IncyWincy

I have just been told that starting 16-Nov, Standard Chartered will change conversion to Asiamiles such that regardless of quantity of pts converted, the ratio will be 15:1 with $300 handling. Until then, conversion of smaller no. of blocks are at 15:1 but larger no. of blocks are at 12:1 and handling is HK100 per block.

Is this not rendering the 6x overseas downwards to 4.8 times compared to the past?

tedhl

thanks for the heads up...but, so the last day for conversion with the old rate is today ??!! (or they work Sat morning too?)

how come there's absolutely no communications from them at all ??

tedhl

again...as usual the SCB level of customer service...

- priority banking line printed at the back of the priority banking credit card: of course no one knows what's happening, immediately transferring to the credit card service center

- credit card service center staff: this change will come Dec 1; I then asked "how come my friend told me it's effective Nov 16, next Monday ?? and how come no communications at all even when I have so many SCB credit cards ?? I got no communications from any of these cards on this change" - now she's going back to check the effective date.

IncyWincy

I was told starting date is 16-Nov. But it is irrelevant whether it is 16-Nov or 1-Dec. The fact is that it is hardly known/advertised. There may be a small print somewhere, but surely that is not enough, ESPECIALLY when their own staff not are aware/sure!

tedhl

Dec 1 is the date for complete implementation of this new rule. Nov 16 - Nov 30 is the period when you could choose either the new or old rule.

the call center supervisor said they were also just notified of this yesterday - hence many of their staff still don't know the details. and they didn't deny when I said that it's a complete trap/lie - on one hand they're publicising broadly the promotion of 2x miles, while on the other hand completely make the 15/1 to 12/1 devaluation silent. they said their marketing department is often late in giving their promotion details even internally etc...then I said, sorry, no, I'm sure they did it intentionally - I didn't see them keeping silent the 2x promotion, they only keep silent about the devaluation...

FWIW, they also did this silent increase of conversion fees (hkd 100 for every 10,000 miles converted) a year ago. at least HSBC/AmEx gave 2-3 months of advance notice for the conversion ratio change, if I remember right.

ChrisLi

Is it that last year they use a promotion to cover up the change of their reward scheme also ?

So the updated conversion per spending will be

SCB AMEX

Oversea : HKD 2.5 to 1 AM
Local: HKD 7.5 to 1 AM (HKD 3.75 to 1 AM during promotion)

After Change, compare with DBS Black for Oversea transaction (let's forget local trans for SCB Amex and use DBS Black)

HKD300 handling is regardless of miles converted

SCB : 50K HKD Spending = 300K Bonus Point = 20K AM + 300 Service Fee
DBS Black: 50K HKD Spending = 200K Bonus Point = 16.6K AM + No Service Fee

So for 300 HKD you get 3333 AM more (as a medicore oversea spender), 1 HKD to 10 AM
that's still bit better than Asiamiles top-up (1 HKD to 4 AM) but well seems not a good choice...

Bye Bye SCB Amex

carrotjuice

My thought exactly. +1!

rhleung

Hi. This is the first time I posted my comments on this website. Re the SCB AMEX and the Conversion Rate Changes, I have called up SCB a couple of times and looked at the TnC in more detail. It seems to me that:

Conversion Rate Rule Changes
======================
- Current Rate is 15 Bonus Pts to Asiamiles + HKD300 conversion fee
- You can still convert 12 Bonus Pts to Asiamiles + HKD100 per 10,000 miles before Year End

Asiamiles Double Up Promotion
======================
- This promo is for local spending
- This only benefit you if you spend over HKD12,000 before promo expiry on 31 Jan 2010 (otherwise no extra Asiamiles)
- And this promo give up 12:1 conversion rate BUT it only Double Up the "base" Bonus Points!! So beware!

This is how it works:

Normally, if you spend HKD6, under the bonus programme, you get 6 Bonus Points and 6 extra Bonus Points under SCB Amex totalling 12 Bonus Points. And you can redeem 12:1 to get your 1 miles.

Now, under the Asiamiles Double Up promotion, the same HKD6 local spending, you get the same (a) 6 Bonus Points and (b) 6 extra Bonus Points under SCB Amex. In addition, you get the (c) "Double Up extra 6 Bonus Points".

Under the promotion, (a) + (c) will automatically converted to 1 Asiamiles whereas component (b) is left untouched.

So your HKD6 spending would mean 1 Asiamiles + 6 Bonus Points under (b). And given the new conversion ratio is 15:1, your local spending of HKD6 = 1 + 6 / 15 miles = 1.4 miles. In other words, it is HKD4.286 to 1 AM (not HKD3.75 to 1)

It is better off using DBS Black given under the DBS promotion most people get HKD4=1.

Regards

tedhl

rhleung, welcome and thanks for the detailed analysis. 2 comments:

• "You can still convert 12 Bonus Pts to Asiamiles + HKD100 per 10,000 miles before Year End" - from I heard it's "month end (November)", and not "year end"
• the DBS Black HKD 4 = 1 mile promotion is until end November only I think...so afterwards it might still make sense to do the SCB promo ?

Marco Polo

Flyer quote
"From now until 31 Jan 2010 you can earn double asia miles reward whenever you spend with SCB Credit cards
We wil reward you with double miles for your desired destinations
Enjoy your holiday at ease because the miles conversion handling fee is totally on us."

chinatown

even for a self proclaimed credit card mileage guru like myself, the new terms are kinda complicated thank god i just cleared out 50k miles from SCB... i dont get it ...

CXDM

so basically if i have 322,000 points to transfer in SCB, what's the best way I should do now ? this is all so confusing to me ?

ChrisLi

For me, having 170K points @ SCB, I opt to transfer now and stop using the card. I will get my scissors on the card when they try charge me for annual fee.

IncyWincy

But isnt this still the best card for overseas spending?

ChrisLi

Depends how is your spending and mileage conversion pattern. If you consistently spend big amounts oversea then yes. If not, you better double check.

For myself the flexibility of converting anytime with no cost out-weight the service fee by using DBS Black.

My Annual oversea spending : Approx HKD 40K
Translate to 16K AM using SCB or 13.3K AM using DBS
so it's the decision between 2.6K miles vs 300 HKD

If it's once every 2 year I have no complain and just pay the 300 HKD, but I redeem award fairly often so the flexibility is more important to me.