Citi Rewards vs OCBC Titanium – What’s The Difference?

Choosing a rewards card that will give you the best value for your spending can be difficult, especially in Singapore where almost all banks offer great rewards cards.

Citi Rewards and OCBC Titanium both offer reward points for all spending with no minimum amount, with increased rewards for certain types of spending.

Here are the rewards you can get for each card.

The difference between Citi Rewards and OCBC Titanium

Both Citi Rewards and OCBC Titanium offer 10X reward points for select transaction categories. However, they have different categories that are eligible for these increased reward points.

Below are the transactions eligible for the 10X reward points for each card.

Rewards Points

Both Citi and OCBC offer 1 reward point/$1 for all spending using your Citi Rewards card or OCBC Titanium card. However, while Citi offers points per dollar, OCBC offers points only in increments of $5.

With Citi, you can get a minimum of 1 ThankYou Point/$1 spent while for OCBC, you can get a minimum of OCBC$5/$5 spent.

Citi offers 10X reward points for online and in-store transactions and ride-hailing services

10X ThankYou Points/$1 are rewarded for the following transactions using your Citi Rewards card:

Online Retail Transactions	Transactions made over the internet, excluding travel-related transactions
In-Store Shopping	Transactions made in-store for merchants that sell shoes, bags, and clothes as the main business activity
Ride-Hailing Services	Transactions made for rides booked in Grab and Gojek

You may want to note that Citi’s 10X ThankYou Points offer excludes travel-related transactions such as airline/cruise bookings, hotel accommodations, car rental agencies, and travel agencies.

For a complete list of travel-related transactions excluded from Citi’s 10X rewards offer, you may view Citi’s Terms & Conditions.

Aside from retail transactions, Citi is great if you frequently use ride-hailing apps as it offers 10X reward points for Grab and Gojek rides!

OCBC offers 10X reward points for shopping transactions and online merchants

OCBC offers OCBC$50/$5 for the following categories:

Shopping Transactions	Transactions made locally or internationally for merchants that sell shoes, bags, and clothes as the main business activity
Online Merchants	Online shopping platforms*

*Here are the online shopping platforms covered by OCBC’s 10X rewards offer:

For a full list of merchants eligible for 10X reward points, you may view OCBC’s Terms & Conditions.

Here is a summary of the transactions where you can earn 10X reward points for either card:

Citi Rewards	OCBC Titanium
Online Transactions (excluding travel-related)	Shopping Transactions
In-store Shopping	Online Merchants
Ride-Hailing Services

Rewards per Dollar

For eligible transactions, both Citi Rewards and OCBC Titanium offer 10X Reward Points per dollar spent. 

Note that Citi rewards points per $1 whereas OCBC only credits rewards in increments of $5.

Here is a summary of the rewards per dollar that you can earn for either card:

	Citi Rewards	OCBC Titanium
Online Retail Transactions	10 ThankYou Points/$1	OCBC$50/$5
Online Travel- Related Transactions	1 ThankYou Point/$1	OCBC$5/$5
Online Merchants	1 ThankYou Point/$1	OCBC$50/$5
In-Store Shopping	10 ThankYou Points/$1	OCBC$50/$5
Ride-Hailing Services	10 ThankYou Points/$1	OCBC$5/$5
All Other Transactions	1 ThankYou Point/$1	OCBC$5/$5

Minimum Spend

Earning rewards is easy for both Citi Rewards and OCBC Titanium as they have no minimum spend amount. However, OCBC offers rewards only in increments of $5.

Maximum Reward Cap

Citi and OCBC have the same point system:

• For transactions eligible to receive 10X rewards, you will earn 1 base point and 9 bonus points per dollar
• For all other transactions, you will earn 1 base point per dollar

Since OCBC only rewards points in blocks of $5, the minimum bonus points per eligible transaction are OCBC$45 while the minimum base points per transaction are OCBC$5 (total of OCBC$50/$5).

Both Citi and OCBC do not have a cap on their base points. However, while Citi caps the monthly earned bonus points, OCBC caps reward points per year. 

Here are the bonus points caps for either card:

Citi Rewards	OCBC Titanium
9,000 ThankYou Points per month	120,000 OCBC$ per year

Note that on average, OCBC offers a higher monthly cap for bonus points than Citi (10,000 vs 9,000).

If you tend to shop more on certain months, OCBC may be a better option as the yearly cap allows you to collect more points for peak months than other months for the rest of the year, as long as you don’t exceed the yearly cap.

If you’ve exceeded the cap for bonus points for either card, you will only earn base points for the exceeding amount.

Reward Points Expiry

Citi offers a significantly longer redemption period for its ThankYou Points than that of OCBC’s OCBC$:

Citi Rewards	OCBC Titanium
60 months	24 months

Reward Points Redemption

With either Citi Rewards or OCBC Titanium, you can use your points to redeem vouchers that you can use for your favourite merchants.

Citi and OCBC allows conversion of reward points to miles

You can convert your Citi ThankYou Points or OCBC OCBC$ to KrisFlyer miles. 25,000 reward points from either card can be converted to 10,000 KrisFlyer miles.

In addition to KrisFlyer miles, Citi also has other partner mileage programs where you can transfer your ThankYou Points to. 25,000 ThankYou Points can be transferred to 10,000 miles of any of the following:

Citi’s Partner Mileage Programs
Asia Miles
British Airways Executive Club
Etihad Guest
Eva Air Infinity MileageLands
Flying Blue
IHG Rewards Club
Qantas Frequent Flyer
Qatar Airways Privilege Club
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

Citi and OCBC allows redemption for cash rebates

Both Citi and OCBC also allow redemption of your reward points for cash rebates. Here is the cash rebate equivalent of the reward points for each card:

Citi Rewards	OCBC Titanium
$10 cash rebate for 4,400 ThankYou points	$50 Titanium Cash for 18,000 OCBC$

Eligibility

The age eligibility and minimum annual income requirement for Singaporeans are the same for Citi and OCBC. However, OCBC has a slightly higher minimum annual income requirement for foreigners.

	Citi Rewards	OCBC Titanium
Age	21 years old	21 years old
Minimum Annual Income (Singaporeans)	$30,000	$30,000
Minimum Annual Income (Foreign Nationals)	$42,000	$45,000

Other Rewards

If you get approved for a Citi Rewards card, you can be eligible for 27,000 bonus ThankYou Points if you spend $3,000 within the first three months of your card approval. That’s a total of 30,000 points (3,000 base points + 27,000 bonus points)! You may view the Terms & Conditions for more details on this promotion.

If you love shopping for electronics, OCBC offers 2% rebates for every dollar spent at BEST Denki. This is a great benefit if you use your credit card in purchasing household appliances and other electronics!

Fees

Citi and OCBC have the same annual fees, but OCBC offers a longer fee waiver than Citi:

	Citi Rewards	OCBC Titanium
Annual Fee – Principal Card	$192.60	$192.60
Annual Fee – Supplementary Card	$96.30	$96.30
Waived Annual Fee	1 year	2 years

OCBC has a slightly lower interest rate for credit card transactions while Citi has a lower rate for cash advances.

	Citi Rewards	OCBC Titanium
Interest – Card Transactions	26.90% p.a.	26.88% p.a.
Interest – Cash Advances	26.90% p.a.	28.92% p.a.

Final Verdict

Both Citi Rewards and OCBC Titanium offer rewards for all general spending, with 10X reward points for select transaction categories.

Here is a summary of what each card offers:

	Citi Rewards	OCBC Titanium
Rewards per Dollar – General Transactions	1 ThankYou Point/$1	OCBC$5/$5
Rewards per Dollar– Eligible Transactions	10 ThankYou Points/$1	OCBC$50/$5
Eligible Transactions	Online Transactions (excluding travel-related) In-store Shopping Ride-Hailing Services	Shopping Transactions Online Merchants
Rewards Cap	No cap for base points 9,000 for bonus points per month	No cap for base points120,000 bonus points per year
Reward Points Expiry	60 months	24 months
Reward Redemption	Miles of Partner Mileage ProgramsCash Rebates	KrisFlyer MilesCash Rebates
Annual Fee	$192.60 – Principal $96.30 – Supplementary	$192.60 – Principal $96.30 – Supplementary
Annual Fee Waiver	1 year	2 years
Interest Rate – Card Transactions	26.90% p.a.	26.88% p.a.
Interest Rate – Cash Advances	26.90% p.a.	28.92% p.a.

Both Citi Rewards and OCBC Titanium are great options for frequent shoppers as they both offer increased reward points for retail transactions.

If you do not shop as regularly and spend larger amounts for certain months than other months, OCBC may be a better option as it has a yearly cap vs Citi’s monthly cap. OCBC is also a great option if you usually shop from online merchants as it offers 10X reward points for these transactions!

On the other hand, if you frequently use ride-hailing services, Citi Rewards may fit your lifestyle better for its 10X ThankYou Points for Grab and Gojek rides.

You may want to note that if you plan to use Citi Rewards for a longer period, it only offers a 1-year annual fee waiver while OCBC offers 2 years.

However, OCBC’s reward points expiry is significantly shorter than that of Citi’s, and OCBC’s points can only be converted to KrisFlyer miles vs Citi’s nine partner programs.

You can find out how KrisFlyer miles differ from KrisPay miles here.

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