sxc

How does thIs scenario arise? I can only think of when the retailer converts to hkd at time of purchase and then you get a bad exchange rate.

kaka

must have been some investment related matters @ some channel islands, he talked about it some time back.

Connecta

Interesting - I've been told exactly the opposite last Friday when ringing them up to pre-authorize a bigger online purchase. Let's see when it comes to such scenario whether it's really true, or whether the Fubon CS just didn't know it.

--//--

On the "reverse" earning: Agree with sxc - the exchange rate at e.g. Harrods in London offering to convert into HKD is not very attractive. I'm wondering whether the AM earning would cover that or not.

kaka

No, and they are terrible. I've just done it in Taiwan, cuz that system for how i choose to pay is terrible, or the shop just benefit from it and wanted me to do that. then again, i would like to have it done is a small transaction (not exactly small, but would be cheaper than a whole load of things in harrods besides the foodshop)

christep

Close - the Isle of Man in fact. Yes - an investment plan in HKD but located outside HK is about the only scenario I can think of. But when you're doing that the sums can be quite large so you can make quite a lot of miles (I was investing HK$25,000 per month that way for several years, so the fact that they regarded it as overseas was worth 3,000 miles per month extra).

percysmith

Yes, now all banks with foreign spending bonuses have foreign currency preconditions:

http://www.fubonbank.com.hk/web/html/cc_cbp00_e.html
http://www.citibank.com.hk/global_do...idebook_v4.pdf
http://hk.dbs.com/en/consumer/credit...card/tnc_e.htm
http://www.standardchartered.com.hk/...ess/en/tc.html


An example of favourable dynamic currency conversion by a foreign merchant is a HK$50K MBA fee paid by an ex-colleague here in HK to his UK university. The course is one of those UK universities linking up with a local education "provider" (mercantile commercial providers like Kaplan). The fee was set at 50K rounded down to the student's advantage (the GBP cost is more), but the UK uni must collect it.

Unfortuntely for my ex-colleague, he picked Manhattan Plat MC to pay it, as he had a welcome offer. He failed to notice Manhattan Plat levied a fee of 0.95% on dynamic currency conversion transactions http://www.manhattancard.com/service_charges_core.html, and was stuck with an additional $475 fee from SCB Manhattan. It almost wiped out the welcome gift, and it was avoidable (Citi and HSBC won't charge it on their Visas for instance), so he was seething to no end.

kaka

i didnt want to spill the beans so kept it very general, albeit u're right the isle of man isnt in that channel

ChrisLi

OT: How do other HK-based flyer here think about reselling iPhone as a method of quick miles ?

Basically with China as an infinite demand, you can buy iPhone @ HKD 4988 from iPhone store, when received, sell it at Sin Tat at whatever the price (given it is not lower than HKD 4988)

When using AMEX Plat CC Welcome offer, you can quickly exhaust the welcome offer, while using other cards you get 623 (Citi PM) / 831 (DBS Black) per iPhone for doing the trade.

Does it worth the trouble? (For the risk, it's basically 0, as Apple will take back your iPhone and issue full refund within 30 days. So if you unable to trade it anything more than 4988 you just return it)

percysmith

Aren't you only allowed to buy two iPhone 4s?

ChrisLi

I use different credit card accounts and so far did not kicked the alarm button at Apple, plus I am using my parents supplementary card as well, so following the rule, I can get 6 iPhones, which if I do all on Plat CC welcome offer, it will equal to 29394 miles, aka free Japan RT ....

percysmith

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11))

but for amex plat welcome offer, you only have one card number, unless you sign your parents up and use their cards.

I also see a some risks with your proposed course of action. Say the Sin Dat price fell below Apple Store price by the time you got your phone and you have to refund.

Apple may refund those amounts as a reverse charge on your Amex card. So you're going to be ending with up to 30K balance in your credit card that you've settled in cash that you're going to have to spend down before the promotion is over.

kaka

wait so this way you can drain the option 3 bonus!? (cap at 30000HKD, with some 600HKD to spare)

ChrisLi

Well you can do it but have a way higher risk, because there's a per month cap at 100K points for Option 3, therefore you will need to spread your order across 3 months. I think I will stick with Option 1 (with supplementary cards with my parents' name)

For the refund thing it is not as complicated, because I will keep track with the market iPhone price anyway, and will cancel the order before delivery if the plan screwed... (Apple only bill your account when they ship the phone)

fakecd

could always get creative. transfer the AMEX Rewards point to SPG and go from SPG back to Asiamiles for that 5000miles bonus on transfer of 20,000 SPG points... haven't done the math myself but just something to note i guess.

percysmith

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11))

8000 MR points per 330 SPG points right http://www.americanexpress.com/hk/en...ards/ftr.shtml ?

And 1 SPG point = 1AM http://www.asiamiles.com/am/en/earn/...0007d21c39RCRD ?

That means 24.24 HK MR points per Asia Mile!

Even with 25K AM for 20K SPG, I am still paying 20 x 24.24 = 484.8K MR points for 25K AM.

Going direct, I'll only need 375K MR points...