Hai, very appreciate if you can give recommendation to me for credit card.

1. Annual Income: RM36K to RM48K

2. Free Lifetime Annual Fee: Not a must, but if any is better

3. Card required for: Cash Back/Rebate Only, Free LCCT Lounge Access, easy payment.

4. Existing credit cards if any: Danamon Manchester United Card, but closed already since moving here, Malaysia.

5. Preferred Bank or Considering CC from banks: Any bank

6. Others: Please be specific. Example: I am a foreigner

7. Estimated Spending per month with the card: Less than RM1K


Once applied Maybank Gold and Bank Islam Gold card. Both rejected.

Firstly, decide, you want cash back or Free LCCT Lounge Access. You can't have both for CC unless you get RHB Premier Debit Card or Alliance Bank Premier Debit Card. For Free access to Airport Lounge with CC, please click here to the relevant thread.

Since you are a foreigner, go talk to the bank where your salary/income is deposited and see what are the documents required if you are allowed to apply for their credit card.

1. Annual Income: RM32K to RM34K

2. Free Lifetime Annual Fee: A Must.

3. Card required for: Petrol, Maxis Broadband payment, Cash Back/Rebate Only, Groceries, Dining, Cinema, Insurance, other transaction (Monthly Installment, Donation).

4. Existing credit cards if any: Hong Leong Bank GSC Card.

5. Preferred Bank or Considering CC from banks: Any.

6. Others: Parents will use my card for groceries, shopping and sometimes for dining.

7. Estimated Spending per month with the card: 1K to 2K


I see OCBC Titanium card is not bad (Annual income must over 36k), but Maybank 2k card is good too (Annual income over 30k)..

This post has been edited by t3arsCulprit: Jun 24 2012, 12:52 PM

yah MBB 2 Cards and OCBC good for your requirements if you do not consider the cinema requirement. And since you do spend up to RM2K, get both cards For MBB 2 Cards, it depends if the petrol station you pump with accept AMEX and if you can wait till Saturdays and Sundays to pump petrol and do your groceries.

If you can give me a breakdown of your expenses and the merchant, then I can roughly tell you which card is better. You can also go compare the cash back you can earn yourself based on the table I prepared by clicking here to my Cash Back Credit Cards Page.

For cinemas, look into Citibank Clear Card.

Mostly I will spend on
1) Esso Petrol Station (But now is slowly changing to Petron, I'm lost lolx) or Petronas if cant find Esso, spend up to RM 300 per month.
2) Maxis broadband bill RM 68 per month
3) Groceries is carrefour/giant (Varies from RM 50 to 250)
4) Shopping (jusco, and other clothing stores, amount varies from RM 50 to 250)
5) Dining (everywhere that accept credit cards, amount varies from RM 80 to 300)
6) Cinema (GSC or TGV).

Hmm, for cinema, it is ok, as current I use Hong Leong GSC card only give me 10% rebate which is not much like OCBC and Maybank 2k card offer lolx.. OCBC and Maybank 2k use together is good, but I only want to have one credit card, as RM 50 GST per credit card lolx.. Oh yea, added one more thing, my annual income is less than RM 36k

This post has been edited by t3arsCulprit: Jun 24 2012, 01:12 PM

Based on above, total may come out to more than RM1K, and you have yet to include insurance (which most probably won't accept AMEX). Based on the above, first choice will be OCBC Titanium MasterCard since it will earn you 5% everyday for petrol, maxis, dining and groceries. If you spend more than RM10K/year, OCBC will reward you with RM50 bonus cash rebate. Currently OCBC credit card offering Free 1 for 1 movie ticket at GSC until end of this month. Click here to read more on Free 1 for 1 Movie tickets offered by Citibank, MBB 2 Platinum and OCBC credit cards.

So, go apply for OCBC Titanium, no harm trying. But if you don't want to take the trouble for now, just apply for MBB 2 Cards.

Here is an example of the returns you will get:

For MBB 2, here is the minimum you will earn with the MBB 2 AMEX for the minimum amount stated.

Pump RM300 at Esso, earn 1500TP (if you pump at Petronas you only earn 1xTP with the Visa or MC which is still better than HLB ZERO).
Maxis RM68 340 TP
Groceries RM50 250TP
Shopping at JJ RM50 250TP
Dining RM80 400TP

Total minimum Treats Points per month 2740 TP or for a year 32880TP where 10,000 use to offset GST following year and still got 20K+ points to redeem up to RM100 cash vouchers And if you transact on weekends (less the Maxis amount which you got no control when it is charged), you will earn extra RM24/month or RM288 cash back per year. So with minimum spending you can "earn" up to RM388 after deducting the points for GST And also you can charge your insurance to the MBB 2 MasterCard or Visa to earn 1X TP ( approximately 0.5% returns).

Compared to OCBC [(RM300+68+50+80)x5%] + [50 (JJ) x 1%] = RM25.1/month or RM301.2 per year. Go add your insurance premium 1% to this amount.

But like I said earlier, if you spend more than RM1K, combining both MBB and OCBC TMC is the best.

As for cinema, Citibank Clear Card really good if you watch movies on Fridays at GSC, TGV and Cathay and Free 1 for 1 at TGV on Saturdays. Also if you have RHB debit card, you get FREE 1 for 1 movie ticket on Fridays with RHB debit or credit cards

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Jun 24 2012, 02:49 PM

Oh, I have RHB debit card.
Btw, thanks for the detail explanation.

What is the best card for getting unlimited maximum rebate/points for retail spending?

For local use, MBB 2 AMEX for it's 5X TP
For overseas use, Maybank VI for its 5X TP

Ok let's put aside MBB2 AMEX, currently I have SCB Platinum Business Visa which has the combined 1% rewards (0.5% for unlimited cash back and 0.5% for points), I wonder is there any other card that is better than this card?

If put MBB 2 AMEX aside, then AMEX's AMEX cards with Turbo points is good since one earns unlimited 1.5% cash back credited into account. Actually all AMEX's AMEX cards earns the cardholder minimum 1% cash back with minimum 2X MR (for plat can go up to 10X MR).

you getting 0.5% returns from SCB points? For non AMEX, I think HLB Essential with 1% pure cash back is better.

Edited/More comments

Let's do a comparison based on shopping vouchers SCB Business versus MBB VI for local transactions (for overseas no need to compare lah)

SCB - Isetan and Giant RM50 voucher needs 12000 points (0.416%) and when consider 0.5% cash back total = 0.92%
SCB - Hush Puppies, MJ, Courts, Guardian and Popular RM50 voucher needs 12,500 (0.4%) and when consider 0.5% cash back total = 0.9%
SCB - KFC, McD and Tesco RM50 voucher needs 13000 points and when consider 0.5% cash back total = 0.88%
SCB - Jusco (AEON) - RM50 voucher needs 13,500 points and when consider 0.5% cash back total = 0.87%

versus MBB VI 2X Treats Points for local transactions

Popular, Giant and TESCO RM10 voucher 3000 points or 0.66% (stay away from RM10 voucher with 3000 points, better wait as MBB Treats Points are evergreen)
McD - RM10 voucher 2700 points of 0.74% (still not worth it)
Tesco and Giant RM50 voucher 11000 points or 0.9% (here SCB for Giant better)
Jusco (AEON) RM100 voucher 21000 points or 0.95%
Hush Puppies RM50 voucher 8500 points or 1.17%
MJ RM50 voucher 9000 points or 1.11%
Coffee Bean RM10 voucher 1800 points or 1.11%

So from above, it looks like if want unlimited cash back, HLB Essential at 1% better than SCB. But if your MBB card earns you 2X Treats Points and you don't mind getting cash vouchers, then maybe MBB 2X TP better if you patronize the merchants that offer RM50 vouchers for less than 10,000 points.

But if merchant can use MBB 2 AMEX (for local transactions), it's a no brainer.

This post has been edited by Gen-X: Jun 24 2012, 06:16 PM

MBB VI is it MBB Visa Infinite? Is the MBB2 MasterCard that comes with the MBB2 AMEX give 2X TP as well?

Yes, VISA Infinite.
Nope, only 1xTP for MasterCard/VISA that comes with MBB2.

How about the Citibank PremierMiles, is the points collected worth more than 1% ?

you really lazy go to figure it out yourself, the info can easily be obtained in Citibank website This has been discussed previously too. Click here.

If you have further questions, please follow format in post#1.

Seems like PremierMiles is not better than MBB VI

one is VS one is VI ler, not fair comparison haha.

although it is free for life...the problem now is the government tax...if you keep it..then every year pay RM50....
right?

1. Annual Income: RM36K to RM48K

2. Free Lifetime Annual Fee: A Must.

3. Card required for: dining, petrol, random shoppings

4. Existing credit cards if any: Nil

5. Preferred Bank or Considering CC from banks: currently on mind are, citibank clear card, ocbc TI, standard chartered gold

6. Others: i wan some card that has promo to a lot restaurants and shops, discount .etc and hopefully it comes together with cash back if there is.. so i dun haf to get 2 cards for diff purposes n increase thickness to my already-thick wallet..

7. Estimated Spending per month with the card: less than 1k

thx.. dunno which to choose.. standard chartered cuz now they offer rm200 cash back which 50 of it are used to pay the gov tax..

Somehow that's the ultimate reason why I decided to cancel my CIMB DA. If it serves purpose, I wouldn't mind paying the GST but the problem is the promotions are either not attractive or I'm not keen with.
Better off with better cards.
Anyway, I'm contented with my current combination, gives savings in all my transactions.