Stanchart charges me regularly for their credit cards, I usually call them to waive. They were reluctant to waive it last year even after spending well into the 6 digits with their card so I said I'll cancel. Then they waived it. I stopped using Stanchart after that...

About the credit card new charges, it's simple. There are two "privileges" now, lower interest rate and the 20-day interest free period.

Lower interest rate (15-17%): only applies if you haven't been late in the past 12 months

20-day interest free: only applies if you paid your previous statement balance fully

You can get either one or both depending on your payment record.

I've not been using my Diner's Club for at least 4 years, every year they say just keep the card we won't charge you anything.

I have to admit that I don't have a lot of active cards, only MBB, sometimes Citibank and/or Alliance when they have offers.

I just got my first Amex statement today, no RM50 charge for turbo points, no charge for supplementary card and I get 4x bonus points. Spent RM723 this month and ended up with 3615 points already. Not a bad deal I must say.

Almost everything there was just minyak for the month ~RM570 and a round of shopping at Ikea. Not a whole lot.

Has anyone done auto debit for your utilites on the credit card? Is it possible to put a limit on each auto debit, eg. I don't want my electricity bill to be more than RM200 per month, if it is then something's wrong and I don't want it to go to my credit card first.

Good point, I've had issues before, at least I was paying cash so I didn't have to pay anything during the appeal to the utility companies.

At least in the US, Amex is well known for their customer service. They'll reverse any charges you ask for on the spot and they can take it up with the merchant. Not sure what sort of service we can hope for in Malaysia...

The 2.5% charge for Amex is stated in their statement. What I don't like is they state that they only charge you in USD if you're outside Malaysia so any charges will be converted to USD first then converted to RM then charged an extra 2.5% then it goes into your statement. At least in the US Amex only charges 2% extra on top of the conversion rate.

So the Amex platinum credit card annual fee is RM800? That's relatively cheap.

The Amex platinum charge card annual fee is RM2450!!! And no, I don't have one I'm happy enough with my fee free Amex gold


This post has been edited by tishaban: Aug 30 2008, 08:22 AM

Amex platinum charge cards are supposed to be by invitation only plus they never waive their annual fee no matter what. It's a "status symbol" and Amex must maintain their standards I guess So if you see anyone with an Amex platinum charge card, you know they're paying on average RM200 per month just for annual fees alone!

There are advantages, particularly if you travel but not worth it for me...

Tink, I think most people at that financial level don't particularly care about the annual fee and have other people paying for their expenses anyway so they don't need to carry those cards in their pockets/wallets anyway. Unless they're really cheap like most of us here

I've also read on other forums where people on the receiving end ie. working in a hotel/spa/whatever say that they see so many Amex Platinum/Centurion cards in a working day that it's not that special anymore.

I think Amex has diluted their brand by giving out too many Platinum/Centurion cards


This post has been edited by tishaban: Sep 2 2008, 02:18 PM

Tink you're the trendsetter Once you have the Amex card everyone wants one ;-)

So split it across different credit cards lah They're more than happy to do it. One alternative is to bring lots of cash, not a good idea when you're paying say 5k Euros for hotel fees.

And the final alternative is to use that American Express charge card, no pre-set credit limit eh

Google lah friend, the info is also available online inculding reviews of the Amex charge card and whether or not it's worth it.

Charge card = there is no hutang from month to month. If you spend $20k this month you have to pay in full the whole month. There is no preset credit limit.

Credit card = there is a preset credit limit, you can use up to the credit limit and either pay all or pay some amount at the end of each month.

The income tax part is cute, if you're paying RM21k or more for income tax then your annual income is er... I dunno, RM90k and above? I can't remember the income tax brackets without looking at the table.

wirelessdude, from the bank's perspective you're a lousy customer, spend money but don't carry any balance forward which means no interest income to the bank. Maybe that's why they ignore you

Let's face it, if you qualify for the Centurion, the annual fee won't cost a bomb to you

I guess I must be doing something wrong with Citibank, I've been a Citibank customer for 3+ years and no upgrades offered

btw, when you request for the annual fee waiver, do you see the amount credited right away? It's been 2+ weeks and I don't see it on my MBB card.

Haha maybe that's what it is. I pay on time, spend close to 6 figures in a year but since they started me out with a pretty big credit limit I hardly ever come close to it and don't plan to go anywhere close to the limit...

I'm only on regular Gold card, not even platinum. I spend less than RM10k each month with a credit limit of maybe RM15k (can't recall) so I'm small peanuts to banks Come to think of it, I don't have any Platinum cards. And it feels good


Talking about using Amex to pay for minyak, I've used it successfully at Caltex and Shell. It almost always gets rejected at Petronas. Don't use any other gas stations. I prefer Shell now, I get points with Amex and Bonuslink!


This post has been edited by tishaban: Oct 15 2008, 06:00 PM

It really depends. 5x points on Amex comes up to almost 3% rebate if you cash in the points for Petronas vouchers (17000 points per RM100 voucher I think). So do the calculation yourself and decide what you want.

I also said do the calculation yourself. The Amex was an example lah because it also provides 5x points similar to the Maybank Petronas card. Next time read the whole post

This post has been edited by tishaban: Oct 17 2008, 08:37 AM

I get 5x points on Amex for all purchases including gas stations although so far only Shell and Caltex accept Amex.

Here's how I do the calculations, slightly more detailed than cute_boboi's calculations.

- I spent around RM8k on Amex already this year, have almost 51k points.

- The redemption amounts is roughly 8500 points per RM50 at KFC/MPH/Petronas etc. that's about RM300 worth of vouchers.

- On my Amex statements, each RM1 spent gets me 1 point *plus* 5 extra points for a total of 6 points. Not sure how it works with other cards, look at your statements closely.

So RM300/RM8000 is around 3.7% which is way better than the 2% cash rebates with other cards.