Cashback Credit Cards

Credit cards are the Achilles' heel of many. Like loan sharks, banks lure in prey with easy credit and enticing offers. I roll my eyes whenever I see platinum cards being approved to people earning a lot less than RM5000. Foolish young ones rack up debt which banks delighfully charge the exorbitant interest rates on.

The banks are putting ideas in heads that having credit is the same as having cash. It is not. But consider the alternative; debit cards, they have hardly the same benefits as normal credit cards and are not acceptable everywhere. Credit cards still hold the edge.

I’ve had it with banks and their credit card traps. I wish I could exploit them instead. So it heartens me that in recent years a new category of credit cards has emerged: the Cashback credit card.

Follow my lead ONLY if you can:

1. Control yourself and your spending with purse strings tighter than a monkey's nuts.
2. Calculate your expenses on a daily basis (or before and after every time you make a purchase)  
3. Pay all your bills in full and still save money month after month, for a rainy day of course

There are quite a number of cashback credit cards in the market, many trying to outcompete each other. But all, sadly, trying to make you spend more than you should and hoping you don’t pay your bills on time.

So, generally the best cashback credit cards are ones that:

1.  Don’t have many conditions e.g. minimum spent before cashback kicks in
2. Are the least complicated and sneaky which deliberately makes you spend more
3. Offer continuous cash back unconditionally, avoid those short promotional term ones
4. Cover a broad range of products and not just petrol or groceries
5.  Should have easy waiving of annual fee (and also govt. tax)

New cash back credit cards get issued every now and then. This is a good guide to get started.

For myself, I have chosen not one but three cashback credit cards each with its own scope of use. Sounds a bit much? I assure you that I have done the math (including yearly govt. tax of RM50) and factoring my current credit card usage (I’m not a heavy roller) it is sustainable.

Maybankard 2 Gold Card

• Annual fee: Lifetime fee waiver
• Minimum annual income:RM30,000
• The benefits of two cards, Maybankard 2 American Express® Card and Maybankard 2 MasterCard, in one sign up, one service tax, and one statement.
• 5x TreatsPoints for all spend on your Maybankard 2 American Express Card in Malaysia or anywhere else in the world except Government Bodies, Education Institutions and Insurance Provider.
• 2x TreatsPoints for every RM1 spend on your Maybankard 2 American Express Card at Government Bodies, Education Institutions and Insurance Providers. 1x TreatsPoints for all spend on your Maybankard 2 MasterCard/Visa Card.
• 5% Weekend cash back when spend on Maybankard 2 American Express Card.
• A cap of RM50 per customer (Principal Cardmember) per month

Comment:

The American Express card is the one with all the benefits although you get an extra credit card. As long as it is accepted, at 5x points, you get 10000 points for every RM2000. Based on Maybank’s redeemable vouchers, 10000 points can get you approximately RM50. The RM50 govt. tax can be waived with 10000 points as well. Best of all Maybank’s treatspoints never expire. That is approximate additional 2.5% cash back with a total of 7.5%. Drawbacks: Weekend Amex use only.

OCBC Titanium

• 5% Rebate on Dining
• 1% Rebate on everything else
• 5% Rebate on Groceries
• Zero Annual Fee with 12x swipes
• 5% Rebate on Petrol
• 33% Cash Back on Interest Paid
• 5% Rebate on Utility Bills
• Annual Usage Bonus – Govt. Tax offset with RM10k annual usage

Comment:

Best all-around card best used as a primary card unless they accept AMEX. Also best to be used for all bills that include Astro, telecoms and electricity bills. So if you’re paying bills like most of us, switch to this credit card instead. Only 12 swipes a year regardless of amount to offset annual fee.

RHB Evo

• 20% Cash Back* on selected Amusement & Entertainment MCC categories (ie. cinemas, ticketing agencies, bowling alleys, commercial sports, tourist attractions, amusement parks, karaoke centers and much more)
• 2x Reward Points for all E-commerce transaction and RHB Now bill payment
• Card annual fee waived with minimum of 12 swipes per annum
• Maximum cash back is RM50 per month, per customer. No RHB Reward Points awarded for transactions entitled for Cash Back.

Comment:

No kidding, it really is 20% for any establishment that matches their merchant code category. It works for me as I watch quite a lot of movies and go for the occasional karaoke. For that rebate to be maximized fully, your expenditure can’t exceed RM250 a month.

I know what you may be thinking. Three cards, so many, when to use what. It’s not easy, I won’t lie. But saving money isn’t easy. So I've made a flowchart to help decide which card to use and when. I’m gracious enough to share it with you so thank me.

  

My Swimming Coach Refused to Get Wet

It was early 2011 that a couple of colleagues of mine, KK, Matt and I decided that we will no longer be shackled by our aquatically challenged predicament. That is the three of us can’t swim to save our lives. OK I can, but KK honestly can’t and Matt can only manage 5 metres because that’s the longest he can hold his breath. Jokes aside, they’re really hopeless in water while I really wanted to correct my breast stroke and learn freestyle.

We googled our way through the web and the first result was this swimming school in Sunway. We thought it was a good deal as its prices were like RM240 for 12 sessions, 1 session per week. This was far cheaper than anything else in the market, so we thought.

Sunway Swimming School

The pool was located in Sun-U Residences, which is the hostel condo for the Sunway and Monash University students, so we knew we were in for an eye candy treat. The swimming pool is Olympic-sized but its depth ranges from 1 meter to 1.8 meters. On the shallow end there is an adjoining wade pool with steps to aid the hydrophobic.

If you’re not a condo unit resident, then you’ll have to use the poolside changing room. As outsiders, we had no choice but to use it, much to our displeasure. It’s not a pretty sight, the floor is hardly swept or mopped, the only half the toilets are working, and a few stalls don’t have doors, the walls were begrimed, unexplainable ooze etc. No wonder the condo residents seldom use it.

Our swimming coach, whom I’ll refer to as Jim, is a 40 something year old and slightly on the heavy side. He always wears a collared t-shirt and a pair shorts, and he keeps them on throughout the session because he never enters the pool. Ever. Once, a light drizzle forced him to carry an umbrella around the pool area.

His assistants, hired students, do get into the pool with students, but at most there are only 2 assistants for a class of like 20. And they’re usually attending to the children, while struggling adults fend for themselves. If his assistants don’t coach you, you’ve to settle with Jim hollering from the poolside, “Do like this, not like that, You, you look tired, go to the side and blow bubbles.”

Ahhh bubbles, blowing them is the skill taught to kids to teach them how to control air intake underwater. Unfortunately, I’ve met a fellow student who was really battling the water, but instead of intensive in-the-water coaching, Jim only instructed him to blow bubbles, and concentrated on the other students. I think he wasted more than of half his sessions blowing bubbles.

Learning the Strokes

In my first session, I jumped straight to learning freestyle, having learnt a passable breast stroke technique in the past, but I know my breast stroke is far from competition style.

Freestyle is hard, water always gets in your ears, and I can never get a proper breath. But it’s the fastest stroke to get from point A to B in the water. Without mastering the first two strokes, Jim actually asked me to try out butterfly and backstroke.

For total noobies, swimming greenhorns like my friends, Jim promised that they would at least learn how to swim the breast stroke and tread water. While they never got the hang of treading water, they at least learnt a little breaststroke or frog style, so it wasn’t a total waste of time and money.
Well, it was cheap, and we got what we paid for. In a nutshell, we did learn a thing or two, but I get that feeling that there’s something better out there.

Three Discouraging Circumstances

One day, before our session started, a huge storm cloud was approaching Sunway, with accompanying lightning streaks. We were poolside, and we can clearly see it coming toward us, but Jim brushed it off. ‘Swim? Why not?’ Fearing death by electrocution, we headed back to the changing rooms. Minutes later, it rained cats and dogs, and this time Jim was forced to stop. No respect.

Unfortunately, sometime in the middle of our 12 sessions, disaster hit the showers. The pipes in the public changing room were clogged. Remedial works to replace those pipes resulted in massive hacking to the walls. But instead of a quick fix, the renovation took weeks that left the walls exposed and half hacked. And worst of all, if the shower had water, the water was contaminated with sediment or dirt, so no matter how much we showered, we always ended up dirtier afterwards.

I’ve heard things about Sun-U Residences pool being itch inducing. I can confirm this, I’m allergic to lots of things, and I get an eczema rash as a result. The moment I enter the pool, I start scratching so I suspect it could be due to the plants found at the pool area perimeter or something. And I’m not allergic to other pools.

Go or No?

If you value a good education, I suggest you stay clear of Jim the Dry Coach and his short staffed swim school. Unless you live in the area, the jams you’d face getting to this place isn’t worth it.