Interloper View

When I tried to redeem my UOB Smart$ points today, I was told that GSC has stopped doing that from midnight on Jun 19, 2018. They will continue to let us earn UOB Smart$ points until Jun 30, 2018. I guess the number of Merchants supporting UOB Smart$ points is shrinking. The first was BHPetrol on Jun 25, 2017. Looks like UOB card is getting less attractive now.

The banks are cutting back on the benefits of credit cards in Malaysia. These are the ones I know: OCBC Titanium card started with 5% for groceries, food and petrol but reduced it to 1% without limit. However, this year they changed the cash back to 0.1% for all purchases except for online purchases which still gets 1 %. UOB One card followed with by taking off the cap of the maximum cash back available for each month but reduced the cash back for week days to 2% (plus 1% UOBCash for BHPetrol).  Cash back were removed for spending at pharmacies. Breakdown of new cash rebates are as follow: Category Weekday Weekend Cap Note Petrol 2% 5% RM500.00 Additional 2% if pump at BHPetrol with cap of RM 400/- Cinema (GSC only) 2% 5% Groceries 1% 2% RM1,000.00 Aeon Big, Tesco, Cold Storage, Jaya Grocer and Giant Telecommunication 1% 2% RM300.00 Maxis, Digi and Celcom Others 0.20% 0.20% I was not able to confirm is there is reduction in UOB$ earned for BHPetrol on weekdays, it...

cohdra_100_4264.JPG By cohdra (Morguefile) I received a notice with my last OCBC credit card statement that they are revising the cash back rate from five percent in selected categories (and one percent for everything else) to a flat one percent for everything. As part of the change, they removed the cap of RM 50 per month cash back. What is not mentioned in the announcement was whether they are changing any other benefits for the card. The bank also removed another benefit of reimbursing the GST with an annual spending of RM10k and above.   Based on what I read on the Facebook page for OCBC, many customers are not happy with the change. Several customers threatened to cancel the card and encouraged others to do the same.   Based on my spending, the cash back will be substantially lower since my monthly cash back is well below the RM 50 limit with very few exceptions. However, based on what I know about other cards, the cash back is still one of the best in the ma...

I previously reviewed the different credit cards that are available in Malaysia and ways to get money back from these cards. A lot has changed since my last review. I have not really gone back to do an in depth analysis. The baseline at the moment for value based on either cash back or prize redemption is 0.5%. The service tax by the Malaysian government adds an additional RM50 per principal card and RM25 per supplementary card.each year. image ©  Adrian van Leen  for  openphoto.net  CC:PublicDomain  Due to the competition in the market, most annual fees are waived. The only exception I found is the Citibank Cashback card. When you first sign up for the card, the annual fee for the first two years are waived. However, when I asked for a waiver, they refused. Instead of approving a waiver, they offered a different card. The other option from them was to sign up for an additional service from them for another year waiver. I refused either option and was b...

I recently found out that there was  change in the way the credit card charges are made in Malaysia. Take the following scenario: The balance on your credit card is RM 5000.10. You make your payment in cash so you pay RM 5000/-.  The bank considers that you have not paid your card in full and will charge you.    However, note that they will not charge you based on the 10 cents you did not pay but based on RM 5000.10. That means you will have a very large service charge.  Apparently, this is done for all the banks.

I just received a flyer from Direct Access indicating that you can get 2 % rebate on your purchases from any of the petrol stations. However, there are a few condition: The maximum expense on any one month is RM2,500/- (or RM 50/-) rebate. I did not see how long the offer will last. With this offer, we can potentially get the maximum of 3.5% rebate from petrol (that is 2% from the card and another 1.5% from the Smiles card - Esso and Mobil). This is an update to my earlier posts: Interloper View: Getting Money back from your Credit Card and Interloper View: Getting Money back from your Petrol

When looking for credit card, I look at how I can get money back, so far I found two ways: Redeem the points for Vouchers. Money back. The following are the credit cards in Malaysia I have reviewed and thought I will share them with you: Hong Leong Bank Supplementary card fee - RM 40/- Uses points (1 point for RM1/-) - Accumulate points that can be redeemed for vouchers. Redeeming for KFC Voucher the rate is 0.42%. You can get additional points from other bank services such as loan. Citibank Malaysia Cash Back card Annual Fee: RM 90/year Supplementary card: RM 60/year 0.2% on the expenses. -- Shell Card Annual Fee: RM 90/year Supplementary card: RM 60/year Fuel Rebate of 1.5% - only from Shell (non Fuel purchase 0.5%) Public Bank Annual Fee: RM 75/year Supplementary: RM 45/year Rate of return: Total Monthly Retail Purchase Tier % Up to RM3000 0.3 Up to RM10,000 0.5 RM 10,001 and above 0.6 AmBank Annual Fee: RM75/year Suppleme...