Another Personal Finance tutorial by GenX @ http://www.GenXGenYGenZ.com
This is FREE Personal Finance Express Tuition for all credit card users, not necessary for newbies only but for Malaysians (contents applicable for worldwide too except for benefits that comes with cards issued by Malaysian banks).
LESSON NO.1 – What credit card to choose?
1. Get FREE FOR LIFE credit card without any condition.
I’m sure many of you have been approached by representatives of banks enticing you to sign up for a Free Annual Fee credit card only to find out later that you have been misled when you are later imposed annual fee for the second year because (1) you failed to swipe a minimum of 1 time per month or (2) you failed to swipe 6 or 12 times a year or (3) you failed to spend X amount per year.
Therefore, to avoid being charged unnecessary credit card annual fees (or the need for you to beg for annual fee waiver), it is IMPERATIVE that you sign up for a credit card that is truly FREE FOR LIFE WITHOUT ANY CONDITIONS.
The major advantage of FREE FOR LIFE without any condition is that you won’t be penalized a sen in the event you don’t even use your credit card in a particular year. It is great for those who may be assigned overseas for a few years and/or near retirement (once you retire, it is very hard to get a credit card if you do not have a steady source of income).
2. In order to maximize the returns from credit cards’ transactions, you must have an American Express Card because it is welcomed everywhere.
Before you go blindly accuse that the American Express Card is useless, let me teach you a thing or two:
The American Express cards are welcome at the following places:
- Departmental Stores & Hypermarkets: AEON, Isetan, Jaya Grocer, Metro Jaya, Mydin, Parkson and Robinson.
- Electronics, Electrical & Computers: AEON, All IT (Low Yat Plaza), Best Denki, Courts, EpiCentre (Apple iPhones & Macs), Harvey Norman, etc.
- Touch N Go – At PLUS Highway Service Centres.
- Pharmacies – Caring, Guardian and Watson.
- Petrol – Petron, Petronas & Shell. Other stations you may need to pay at counter.
- Hospitals – Pantai, SDMC, Sunway, etc.
- Luxury Goods – Channel, Coach, Dior, Gucci, Hermes, LV, MK, etc.
- ROLEX! If your Authorized Rolex Retailer is giving you less discount for paying with AMEX, you are buying your Rolex watch with the wrong retailer, hahaha.
- Jewelers – Habib, Poh Kong, Tomei, Wah Chan, etc.
- Restaurants – Amarin, Alexis, Ippudo, Oriental Group of Restaurants, Tai Thong Group of Restaurants, Pizza Hut, even at McD and etc. Yes McD!!!
- Hotels – including online hotel bookings with third party, e.g. Agoda, Hotels Dotcom, AirAsia Go, Expedia, etc.
- Airline Tickets – AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, etc.
- Insurance 1X TP only (equivalent to 1 Enrich Mile for every RM4.77 spent with the AMEX Reserve) – MAA Takaful, MCIS Zurich, Tokio Marine, Etiqa, etc
- Telcos and Astro – Astro, Celcom, Maxis, DiGi, Telekom, Unifi, etc
- Cars – BMW, MB, Volco, etc.
- Books – MPH, Borders. etc.
- Government Agencies – Local Councils. Traffic Police Stations (to pay summonses), JPJ. etc.
- Others – 11 Street, Book Depository, Eraman Duty Free. etc. Lazada used to accept AMEX but this is no longer the case.
And below is a fabulous tip shared at my Facebook by En. Ibrahim Rabani on how to earn 5X Treats Points from restaurants/shops that does not accept AMEX.
Now let me show you some of my transactions with my AMEX Reserve where I earn 1 FREE Enrich or KrisFlyers or Asia Miles for every RM0.954 spent locally:
