In my article titled Prelude To The Best Top Credit Card In Malaysia 2025 (click here to read it), I mentioned the Pros and Cons of Debit Cards, Prepaid Cards and Credit Cards.

As stated in the above said Prelude, credit card is “better” than using a Debit Card but I also stated that credit card’s Credit Limit is a liability! Nowadays fraudulent transactions are very common and if your credit card was stolen (i.e. wallet pick pocketed) overseas, do not be surprised that thousands of Ringgit were to be transacted before you can even report that the card was lost! Because you failed to report the lost of your credit card immediately and have it suspended, the banks may hold you fully responsible for the fraudulent transactions.

In respect to the above, that is why in the Prelude To The Best Top Credit Cards in Malaysia 2025, I have recommended that you once again contact your bank and request that SMS be sent to you for transaction above RM1. This SMS thingy for credit card transactions is a Bank Negara Malaysia ruling and if any banks refuse to comply, tell them clearly you cannot be held responsible for any transactions if you do not receive an SMS because you may not have data or access to received any notification via App or emails, take down the date and name of the person you spoke with and make a complain to BNM. Best use your Smartphone Recorder to record the conversation as proof.

Guess what? if you do not have Online Banking or Mobile Banking, you will still receive SMS!

Another thing. say you have 2 Maybank credit cards and you have requested that SMS be sent for any transactions above RM1 for both the card; and then you sign up for another new Maybank credit card but forgot to call Maybank, transactions with the new Credit Card may not receive SMS! Remember to call CS to set SMS default value to RM1 every time you get a new credit card.

FYI, my main credit cards are Maybank, UOB, RHB and Alliance, and whenever I perform a transaction with any of these banks’ credit cards, I will get an SMS in addition to Notification on my smartphone. I tell you, these Notification thingy via Mobile App are useless if you do not have data (example – we are in the car park basements or subways) and this is why SMSes are damn important.

Well, if you are stubborn and your credit card was used fraudulently when you do not have data and you won’t receive SMS because you did not request for it, you are only to be blamed as the bank TnC clearly stated you must report lost of card immediately.

In respect to the above, that is why I mentioned credit limit is a liability!

If you only normally spend RM5K per month, why the heck you need Credit Limit of RM88K?

And since credit cards’ Credit Limits are liabilities, it will also affect your housing loan application and a credit card application with a bank you do not currently hold any credit card.

So if you are smart, you will then reduce your Credit Limit to a value which you are comfortable in the even of shit happens. However, please also note that I mentioned in the Prelude that once you reduce your Credit Limit, you may not necessarily be auto approved to your previous credit limit.

On the other hand, you may have money in the bank and want to pay for something that is more than your Credit Limit. There will be many instances where such a situation will occur (which should only applies to a Reward Credit Card to earn air miles since Cash Back Credit Card we need the most is credit limit of RM5K before we hit the monthly cash back cap.

In respect to the above, only air miles fans who are fools will pay either with cash or use another credit card to pay for remaining balance that is above their main credit card that earns them most air miles per every Ringgit spent. For example, a person wants to buy a Rolex watch costing RM38K but his Maybank KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum credit limit is RM20K. So he then uses his Alliance or UOB Bank Credit Card to pay the balance RM18K. What he should do is pay the entire amount of RM38K with the Maybank KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum! How? This is what this tutorial is all about.

Click/tap on page 2 below to see examples of situation where you may need more than your Credit Limit: