OCBC FRANK Revamp: 5 Reasons To Sign Up For This Relaunched Card

The OCBC FRANK credit card has gotten a huge makeover and it is now one of the best cashback cards in Singapore for online shopping. Here’s what’s in store.

With its infinitely customisable designs, the OCBC FRANK credit card sure seemed like the height of cool when you were a uni or poly student. But as a credit card for ‘adulting’ purposes, it’s always fallen a bit short of the other, more practical cashback cards on the market.

Fortunately, OCBC is now revamping the OCBC FRANK credit card to make it a lot more competitive. In fact, they might have even outdone themselves. 

The new OCBC FRANK credit card now offers a market-leading up to 10% cashback on online, mobile contactless, and foreign currency spending, which sufficiently covers everyday needs in Singapore.

Want more details? Here are four reasons to apply for the revamped OCBC FRANK credit card.

1. New and improved cashback structure

The old OCBC FRANK credit card was definitely aimed at the young and carefree, with cashback at cafes, cinemas, bars/clubs and online shopping. Sadly, though, there comes a time to leave that lifestyle behind, especially once you start having bills to pay and nappies to change. 

If that hits a little too close to home, the revamped OCBC FRANK credit card should definitely get your attention.

First, the minimum spend has gone from $400 on offline spending to $800 across all eligible spending. It’s higher, yes, but it might actually be easier to hit the new minimum spend.

Hit the $800 and you get a no-frills 8% cashback on online, mobile contactless and foreign currency payments. That makes it suitable for all life stages — it doesn’t matter whether you’re spending at ASOS or Mothercare, Starbucks or Sheng Siong.

Plus, the eligibility on foreign currency spend makes it easy to do any retail therapy even on online overseas websites!

2. Go eco-friendly with additional 2% cashback

But wait, didn't we say the OCBC Frank Card rewards up to 10% cashback? Right, you are.

Apart from the aforementioned 8% cashback, earn an extra 2% cashback on select green merchants in retail and transport. Eco-friendly transport merchants include BlueSG, bus and MRT rides via SimplyGo and more, while eco-friendy retail merchants include The Sustainability Project, Minimakers, Little Farms and more!

For a more holistic view, here's the merchant eligibility breakdown:

The typical credit card exclusions apply, so don’t expect to get any rebates for tax payments, Parking SG, EZ-Link top-ups, insurance premiums, school fees, hospital fees, charity donations and the like.

3. An all-grown-up new card design

The Obsidian	The Vortex

The OCBC FRANK credit card used to offer a range of credit card designs to choose from, so you could pick one to reflect your personality. But from July 2020, the choices have been scaled down to just two options — the Obsidian or the Vortex.

We really like the new default design, though. It’s black and minimalist and all… adult-ed.

The sleek new card design is really just icing on the cake.

4. Low annual fee

With the economy so uncertain, nobody needs to worry about credit card annual fees. 

We like that the OCBC FRANK credit card comes with zero annual fee for students — while the standard OCBC credit cards comes with a S$194.40 annual fee.

You won’t have to worry about the annual fee for the first two years as it will automatically be waived. Subsequently, OCBC will waive the annual fee every year as long as you spend at least $10,000 on the card annually. (That’s about $833 a month.)

5. Bumped-up security features

If the only thing stopping you from embracing the mobile payment revolution is the risk of fraud, here’s a nice feature to consider.

You can lock your OCBC FRANK credit card via the OCBC mobile banking app. So if your child is using your phone, or if it’s been stolen, you need not worry about unauthorised charges to your card.

Together with your phone’s existing fingerprint recognition function, OCBC’s remote locking feature makes mobile payments a lot safer.

In addition, the new OCBC FRANK credit card design we featured above does not have your credit card number on it, which minimises the risk of fraud when you hand over your credit card to pay for items.

You can read more of OCBC Frank's T&Cs here.

OCBC FRANK vs DBS Live Fresh vs UOB EVOL: Which is best?

Let’s have a look at the OCBC FRANK credit card’s closest competitors, the DBS Live Fresh and UOB EVOL cards. All three are aimed at millennials, with low minimum spend and comparable cashback rates.

The UOB EVOL card stands out from the others. It strongly favours going out and dining out; you won’t get much cashback on needs like groceries and petrol. But it does have a $60 cap (not split) so you don’t need to micro-manage your spending.

Meanwhile, the revamped OCBC FRANK and DBS Live Fresh are almost clones of each other. With the same minimum spending requirement and eco-centric merchant focus, the OCBC FRANK credit card has a slight edge over the DBS Live Fresh with a higher cashback cap. 

Before switching, do consider how your savings account might be affected. If you rely on the DBS Live Fresh card to get bonus interest on your DBS Multiplier account, then it may make more sense to stick to DBS.

That said, the OCBC FRANK credit card has a lot going for it, so if you want to get it, you can apply right here:

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