Introduction

I have been blogging about credit cards for more than a decade, and for years the Maybank 2 Platinum/Gold Cards American Express has been consistently awarded the top best 5 credit cards in Malaysia by yours truly or my readers, The Maybank 2 Cards Platinum and Gold are still going strong and earning my followers 5% cash back.

The Maybank 2 Platinum/Gold Cards AMEX is the most versatile cash back credit card in Malaysia as it guarantees the cardholder 5% cash back in weekends for various types of transactions, i.e. Petrol, Movies, Makan, Gadgets, Departmental Stores, Groceries, Lazada, Shopee, Telcos, Unifi, Grab Rides, Grab Food and etc.

With the Maybank 2 Cards Platinum/Gold AMEX, one can earn up to RM50 per month with RM1K spending on weekends. That’s guaranteed up to RM600 cash back per year.

Over the years many people had asked me which is the Best Credit Card in Malaysia? My reply is always the same – there is no such thing as the best credit card but you must get the right cards for different spending pattern.

My followers are taught that they must always read the Terms and Conditions of the card they are applying and not assume anything and worst believing the sales persons at the malls promoting credit cards where they are not there to help you but to earn commissions and therefore their objective to is make money for themselves!

Despite the above, most people are lazy to educate themselves on what cards they should hold to either earn cash back or air miles in order to optimize. So I will just tell them GenX GenY GenZ’s most famous quote related to credit cards -which is now adopted by others:

“FREE is The Best“

Yes, having a FREE For Life credit card, without any condition, is damn important:

1. You do not ever need to call Customer Service to beg for the annual fee waiver.
2. When we are old or even unemployed, it is tough to get a new credit card. With a FREE For Life credit card, even if we do not spend a sen, we do not need to pay any annual fee but the credit limit is there in the event of an emergency.
3. A very important fact – a credit card is much safer than a bank’s Visa or MasterCard debit card where the money is deducted directly from your bank account with a Debit Card (if you can deactivate the Visa or MasterCard feature you should and just set it as an ATM card). When there is a fraud case, with credit card, we can dispute it and worst come to worst go to court (google – and you will note that the court has limited the damage to the credit cardholder in accordance to BNM guidelines). But with a debit card, the money will be deducted from your bank account instantly, if the bank does not want to reimburse you, then you have a very very lengthy headache or worst short of cash to survive.
4. Another thing is that card issuers will over time launch new credit cards or revised existing credit cards’ features (example Alliance VI and Platinum in 2021) with really good benefits to entice people to sign up for it (unless you are my die hard follower who can follow instructions where you must settle the Statement Balance prior to the Due Date and thus not being a slave to the bank, most people with credit card will end up in debt being a slave to the banks, therefore the banks will launch new credit cards to win over people who are in debt with other banks). So if you are holding a FREE For Life credit card with a bank, you can be automatically approved for the new credit card despite us not using the card you are holding from the same bank, even if you are unemployed! Example, I had the FREE For Life CIMB World MasterCard when it was first launched more than 10 years ago, but this said card’s features are kind of useless for the last 5 years and I never use it. But when CIMB launched their Travel World Elite MasterCard in end of 2022, I was automatically approved (if you are a long time die hard follower, you will know I resigned from my job in 2011 and since then I technically does not even qualify for an Entry Level Credit Card that needs RM30K annual income to be eligible) simply because I was holding their FREE For Life World MasterCard!!! Thus I earned several hundred thousands air miles by end 2023 with the CIMC Travel World Elite MasterCard 🙂

* Now, Non-Islamic Bank and Islamic Bank are separate entitles even thought they may have the same staff. Example, Maybank and Maybank Islamic are separate entitles and therefore you holding a Maybank credit card does not automatically entitle you to a Maybank Islamic credit card but you may have to submit documents and cannot ADD card.

I tell you, today it is very tough to get several credit cards from different banks because of the strict guidelines by BNM to prevent cardholders from spending beyond their means. Basically the credit limit granted to you with your credit card is a liability and may even affects you when you are applying for a housing loan. Therefore don’t be penny wise pound foolish by terminating a FREE For Life credit card just because you want to save the RM25 SST (which is like USD5 only!). If you terminate a FREE For Life credit card, you will regret big time when the same card issuer launched a new credit card that offers excellent benefits (like today I am presenting the revised Maybank Islamic Ikhwan American Express Platinum Card-i which out of the blue became the best cash back credit card in Malaysia in 2024 for Online Transactions).

I have no issues getting new credit cards from several banks (not all banks, example; I do not have a Public Bank credit card) because I make sure I am always holding a FREE For Life Credit Card with many banks (i.e. Alliance, CIMB, HLB, Maybank, RHB and UOB) and in the event they launch a new card, I can then apply for it by ADDing Card based on my credit limit.

Another thing, I always tell my disciples – make sure your wife has her own credit card because the moment you die, the supp card is technically also terminated. As I mentioned, a credit card is very useful and if your wife is not working and you die, heck she won’t have a credit card for emergencies. And the most important thing is – with your wife having her own Principal credit card, you then can earn 2X more cash back!!!

In respect to the above paragraph, let me give you an example on how you can increase your cash back quota of RM50 to RM100 per month. Say you are buying an electronic item that cost RM11800 from Harvey Norman or Best Denki, you can use your Maybank 2 Platinum Card AMEX to pay RM1K to earn RM50 and the balance RM800 use your wife’s Maybank 2 Gold Cards AMEX to earn extra RM40. OR say you use your Maybank 2 Platinum Cards AMEX for Petrol and Groceries, your wife then can use her own Principal Maybank 2 Gold Cards AMEX for Lazada and Departmental Stores.

New to GenX GenY GenZ

The reason I wrote the above paragraphs are to benefit new readers of GenX GenY GenZ. If you are a long time die hard follower (this is also another term “created” by me but today a few copycats are using it), above contents are nothing new and you know that I teach you stuff on credit cards that no one will ever tells you.

And to benefit new readers of GenX GenY GenZ, recently I published an article titled The Top Best Credit Card in Malaysia for Cash Back and Airlines (click here to read it).

Once again, in order to qualify as a Best credit card, it must be FREE For Life without any condition, and all the cards mentioned in the above article are FREE for Life – FREE is The Best 🙂

Then last weekend I was so free that I produced a You Tube Video with the same title as the above mentioned article, BUT in this video I introduced for the first time the Maybank Islamic Ikhwan American Express Platinum Card-i because it can earn you up to RM700 per year and is very good to compliment the Maybank 2 Platinum/Gold Cards AMEX!

Click here to my YouTube Chanel to watch The Best Credit Card in Malaysia 2024.

Now, if you had read carefully, I mentioned the Maybank Islamic Ikhwan American Express Platinum Card-i is a good compliment to the Maybank 2 Cards AMEX. If you are a cash back fan, you know that the Maybank 2 Cards AMEX will still be your main credit card as it is very versatile.

So, as usual, before we apply for any credit card, the first thing we much do is read the terms and conditions.

Click the button below to Page 2 to learn more about the Maybank Islamic Ikhwan American Express Platinum Card-i and see if it is good for you.