Game Changing Credit Card - Citibank Dividend Card

Citibank just SMS me a notice on the changes to the rebates that they are giving. Wow! It is amazing. Here are the details. (http://www.citibank.com.sg/global_docs/pdf/Citi_DIVIDEND_Card_Notification_Letter_Non-Perso.pdf)

Grocery purchases - 8% Rebate
Dining - 8% Rebate
Petrol - 8% Rebate

Clause - Minimum $888 in that month.

It gives me a big reason to consolidate my purchases into Citibank Dividend Card from October 2015 onwards since these are the three purchases which I uses most. Better than OCBC 365 card and Maybank Family and Friends Card which has been doing so well and getting all my usages up till now.

I am applying supplementary card for my wife and mother-in-law so that all the purchases are consolidated. Here are the consolidation

Grocery Purchases - $500 per month => $40 per month or more (Currently, we rotate between Giant and NTUC)

Petrol - $150 per month => $12 per month

Dining - $200 per month => $16 per month

Total Rebates = $68 per month (More than $800 per year)

What are you waiting for? (By the way, I get no commission for promoting their card. :-)

Looking for the Credit Card with highest % Cashback for Online Purchases

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a credit card with highest percentage cashback for online purchases. This is for my HDB Season Parking. A few things to note.

1) Singpost Standard Chartered Bank Visa is reducing their online purchase cashback from 7% to 2% as of next month so I am unable to enjoy it as I can only renew it next month.

2) OCBC specifically mention that online payments to Government organizations are excluded from their online purchase cashback. Thus, OCBC Frank Card and OCBC 365 Card are not able to be used.

Any others? Many Thanks!

OCBC 360 - from 3.05% to 2.25% Account... Still the best for me

This post came from my other blog at Singapore Corporate Bonds and Preference Shares... Include Credit Cards so http://singaporecorporatebonds.blogspot.com/2015/05/ocbc-360-from-305-to-225-account-still.html

With a change in policy from OCBC this year, they tried to tie in more criteria to sell more products and generate more sales and at the same time, cushion the impact of unhappiness. Well, it looks like an increase but it is actually a decrease.

• Salary Credit increases to 1.2% per annum
• 3 GIRO dropped to 0.5% per annum
• $500 Credit Spend dropped to 0.5% per annum
• 1% more if you buy structured products, unit trusts or selected insurance (Selling more products here)

To me, the last criteria is not really important as they are trying to sell more products here. That leaves me with 2.25% which is still not too bad.

Thus, for every $10,000 savings in the account, we will earn $225 per year with $50 coming from minimum $500 spend per month ($6,000 per year) credit card spend.

Still the best in town, better than fixed deposits. Just glad that I have enjoyed the earlier 3.05%.

OCBC 360

I think by now we already know that OCBC is changing the rules for OCBC 360 Account. Thus, the amount that we spend in OCBC cards will generate only 0.5% rebates on the monies in our OCBC 360 Account.

I am still looking at how is the impact and more details will be on only after 1st May when they have released their new criteria. Better to give an overall picture.

ANZ Optimum World Mastercard - New Card on the Market

ANZ Optimum

ANZ Optimum World Mastercard is a new card which gives you a choice of the categories of cash rebate that you want. Here are the four categories and my analysis

1) Groceries - I already have Maybank Family and Friends Card which gives me 5%

2) Travel - I don't travel often so I don't need it

3) Dining & Leisure - OCBC 365 Card gives me 6% cash rebate during weekends which is good for me although it only gives 3% during weekdays

4) Shopping - Citibank Rewards Card is currently giving about 3.3% rebates in points.

One good thing about this is that there is no minimum spend which I love it. Another is that there is no limit on the amount of cash rebates I can get.

I am applying for this card and I will choose "Shopping" since other categories have existing cards to serve its purposes.

Money Saving Tips via Credit Cards: Money saved - For a Single (and available) person - Updates

Money Saving Tips via Credit Cards: Money saved - For a Single (and available) person



Recently, I have made a post about money saving tips for a single. Here I will do some updates on it so that he/she can reap more savings.



Apart from using OCBC 360 account which will give him about 2.05% of return in his savings, here are some credit card saving tips. Moreover, he can use OCBC 360 account to pay his credit card bills and that helps to accumulate to his "at least 3 internet banking transactions per month"



1) Transport => He spends about $80 on transport using his EZ Link card. Thus, I would recommend POSB Everyday Card which gives 2% rebate. It has "No Minimum Spend" which is excellent for him. Thus he saves about $19.20 per year (There is no top up charges for DBS and POSB credit card holders for Ezlink)



2) Telco (Singtel) => He happens to be using Singtel as his Telco and he spends about $34 on mobile bills. Thus, I would recommend UOB-Singtel Card which gives 1% rebate. It has "No Minimum Spend" which is excellent for him again. Thus he saves about $4.08 per year. What is more important is that he gets the privileges that UOB offers.



3) Others => Lastly, I would recommend that he gets a OCBC 365 card just for everything else. No particular reason except that he may get some rebates and possibly earn extra 1% in his/her OCBC 360 account.



Savings are not a lot. But the fact is that this friend of mine spends little as well so just trying my best to help. :-)

Savings for a Family of Four - Updates on 3rd Jan

Hi everyone,

As I was reading my own blog especially on this article, I realize how bad the post was which does not really provide enough info for all of you. Therefore, I am showing you an excel sheet which helps to consolidate all the expenses and savings that I got for the year. It is for your reference and I urge you to do the same. I will update this as time goes.

Happy saving (through credit cards) :-) and Happy New Year.

Money saved - For a Single (and available) person

I got a friend who gave me some of his expenses as a young single, available adult who has stepped into the working world for about 4 years with some savings. Here are his expenses and recommended cards.

Dining - $10 per day - $300 per month (Not very sure whether he uses cards so I am going to discount this)
Public Transport - $80
Telco - $34
Two Insurance Policies - $200
Unit Trust Investments - $600
Other expenses - $200

For him, the focus is "Be focused". His spending is not high so all those minimum spend cards are not useful. So my recommendation is to focus on OCBC 360 Account because he needs high savings returns to help him save as much as possible. Here is the savings

OCBC 360 Account
1) 1% Savings when he switches to bank in his salary into this account.

2) Another 1% for doing the following. Transfer his GIRO transactions to his OCBC 360 account i.e. Unit Trust Investments, and two Insurances policies. That will give him another 1%.

3) As for the third 1%, sign up for a OCBC 365 card and try to spend $400 especially with his "other expenses". Link his Ezlink Card or Nets Flashpay card (Transport expenses) and Telco to this credit card to try to accumulate more expenses. If you can't, don't force it. Just treat it as a bonus when it comes.

If he has $20,000 savings (Assuming $5,000 savings per year), he will earn $400 per year just on its interest.

Total Amount of money saved - A family of Four

Hi everyone,

Looks like I need to summarise all these cards which I am actively using and how it helps me to save money. However, I realize that I need to give you a glimpse of my profile so that you know whether it matches yours.

I am a working adult with a normal job, married with two kids, age 3 and 1 with help from my parents-in-law to take care of my kids. Thus, my groceries budget is catered to six people (sometimes eight). Because of this, dining during weekdays are rare as my mother-in-law cooks for us.

I live in a 4-room HDB flat. Thus, I have Singapore Power bills and S&CC charges.

I bought a car two years ago because of my second kid so I have car related budget.

I send one of my kids for Shichida course in Toa Payoh which explains why I needed education budget.

I subscribe to Mio Home plan with 3 handphone lines linked to it. Thus, I have a Singtel budget.

With this profile, here are the savings I have from most of the expenses I incur. I will update it as time goes by.

From Maybank Family and Friends Card (Groceries) = $480

From NTUC U Member (Groceries) = $240 - 117 = $132

From OCBC 365 Credit Card (Petrol) = $60 (Counting on Cash Rebate only - Changed from Citibank Dividend Card)

From OCBC 365 Credit Card (Singtel) = $54

From OCBC 365 Credit Card (Dining) = $162

From Citibank Rewards Card (Departmental Store) = $40

From CIMB Platinum Card (Education, Insurance & Home Furnishing) = $200

From OCBC Frank Card (HDB Carpark) = $65

From POSB Everyday Card = $18

From NTUC Plus! Visa = $8

Total = $1219 (About $100 per month)

OCBC 365 Card - The Dining and Esso Card - Concerns

Hi everyone,

It has been a while since I posted simply because there are currently no other cards with a better deal. At least where my life is concerned. However, I think I need to make a note here that in the usage of OCBC 365 card, I am beginning to find it difficult to reach the $600 minimum spend mark which will wipe out my entire savings if I can't reach it. And I really don't like this idea so I am reviewing this card.

Enjoy.

OCBC 360 Account - Extra 1% interest if you use OCBC cards

http://www.ocbc.com.sg/personal-banking/accounts/360-account.html

This is an account which I have just opened and changed my salary deposit to this account. It gives me up to 3.05% interest which I thought was fantastic. 1 of the 3.05% would be due to the $400 spent on credit cards which I already have due to spending on petrol and dining through OCBC 365 Card (http://www.ocbc.com.sg/personal-banking/cards/365card.html)

Assuming that I have $5000 in my account, 1% gives me additional $50 interest which is extra income for me. Great!

OCBC 365 Credit Card with Esso, Telco & Dining

OCBC 365 Credit Card – Cashback Card All Year Round | OCBC Bank

OCBC 365 Credit Card just added Esso into its fold which has a lot of potential for me. Firstly, it has the same rebates as Citibank Dividend Card at 18.3% discount. Secondly, it has the highest dining rebates at 6% on weekends and 3% on weekdays. Lastly, it offers 3% rebates on telco bills. Of course, there are other things but I won't be dwelling into it as I won't be using the card for other purposes. (Take note that for Groceries, I still use Maybank)

Drawbacks on this card is:
1) $80 Cashback per month which is one of the highest actually. We won't hit this amount.
2) $600 Minimum spend per month. This is difficult and this is the only reason why I don't recommend it earlier. (I can't hit the $600 spend)

Here is my calculations on a per month basis

Weekend Dining = $200 (Rebates of $12)
Weekday Dining = $50 (Rebates of $1.50)
Telco Bills = $160 (Rebates of $4.80) (Note: I am in the process of switching from UOB-Singtel to OCBC 365)
Esso Bills = $120 (Rebates of $6.00)
Other Spend = $70 (Rebates of 0.21)

Total Rebates = $12 + $1.50 + $4.80 + $6.00 = $24.30
Total Rebates per year = $291.60