Wow | CIMB Raises Preferred Visa Infinite Bonus Points Threshold But Includes Supplementary Spend

On the back of Maybank’s recent changes to the AMEX Reserve, CIMB has now announced a significant update to the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite.

I’m writing this article in particular detail because I am very much in the CIMB ecosystem myself, and the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite remains my local spend daily driver (although funny enough rarely spend locally). More importantly, this is not a small cosmetic tweak. It changes the economics of one of the most interesting affluent credit card propositions in Malaysia.

For context, the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite has a unique monthly bonus points threshold system on top of its usual spend-based rewards.

Cardholders earn 1X Bonus Points on local spend, 8X Bonus Points on local dining, and 8X Bonus Points on overseas spend. On top of that, CIMB awards a lump sum of monthly Bonus Points if cardholders meet the required spend threshold in a campaign month.

This threshold system is precisely what makes the card interesting. It rewards cardholders who consolidate spend into a single card, rather than spreading transactions thinly across five different cards just to chase small category bonuses.

Previously, I wrote about CIMB’s most recent change to this structure, where the bank introduced a middle tier at RM8,000 monthly spend, offering 25,000 Bonus Points. This was a welcome move because it gave cardholders who could not consistently hit RM10,000 per month a realistic way to benefit from the card.

Unfortunately, that generosity was never going to last forever, and the latest changes likely reflect that the performance of the card itself is significant.

CIMB Raises the Monthly Bonus Points Threshold

Effective 1 June 2026, CIMB will raise the minimum monthly spend required to unlock the 25,000 Bonus Points tier from RM8,000 to RM10,000. At the same time, the highest tier will move from RM10,000 to RM12,000 per month, while the payout remains unchanged at 35,000 Bonus Points.

This is not CIMB cutting the number of Bonus Points awarded. Instead, CIMB is preserving the headline payout while asking customers to spend more before unlocking it. That distinction matters.

From a miles-per-Ringgit perspective, the threshold bonus component becomes weaker. Previously, 35,000 Bonus Points on RM10,000 monthly spend translated into 3.5 Bonus Points per Ringgit from the threshold bonus alone. Under the new structure, 35,000 Bonus Points on RM12,000 monthly spend translates into roughly 2.92 Bonus Points per Ringgit.

That is a 16.7% reduction on the threshold bonus component.

However, once you layer this on top of the card’s existing 8X dining and overseas earn rates, the overall effective MPR reduction is more moderate. For those primarily using the card on dining spend, the overall devaluation should be closer to the 5% to 6% range.

For generic 1X local spend, the impact is more noticeable because the lump-sum bonus forms a much larger portion of the total return. This is why I would not describe the change as catastrophic. It is clearly a devaluation, but it is a very targeted one. CIMB is not gutting the proposition. It is simply making the monthly bonus harder to unlock.

The other qualification requirements remain largely unchanged.

To qualify, cardholders still need to maintain a minimum AUM of RM250,000, maintain a monthly average CASA balance of RM50,000, and make repayment to the card through an eligible CIMB CASA account.

Supplementary Card Spend Now Counts Towards the Monthly Threshold

Now we get to the genuinely important part.

Together with the revised thresholds above, supplementary card spend will now count towards the monthly spend requirement for the bulk bonus points.

This is a major inclusion.

For individual cardholders, the higher RM10,000 and RM12,000 thresholds are obviously painful. But for households that consolidate spend into a single card strategy, this change makes the revised structure much more palatable.

In my own case, my wife has been using my CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite locally in Malaysia because I have little need for the card while I am in the UK. With the latest changes, not only am I able to secretly monitor her shopping spree, but I also get to earn Bonus Points from it.

For legal and marriage purposes, that was obviously a joke. But the underlying point is serious.

This change makes the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite much more practical as a household miles accumulation card. If you have a spouse, parents, or trusted family members who can place recurring spend on supplementary cards, the new RM12,000 threshold becomes significantly more achievable.

In fact, this is probably the most sensible way to use the card now. Instead of thinking of the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite as an individual daily driver, it should be viewed as a household spend consolidation tool. Dining, school fees where eligible, retail spend, insurance where eligible, medical bills, large purchases, and general cardable expenses can all contribute towards unlocking the monthly bonus.

This is where the proposition still works.

A Quick Note on the Monthly Bonus Points Cap

It is also worth remembering that the monthly bonus points pool is not unlimited. The revised table shows a monthly cap pool of 63,750,000 Bonus Points for Tier 1 and 108,360,000 Bonus Points for Tier 2.

In practical terms, that supports approximately 2,550 participants for Tier 1 and around 3,096 participants for Tier 2 per campaign month, assuming the entire pool is fully allocated.

On paper, this means the bonus is awarded on a capped basis. In reality, I have never heard of a single Refined Points reader missing out on the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite monthly bonus due to the pool being exhausted.

Still, it is something to keep in mind.

As CIMB becomes more popular among serious miles chasers, especially with more households consolidating spend through supplementary cards, this cap may become more relevant in the future.

The Bigger Picture

Despite the higher thresholds, the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite remains one of the strongest local spend credit cards in Malaysia if you can consistently unlock the monthly bonus.

That last part is crucial.

This is not a card you should use casually. It is a card that rewards discipline, consolidation, and proper planning.

Even without the monthly bulk bonus, the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite remains one of the best dining cards in its segment. On dining spend alone, it earns 8X Bonus Points, translating to around 0.64 MPR for Enrich Miles and around 0.53 MPR for airlines like KrisFlyer and Asia Miles.

The only card that meaningfully beats it for Enrich Miles dining spend is the Hong Leong Bank Visa Infinite, which offers an industry-leading 1 MPR on Enrich Miles for dining. However, that card locks you into Enrich Miles and excludes MCC 5813 Drinking Places from its eligible dining MCCs.

That exclusion is more important than people think. For many affluent Malaysians, a meaningful portion of “dining” spend does not happen at a kopitiam or casual restaurant. It happens at bars, hotel lounges, wine bars, cocktail venues, and premium drinking establishments. If a dining card excludes MCC 5813, then its real-world usability is more limited than the headline MPR suggests.

The CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite may not offer the absolute highest dining MPR in every theoretical comparison, but it offers a more flexible ecosystem, a wider range of airline conversion options, and a threshold bonus structure that can materially lift the effective MPR if used properly.

Standard Chartered Journey Mastercard remains a decent accessible alternative with 0.5 MPR on dining spend, while the UOB Privilege Banking Visa Infinite also offers 0.5 MPR on dining spend. However, the UOB option requires Privilege Banking status with RM500,000 AUM and a minimum monthly spend requirement.

Should You Still Use the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite for Local Spend?

Yes, but only if your monthly spend pattern supports it.

If you can consistently hit RM12,000 per month after including supplementary card spend, the card remains extremely compelling. The higher threshold is annoying, but the inclusion of supplementary spend softens the blow significantly.

If you can only hit RM10,000 per month, the 25,000 Bonus Points tier is still useful, although the value is clearly weaker than before.

If you are struggling to hit even RM10,000 per month, then this card becomes much harder to justify as your main miles strategy. You may be better off using category-specific cards that reward your actual spending behaviour more directly.

This is especially true if most of your monthly spend is not on dining. For example, if your largest category is groceries, the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite is probably not the most efficient option. Yes, grocery spend can help you unlock the monthly bonus, and yes, the effective MPR can still become decent if you hit the threshold.

But unless you are feeding an entire village or hosting steak nights every other day, most people are unlikely to generate enough grocery spend alone to make this card the obvious choice.

Do Not Use This Card Overseas If You Hold the CIMB Travel World Elite

Last but not least, I need to repeat something I have said many times. If you hold both the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite and the CIMB Travel World Elite, you should almost never use the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite for overseas spend.

The CIMB Travel World Elite is the superior overseas spend card. It earns at a stronger rate, is built specifically for travel-related use, and remains the natural companion card within the CIMB ecosystem.

The only exception is if you are slightly short of the monthly spend required to unlock the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite bulk bonus. For example, if you are at RM11,500 spend for the month and need another RM500 to unlock the 35,000 Bonus Points tier, then using the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite overseas may make sense.

Outside of that scenario, overseas spend should go to the CIMB Travel World Elite. I've previously written about this here, so be sure to check it out.

Final Thoughts

CIMB’s latest revision to the Preferred Visa Infinite is a mixed bag. On one hand, raising the thresholds from RM8,000 and RM10,000 to RM10,000 and RM12,000 is clearly a devaluation. There is no need to sugar-coat it. Cardholders now need to spend more to earn the same monthly lump-sum Bonus Points.

On the other hand, the inclusion of supplementary card spend is a meaningful improvement, and probably the one change that prevents this update from becoming outright negative.

For individual cardholders, this update hurts.

For households, it may actually make sense.

That is the key distinction.

CIMB appears to be shifting the Preferred Visa Infinite from a high-spend individual card into a proper affluent household consolidation card. If that is the intention, the mechanics are actually quite logical. Affluent families often have multiple spenders, multiple supplementary cards, and large recurring expenses that can be consolidated under one principal account.

In that scenario, RM12,000 monthly spend is not unrealistic.

The bigger question is whether CIMB can continue preserving the overall attractiveness of the card. The moment the bank weakens the 8X dining earn rate, reduces airline conversion flexibility, or starts making the monthly bonus harder to receive in practice, the proposition changes entirely.