Liv Cashback vs CBD One: which is better in the UAE? (2026)

Liv Cashback and CBD One both compete for everyday UAE spend. The figures below come from each card's live reward rules at AED 8,000 a month, net of annual fees.

With a quarter of an AED 8,000 month going through noon, Amazon and Careem, CBD One comes out ahead by AED 298 a year, AED 1,620 against AED 1,322 for Liv Cashback. That is after each card's annual fee and after every cap, which makes it the number to judge them on rather than either advertised rate.

That is the only question this pair can be priced on: on any month without that spend in it, one of the two earns nothing at all.

Neither card charges an annual fee on these profiles, so every figure above is kept in full and there is no break-even to clear on either side.

These two do different jobs, so the larger annual figure is not automatically the better card: CBD One's is a ceiling, reached from a small amount of qualifying spend, while Liv Cashback earns a rate on everything and keeps climbing. Past roughly AED 9,500 a month of total spend Liv Cashback is ahead outright. Liv Cashback is the one to put everyday spend on; CBD One is worth adding for the merchants it covers, up to its monthly ceiling.

It is also conditional. CBD One pays nothing at all in a month where total card spend falls below AED 5,000 — not a reduced rate, zero. Every figure here assumes a month that clears that gate, so if your spend is uneven month to month the annual total will not hold.