The Liv Cashback is the free-for-life half of Liv’s two-card lineup — a Mastercard Platinum product from Emirates NBD’s digital brand, built on the same tier-by-total-monthly-spend mechanic as its paid sibling, at lower rates and zero fee.
- Annual fee
- Free
- Min salary
- No minimum
- Welcome bonus
- 10k Skywards Miles
Pros
- Free for life — no joining fee, no annual fee
- Up to 2% cashback on everything in months where total spend clears AED 10,000
- 1.99% FX fee, well below the typical UAE 2.5–3.5% band — unusual on a free card
- Points convert to Emirates Skywards Miles (up to 5,000/month) — a miles exit at zero fee
- No published salary minimum — application and approval are handled in the Liv X app
Cons
- The guaranteed rate is 0.75% — the 1.5% and 2% tiers need AED 5,000 and AED 10,000 of total monthly spend
- Cashback capped at AED 750/month and additionally bounded by a percentage of your credit limit
- Government, utilities and other low-margin categories earn 0.1% whatever tier you reach
- 500-point minimum before any redemption, as cashback or Miles
- One card per customer — taking this card forecloses the higher-earning Liv Cashback+
Earn rates
The 0.75% in the table is the guaranteed base tier — what you earn in a month where total spend stays under AED 5,000. The full ladder, per Liv’s feature terms:
Fee summary
Free for life — no joining fee, no annual fee, ever. The 1.99% FX margin is the standout number: most UAE issuers charge 2.5–3.5%, and almost none pair a sub-2% FX rate with a zero fee. The monthly finance rate is 3.49% (41.88% APR) per the Liv charges page — as always, a number that only matters if you carry a balance, which no cashback arithmetic survives.
Skywards conversion
Rewards accrue as points with two exits: cashback against the card, or Emirates Skywards Miles — up to 5,000 Miles a month on this card, with a 500-point minimum per redemption in either direction. A fee-free card that feeds Skywards through ENBD’s first-party relationship is a rarity; for a light spender building a Skywards balance without paying an annual fee anywhere, that alone is the case for this card.
Key conditions to know
- Tier-by-total-spend
- The advertised 2% requires AED 10,000+ of total spend in the calendar month; 1.5% requires AED 5,000. The guaranteed floor is 0.75%. The achieved tier applies to all of that month’s spend.
- Two caps, not one
- AED 750/month cashback cap, plus a bound tied to a percentage of your credit limit. The lower of the two governs.
- Redemption
- 500-point minimum per redemption, as cashback or as Skywards Miles (up to 5,000 Miles/month on this card).
- One card per customer
- Liv issues either the Cashback or the Cashback+ to a given customer, never both. Applying for this card is choosing it over the higher-earning paid alternative.
- Eligibility
- No minimum salary is published on Liv’s product page, feature terms or KFS — application and approval run through the Liv X app, which is why our spec table shows the salary bar as “Pending” rather than a number we cannot source. UAE residency required.
Cashback vs Cashback+
| Liv Cashback Credit Card | Liv Cashback+ Credit Card | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee (year 2+) Annual fee year 2+ | Free ↗ | AED 700 (incl. VAT) |
| Joining fee (year 1) Joining fee year 1 | — | AED 700 (incl. VAT) |
| Minimum salary Min salary | No minimum | No minimum |
| Top earn rate Top earn rate | — | — |
| Welcome bonus Welcome bonus | 10,000 Skywards Miles | 10,000 Skywards Miles |
| Lounge access Lounge access | None | None |
Because of the one-card rule this is the decision, not a comparison. The Cashback+ costs AED 700 a year for double the top-tier rate (4% at AED 15,000+ vs 2% at AED 10,000+), double the cap (AED 1,500 vs 750), double the Skywards ceiling (10,000 vs 5,000 Miles/month) and a much deeper perk stack. Below AED 7,000 of monthly spend both cards sit at their floors and the free card wins outright. Above AED 15,000, the Cashback+‘s top tier is worth up to AED 300 a month more — before its perks. In the AED 7,000–15,000 band, run your own statements before choosing.
Watch out for
- The floor, not the headline. Budget at 0.75% and treat 1.5%/2% as upside in the months you genuinely clear the tiers.
- The credit-limit bound. Your real cashback ceiling may be lower than AED 750 if your limit is modest.
- Low-margin categories. Government and utility payments earn 0.1% — they count toward your tier but barely earn.
- The one-card rule. You cannot hold this and later add the Cashback+ alongside it; switching means choosing again.
Bottom line
The strongest argument for the Liv Cashback is everything it doesn’t charge: no fee, ever, with a 1.99% FX rate and a Skywards exit that fee-free cards almost never offer. Apply as a first UAE card or a fee-free keeper if your monthly spend sits under AED 10,000. Take the Cashback+ instead if you reliably clear AED 15,000 a month — the one-card rule means you must pick now. Look elsewhere if you want a published salary bar, category-based rates, or a card whose rate doesn’t depend on how the month’s total came out.
