Another Credit Card Review by GenX @ http://www.GenXGenYGenZ.com

INTRODUCTION

It has been ages since I last did a detail review on any RHB Credit Cards. I have a FREE FOR LIFE RHB Platinum Visa Credit Card that is issued via RHB Premier Banking. For years I have been enjoying FREE access to Plaza Premium Lounges at KLIA, previous LCCT and KLIA2 with my RHB credit card.

First the good news, RHB Bank’s World MasterCard, Visa infinite and Visa Signature are all now FREE FOR LIFE without any conditions and come with FREE access to Plaza Premium Lounges.

The bad news is RHB Bank is still imposing Annual Fees for their Platinum Visa and MasterCard credit cards. Not only on the Principal Cards but Supplementary Cards too!??? And worst still, the 4X FREE access to Plaza Premium Lounges will come to an end effective 1st March 2016. You may be entitled to a discount when entering certain airport lounges with the Platinum credit cards.

In respect to the above 2 paragraphs, isn’t it a wonder that RHB gives FREE access to airport lounges with their FREE FOR LIFE Premier Credit Cards but on the other hand makes their RHB Platinum Credit Cards where one is imposed annual fee to pay for access to airport lounges???

If you had read my CC 101 – Introduction To Credit Cards 2016, I told you, the best credit cards are those that are FREE, hahaha.

Why do Premier Credit Cards offer better privileges? You think the banks are so stupid or generous to give out privileges for nothing? Well, you’ll be surprised that many people holding Premier Credit Cards with high credit limits such as World MasterCard and Visa Infinite are working for the banks for FREE, i.e. they are paying interest on their credit card outstanding balances! The banks make much more money from a single person who has an Outstanding Balance of RM100K compared to 30 people having credit limits of RM3K.

Without further ado, I shall now present to you my RHB Credit Card Review and I will start off with the World MasterCard.

RHB WORLD MASTERCARD REVIEW

First and foremost, the RHB World MasterCard is FREE FOR LIFE and to be eligible for it, your minimum annual income must be RM100K.

Secondly, the RHB World MasterCard is a pure cash back credit card where you will only earn 0.2% cash back for all your transactions except for Travel, Petrol and Dining where you can earn 1% cash back or more depending on your TOTAL MONTHLY DOMESTIC SPENDING.

Initially, I was somewhat blur as to how can it be possible to earn 6% cash back for Petrol if the monthly cap is RM35.

Example No.1

Assuming I spent RM3500 to purchase an airline ticket, that means I have hit the 6% Cash Back under the Travel Category right?

So cash back = RM3500 x 6% = RM210. Wait a minute, the monthly cash back cap is RM35! Therefore, actual cash back = 1%!!!

There is no way anyone is going to get 6% from just the RHB World MasterCard from just pumping petrol alone.

RHB is just equally a good bull-shitter like HSBC where I showed in my Introduction To Credit Cards 101 that the HSBC Amanah MPower Platinum-i will never earn you up to 8% cash for Petrol and Groceries as claimed.

This can’t be right, let’s try to calculate the cash back from another angle. This time backwards – “belakang mari”,hahaha.

Example No.2

This time we shall transact with the RHB to hit the TOTAL MONTHLY SPEND OF RM3500 from local spending; so that we can reach the tiered cash back rate of 6%. Let’s see if what I think is correct:

RM35 cash back divide by 6% = RM583 max spending on Petrol

But in order to earn 6% cash back, I need to spend on something else to hit RM3500.

So say we spend RM583 on Petrol, RM583 on Travel and RM583 on Dining, the total adds up to RM1749, which means I still need to spend RM1751 on anything (other than the 3 categories that offer up to 6% cash back) and earn 0.2% cash back.

So say I spend RM1751 on clothes, the 0.2% cash back = RM35.02. But wait, the monthly cap is RM15.

Therefore by spending RM3500 locally, the total cash back I will earn are as follows:

RM1752 spent on clothes – Max Cash Back = RM15

RM583 spent on Petrol – Max Cash Back = RM35

RM583 spent on Travel – Max Cash Back = RM35

RM583 spent on Dining – Max Cash Back = RM35

Total spent RM3500 and total cash back received = RM120

Actual cash back = 3.428% (RM120/RM3500)

3.428% is not too bad BUT you have to spend the same exact figures mentioned above in the respective categories or else you will end up with  less effective/actual percentage in cash back and definitely not more since I have reached the max monthly cap for all the four categories above.

With the above, I tell you, this RHB World MasterCard is designed for those who keep track of their expenses to the dot and not only that, he/she has to spend exactly RM3500 domestically in order to get maximum cash back of 3.427% from his domestic spending.

How about overseas spending? It seems you get 2% cash back for spending of RM3500 and above. But with RM100 monthly cash back cap, the RHB  World MasterCard is good for up to exactly RM5K spending only; because you won’t be getting any cash back for any amount above RM5K.

You know what? I don’t even know if my above calculations are correct. I am back to square one and still freaking blur on the RHB World MasterCard cash back mechanism, hahaha. So, please correct me if I am wrong.

Benefits of RHB World MasterCard

1. 5X FREE access to Plaza Premium Lounges in Malaysia only.
2. Complimentary Green Fees at selected Golf Clubs. You must call RHB to book.
3. Travel Insurance

RHB BANK VISA INFINITE REVIEW

The RHB Visa Infinite is now FREE FOR LIFE and one only needs to earn RM150,000 a year to be eligible for it. When RHB first introduced their Visa Infinite, it was by invitation only and one had to have a minimum net-worth of USD1,000,000! Prior to this, one needs to pay the annual fee of RM1K (excluding GST).

For those of you millionaires (if you have RM1,000,000, you cannot call yourself a millionaire but a Ringgit-aire) who wants a credit card to brag about, I recommend that you click here and read my review of the OCBC Premier Voyage MasterCard made from duralumin.

Pros of RHB Visa Infinite

1. Effective 1st October 2016 – 8X FREE entries to Plaza Premium Lounges in Malaysia and airport lounge at Singapore Changi Airport (I cannot seem to find any info as to which lounge and terminal.
2. 5X Reward Points for every Ringgit spent on overseas retail purchases.
3. RHB Reward Points are evergreen.
4. Travel Insurance.

Based on 5X Reward Points and 1000 Enrich Miles = 8000 Reward Points, this works out to be 1 Enrich Mile = RM1.60 spent overseas. Not really fantastic but not bad either compared to most other cards where we need to spend more than RM2 overseas to earn 1 Enrich Mile.

If you do perform substantial sum on overseas transactions and want to earn FREE Business Class tickets from your credit card transactions, click here to read my article titled Comprehensive Review of The Best Credit Cards To Earn Frequent Flyer Miles.

 Cons of RHB Visa Infinite

1. 1X Reward Points for all local purchases excluding transactions relating to charity, government and petrol transactions.

RHB BANK VISA SIGNATURE REVIEW

The RHB Visa Signature is another Pure Cash Back credit card and it used to be very simple, i.e. UNLIMITED 1% cash back for overseas and 0.5% for everything else.

Minimum income – RM100K per year.

Now, the RHB Visa Signature Cash Back mechanism is damn confusing just like the RHB World MasterCard.

From the above, it can be observed that the RHB Visa Signature Cash Back mechanism is similar to the RHB World MasterCard. And please note, unlike previously, there is now a monthly cash back cap on overseas transactions.

And the Benefits of RHB Visa Signature is exactly the same as the RHB World MasterCard

1. 5X FREE access to Plaza Premium Lounges in Malaysia only.
2.  Complimentary Green Fees at selected Golf Clubs. You must call RHB to book.
3. Travel Insurance.

 

RHB PLATINUM VISA OR MASTERCARD CREDIT CARD REVIEW

I don’t understand why RHB can’t just make their Platinum FREE FOR LIFE just like their WMC, VI and VS considering the fact that their Platinum credit card will be as good as useless come 1st March 2016 when the card no longer grants a single FREE entry to Plaza Premium Lounge.

Pros of the RHB Platinum credit cards:

1. Travel Insurance.
2. Complimentary Green Fees at selected golf clubs.
3. 2X Reward Points for Utilities, Insurance and Shopping.

Cons of the RHB Platinum credit cards:

1. Annual fee waived with RM24K spending.
2. 1X Reward Points for local spending excluding Charity, Petrol and Government transactions.

 

CONCLUSION

I don’t know about you, but to me, the cash back system for the RHB World MasterCard and Visa Signature is just too damn complicated and troublesome for me to optimize earning cash back from them. As such, I would avoid them to pay for anything except when I get a discount with them. However, these 2 cards are good and worthwhile to own since it offer 5X FREE access to Plaza Premium Lounges (PPL) and it’s truly FREE since both these cards are FREE FOR LIFE without any conditions. So, if you have both the RHB Visa Signature and RHB World MasterCard, I suppose it means you can have 10X FREE access to PPL 🙂

As for the RHB Visa Infinite, there is really nothing to complain about since it is also FREE FOR LIFE. The only time you will be pissed off is when you are told that the 1,000 monthly FREE entries quota has been reached and it’s not even the middle of the month yet, hahahha. If you are not flying often, the RHB Visa Signature and/or RHB World MasterCard is a better bet as you are guaranteed FREE entries into PPL.

If you have the RHB Platinum credit card and are using it to enter Plaza Premium Lounge for FREE, I guess most probably you will terminate the card come 1st March 2016 and switch to the RHB Visa Signature and/or RHB World MasterCard if you qualify. There are many other cards in the market that rewards you more in returns either from your local or overseas spending versus the RHB Platinum. As such, if you are a reader of mine, most probably you won’t be spending more than RM24K/year with your RHB Platinum credit card to qualify for the auto annual fee waiver; and, therefore you got to call RHB yearly and beg them to waive your annual fees.

Having said the above, RHB Promotions are sometimes very good, e.g. buy 1 Free 1 promos, previous years 0% Balance Transfer Plan and Dial-An-Installment 0% 6 Months Plan for Education, Medical and Insurance.

As for me, I am keeping for RHB Premier Banking issued Platinum Visa credit card because it is truly FREE FOR LIFE without needing to to spend a single sen with it. And if RHB do once again offer 0% 6 Months Balance Transfer Plan, then I may just get the opportunity to earn some extra pocket money 🙂

An article by GenX

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