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  1. #11

    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    2,259
    Quote Originally Posted by luckycat:
    Thanks for the info, chaps and chapettes.

    Still trying to get used to using a credit card, so haven't really seen any benefits. Slowly getting there though!
    Bear in mind that there's no particular reason to be loyal to a particular bank or card. If you want to get into the credit card discount offer thing by far the easiest way is just to apply for all the major credit cards. That way you don't have to waste time looking for restaurants that do offers for your particular card or restrict yourself to restaurants (or retailers) that have arrangements with your bank.

    It's much easier to do it the other way round and just go to any restaurant you fancy and then ask which card will give you the biggest discount and pay with that. If you regularly go to a restaurant that has a discount with a card you don't have just apply for that card. That's what my missus does anyway.

    Works for her.

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,280

    On a similar topic, something I have discovered recently.

    DO NOT SETUP AUTOPAY ON YOUR BILLS (electricity, gas, water, etc). If you do this, you must autopay from a cheque or savings account (you cannot autopay from credit card). Therefore you do not get any extra credit card points.

    Here is the interesting part. If you pay your bills online, you can pay from credit card account and you get credit card points.

    I have tested this and confirm. If tried to setup autopay of my TownGas account by credit card and they would not accept (only cheque or savings). But when I paid online, I can use credit card. Then I checked my credit card rewards balance and I earned reward $$ for paying the Towngas bill.

    Im a bit confused by this to be honest. I thought I would not get points paying bills by CC, but I do. So why are the banks encouraging me to cancel all my autopays and start paying things online???


  3. #13

    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    2,259

    Credit card points are a pretty marginal discount though, I've always assumed. Effectively something like a 0.1% discount or something? I may well be wrong and I'm sure PDLM will be along shortly to give us the actual figures.


  4. #14

    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    23,205

    I value an AsiaMile at about US$0.01 so at 1AM per HK$8 that's a 1% "rebate".


  5. #15

    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Posts
    90

    Although the points you get are marginal, it's better than nothing


  6. #16

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,280

    Regular credit cards give about 0.4% back as points I think. Some higher credit cards like the Visa Infinite that I am on give double points on all purchases, therefore give 0.8% back. Other programs like asia miles etc might give different amouts, as PDLM points out.

    The other thing to consider is that electricity, gas, water etc are not small purchases. Some summer month I can spend thousands on electricity.

    So in other words, if I autopay my electricity bill I get nothing. But if I cancel the autopay and pay it online I get 0.8% back in the form of credit cards points. Ive tested and it works, at least with my bank (Standard Chartered). Not sure how all the others work.

    I actually found out about this from a marketing brochure the bank sent me. It was not very clear, but made reference to being able to earn credit card points by paying bills online. It seemed strange to me that I could earn points this way, so I tried calling them for clarification. They had no clue what I was talking about. I tried to ask them why they reward me for paying my bills online, why am I being penalised for using autopay, why I cannot autopay from credit card, etc. But I gave up trying to get an answer from them and just tried it out. It works. I still dont understand it though.


  7. #17

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,280

    The only bill it does not work for is INCOME TAX PAYMENT to IRD. This bill can be paid by credit card online, but does NOT earn credit card points. I tested it. It was also mentioned in the brochure I had that tax payments were excluded.