All ABout Credit Cards in Singapore

July 3, 2007

It was only tonight that I took stock of how many credit cards I have in my wallet. I never realized I have twelve of them since effectively I was only using about 3 or 4 of them every month.

 

To date, I have the following cards:

DBS (3) - 1 Visa Platinum,1 Masteracrd Platinum and 1 American Express

Citibank(1) Gold Card

OCBC (1) Robinson Visa card

UOB(2)- 1 Tiger Visa card, 1 UOB Visa Signature

HSBC (2)- 1 Visa and 1 Mastercard Gold

1 Diners Card

1 Standard Chartered Platinum

1 ABN Amro Platinum Card

 

I am doing a summary now because I just got my recent DBS Bill and its charging me annual fees for

 

American Express (150 + 75 for supplmentary=$225)

DBS Visa Platinum (180 + 90 for supplementary=$270)

DBS Mastercard Platinum($180 + 90=$270)

Citibank= $142.86 for main cardholder

 

 

I already told hubby to call the bank and cancel our cards because we dont want to pay the annual fees. Yesterday Citibank already told me they will waive my annual fee when I told them to cancel my card since I dont want to pay the annual fee. So that is one card down.

(UPDATE 07/08/2007- Hubby was able to renew the DBS cards and waive the annual fees when he told the Bank officer he would like to cancel if they will charge us the renewal fee.)

 There are advantages and disadvantages of having many cards but most of the time I use my cards to my advantage. Here are some of my favorite credit cards and why I use them:

 

1) UOB   Tiger Visa card- I buy my clients Tiger tickets using this card . I get an instant rebate and free vouchers to allow me to use for free flights.

2) DBS POS Bank Everyday Card- I buy Jetstar tickets with this card since it gives me automatic 5% discount on flights. I use this for my business.

3) OCBC Robinson Card- I often shop at RObinsons and John Little and with this card I get automatic 5-10% rebate and card member sales of up to 25% on top of current sale prices.They offer free spa and massage vouchers.

4) ABN Amro- Of all the credit cards, ABN provides the best rewards programme and their choice of items are wide ranged.

5) HSBC- During sale period they offer $1 items provided you buy a minimum of $50. They also offer free movie nights to card holders.

6) Citibank- This is my favorite card since it is the longest card I have in possession. My first credit card was a CItibank Card.It also provides the best cash withdrawal /funds transfer(as low as a flat fee of $20 for as much as $10,000 loan spread over 6 months or about 1.99% interest). It also provides the longest 24 months interest free installments for appliances and furnitures.

The latest survey /comparison of credit cards was done by CASE SIngapore in Oct 2006  click here .

 

However,if you want to make a most recent comparison of credit cards in Singapore you can search for it here.

 

One good advice, its not the number of cards that you use, its how you use them. Make sure you pay all your balances on time. DONT pay only the minimum sum. A credit card is not cash. DONT be tempted to buy something beyond your budget.