Singapore credit card installment plans

runhappy

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I'm looking at Singapore credit card installment plans to buy some whitegoods and basic things to fill out a new house.

I see 0% Installment Plans everywhere and am looking to understand the catch. After looking deeper, it looks like the admin for processing fees is the catch. Being around 3% for most banks and having to pay it off from 3, 6 to 12 months.

That and well, generally no credit card reward points and the amount used taken from your credit limit.

Does anyone know if there are any other catches to note? Just doing some initial research right now and trying to factor all this in.
 

vegavega25

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I'm looking at Singapore credit card installment plans to buy some whitegoods and basic things to fill out a new house.

I see 0% Installment Plans everywhere and am looking to understand the catch. After looking deeper, it looks like the admin for processing fees is the catch. Being around 3% for most banks and having to pay it off from 3, 6 to 12 months.

That and well, generally no credit card reward points and the amount used taken from your credit limit.

Does anyone know if there are any other catches to note? Just doing some initial research right now and trying to factor all this in.

I have heard, but have no direct experience of this, that banks may sometimes be less inclined to waive the annual fee if there is an ongoing installment plan.

Rewards accrue either at the outset on the full amount, or on the installment amounts each month, but not on full amount AND on the installment amount.

I agree that the 0% is misleading. Admin fee especially if calculated as a % of the amount can be very substantial.
 

JuniorLion

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I'm looking at Singapore credit card installment plans to buy some whitegoods and basic things to fill out a new house.

I see 0% Installment Plans everywhere and am looking to understand the catch. After looking deeper, it looks like the admin for processing fees is the catch. Being around 3% for most banks and having to pay it off from 3, 6 to 12 months.

That and well, generally no credit card reward points and the amount used taken from your credit limit.

Does anyone know if there are any other catches to note? Just doing some initial research right now and trying to factor all this in.

There are some credit cards with 0% admin fee, BUT they have annual fees which cannot be waived unless you hit a minimum spending per year.
 

Trazora

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There should not be any fees for the 0% instalment payment plan done with the merchant at the point of purchase, however the merchant can do this only for cards from certain banks.

The 3% fee you mentioned applies when after the transaction get posted on the card then you ask the bank to break it into instalment. Even then some banks may have promos to waive off the fees for say 6 months or 12 months instalment. The fees may be higher than 3% for say 24 month instalment.

No credit card reward points, for most banks/cards with the exception of some eg hsbc/scb

Another catch is if annual fee cannot be waived, cannot threaten to cancel card as need to pay fee to accelerate payment of the instalments
 

Charlie_Zhan

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dbs currently waiving the 3%/5% processing fee for 3, 6, 12 months instalment plans and this will go on till 31 December 2018. 18mths and 24mths plans will still incur a 6% processing fee.

same catch - no rebates or points for those transactions converted into installment and will have a early termination fee of $150.

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JuniorLion

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To sum it up, either one of the two below:
1) processing fees; or
2) no processing fees BUT annual fees cannot be waived unless you meet minimum spending


Usually no reward points - any points is bonus for you.
 

Charlie_Zhan

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To sum it up, either one of the two below:
1) processing fees; or
2) no processing fees BUT annual fees cannot be waived unless you meet minimum spending


Usually no reward points - any points is bonus for you.
dbs posb card annual fees probably one of the easiest to waive in sg

Sent from International Space Station using GAGT
 
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