Dining Card Battle Royale! Here Are The Top Dining Credit Cards

Being a foodie can be a pricey venture. There’s a mind-boggling array of amazing food in Malaysia…if only you could afford them all.

However, that doesn’t mean you have to stop yourself from dining out. A frugal lifestyle can also include the occasional indulgence, and anyone can save cash by using the ideal credit card to maximise their savings and dining privileges.

But which is the best dining credit card for foodies in Malaysia?

HSBC Visa Signature Credit Card

If you’re a frequent diner at shopping malls and hotels, this is the card for you.

You’ll receive 1 Reward Point for every ringgit charged to your card. You get 5x more points when you spend online locally and at 34 local participating malls, and 8x more when you spend overseas and online in foreign currency. These points can be used to redeem online vouchers and a range of merchandise.

This card also gives you access to HSBC SmartPrivileges, which could net you discounts of up to 50% at a wide range of hotel buffets and restaurants.

Citi Cash Back Credit Card

The Citi Cash Back Credit Card offers a high cash back rate of 10% on dining, groceries, petrol and Grab rides – as long as you can hit a monthly spend of at least RM500 on your card. However, the monthly caps are only at RM10 per category, which adds up to RM40 a month in total across all categories.

For other categories of spending, there’s a cash back rate of 0.2%, with no monthly caps.

Although you’ll only get a maximum of RM10 a month in cash back when it comes to dining, this card does offer discounts and promotions at a huge range of 109 food and dining establishments. With Citi World Privileges, you can get deals such as a 20% discount while dining at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur, 1-for-1 buffet at Kontiki Restaurant and 15% off at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

Maybank 2 Cards

With Maybank 2, you get the Maybank 2 American Express Card and Maybank 2 Mastercard/Visa Card under a single application.

You’ll get a 5% cash back when you spend with the Maybank 2 American Express Card on weekends, alongside a monthly cashback cap of RM50. It’s a pretty sweet deal, considering that you don’t have to pay any annual fees on this card.

Your cards will give you access to certain promotions and discounts, but Maybank’s catalogue of dining deals isn’t as extensive as other banks’.

CIMB Cash Rebate Platinum Credit Card

This card offers a huge 12% cash rebate on weekend dining, although the rebate is capped at RM30 a month.

For spending categories like cinemas, petrol, groceries, mobile and utility bill payments, there is a 2% cash rebate (for statement balances below RM3,000) and a 5% cash rebate (for statement balances of RM3,000 and above).

There’s also a 0.2% cash rebate on other online or retail spending.

This card gives you access to CIMB Deals, which includes dining discounts and promotions at a range of hotels and restaurants.

Comparison of the best dining cards

Here’s how the three cash back cards above stack up against each other:

What are the cash back caps per month?

	Citi Cash Back	Maybank 2	CIMB Cash Rebate Platinum
Cash back cap	RM10 per category, up to RM40	RM50	RM30
Minimum spend required	RM500	-	-

How much cash back do you get?

Amount spent on dining	HSBC Visa Signature	Citi Cash Back (10%)	Maybank 2 (5%)	CIMB Cash Rebate Platinum (12%)
RM100	No cash back, but points can be used to redeem online vouchers.	RM10	RM5	RM12
RM200		RM10	RM10	RM24
RM300		RM10	RM15	RM30
RM400		RM10	RM20	RM30
RM500		RM10	RM25	RM30
RM600		RM10	RM30	RM30
RM700		RM10	RM35	RM30
RM800		RM10	RM40	RM30
RM900		RM10	RM45	RM30
RM1,000		RM10	RM50	RM30

For spending below RM600, CIMB Cash Rebate Platinum offers the best cash back amount. On the other hand, the Citi Cash Back Credit Card offers a RM10 monthly cap for each spending category (up to RM40 a month), which makes it worthwhile only if you also spend on other categories (groceries, petrol and Grab rides).

If you’re spending above RM600, Maybank 2 trumps both cards in terms of total amount of cash back.

While the HSBC Visa Signature Credit Card doesn’t offer cash back, the Reward Points programme is a fair trade-off. When you spend RM3,750 overseas or online in foreign currency, you’ll be rewarded with 30,000 points. At the point of writing, that’s enough to redeem a RM100 online voucher (Grab, Lazada, AirAsia, etc), which is an equivalent cash back value of 2.66%.

That seems like a small amount until you take into account that cash back cards impose monthly caps. By contrast, you won’t have any limits when it comes to point accumulation. This makes the HSBC card a worthy contender for big spenders.

In short, the best dining card really depends on how you spend:

Consider this card if…
HSBC Visa Signature Credit Card	you’re a big spender who wants discounts at hotel buffets and restaurants
Citi Cash Back Credit Card	you want a general cash back card that rewards you for multiple spending categories
Maybank 2 Cards	you spend above RM600 on dining, and you want a no-fee credit card that offers the best cash back rate
CIMB Cash Rebate Platinum Credit Card	you spend RM600 or less on dining, and you want a no-fee credit card that offers the best cash back rate