Originally Posted by
sp23
Thanks kaka for the detailed and informative reply! haha i must admit it took me quite some time to get my head around with figures!! Didn't realise there was so much theory involved.
Let's see.
So if I want a return ticket from HKG-BNE for Christmas next year then, (assuming $7000 HKD tix) cpm=700000/60000=11.6
Since my valuation is not over 12cpm, this means that I can't justify using the VISA card to pay for anything IF the fees are 3%.
Just looking through the link posted and also your data below (THANKS SO MUCH!) it seems that the rate/premium ranges from less than 1% to a bit over 2% or so, which means that I shouldn't be losing out when using the card in Japan. (Please let me know if my reasoning is on the right track as I could be totally calculating wrongly
) Amex actually offers good rates sometimes but I suppose theres the risk of it suddenly charging a high premium. I'll probably take it along just in case. By the way, theres really no way of knowing how much was charged until you get the bill right?
Isn't BNE 45,000 miles? Therefore nominal value per mile is 7,000/45,000 = $0.156?
If you can earn them overseas at $3/mile (assuming Fubon Plat, HSBC with a 5X multiplier can earn them even better at $2.78/mile), you are getting a rebate rate of 5.2% for overseas spending.
Your JPY credit card premium over cash is not more than 1.57% with Visa, you earn a clean 3.5% over spending cash.
(kaka - if AE, from memory I remember it's something like 0.94% over HKAB rate for Amex. But the earn rate for a non-SCB AE cardholder is $4/mile at most with the DBS Black which menas the advantage of using card over cash is 2.96%).