Recommend me credit cards

[ykgoh]

My spending habits:

• Frugal peasant, not big spender or shopoholic.
• Most normal days eat at coffee shops, hawker centres and food courts, so withdraw cash from ATM (~$200).
• ~$100 monthly for transport top up via MRT ticketing machine.
• Usually $150 to $200 monthly on movie/concert tickets, dining and other irregular $20 to $50 miscellaneous purchases/gifts.
• Used for on-line shopping payment for small purchases ($2 - $20).

Looking for credit cards with the following features:

• MasterCard / Visa: commonly accepted.
• No monthly minimum spending:
• No annual fee

Don't want to feel compelled to spend to hit monthly minimum spending, or to make the annual fee worthwhile by spending more.

Currently, I only know of:

• CIMB Visa Signature
• CIMB PLATINUM MasterCard
• ANZ Switch Platinum Card

Out of the 3 listed above, which one is better/recommended?

Anything else I can/should consider?

Any words-of-wisdom welcome and appreciated. Feel free to comment or chip in. Thanks in advance.

 

[EEXOOO]

Don't be too hung up over the annual fee, most CC can be waived.

I recommend you ANZ Travel visa.

Main advantages
1. 2.55% cash rebate on anything
2. No min spend

 

[galacticnick]

you forgot to include your annual income.

tbh, judging by your spending habits, you don't need a cc.

 

[starbugs]

tbh, judging by your spending habits, you don't need a cc.

Ha...I was going to say something similar. With $150 to $200 monthly spending, the savings from a "good" vs "bad" credit card is probably $2 to $5??

 

[ossify1]

suggest you get imagine amex for ezlink card can get ~$7 every month assuming $100 spend per month

the rest can use ANZ travel

My spending habits:

• Frugal peasant, not big spender or shopoholic.
• Most normal days eat at coffee shops, hawker centres and food courts, so withdraw cash from ATM (~$200).
• ~$100 monthly for transport top up via MRT ticketing machine.
• Usually $150 to $200 monthly on movie/concert tickets, dining and other irregular $20 to $50 miscellaneous purchases/gifts.
• Used for on-line shopping payment for small purchases ($2 - $20).

Looking for credit cards with the following features:

• MasterCard / Visa: commonly accepted.
• No monthly minimum spending:
• No annual fee

Don't want to feel compelled to spend to hit monthly minimum spending, or to make the annual fee worthwhile by spending more.

Currently, I only know of:

• CIMB Visa Signature
• CIMB PLATINUM MasterCard
• ANZ Switch Platinum Card

Out of the 3 listed above, which one is better/recommended?

Anything else I can/should consider?

Any words-of-wisdom welcome and appreciated. Feel free to comment or chip in. Thanks in advance.

 

[hyperbole]

CIMB cards fit the bill. ANZ travel visa is good if you can hit the income requirement. I would also recommend you to get the POSB everyday card to do EZ-Reload for 2% rebate.

 

[beri stupid idiot]

CIMB cards fit the bill. ANZ travel visa is good if you can hit the income requirement. I would also recommend you to get the POSB everyday card to do EZ-Reload for 2% rebate.

cash is king ... perhaps ... but i prefer vouchers for all purchases if possible

 

[naro]

CIMB cards fit the bill. ANZ travel visa is good if you can hit the income requirement. I would also recommend you to get the POSB everyday card to do EZ-Reload for 2% rebate.

Agreed. But for ezreload, i would recommend Imagine Amex for now till March.

 

[Allen_C_Sharp]

suggest you get imagine amex for ezlink card can get ~$7 every month assuming $100 spend per month

the rest can use ANZ travel

Agree, based on ts spending habit, I also think Avz travel+ imagine(5%+2%mrt/bus) is the best combo
And regardless of which cards, ts really should use atu, earn some rebates and save the hassle to manually top up at the machine.

 

[dnka]

get a debit card if you need the card for online purchases etc or the occasional makans at restaurants... e.g., dbs capitacard or passion posb debit card. Both have their own perks and annual fee waivers thingie, you can check them online.

 

[hyperbole]

I wonder why people always recommend debit cards. Unless you have no self control and don't pay in full every month, credit cards offer much better consumer protection.

In case of frauds, owning a debit card means your money is gone from your bank account. I cancelled all the debit cards that banks automatically send me.

Get those 500 dollar credit limit cards also better than debit cards.

 

[rotiboyz]

I wonder why people always recommend debit cards. Unless you have no self control and don't pay in full every month, credit cards offer much better consumer protection.

In case of frauds, owning a debit card means your money is gone from your bank account. I cancelled all the debit cards that banks automatically send me.

Get those 500 dollar credit limit cards also better than debit cards.

i beg to differ, i use xtrasaver debit for all my purchases at 3% cashback

 

[rotiboyz]

cash is king ... perhaps ... but i prefer vouchers for all purchases if possible

cash not good, use cc better, some one said something about one use per card, if can go for privimiles mastercard, i just applied

 

[hyperbole]

i beg to differ, i use xtrasaver debit for all my purchases at 3% cashback

Don't see what you are differing about. I was talking about consumer protection, not cashback.

 

[Obscurity]

Yea man debit cards are so dangerous.. losing precious cash if there's a fraud. Seen someone close to me experiencing that.

 

[ossify1]

i don't get it. xtrasaver getting 3% requires you to have at least 200k in the bank earning 0.05% interest right?

the effective interest based on 1k retail spend is only 0.23% or so...

doesn't suit me at all.

i beg to differ, i use xtrasaver debit for all my purchases at 3% cashback

 

[hyperbole]

Yeah man. The 200k can be better put elsewhere to generate more interest.

 

[Henabi]

My spending habits:

• ~$100 monthly for transport top up via MRT ticketing machine.
• Usually $150 to $200 monthly on movie/concert tickets, dining and other irregular $20 to $50 miscellaneous purchases/gifts.
• Used for on-line shopping payment for small purchases ($2 - $20).

Looking for credit cards with the following features:

• MasterCard / Visa: commonly accepted.
• No monthly minimum spending:
• No annual fee

for transport, go with ANZ travel+AMEX Imagine, like most recommended here. I am getting around $5 to $10 rebate per month.

For movies...
if you always go GV, then go for HSBC.
If you are Shaw, go with OCBC or Maybank.
if Cathay, go with NTUC Plus! Visa or Citibank M1 visa

For concerts, iirc its OCBC Titanium

For dining wise, in Singapore it quite messy. Some restaurants only give reward points, some give freebies, some are small discounts.

Write down a list of restaurants you always frequent and take note of the CC promos linked to them. then decide which credit card you wanna get, or if these restaurants also have promo with Debit card.

UOB: UOB : UOB Dining and Entertainment Privileges
OCBC: OCBC Cards
AMEX: https://www.americanexpress.com/sg/content/credit-card-dining-promotion/
CITI: https://www.citibank.com.sg/gcb/credit_cards/gp.htm?icid=SGCCU3GENPRPGCALM
DBS: https://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/cards/promotions/default.page

For shopping, I highly recommend you to make it a habit to buy from designated places like Taka, Tangs, Robinson, Isetan or Paragon. This is to take full advantage of the credit card privileges.
So far, I try to make it a point to shop at Taka, because my wife has the Taka AMEX, so I can Earn 2 Taka Bonus Points with every S$10 spend at Taka. then, i can Redeem S$30 Taka Gift Vouchers with every 100 Taka Bonus Points accumulated.

for online shopping, i'm not so sure.

then for mobile phone bills, as my entire family including my wife's parents is under M1, so I have a separate citibank M1 card just for the bills, per month is around $350 to $500.

For all other expenses, you can go for UOB ONE so far I think gives the best cash back. UOB : Credit Cards | Earn Cash Rebates with UOB One Card | UOB Singapore

if you don't wanna end up with too many credit cards, then just keep to one card which best fit your lifestyle.

For me, its mainly UOB ONE & DBS Taka.
for movies, I usually go Shaw cuz i have Safra membership card

 

[derrickgoh]

Practically every CC is Master or Visa so no issues there.

Minimum spend is only an issue if you have a cash rebate card that requires minimum spend. Not all do. And if its not a cash rebate card, min spend is not even an issue.

Most banks will waive annual fee, having said that, if your monthly spend is only $200+ as you said, they may or may not waive. If you want to be safe, then get a card with guaranteed no annual fee e.g. CIMB.

As what someone said, with relatively lowly monthly spend, you will probably not get much back in terms of cash rebates. Hence you might want to consider what promotions or discounts the card can give you.

As in when you go shopping or to a restaurant or to pump petrol, etc etc which card gives you the best or the most discounts. Different banks have different tie ups.

Citi's privileges are quite good but none of their cards have guaranteed fee waiver. Plus good luck with their customer service people. I call them Sh*tty Bank for a reason!

DBS privileges also not bad. In terns of fee waiver, if you are a SAFRA member then consider the DBS SAFRA card as its free for life as long as you are SAFRA member. All other DBS cards I believe have annual fees.

UOB's privileges also quite good. Again, most of their cards have annual fees. If you are Singtel subscriber can consider UOB Singtel card which is free for life too as long as you stay with Singtel.

OCBC privilege is so so. If you are NTUC Union member, get the OCBC NTUC Plus! card which is free as long as you are union member.

Other banks e.g. HSBC, Stan Chart, ANZ, etc I find their privileges so so only in terms of discounts or promotions at shops, restaurants, etc. Only reason why I'm holding on to ANZ is because of the cash rebates and Stan Chart is because of the Manhattan World which is useful if I make big purchases over $3,000.

 

[derrickgoh]

I wonder why people always recommend debit cards. Unless you have no self control and don't pay in full every month, credit cards offer much better consumer protection.

In case of frauds, owning a debit card means your money is gone from your bank account. I cancelled all the debit cards that banks automatically send me.

Get those 500 dollar credit limit cards also better than debit cards.

Debit cards can be useful esp for those afraid of online fraud. But to be worthwhile you need an account that does NOT have a minimum balance requirement e.g. OCBC NTUC starter account.

If have minimum balance then not worth it liao 'cos every month you will kena fine since you don't maintain the minimum amount.

So you keep the account at $0 at all times. Say you intend to buy a game for US$39.99. You transfer that amount from another bank to your debit card account. Then you do the transaction.

Even if someone gets your debit card details, no fear as after that transaction you practically have $0 left in your account. Nothing for them to steal.