No fee Visa Infinite- with a catch

It’s not a miles earning card, but if you meet the $120,000 income requirement, you might want to take a look at a no-fee Visa Infinite card offered by CIMB.

Recall that Visa has several tiers-

• Visa Classic
• Visa Gold -very rarely seen
• Visa Platinum -don’t take the “Platinum” term too seriously- your OCBC Debit card is tiered as a Visa Platinum)
• Visa Signature -this is the “mass affluent” tier for Visa, but you can get a Visa Signature card with $30,000 income through Citibank Rewards. Comes with interesting hotel benefits
• Visa Infinite – highest tier, but generally unavailable at any income point below $120,000 a year

Why do you want this card? Well, it’s free, first of all. A no-fee Visa Infinite is almost unheard of. And there are some interesting benefits

Benefits Offered by CIMB

• 2% cash rebate on overseas spend and 1% cash rebate on local, no cap
• 50% dining discount for 2 people (33% for 3, 25% for 4, 20% for 5 to 10) at Plate (Carlton City Hotel), Lawry’s (Mandarin Gallery), Xin Chinese Restaurant (Holiday Inn Atrium), La Nonna, District 10 Bar & Restaurant, Senso Ristorante, Spizza
• Priority pass membership with 3 free lounge visits annually

Benefits Offered by Visa Infinite 

• Fast track to Hilton HHonors Gold with 2 stays

• Complimentary Harrods Rewards Black Tier with 100 GBP voucher (redeemable with min 500 GBP spend)

• Complimentary greens fees at Sentosa Golf Club

• “Up to 20%” off First/Business class airtickets booked through Visa Concierge (I’m sure they rip you off on the list price)
• Access to the Visa Infinite Concierge
• There are other offers but they didn’t jump out at me. You can see them here. I only selected those offers which are exclusive to the Visa Infinite tier- some of the offers featured on the site are open to anyone with a Visa card

Is it worth it?

Well, remember first and foremost that it’s free. So the question is more “is it worth my time applying”. Perhaps.

The Hilton HHonors Gold offer is good if you don’t already have elite status with any chain (but you could always get SPG Gold with 1 stay through your World Mastercard). Everything else is kind of meh. (my friend tried using the Concierge before to get reservations at a booked out restaurant but they weren’t able to, which kind of defeats the purpose of having them. I mean, in the time taken to call them, verify your identity and make the request, you could just have booked it yourself. Their value-adding area is in their ability to pull strings and make things happen. For example, I think the AMEX Black card concierge would probably have a better track record with requests like this)

The priority pass is good if you anticipate you’ll be flying without elite status in the near future. 3 visits per year isn’t particularly generous but hey, it’s free.

The catch is that you need to make at least $120,000 a year. They’re quite strict on this requirement. I know some guys who were in the low $100,000s and were rejected outright. But there’s an alternative option to put a $50,000 in a fixed deposit with CIMB. I don’t think the card is so good that it justified tying up $50,000 of your working capital in a low-interest investment, but if you’re already past the $120,000 threshold there’s no harm in getting one.

cover photo by bt