The CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite was the pioneer in CIMB’s lineup of credit cards to introduce a tier-based reward system. This system awards a significant number of Bonus Points once a certain monthly spending threshold is met.

While this approach has since been adopted by the newly revamped CIMB Visa Infinite and CIMB Visa Signature, it was actually first implemented by the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite.

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However, unlike the multiple tiers offered by the CIMB Visa Infinite, the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite features just one tier for cumulative spending. Spending at least RM10,000 per month will earn you an additional 35,000 Bonus Points.

On the other hand, any amount less than RM10,000 will not qualify for these additional Bonus Points. For example, if you spend RM9,999, you will still accumulate the standard Bonus Points for that amount but will miss out on the bonus bulk of 35,000 Bonus Points.

As demonstrated, the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite offers a significant 0.92 miles per ringgit (MPR) assuming you meet the RM10,000 monthly threshold for dining.

Naturally, this is an ideal scenario. Realistically, it’s unlikely you’d spend RM10,000 solely on dining each month, unless you’re a business owner or have a large family that frequently enjoys weekend outings. Therefore, it’s more practical to consider this card under ‘Optimistic’ and ‘Realistic’ scenarios. These scenarios account for the fact that while a substantial portion of your monthly expenditure might be on dining, other categories will contribute to exceeding the RM10,000 threshold, thus earning you the bonus 35,000 Bonus Points.

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Personally, if your dining expenses are below RM4,000, I would recommend considering other options such as the UOB Visa Infinite or the Standard Chartered Journey instead. This is because the major benefits of the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite might be underutilized in such cases.

An important consideration and limitation of this tiered bonus points system is that certain merchant categories have spending caps, likely implemented to prevent manipulation of the points earning system. Remarkably, these caps are set at RM5,000, which is quite generous.

However, dining expenses are exempt from these caps, allowing for the potential to earn 0.92 miles per ringgit (MPR) if the card is used solely for dining each month. This also means that spending over RM5,000 on dining counts fully towards the RM10,000 monthly threshold required to earn the 35,000 bulk bonus points.

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It’s important to note that even if spending RM10,000 per month is not feasible for many, the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite is far from ineffective. With dining expenses alone, the card offers a baseline of 0.64 MPR, which exceeds the rates provided by other popular dining credit cards like the UOB Visa Infinite, UOB Privilege Banking Visa Infinite, and Standard Chartered Journey, to name a few.

While this rate is specific to Enrich miles, the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite competes well with its peers across various airline loyalty programs and offers unique conversion options exclusive to CIMB.

One of the standout features of CIMB’s Bonus Points system is that points earned across different CIMB credit cards are pooled together. This is particularly advantageous if you already possess a CIMB Travel credit card and are considering adding the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite to your wallet; you won’t have to start accumulating points from scratch.

For instance, if you hold a CIMB Travel World Elite card, you can enjoy the best of both worlds: capitalize on the dining spend benefits of the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite and the overseas and airline spending benefits of the CIMB Travel World Elite, which earns you 0.8 MPR.

This synergistic approach maximizes your rewards from various spending categories efficiently.