no cap. Worked out on the month's total, so small purchases count in full.
2. It doesn't cover a surcharge above about 1.63%, or the 3.25% foreign currency fee.
3. The annual fee is waived at $10,000 a year. Below that, a flat 1.6% can earn less than the fee.

Ethan's rating

6.0out of 10

Earn rate

• Very low
• Low
• Moderate
• High
• Very high

Effort to earn

• Effortless
• Easy
• Some effort
• Shiong
• Very shiong

Value for the fee

• Way overpriced
• Overpriced
• Fair
• Good value
• Great value

Against other cashback cards

No minimum spendCashback cards: the lower the monthly minimum, the higher the rating.

• Bottom
• Below average
• Average
• Above average
• Top

Where it earns

• DiningFair
• GroceriesFair
• TransportFair
• OnlineFair
• TravelFair
• OverseasLow
• Everything elseFair

One person's opinion, from the terms in this review. Your own spending decides what a card is worth to you.

Track it in Sum

Import your card statements. The card optimiser works out what each card earned the way the bank's terms do, month totals and exclusions included, and each card's tracker opens into the purchases behind it. If a big payment earned nothing, you can see which one and why.

Ethan

Got something interesting to share?

Something here doesn't match your statement, or OCBC changed the terms? Reach out to me at [email protected], or leave your email and I'll write to you.

Send

Also send me updates and put me on the Sum waitlist.