##Sgp cCards #Cimb

Posted on by tiger40490 rendered_on [ Thu, 6 Mar 2025 ] 12:50 UTC

Mission: how can we terminate more ccards n simplify everything?

— “Proactive” pay-down .. To see the automated payoff amount, most reliable is the (immutable) monthly statement. Sugg: Proactively pay down 60% ??? (or 100%) thereof, after the statement is out, before GIRO fixing date.

For MB, GIRO date is the statement due date [around 13th], and GIRO amount is fixed 5 business days earlier:

  • Better send “Proactive pay-down” well before T-5, so that GIRO amount is reduced on T-5.
  • 🙁 If “Proactive 4k” hits after GIRO fixing, then GIRO would deduct the full statement balance,  resulting in a credit balance of 4k
  • Statement balance is the “FullPaymentAmount” in MB inetBanking

— drawbacks of using any ccard…. #
As of 2023, I feel the complexity + baggage of carrying[1] multiple ccards. (Debit cards are simpler.) I felt relieved to cancel multiple ccards —  CIMB, OC,,

Cancellation.. If a Singapore bank gives ccard easily, then I should be aggressive to cancel [2] the ccard whenever I determine it’s no longer needed. This can

  • Simplify ccard payoff, reduce sys2 workload about late payments
  • simplify online shopping… A site often remembers 10+ past credit/debit cards ! Delete as many as possible. The fewer cards left on record, the simpler and quicker.
  • Simplify exp recon… as I may have an invisible/forgotten charge on a card.. Will mess up my exp recon. Extra cards adds worthless, artificial complexity to recon process
  • Simplify annual fees and esp. late fees … This requires vigilance i.e. stress.
  • simplify GIRO-by-ccard
  • simplify my mails and emails from card issuers

[2] Simplest way to cancel a card is reporting lost card. Note in the U.S. Cancellations affect credit score.

I have gone through the legwork to set up the MB “pain killers”, so I can shift more “transactions” to MB. (However, setting up the same pain killers on another ccard could take lots of legwork.) All other ccard usage should be dumb-n-simple.

I currently have ccards from 4 banks: D H S M C

— CIMB .. Spend $500 within 60 days of approval (by 16 Apr). $135 to be credited in 3rd month.

Prefer a big ticket item like

  • $340 flight charged
  • NTUC vouchers
  • medical bills

— DBS::eccard .. Keep this ccard for contingency (Cimb 31 Oct)
* Annual fee started in Aug 2023, but easy and quick to waive (online request)
* 🙂 credit balance xfer-out via digibot. Useful as bill payment target. $2k xfer possible in Oct 2023
* 🙂 automated pay-off by GIRO already set up.
* 🙁 tx history display and ACL calc .. unfamiliar. Looks like ACL is based on last statement and ignores unbilled. To see credit transactions on webank, you must ModifySearch to choose the “unbilled”
— HSBC::revolution … I have relatively few deep Visa cards

  • consider closing now. Can reapply in 12M
  • j4: in Nov 2023, I needed a visa card to avoid $60 Mastercard surcharge
  • j4: 1% cashback on everything

~~ (Recreational complexity) As of Nov 2023, there is a 10x promotion. My $1264 flight spend will earn me about 10264 bonus_points visible in Jan or Feb. After that, I can use the bonus_points to pay for my ccard bill. $1/400 points. The cash credit hits ccard account within 3 weeks.

If you charge $3k in one purchase, you earn 3000 points at end of current statement cycle, and you earn 9x (27000 points), but subject to 9000 points cap, so you will only earn 9000 points, at end of next statement cycle.

—  SCB::scsc [-9933].. Keep for the hassle-free cashback
Cashback .. with no min spend, no cap (FAQ). 1.5% on any SPENDING but excluding [AXS, bx premium, recurring bill payment]. Good for big purchases like flights/hotels, medical, electronics, but better call hotline before buying.

Statement date ~ 10th. Due date is 22 days later. Please pay off statement balance 1~2 bizday in advance if via intra-bank transfer.

! ACL reflects unposted amount
! CurrentBalance is very tricky. It is computed from AvailableCreditLimit and then adjusted to remove unposted amounts.

AnnualFee .. If auto-waiver fails, (Max said) we need to be nice to hotline when requesting waiver.

BilledBalance menas “statement balance”
Billed means “onClosedStatement”
Unbilled means “not on statement”, different from ‘unposted’

Efficiency tips:
* pay statement balance .. cardHistory

==MB::FnF ..

Click into ccard or RBBT account -> choose payStatamenetFullAmt or payStatementMinAmt

23 Feb 2017 will be first time they charge me. Only after it’s charged can I call in (1800-629 2265) to request automatic waiver (1D turnaround). Once waived, will show in Mar bill.

Maybank e-banking keeps last 11 months’ statements IFF you opt for eStatement: left menu -> creditCards -> transactionHistory

cCard# is visible in inetBanking 🙂

— sugg: reduce MB ccard transaction counts

xp: the more transactions, the harder my effort grew during exp-recon, because MB ccard transactions are not so easy to check:

  • transaction date vs posting date
  • I often check my DBS transactions many times a week. If I were to do that for this ccard, then the Mayb website would miss most of my recent transactions. Instead I must use SMS… lower efficiency
  • Sometimes, the SMS can go missing.
  • Suppose you run another recon after 4D, the chance of uneventful recon is .. 92-95%. Risk of “recon event”is rather high. Therefore, this represents the #1 biggest headache and the weakest link in my exp recon process
  • .. the online tx history doesn’t show a running balance after each tx. This makes it hard to reproduce a previous snapshot.

— 8% in 10 spending categories for FF ccard:

Zofia, We can earn 8 cents for every dollar spent in 5 categories:

  1. Groceries like Giant, NTUC,
    • Since we will hit $310 easily, I don’t ever need to borrow wife’s MB card.
  2. Restaurants like Ichiban(confirmed)
  3. Kids shops like Popular Bookstore(confirmed), ToysRUs (confiremd), but KiddyPalace is questionable
  4. Pharmacies like Watson’s (confirmed), Unity (confirmed), Guardian(confirmed)
  5. Telecom like Starhub

Maybank gives only 0.3% with Lazada, electricity,,, (no category)

Each category has a cap $310/Month [posted within 1-31 May window]. If you “post” more than $310 over 1-31 May, there’s no more 8% cashback, for a particular category. The Maybank app on my phone can show me something like “$290 spent so far this month in Groceries category”.

https://www.maybank2u.com.sg/iwov-resources/sg/pdf/cards/fnf-cashrebate-tnc.pdf has the most details