CIMB Platinum MasterCard - Direct Mailer Promotion

Your CIMB PLATINUM MasterCard rewards you with a 0.5% cash rebate on all local spending, and a 1% cash rebate on all foreign spending with no monthly cap across all retail purchases

I received a promotional direct mailer from CIMB Bank earlier this week targeting existing cardmembers.  I hold the CIMB Platinum MasterCard but i rarely charge anything to it.

And the promotion?

• Charge a minimum of six (6) transactions during the period from 17 Mar to 17 Jun 2012 and be rewarded with Cash Credit.
• The amount of Cash Credit is tiered and commensurate with the retail purchases made: (i) Tier 1 - S$10 (S$200 - S$999 spend), (ii) Tier 2 - S$20 (S$1,000 - S$2,999), (iii) Tier 3 - S$50 (S$3,000 - S$4,999) and (iv) Tier 4 - S$75 (S$5,000 & above).
• Enjoy an additional S$10 Cash Credit with a minimum of S$100 spend for all of the following periods: (i) 17 Mar to 16 Apr 2012, (ii) 17 Apr to 16 May 2012 and (iii) 17 May to 17 Jun 2012.
• Promotion is limited to the first 500 Cardmembers who meet the spend criteria within the promotion period and is based on transaction date that is posted in the card account by 24 June 2012.
• Minimum spend requirement excludes cash advances, balance transfers, funds transfers, existing i.Pay Plan, fees, interest charges and/ or any amount brought forward from the last statement and must be accumulated through retail purchases only.
• The cash credit will be credited to the relevant CIMB Credit Card account of the Principal Cardmember within two (2) months from the expiry of the Promotion Period and reflected in the corresponding month's statement.

In search of the best cash rebate spend percentage, i decided to work out the cash rebate percentages (inclusive of the base Platinium cash rebate) without and with the additional S$10 Cash Credit.

			Basic		Additional
Tier	Spend (S$)	Base Cash Rebate @0.5% (S$)	Cash Credit (S$)	Cash Rebate (%)	Cash Credit (S$)	Cash Rebate (%)
1	200	1.00	10	5.50%	NA	NA
1	300	1.50	10	3.83%	10	7.17%
1	999	5.00	10	1.50%	10	2.50%
2	1,000	5.00	20	2.50%	10	3.50%
2	2,999	15.00	20	1.17%	10	1.50%
3	3,000	15.00	50	2.17%	10	2.50%
3	4,999	25.00	50	1.50%	10	1.70%
4	5,000	25.00	75	2.00%	10	2.20%

The outcome was pretty interesting - a spend of S$300 (i.e. 2 x S$50 spend per month over the promotion period), fulfilling both the minimum spend and additional cash credit requirements, achieves the highest cash rebate percentage (7.17%)!