I asked about the minimum balance that needs to be maintained but the CS said no need. BTW ... you need to be a little practical ... there's very little chance that anyone would actually wait till Friday and hit a RM12K bill on the credit card.

That's why I said I'm a little skeptical about the monthly rebate coz the chart did not indicate so. The confusion came from a new product thus probably many agents are still not well versed on the product. Don't blame the banks ... more often than not it is the agent themselves who purposely misled you into signing up. Agents need to meet their quota so the unscruplus ones will do anything just to get a customer

Example
Have you encountered a cc agent approached you and say .... "Sign for Citibank Shell cc and you will get x% rebate everytime you use your card" or "Sign up for RHBBank Travel Money cc and you will get 5% rebate everytime you use your card" What is not mention that to get the maximum rebate for Citibank Shell cc, you will need to have carry forward balance, RHBBank petrol rebates only works on certain days and HLB's petrol rebate are so complicated coz you need to do this and that and not to mention spend some money to send an SMS.

If you confront the agents with the info then they will spill it out. (I get a kick doing this sometimes) I believe often it is the cc agents who are misleading the consumer. Hey ... I got hit a few times as well with the biggest scam done by an Citibank card sales agent to me.

Well ... I got no complaints nor Wow! factor about DA.
To me the card is interesting for it being the first Free for Life cc in Malaysia I believe. The most useful part about this card would be the iPay plan scheme and perhaps the 2% petrol rebate. (except that I get a better rebate elsewhere until June 2009 at least)

If anyone here made an analysis of CIMB cc products, they were nowhere on the map until they acquire Southern Bank and suddenly people started using CIMB cards. What happened was that the former head of cc @ SBB is now the head of cc business in CIMB.

Did they improve ? Yes ....
Compare them with other banks like MBF, AMBank, etc and I think these guys would fall into the Top 3 tier in the local cc issuers market. Don't compare them with the foreign players like Citibank, HSBC, etc where they are more established.

To the notion that all cards are created the same ? Perhaps but I believe that the distinguishing factor would be CS. Rate CIMB against MBF, AMBank, Bank Rakyat, Affin Bank (Affin CS's only works office hours only) and they are better off I believe.

I don't work for any of these bank but I have had a taste of the level of CS at one time or another. Sometimes it is luck as well ... I have encountered CS which are very friendly and some (over the phone) sounds very grouchy and had a bad day or something like that. Some will go all the way to help you (like my recent encounter with a SCB cs vs my own RM which is not helpful at all) and some couldn't care less.

Emmm .... it all depends on what is a person's expectations - different people will have different ideas on what good service is like and their expectations on how they should be treated.

Actually I wanted to compare CIMB cards with PBB and Maybank but my personal experience with them was not that good. PBB gave me one of the lowest CL in my cc history and they were snobbish in not wanting to review it. (RM3K to be precise whereas my other cards at that time was at least RM10K) MBB Petronas took 2 months to arrive to me and not to mention my horrifying experience to open a current account with one of their branches which took 6 months. (And they ask me to pay a penalty for having zero funds, sigh!) They forgot to process my form which the officer left it in their drawer, issue me a cheque book without even me knowing it and open the account without informing me that it was all done - they did not allow me to put in funds until the account was open. Then they forgot to inform me about it. Go figure !

Why I use some of those banks as references ? .... Just to give an example where the better card providers are compared to the lesser ones. I personally wouldn't consider them coz they just don't cut out for me. My experience with AEON card is one of those example ... bad CS, bad back office processing ... left my payment to them missing and no one bothers to help. E-Mail, call, etc are useless. I wonder why people bother applying for them in the first place.

HLB may have a relatively good CS but their latest marketing program which require you to SMS here and there is very confusing - that's out of my list. Need I say more ?

If you ask me, I think CIMB and MBB cc are the reputable ones. Hey I'm even using Alliance Bank's cc for cash rebates but seriously I don't think their CS is the best - plus I have once went to their card centre in Capital Square and I totally did not agree with the way they treat their customers.

In short .... cc preference is an individual preference. I have used almost all of them to come to my current preference.

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Added on May 10, 2009, 5:09 pmEmmm ... not this question again!

This post has been edited by hye: May 10 2009, 05:09 PM

Any particular reason for this statement. First time I'm hearing this one.

Citibank had a case where their agent applied 2 cards without me knowing. Plus Citibank and UOB had this little thing where they do not allow me to put the name that I want on the card. (Only this 2 banks, others are OK with me) UOB once pull off this little stunt where they refuse to temporarily increase my credit limit and i was overseas and needing a bit more limit to cover my hotel bill. (I'm left with about RM1-2K and I came this close to be held hostage by the hotel) Otherwise I have no complaints about this bank and they are very efficient when dealing with transaction dispute. (Some merchant tried to pull off a fast one with me but I won)

HSBC is OK but is a little dry on promos sometimes.
My fav is now the Alliance Bank cash rebate cc. They gave me less than half of my regular limit but I don't need that much coz this card is only useful up to the first RM5K. More than that then no more rebate.
Yeah ... DA holds a little bit of a sentimental value to me but maybe I'll cancel it if confirm no more iPay plan after June 2009. And I need to find out whether confirm I can't hold both a DA and CIMB card at the same time. Emm on second thoughts, I could still use it to get my petrol rebate beginning July 2009.

Guess it is about time to cancel my MBB Petronas and MBB SIA AMEX. Not really very useful to me.

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Added on May 10, 2009, 10:47 pmThis card works best if you always buy things from Sony Wings. Well, there's so many cards out there which are free. Customer will just walk out unless banks match the "Free for Life" offer.

For example, HSBC offered me a 5 years annual fee waiver when I wanted to cancel. I was with them for only 2 years I think.

This post has been edited by hye: May 10 2009, 10:47 PM

Hahaha ... probably I'll do the same thing as well. Even though approve also will cancel the card later.

Aha ... what Citi wants was to put my full name on the card. They quickly found out that it is too long and then they abbreviated it which makes it looks weird. This was still the case early last year and then I gave up.

Did you only recently hold a Citi card @winner ?

I have heard of this before but remember this - this information is not stated in B&W in their website, promotional materials or even their cc application forms. This promo is executed when the a particular "promo code" is applied to your account.
Well ... if HSBC continues to give out good promos and maintain their CS quality then it is good to keep the card. Otherwise the bank can offer you 5 years, 10 years or unconditional Free for Life and customers will still run.

You need to either pay for the lounge access for fly on Business or First class to enjoy the lounge. The beauty of the Infinite is that it is using the Priority Pass programme. (If I got this correctly) Google the Priority Pass programme and see the list of lounge that it allows access to.

My sincere advice ... cut the card if they are so difficult and hard up to annual fee waiver. There's nothing special about the card - entry point so low for a Platinum card, discounts can also be obtain if you have the Robinson's member card (normally those who didn't make it for the cc would be given this card by the store itself) and unless you shop now where else except Robinson's it is probably a good card.

I am thinking to reduce my CL for my Alliance's cc Cash Back card as I only intend to use up to a max of RM6K. (Cash back is only applicable for RM5K per month)

Would this improve my credit risk ? Need a second opinion ..

Thanks tgeoklin and tinkerbel. I called the Alliance Bank's CS already to reduce the CL. They ask me why and I said the cash back is only up to RM5K per month only - so having a higher CL than RM5K does not give me any benefit at all.

Emm .. they don't sound shocked @ my request though. I'll continue consolidating my cards again in the next couple of months.

BTW guys ... how to classify SCB's JustOne card ? I believe this is Malaysia's first credit AND debit card.

This post has been edited by hye: May 13 2009, 02:59 PM

Eh ... that's funny but I have noticed a few places offering this HLB Visa Essential card. Last weekend I saw it over @ Tropicana Mall and today in KLCC Cold Storage. Even funnier that this card is not stated anywhere in HLB's website at this point of time.

I saw the bunting and if I'm not mistaken ... cashback is only 1%. Errr ... can you elaborate more why you say this card was the best cashback card ?

This is normal like MilesAndMore mentioned. Most merchant terminals will display your 16 digit cc on the merchant copy but not on your copy. Some terminals will not display all 16 but only the last 4 digits. (But I can't remember which bank ... maybe it is HSBC terminals only will this happen)

I have been watching my slips for the last couple of months since this subject was bought up some time back by another forummer.

I'm not particularly worried about my cc being "cloned" like in the old days just because someone knew my cc 16 digits. However, I'm concerned about those scams that you will always get via the phone - recently TheStar reveals that these info can be bought cheaply.

They suspect someone within the industry itself is providing this info to these cold calls companies.
Although I have confidence with bank's cc dispute resolution system but it is always good to be safe. For years, I have made a practice to destroy (via shredding or tear into small pieces) my old cc slips after a while.

Before you waste more energy, banks would never tell you why they rejected you. The best answer they will give you is "Is the management decision to reject you" or something similar to that effect.

If you use this as a benchmark then SCB's JustOne card is slightly better than Alliance Bank's one. (Caution the cash rebate cap that JustOne have that Alliance don't have) Most of the guys here are right, cash rebate is better than points. Most points system sucks anyways and with cash rebate you save money right away.

Seems no one here have this card yet so nobody is sharing their experience yet.
I'm not particularly worried about this coz I'm sure the bank have gave it a thought already. BTW ... how's yr situation ?

Hahaha ... changed your mind winner ? I thought you earlier said that Alliance is better.
I had around the same thought when I wrote coz I figure enjoy the benefit while you can and then keep the card in the freezer. If all their customers did this than perhaps SCB would need to change their mind again.

Anyway ... these are some extra info that my RM provided about this card

- Need to maintain minimum balance of RM1K in the current acc. You will be subjected to a half yearly fee of RM50 if the balance falls below RM1K.
- Actually the card will use your account balance first and then if no money, it will use the credit facility.

Conflicting info from the CS contrary to most forummer reported ... YES! In fact, I called CS and they told me the same thing as well. Nevertheless the rebate is attractive enough - use it and then freeze the card!

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Added on May 19, 2009, 8:54 pmYup agreed. I will never produce my bank statement when applying for credit card. If they insist then I walk away ... you are not the only provider in town.
HSBC Premier MC starting CL is RMxxk ... yup I know that too.

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Added on May 19, 2009, 8:57 pmI don't view AMBank's cc services very favorably from my past experience. The notebook are just candies, do not be fooled.

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Added on May 19, 2009, 9:03 pmNope ... possibly somebody captured your cc details and used it without your knowledge.
Simple ... bank will check the transaction points to whose name. If is not yours, you need not worry and bank will clear it up. Unless someone pulls a complex hoax then maybe it is not to your favor. Relax ... if you did not do it the you have nothing to be worried about.

This post has been edited by hye: May 19 2009, 09:38 PM

Opps ... sorry. Better edit my earlier post then.

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Added on May 19, 2009, 9:43 pmThe CS and Price Solution people told me the exact different information as compared to my RM.
So rather then we argue about it, I'll be trying out this product myself soon. At least we will be able to get the correct picture regarding this product. I didn't like the idea about the RM1K as well but look at it this way .... either way you will still need to pay your card account anyway. Take the RM1k as a prepay amount and you gotta admit the rebate is good. (Especially if you use it every friday)

This post has been edited by hye: May 19 2009, 09:43 PM

It is not me but maybe I could help. From what I know is is not RM100K but lower than that. Can I say this info in public or people need to PM me?