Earn ‘stockback’ instead of cashback? Trust Bank, Tiger Brokers woo S’pore users with this card perk

Instead of giving cash rewards, stockback programmes automatically channel everyday card spending into fractional shares of preferred stocks or exchange-traded funds.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PIXABAY

Published Sep 04, 2026, 06:00 AM

Updated Sep 04, 2026, 06:00 AM

Financial platforms like Trust Bank and Tiger Brokers use stockback rewards, turning everyday spending into fractional shares to attract retail investors.

Trust Freedom and Tiger Boss cards offer varying stockback rates and selections, encouraging micro-investing and customer engagement.

Experts say stockback rewards help build investing habits but stress that app quality and user experience are key to retaining customers beyond promotions.

SINGAPORE – The traditional cashback model is evolving into “stockback”, a strategy that financial platforms are adopting to attract retail investors.

Instead of giving cash rewards, stockback programmes automatically channel everyday card spending into fractional shares of preferred stocks or exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Trust Bank and Tiger Brokers have both adopted this approach to stand out in a saturated market where brokerage fees are no longer the main revenue drivers.

Tiger Brokers launched the Tiger Boss debit card in March 2024, while Trust Bank recently rolled out its Trust Freedom card on Aug 13.

The two platforms structure their rewards differently.

The Trust Freedom card offers a 3 per cent stockback on local and foreign transactions until Dec 31, after which the rate drops to 2 per cent on local spending and 0.5 per cent on overseas spending.

Once a user accumulates $10 (US$7.90) in stockback value, the accrued rewards are automatically invested into a US stock or ETF of their choice, up to $500 a quarter.

Trust noted that there is a curated list of 50 stocks and ETFs – including Nvidia, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Vanguard S&P 500 ETF and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF – that customers can earn fractional investment rewards on.

Dwaipayan Sadhu, chief executive of Trust Bank, said the digital bank is working with trading platform Saxo Singapore to offer Singapore stocks hopefully in the next three to six months.

This would mean that Singapore stocks will be available to Trust Freedom card users as stockback options around late 2026 to early 2027.

Separately, the Tiger Boss debit card rewards users with a 1 per cent cashback in preferred shares on eligible daily spending until Dec 31, 2026. The Straits Times understands that while the terms and conditions are renewed periodically, the current reward framework is expected to remain unchanged.

Tiger noted on its website that Boss debit cardholders can exchange their earned cashback for “ Magnificent Seven” US tech names – like Apple and Nvidia – or for US ETFs.

The online brokerage qualified that the selection of fractional shares offered can change throughout the year depending on market conditions.

Stockback, the new cashback

Ben Charoenwong, an associate professor of finance at French business school INSEAD, noted that capitalising on daily card spending habits is a far more effective and sustainable strategy for a platform to engage with customers than paying for expensive advertisements and giving cash bonuses for referrals.

He added that when an investment platform gives a stockback, users cannot simply spend it, as opposed to getting cash in their bank accounts. They will have to start investing with the platform to realise their reward.

Furthermore, once users own the shares, it becomes more of a hassle to convert their stock position into cash as they have to sell the shares – an action which “carries more friction than spending a cashback rebate”, Charoenwong said.

The Trust Freedom card gives customers the flexibility to choose between cashback, stockback and an upcoming air miles reward option.

Sadhu noted that the customer has the freedom to switch reward categories every quarter.

“Any stockback stays in your account until you sell the shares. Similarly, any cashback gets credited directly into your account,” he added.

Stockback also presents an easier way for non-investors to start investing with the rewards they earned on their spending, Sadhu said, adding that it “builds the habit of micro-investing”.

“Effectively, it allows the investor to dollar-cost average every day,” he said.

Unlike the Trust Freedom card, the Tiger Boss debit card is strictly a stockback card.

Ian Leong, chief executive of Tiger Brokers Singapore, emphasised that the intention of launching the card in 2024 was to “help everyday spending grow into an investing habit”.

“Every fractional share earned through the card goes straight into the client’s account, where users can trade stocks, options and futures,” he said.

Leong added that the take-up rate of the Boss debit card since inception has continued to grow strongly.

In the second quarter ended June 30, card spending rose 37 per cent from the same period a year ago, while total cardholders grew 22 per cent.

Card transactions continued to pick up in July, rising 19.6 per cent year on year. Transactions per active spender reached 28 a month, Leong added.

Experienced investors like senior lab technician Dallas Goh are building their stock portfolios by stacking these stockback reward cards.

Goh, who has already accumulated a full Nvidia share using the Tiger Boss debit card, plans to use the Trust Freedom card as well to benefit from the 3 per cent stockback. The introductory 3 per cent rate applies until the end of 2026 .

“It is attractive,” he said, but also noted that because the Trust stockback is capped at $500 a quarter , he will have to use the Trust card first and then switch to the Tiger card to maximise his benefits.

Capturing ‘sticky’ retail investors early on

There is a lot of emphasis on attracting more retail inflows from the start, Charoenwong said.

He observed that retail investors in Singapore are loyal and, once they have settled on their “go-to” platform, do not like to move money around so often.

Another online platform, Webull Singapore, has not “received significant requests from clients specifically for a stockback option”.

Webull Singapore chief executive Jonathan Man said, however, that the brokerage does see “growing interest in rewards that are directly linked to investing”.

As part of its welcome rewards, Webull offers stock vouchers that investors can use to buy any stock of their choice.

Beyond the i nitiatives and incentives to attract investors, platforms face the challenge of retaining customers past the promotional period, Charoenwong noted.

A sign-up reward may encourage investors to download a platform’s app, but only a great app will encourage them to keep using it.

He added that investors look for execution quality or the ease and speed of buying and selling shares; uptime, which means the app does not crash; market breadth or the wide selection of investment choices; and the low trading costs on the platform.

Webull’s Man concurred, noting that while rewards may encourage customers to test out a platform, the overall investing experience must “provide enough value” to convince them to stay invested.

Charoenwong concluded that rewards are ultimately designed to bring in new users, not keep them.

“The true test of whether a platform is competing on what investors actually value, versus competing on the reward headline, is whether the reward is the newest thing about the product or the only thing,” he said.

Chor Khieng Yuit is senior correspondent at The Straits Times. She believes in financial education for the masses, particularly the low-income, the elderly and people with special needs.

股票返还计划不会直接发放现金奖励，而是自动将日常刷卡消费转化为优先股或交易所交易基金的零碎股份。

图片说明：Pixabay

发布于 2026 年 9 月 4 日上午 6:00

更新于2026年9月4日上午6:00

Trust Bank 和 Tiger Brokers 等金融平台利用股票返还奖励机制，将日常消费转化为零碎股票，以吸引散户投资者。

Trust Freedom 和 Tiger Boss 卡提供不同的股票返还率和选择，鼓励小额投资和客户参与。

专家表示，股票返利有助于培养投资习惯，但他们强调，除了促销活动之外，应用程序质量和用户体验才是留住客户的关键。

新加坡——传统的现金返还模式正在演变为“股票返还”，金融平台正在采用这种策略来吸引散户投资者。

股票返还计划不会直接发放现金奖励，而是自动将日常刷卡消费转化为优先股或交易所交易基金 (ETF) 的零碎股份。

Trust Bank 和 Tiger Brokers 都采用了这种策略，以在经纪费不再是主要收入来源的饱和市场中脱颖而出。

Tiger Brokers 于 2024 年 3 月推出了 Tiger Boss 借记卡，而 Trust Bank 最近于 8 月 13 日推出了 Trust Freedom 卡。

这两个平台的奖励机制不同。

Trust Freedom 卡在 12 月 31 日之前提供本地和境外交易 3% 的返现，之后本地消费返现率将降至 2%，境外消费返现率将降至 0.5%。

当用户累计获得 10 美元（7.90 美元）的股票返利后，累积的奖励将自动投资于用户选择的美国股票或 ETF，每季度最高投资额为 500 美元。

Trust 指出，他们精心挑选了 50 只股票和 ETF，其中包括英伟达、苹果、伯克希尔哈撒韦、先锋标普 500 ETF 和景顺 QQQ 信托 ETF，客户可以从中获得部分投资奖励。

Trust Bank 首席执行官 Dwaipayan Sadhu 表示，该数字银行正与交易平台 Saxo Singapore 合作，希望在未来三到六个月内提供新加坡股票。

这意味着，从 2026 年末到 2027 年初，Trust Freedom 卡用户将有机会获得新加坡股票作为股票返还选项。

此外，Tiger Boss借记卡还为用户提供每日符合条件的消费返现1%的优先股奖励，有效期至2026年12月31日。《海峡时报》了解到，虽然条款和条件会定期更新，但目前的奖励机制预计将保持不变。

Tiger 在其网站上指出，Boss 借记卡持卡人可以将获得的返现兑换成“七大”美国科技公司股票（如苹果和英伟达）或美国 ETF。

该在线券商表示，所提供的零碎股选择可能会根据市场情况在一年中发生变化。

Stockback，新的返现方式

法国商学院 INSEAD 的金融学副教授 Ben Charoenwong 指出，对于一个平台来说，利用日常刷卡消费习惯来吸引客户，比花钱做昂贵的广告和给推荐人现金奖励要有效得多，也更可持续。

他还补充说，当投资平台返还股票时，用户不能像直接拿到银行现金那样直接消费。他们必须先在该平台上进行投资才能获得奖励。

此外，Charoenwong表示，一旦用户拥有了股票，将股票转换为现金就会变得更加麻烦，因为他们必须出售股票——这一行为“比使用返现返利更具摩擦”。

Trust Freedom 卡让客户可以灵活选择现金返还、股票返还以及即将推出的航空里程奖励选项。

Sadhu指出，客户可以自由地每季度更换奖励类别。

“股票返利会一直保留在您的账户中，直到您卖出股票为止。同样，现金返利也会直接存入您的账户，”他补充道。

Sadhu 表示，Stockback 还为非投资者提供了一种更便捷的方式，让他们可以利用消费获得的奖励开始投资，并补充说，这“有助于培养微投资的习惯”。

“实际上，它允许投资者每天进行美元成本平均法投资，”他说。

与 Trust Freedom 卡不同，Tiger Boss 借记卡是一张纯粹的股票返利卡。

老虎证券新加坡首席执行官梁永昌强调，该卡于 2024 年推出的目的是“帮助日常消费养成投资习惯”。

他说：“通过该卡赚取的每一小股股票都会直接进入客户的账户，用户可以在该账户中交易股票、期权和期货。”

梁先生补充说，自推出以来，Boss借记卡的普及率一直保持强劲增长。

截至 6 月 30 日的第二季度，信用卡消费额比去年同期增长了 37%，持卡人总数增长了 22%。

梁先生补充说，7月份银行卡交易量继续回升，同比增长19.6%。每位活跃消费者的月交易量达到28笔。

像资深实验室技术员达拉斯·戈这样的经验丰富的投资者正在通过叠加使用这些股票返利卡来构建他们的股票投资组合。

Goh 已使用 Tiger Boss 借记卡购入了全部英伟达股票，他计划同时使用 Trust Freedom 卡，以享受 3% 的股票返利。这项 3% 的优惠利率有效期至 2026 年底。

“这很有吸引力，”他说，但也指出，由于 Trust 的股票返还上限为每季度 500 美元，他必须先使用 Trust 卡，然后再切换到 Tiger 卡以最大限度地享受其福利。

尽早吸引“粘性”散户投资者

Charoenwong表示，从一开始就非常重视吸引更多零售资金流入。

他观察到，新加坡的散户投资者都很忠诚，一旦他们选定了自己“常用”的平台，就不喜欢频繁地转移资金。

另一家在线平台 Webull Singapore 表示，尚未收到客户专门提出的股票回购期权的“大量请求”。

韦布尔新加坡首席执行官 Jonathan Man 表示，该券商确实看到了“人们对与投资直接挂钩的回报越来越感兴趣”。

作为新用户欢迎奖励的一部分，Webull 提供股票代金券，投资者可以用这些代金券购买他们选择的任何股票。

Charoenwong指出，除了吸引投资者的举措和激励措施外，平台还面临着在促销期结束后留住客户的挑战。

注册奖励可能会鼓励投资者下载平台的应用程序，但只有优秀的应用程序才能鼓励他们持续使用。

他还补充说，投资者会关注执行质量，即买卖股票的便捷性和速度；正常运行时间，这意味着应用程序不会崩溃；市场广度，即投资选择的广泛性；以及平台上的低交易成本。

Webull 的 Man 也表示赞同，他指出，虽然奖励可能会鼓励客户尝试某个平台，但整体投资体验必须“提供足够的价值”才能说服他们继续投资。

Charoenwong 总结道，奖励的最终目的是为了吸引新用户，而不是留住现有用户。

他说：“检验一个平台是在投资者真正重视的东西上竞争，还是在奖励噱头上竞争的真正标准，是看奖励是产品的最新亮点，还是唯一的亮点。”

卓庆玉是《海峡时报》的资深记者。她相信应该向大众普及金融知识，特别是低收入人群、老年人和残疾人士。