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2022 - Credit Cards / Deals / Discounts / Cashbacks

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  1. #81

    Join Date
    Jan 2022
    Posts
    1

    I've just arrived in HK and need a CC, preferably just 1 or maximum 2. Most of my spending will be food and paying for long stay hotel.

    I read that HSBC VS is popular but I see that it has annual fee, is it possible to get around that?

    Any other card you would suggest?


  2. #82
    Quote Originally Posted by pin:
    Thanks for that. I'm trying to work out my 2022 spend but a few queries for you:

    - I presume rent is with KeyChainPay. My issue with this is now many CC companies have caps on online spend rebates.
    - To confirm you can get 1.5% rebate with SCB on PayMe? If so, I will start using PayMe more as there are a few places which only accept PayMe. Also can you just top up with SCB and pay yourself back?
    - Have you looked at WeChat Pay yet for payments (I haven't yet mind you)
    - For AliPay bill payments if its a regular recurring billing then seems the fee doesn't apply
    - So I tried using CitiPayAll yesterday to do a tax payment (deadline tomorrow) but completely didn't realise it takes about 2BD for the funds to transfer, so couldn't use it. Fool on me. However you are lucky they let you move across two accounts without any fee.
    - Do you know if Citi Rewards is still doing 2% contactless and what's the monthly limit?
    - Yes, rent is with KeyChain Pay. I am doing it in different way which could be bit of hassle but maximizing cashback in return. I am using combo of HSBC VS and Livi bank for this month. Livi gives about $230 cashback (1% base and 7% extra with cap of $200) on $3000 worth of spend and rest I divert to HSBC VS. Next month depending on situation, I will change combo again.

    - About SCB, I read their TnC. There is explicit mention of exclusion of AliPay and inclusion of Octopus AAVS but nothing about other wallets. So I am having a gut feeling that it should work. Monthly PayMe topup limit with Credit card is $1,000, so I wonder if that would be sufficient for you if you are planning to use at places. I am using PayMe most time for P2P payments. With PayMe balance, you can transfer/send money to anyone to anyone account as long as it is on FPS. In fact, for all virtual bank accounts, I am transferring money in this way only. E.g. when Octopus was having 2% rebate with PrimeCredit, I would top up Octopus wallet and do FPS to say WeLab account - which would be further used for 10% rebate on FnB spends; resulting net of 12% savings !

    - I am yet to look at WeChat Pay but I am going to do it this or next week.

    - Interesting fact on AliPay Bill payment !

    - Yes, Citi PayAll needs 2 business days buffer for payment. I have so far paid 2 bills using it - which would fetch me $200 supermarket coupons. About regular transfer between 2 accounts, my free run ended in November (I had setup 7 months of payments from May to November without fees). Now for any new setup, they are charging me fees. BUT current/last campaign would net me $900 supermarket vouchers for doing 3 monthly payments - which is free kinda money but in coupon form !

    - Citi Rewards has 2% on contactless payment with extra points capped at 50,000 = $200. Essentially you are capped at monthly spend of $12,500. In bit more details 2% = 5x points = 1x base + 2x Citi Rewards Extra + 2x Citi Rewards Extra for contactless payment. Now both 2x point programs have start date of 15thJanuary, 2021 BUT 2x Citi Rewards Extra for contactless payment program has end date of 31st January, 2022. If you happen to have UnionPay version of Rewards card and if you pay via QuickPass, you get 5x more points to previous 5x, making it 10x in total or 4%. Again this program is till 31st January 2022. But limit of this 5x points is clubbed with previous extra points, which means total 9x points with cap at 50,000 points = $200 but on spend of $5,555. This is first time I have analyzed Citi Rewards card - hope my understanding is correct.
    Last edited by vyral_143; 06-01-2022 at 02:08 PM.
    pin likes this.

  3. #83
    Quote Originally Posted by vyral_143:
    - Yes, rent is with KeyChain Pay. I am doing it in different way which could be bit of hassle but maximizing cashback in return. I am using combo of HSBC VS and Livi bank for this month. Livi gives about $230 cashback (1% base and 7% extra with cap of $200) on $3000 worth of spend and rest I divert to HSBC VS. Next month depending on situation, I will change combo again.
    Do you mean livi PayLater offer ? I think it have some handling fees ?

  4. #84
    Quote Originally Posted by ycchai:
    Is this using the keychain pay? can someone explain how this works?
    Yes. In simple words, Keychain pay is paying your rent with credit card. They do charge fees for it but if your card has higher rate of rebate/cashback than fees, then you would save some money. For cards which are not on campaign, KeyChainPay charges 2.9% fees. Where as for HSBC cards and MasterCard cards fees is 2.1%.

    Simple example: Rent is $15K/month. You have HSBC Red CC which would mean 4% rebate and 2.1% fees. So you would be charged $15,315 on card and get 612 RC. Net you would earn 297 assuming you use RC to payoff statement.

    Now to maximize savings, consider this; KeyChain Pay allows combining 2 cards to pay monthly rent. Example: Rent is $15K/month. You have HSBC Red CC and Livibank Paylater MasterCard which would mean 2.1% fees. So you would be charged $15,315. But on rewards front, HSBC Red is 4% and Livibank has 8% (1% base + 7% extra capped at $200). So to make most out of it, we allocate $2,857 ($200/7%) on Livibank and rest $12,458 on HSBC Red card. Your total earnings would be 228.5 (from Livi) + 498 (from HSBC Red) - 315 (fees) = 411.5 !

    Now for above example, if you go one step forward and use HSBC VS which has 5.6% cashback, your savings would be 228.5 (from Livi) + 697 (from HSBC VS) - 315 (fees) = 610.5; But HSBC VS has limit to 5.6% CB which is spend of $15K each quarter, rest of times it is 3.6% CB (which is again capped at spend of $100K each year). However, clubbing with HSBC's campaign (happened twice in last 12 months) extra 5% rewards(capped at $600) on spending $8000+, you just save/earn mind boggling number of $1210.5.

    Livi paylater does charge some small fees which are free for initial months; but they are minuscule and are 0.2% monthly which amounts to about $6/1000 spend.
    Last edited by vyral_143; 06-01-2022 at 02:52 PM.
    pin, zechi and LetsDiscuss like this.

  5. #85
    Quote Originally Posted by LetsDiscuss:
    Do you mean livi PayLater offer ? I think it have some handling fees ?
    Yes, please refer to my post above for bit more details !

  6. #86

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    15,557

    Hey @vyral_143 thanks for the responses back.

    Just some follow ups.

    - Is Livi ongoing capped at 8%? and as @LetsDiscuss has said seems to be on liviPayLater (but I think the promotion at the moment is that first 3 months are free). What's the 8% capped at?
    - The terms of SCB are as follows: "any transfer/top up transaction from the Card account to
    any account as designated by the Bank from time to time,
    including but not limited to, Octopus O! ePay, Alipay
    account, transactions effected through Faster Payment
    System or using the FPS Services or services from
    non-card association and other digital payment account as
    may be made available by the Bank from time to time"

    This gives them a bit of leeway to extend to PayMe. In the meantime I'm going to start using Payme for P2P up to 1k a month now! thanks for the tip.

    - Yes seems Citi Contactless promotion is up until end of the month, lets see if they continue it at the end of the month.

    - For reference I've applied for BOC i-card. 4% on contactless up to HKD1.1k. First I use BOC Sogo up to HKD2k (5.6%) and then I will start using i-card once I get it for the next HKD1.1k.


  7. #87
    Quote Originally Posted by pin:
    - Is Livi ongoing capped at 8%? and as @LetsDiscuss has said seems to be on liviPayLater (but I think the promotion at the moment is that first 3 months are free). What's the 8% capped at?

    - For reference I've applied for BOC i-card. 4% on contactless up to HKD1.1k. First I use BOC Sogo up to HKD2k (5.6%) and then I will start using i-card once I get it for the next HKD1.1k.
    I think for your question on Livi, my post# 84 should answer it.

    About BOC i-card for contactless payment, any rationale choosing it over CCB JD CC for 4% on AliPay ?

  8. #88

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    15,557
    Quote Originally Posted by vyral_143:
    I think for your question on Livi, my post# 84 should answer it.

    About BOC i-card for contactless payment, any rationale choosing it over CCB JD CC for 4% on AliPay ?
    Thanks. CCB JD also has a cap and also not everyone accepts Alipay yet.

  9. #89

    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    856

    damn thats convoluted. quick read on livi says that limit is $200 for credit(paylater) and $200 for debit. and it runs for 6 months

    all these are running short term promotion, including CNCBI motion, All has a cap, red has $25k cap, VS has this 100k a year or 15k quarter cap. I'm contemplating if I want to do this for quite a bit of pain not to mention I just updated my VS to restaurant and also 1 card rebate won't be sufficient to cover rent. I think livi can only use for 2500 for rent a month

    this also explains why Citi app keeps asking me to pay rent using my CC instead of bank account and give me some 4% stuff back, which I thought wasn't worth the effort or a scam by Citi


  10. #90

    Join Date
    Oct 2021
    Posts
    28
    Quote Originally Posted by squashy:
    I've just arrived in HK and need a CC, preferably just 1 or maximum 2. Most of my spending will be food and paying for long stay hotel.

    I read that HSBC VS is popular but I see that it has annual fee, is it possible to get around that?

    Any other card you would suggest?
    if you’re not after any short term promotions then Citi cashback sounds like a versatile card for you - 2% dining and hotel, 1% everything else (including Octopus AAVS and e-wallets like Payme)

    As for annual fees, you can call them and request for a waiver.
    Last edited by zechi; 06-01-2022 at 07:01 PM. Reason: Forgot to answer 2nd question

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