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Methodology

How Kira scores credit cards

An open and complete description of the math behind every Kira leaderboard. Last updated May 2026.

The honest math problem

Malaysian credit cards advertise headline cashback rates — 5%, 8%, even 15% on dining. These rates are real, but they are constrained. Almost every card layers two limits on top of the headline rate: a monthly cap on cashback per category, and a minimum monthly spend below which the rate degrades.

Worked example. Card X advertises 8% on dining with a RM 30 monthly cap. If you spend RM 1,000 on dining in a month, the raw cashback is RM 80, but the cap limits it to RM 30. Your effective dining rate is 3%, not 8%. If you also miss the RM 1,500 minimum monthly spend on the card, that 3% can fall further. Headline rates rarely tell this story; effective rates always do.

How Kira scores cards

  1. Eligibility. We remove every card you cannot get — your annual income must meet the issuer's minimum, and your citizenship must be on the card's eligible list.
  2. Per-category cashback. For each category you spend in, we multiply your monthly spend by the card's headline rate, then cap that figure at the category's monthly cap if any.
  3. Total cap. We sum the per-category cashback and apply the card's overall monthly cap if any.
  4. Minimum spend. If your total monthly spend is below the card's threshold, we halve the cashback to reflect the base-rate fallback most issuers apply.
  5. Annual net value. Annualized cashback minus the annual fee (zero if the card waives the fee under realistic conditions).
  6. Sort. Highest net annual value wins. Ties within RM 50 break in favour of the larger welcome bonus.

Tiered cashback

Several Malaysian cards (RHB Shell Visa is the cleanest example) publish tiered rates rather than a single headline rate. The cashback you earn on each category depends on which spend tier your total monthly spend lands in. RHB Shell pays 3% on petrol if you spend RM 1,000–1,999, 5% from RM 2,000–2,999, and 12% from RM 3,000 onwards.

When a card publishes tiers, Kira first sums your category spend, picks the tier whose window contains that total, and uses that tier's rates for the category math. If your total falls below the lowest tier, you earn nothing on that card — we don't pretend otherwise. We also enforce per-category minimum spend (e.g. you must spend at least RM 250 on groceries in a month for grocery cashback to count).

The data we use

For every card: issuer, type, headline rates per category, monthly caps per category, total monthly cap, minimum spend, minimum income, citizenship eligibility, annual fee and waiver conditions, welcome bonus value, and the affiliate URL. The card database is reviewed every month and changes are versioned in the codebase.

Rewards points → ringgit

Many cards earn intermediary reward currencies (bank points, in-store points) instead of straight cashback. To compare them fairly against cashback cards, Kira converts every point into MYR using a single, verifiable rate per program — the rate at which the issuer's standard catalogue actually redeems points for cash or vouchers. No sweet-spot redemption assumed.

  • AmBonus Points (AmBank): 32,000 pts = RM 50 → RM 0.001563 / pt.
  • AFFIN Rewards Points: 31,950 pts = RM 50 → RM 0.001565 / pt.
  • Alliance Three-Year Bonus Points (TBP): 60,000 pts = RM 100 → RM 0.001667 / pt.
  • AEON Points: the published in-store rate, 1 pt = RM 0.01, redeemable at AEON checkout.
  • Rakyat Rewards (Bank Rakyat): 10,000 pts = RM 100 → RM 0.01 / pt. Earn rate is 1 pt per RM 10 spent, so the effective cashback is just 0.01% on retail.
  • BSN Happy Points: 21,000 pts = RM 50 → RM 0.00238 / pt.
  • CIMB Bonus Points: 28,500 pts = RM 50 → RM 0.001754 / pt.
  • Bank Islam TruPoints: placeholder — set to the lowest known program rate (RM 0.001563 / pt, matching AmBonus) until the catalogue redemption rate is verified. Effective rates shown for Bank Islam cards may be revised downward once confirmed.
  • Hong Leong GSC Reward Points: 32,000 pts = RM 50 → RM 0.001563 / pt.
  • HSBC Reward Points: 33,000 pts = RM 50 → RM 0.001515 / pt.
  • UOB UNIRinggit: 40,000 pts = RM 50 → RM 0.00125 / pt.
  • Maybank TreatsPoints: 32,000 pts = RM 50 → RM 0.001563 / pt.
  • Shopee Coins (Maybank Shopee): the published in-app rate, 100 Coins = RM 1 → RM 0.01 / coin.
  • OCBC$ & Travel$ (OCBC): confirmed — lowest of three OCBC cash-credit redemptions: 5,000 Voyage miles → RM50 (RM0.01000/mile), 25,000 Travel$ → RM50 (RM0.00200/pt), 30,000 OCBC$ → RM50 (RM0.001667/pt). We pin both OCBC$ and Travel$ to the OCBC$ floor as the most conservative per-point cash value.
  • Public Bank VIP Points: 31,000 pts = RM 50 → RM 0.001613 / pt.
  • RHB Reward Points: 32,450 pts = RM 50 → RM 0.001541 / pt.
  • GrabRewards Points (Maybank Grab): confirmed — 15 pts = RM 0.10 Grab credit → RM 0.006667 / pt.
  • Enrich Miles (Malaysia Airlines): confirmed — 480 Enrich pts = RM 10 voucher → RM 0.02083 / mile. Used as the universal proxy whenever a card converts its points to airline miles (see below).
  • Standard Chartered 360° Rewards Points: confirmed (proxy) — cash redemption discontinued. Valued via Enrich conversion at 3 pts → 1 Enrich Mile → RM 0.006944 / pt.

So a card paying "5 pts per RM 1 spent overseas" in AmBonus becomes 5 × RM 0.001563 = ~0.78% effective cashback overseas. Whatever the issuer's marketing implies, that's what the points actually buy in cash terms.

Airline miles — valued via Enrich, not excluded

Kira previously excluded pure-miles cards entirely because mile value depends on airline, route, cabin, and dynamic pricing. We now use a single conservative proxy: Enrich Miles at RM 0.02083 / mile (480 Enrich = RM 10 voucher, Malaysia Airlines' own published rate). Any card whose points convert to airline miles is valued at that conversion. This is still conservative — sweet-spot premium-cabin redemptions can pay multiples more — but it stops penalising miles cards to zero.

HSBC TravelOne is now ingested under this rule. HSBC publishes its conversion as a fixed MYR-per-Enrich-mile rate: RM 21.00 / mile for general local spend, RM 4.20 / mile for local dining and travel, and RM 2.62 / mile for overseas (FCY). Multiplied by the Enrich proxy this yields effective cashback of ~0.10% general, ~0.50% dining/travel, ~0.79% overseas. AmBank Visa Infinite and AFFIN INVIKTA Visa Infinite remain valued at their bank-point catalogue rates (AmBonus / AFFIN RP) — we'll switch them to the Enrich proxy once their bank-point → Enrich ratios are verified. Public Bank World MasterCard and Standard Chartered Journey are still pending verified earn rates.

The data we don't use

We do not factor affiliate commission rates into ranking. We do not collect your bank statements or credit card statements. We do not store your spending data after your session ends. In Accurate mode your statements are analyzed by your own AI assistant on your device — only the resulting numbers are sent to Kira, and they are held only in your browser tab.

What we get wrong

Our model assumes consistent monthly spending. Promotional rates expire. We value points at catalogue rates only — if you redeem at a sweet spot (e.g. a points-to-voucher promotion), you may earn more than Kira shows. Cards with non-cash benefits (concierge, golf, lounge access, travel insurance) may rank lower than they deserve for some users.

Sources

BNM credit card guidelines · individual issuer card pages · publicly listed terms and conditions · the Kira cards database.