Cash is King, but Miles is the Prince

While cashback is practical, miles give you special travel experiences.

Intuitively, most people would go for cashback over miles. After all, cash is king, and you can use it for anything.

Miles can be worth more if you want to travel better — especially when redeeming for business class tickets.

It all depends on your lifestyle and financial situation. For Bolehmiles, we like to have the best of both worlds, i.e we like to use some cashback cards to supplement our miles strategy.

But what can I get with Miles?

Firstly, with a miles card, you spend less mental energy tracking spending amounts and monthly caps.

And as we will go over the math in this post, you don’t lose out much value with miles credit card. In fact, you may even get more value with miles card.

Miles open up the possibility of experiencing business and first class, which you might not otherwise pay for with your hard-earned money.

The Truth about Cashback credit cards in Malaysia

It’s frustrating how the actual cashback you can earn each month is often hidden behind marketing numbers that makes it sound enticing.

This makes it so difficult for the average person to discern a good card from another.

Banks promote high cashback rates as headline, but the fine print often includes minimum spending requirements or low monthly caps, which makes the effective cashback a lot lower than the advertised cashback rate.

Cashback Card	Category	Advertised Cashback %	Spend Range	Monthly Cap	Effective Cashback % (Max)
SCB Simply Cash Card	E-wallet, Petrol, Groceries & Dining (combined)	15%	RM2,500 and above	RM60 (RM20 per category)	2.4%
CIMB Petronas Visa-i	Petrol & EV Charging, Groceries	12%	RM4,000 and above	RM120 (RM60 per category)	3.0%
HSBC Live+ Credit Card	Dining, Shopping, Entertainment	8%	RM5,000 and above	RM90	1.8%

Cards with high advertised cashback rate but low effective cashback rates

Let’s take SCB Simply Cash card as example.

This card is advertised as a “up to 15%” cashback card, which sounds very enticing. But if you dig into the fine print, you realise that the 15% is when you spend RM2500 and above with a cap of RM60.

That means, if you spend exactly RM2500 across all spend categories, the effective cashback is RM60 / RM 2500 = 2.4%, a far cry from the advertised 15% cashback rate.

Now, a 2.4% is not exactly a bad value proposition. It is still good money, provided you spend exactly RM2500. If you overshoot for example RM2800, your effective cashback rate will be lower.

Side note: It is possible to get the maximum 15% cashback on Petrol, Online, Grocery and Dining by spending exactly RM2100 on other spends (e.g insurance). You then spend exactly RM400 to meet the RM2500 spend requirement to reap the maximum 15% cashback. But this is not a typical spending behaviour.

Miles vs Cashback – Here’s the math

As explained in our previous post, BolehMiles values Enrich Miles to be 4 to 6 cents per mile.

We also mentioned that a 0.5 miles per ringgit (MPR) card generates about 2% to 3% miles-value-back that you can redeem for business class tickets. 

Let’s say we spend on dining. Given the option between 0.5MPR card and a 2-3% cashback card, the value that you get in return is about the same for both miles and cashback card.

Now, if you have a choice between a 0.5 MPR card and 5% cashback card, the better option could be the latter, provided that you have not maxed out your cashback cap.

But, miles like KrisFlyer and Asia Miles can offer more value. BolehMiles values these miles at 5 to 10 cents per mile, meaning a card that allows transfers to KrisFlyer or Asia Miles could provide a value of 2.5-5% miles-value-back on a 0.5 miles per ringgit (MPR) rate.

TLDR: 5% cashback cards will always give you more value than a 0.5MPR card.

Using both cashback and miles card

Despite the marketing practices in Malaysia, we can still find some good cashback card options in the market. To improve cashflow, we do recommend using cashback cards to supplement the miles strategy.

The idea is to start by exhausting the cap of cashback cards offering at least 5% effective cashback, then use any remaining spending on miles cards with at least 0.5 MPR.

TLDR: Max out your 3%-5% cashback cards, then spend on miles card with at least 0.5MPR.

The best cashback cards in Malaysia

Here are some of the best cashback cards (with 3% to 5% effective cashback rates) that we believe are worth your consideration:

Cashback Card	Category	Advertised Cashback %	Spend Range	Monthly Cap	Effective Cashback % (Max)
Maybank 2 Platinum Cards	Weekend Spend (Amex version)	5%	Up to RM1,000	RM50	5.0%
Maybank Islamic Ikhwan American Express Platinum	Online Spend	8%	Up to RM625	RM50	8.0%
CIMB Petronas Visa Infinite	Petrol & EV Charging, Groceries	6% (Petrol & EV), 3% (Groceries)	Up to RM1000 (Petrol & EV), Up to RM2000 (Groceries)	RM120 (RM60 per category)	4.0%

If you max out the monthly cap for all 3 cards, you are rewarded with RM220 of cashback per month with average of about >4% cashback for about RM5000 of spending.

Note that this requires us to jump through some hoops. For the Maybank cards, you have find merchants that accepts AMEX, which are less common compared to Visa and Mastercard.

You will also have to put in the effort to track the spend categories.

The best miles cards in Malaysia

If you find it a hassle to track spend categories, spend limit and monthly cap, you can just stick to miles cards and you don’t lose out too much.

You accumulate about 2-3% miles value back (and more for Krisflyer or Asia Miles) that you can use for your luxury travel.

Miles Card	Category	Miles per Ringgit (MPR)	Spend Range	Monthly Cap
UOB Visa Infinite	Overseas Spend	0.83	Any amount	No cap
SCB Journey Card	Dining	0.5	Any amount	No cap
Alliance Bank Visa Platinum	E-wallet Reload	0.53	Up to RM3,000	1,590 Enrich Miles
Maybank Krisflyer Amex Platinum	Online Spend	0.5	No minimum spend	No cap

Assuming you spend RM5000 a month and earning 0.5MPR, you get 2500 miles a month or 30,000 miles a year. You can redeem one way KL-HK business class ticket on Singapore Airlines!

Conclusion

Choosing between miles and cashback really comes down to what fits your lifestyle and goals.

If you’re planning a big trip or just like the idea of flying in comfort, miles can unlock those premium experiences that might feel out of reach otherwise.

For the best of both worlds, use some cashback cards to supplement your miles accumulation strategy.

But make sure you choose the right cashback card! Go for at least 3%-5% effective cashback rate.