@MilesAndMore :Regarding MBB, I'm assuming that's relating to customer base and not in terms of usage?

MBB has been offering alot of free for life and pre approved cards, probably the reason why their customer base has increased tremendously. Also the fact that loadsa payrolls go into m2u, so ppl prefer the convenience of paying off their bills via m2u.

But really, in terms of usage, I wonder if their the top. I have a pre approved MBB Petronas Visa myself, I just took it cause it's free, but I've never used it. It's been in my drawer for quite some time now =p

But I do agree with you, in terms of privileges, CIMB has been pretty aggresive over the past year or so, which is a good thing for us XD
Citibank still does have pretty good privileges, and there're special ones each month which they update on their site, so it's still pretty good I reckon (though I don't use my Citi card much)

@winner: thanks for the link

@MilesAndMore : I'm a little surprised as well, but I do see a decent amount of PB ccs when I'm around malls.

@vin_ann : Personally I don't agree with that statement. Even from a finance point of view, if you can defer payment without any sort of penalty/interest, you should always do so =p
Of course I know CCs are dangerous since one might get out of control, etc

@solarwing : there's no "best" per say, depends on what you want. several factors you can look at,among others,are:

annual fee - there're truly free for life ones out there, but for most cards you can get some sort of a waiver. probably no longer a big factor to consider
points vs cash rebate - which do you prefer?
(if) points - is having evergreen points a must? (i.e. they points don't expire)
privileges - probably the factor you should be looking at the most. different cards have different discounts/etc, u just gotta find one which caters to the places you frequent the most

This post has been edited by ellimist: Sep 18 2009, 02:07 PM

@ solarwing
for points, you can consider Citibank I suppose, since the points are evergreen. but of course, above this, you should be considering the privileges, since discounts of 10% etc would far exceed the benefits of the points. Try going through Citibank/CIMB/HSBC website, and access go through the discounts they offer. These 3 banks imo offer pretty decent stuff

for cash rebate, there's that standard chartered JustOne card, but u better ask around in here, some ppl don't seem to like it. Another good alternative for cash rebate would be the Alliance you:nique card

basically there're loadsa cards tailored for different purposes. some cards give u extra discounts/rebates at certain petrol stations, some travelling orientated ones, movie ones =p, etc.

as i've said before, the discounts, etc should be ur primary concern

This post has been edited by ellimist: Sep 18 2009, 02:50 PM

Not too sure. I know some are believable. Any chance why you could fill us in on why u wanna apply through an agent,instead of going straight to the bank?

Ah ok. Well, the only experience I had with agents was the one at GSC, where I applied my GSC Eon card. No problems there.

Any particular agent you're looking at? (say in the mall, or somewhere else?)

@Aeon : DirectAccess gives rebates for all petrol stations. 2% iianm,and 5% if you pump on the 1st, or something like that, can't really remember

@MilesAndMore : Think he means certain brands of petrol can't detect the Amex, like Petronas

@cannavaro : claw back generally means reversal. not too sure what it means in your case without more details.

@Optiplex330 : DA's one was suppose to end April, and they extended it. Ppl are just expecting them to extend it again. =p

As for the whole Petronas thingie, basically if u wanna use Amex, go Shell. If you must pump Petronas, get another card, lol.

@winner : I don't think all Citibank cards require carried forward balance to get rebates. It's just u get higher rebates with c/f balance, which is of course not worthwhile.
They also have specific cash back cards, which are fairly decent, although there are better cards out there.

@winner

Their cash rebate cards have the tiered system. Their lower tier states c/f balance of RMxx or less. I'm assuming zero balance falls into the less category as well.

Take the gold cash back credit card as an example.

The 1st table shows tier 1 as being RM5k or less.
The 2nd table shows RM0 as qualifying for 0.5% rebates.

Do correct me if I'm wrong

This post has been edited by ellimist: Sep 22 2009, 08:21 PM

@winner
Yea, was trying to point out that you still get some cash back,albeit not the highest rate as per their advertisement (since that will require a substantial amount of c/f balance)

I do agree with you though, it's a rather annoying policy

Well, you gotta ask urself honestly. It can be a real big problem, especially since swiping the card and deferring payment is real tempting. Can get you into serious financial troubles if you misuse it.

If you frequent GSC, the eon card should help. Apart from the discounts, you get to queue up at the gold class lane in the bigger cinemas (1u,mv,pav) which is a real plus point to me.

@MilesAndMore :
thanks for the tip. just checked, my cards are set as permanant

@David83 :
Right at the bottom, ATM Services --> Overseas Usage Maintenance. That's the only one I could find, assume Miles is talking bout this =p

@vin_ann:
Well some of us don't plan for movies. It's like we're in the mall or somewhere around and decide we wanna watch a movie. Then the card is useful

I'm not bothered if the queue is exclusive or not, as long as it is shorter then the regular queue during peak times

This post has been edited by ellimist: Sep 23 2009, 10:04 AM

@vin_ann :
Haha yea, doubt the card will be useful for you; the discounts will end up being minimal anyways in terms of RM saved (since movie tickets don't cost a bomb)

@santaclaus :
The rebate is used against future Shell petrol purchases. You'll need to accumulate rebates till the "minimum treshold", then the card will automatically use the rebate on the future purchases. Say you get a rebate of RM1 each time around, you'll need to go the pump 20 times, and on the 21st time it'll set off RM20 against your petrol purchase.
There's also a max rebate amount (including the cash rebates you get back on ur regular purchase, at 0.75% I think) which is RM1k for the gold card, and RM500 for the classic card

This post has been edited by ellimist: Sep 23 2009, 10:26 AM

You can apply online, but that's just to let the bank know you're interested in the card. Someone will eventually call u up.
And you still need to submit the documents, along with the signed formed (since they need a specimen signature from you).
The last time I did it without fax machine was by scanning all my stuff (in color) and emailing to the customer service.

For a fresh grad, you could go with the clear card if you want a Citibank card

It's always better to inform your banks, especially for the cards you'll be using the most. Ideally letting them know if you're expecting to swipe large amounts as well. Avoids the complication of having rejected transaction / them calling you up while you're abroad

Well yea, but they're more sensitive to overseas one. If it's within ur credit limit and it's local, certain banks are fine with that.

At the end of the day, it's down to the user of the cc. CC's can be pretty handy (and at least there's some sort of reward element in it, as opposed to cash), but yea, it's definately much easier to get a card these days. I got my first CC bout a month or two after I started work, by just submitting 1 month's pay slip, before I was even confirmed.

Still, if one can impose some form of control on one's spending, CCs are the way to go; cash is so yesterday. imo at least =p

@Dannyl, winner:

Yea, it's damn annoying how alot of places here don't accept cards at all, or below a certain limit. Heck, I think you can even pay your summons with ur cc on the spot in certain european countries.

Yes you can. You'll need a pin number for that. By default I don't think they send you one. So when you apply, specify that you'll be wanting a pin number for your CC.