Originally Posted by toplayer

Has the Elite actually been around for 3 years?

Btw, if you trade HK stocks the trading offer that comes with the Elite is by far the best miles accumulator I have come across in HK; even churning the account with large caps is worth it IMHO. I tried to get them to extend the 3 months period but they refused.

For the monthly lucky draws, just wondering if anyone here has hit the 20k jackpot since this was introduced? So far since March of the 20 entries I've had 3k 3 times an 2k 17 times... Much preferred the old 5k, at least it was attainable.

Originally Posted by percysmith

Points deals for securities trading:
Fubon Elite Platinum: 100 pt per $1 brokerage paid for first 3 months http://www.fubonbank.com.hk/Elite/html/rewards_e.html
SCB Priority Banking: 500 pts per month per $100K investments incl stock kept at SCB http://www.standardchartered.com.hk/...id=pbhp-cal-en
BoCHK: 1 pt per $1,000 securities transacted http://www.bochk.com/web/common/mult...&fldr_id=30631

Brokerage charges:
Fubon's brokerage: 0.25%, $80 minimum http://www.fubonbank.com.hk/web/doc/sh_feessc_e.pdf
SCB brokerage: 0.20%, no minimum http://www.standardchartered.com.hk/...ce-charge.html
BoCHK brokerage: 0.25%, $100 minumum http://www.bochk.com/web/common/wide...es&fldr_id=499

Lets say you trade in HSBC plc shares. ~$80/share, 400 shares/lot = $32K
0.25% brokerage is just $80 (coincidence to match with share price).
So you'll earn 8,000 points on this transaction = 666.67 miles = $68 (using my latest $0.102 valuation of miles)

Compare that to:
BoCHK - same deal - 32pts = 2.67 miles...crap
SCB Priority Banking - 160 pts per month or 1,920 pts per year = 128 miles...also crap


However you're still incurring $80 of brokerage to earn $68 worth of miles. Worse if you count CCASS fees, SFC levies and other transaction costs that follow securities purchases/sales.
Your HSBC parcel has to only appreciate by 0.0375% to recover costs, any subsequent apprciation is pure profit. However, there's no guarantee your investment might not go down like my own parcel of HSBC shares that I bought in early March, only to recover after the promotion is over.

Originally Posted by chinatown

I've hit the 20k once, out of many tries. on a ~500 dollar foreign transaction.

I hit 3k much more often than 2k though. Just luck of the draw I guess.

Originally Posted by chinatown

With this deal I think what's most important is that you remember that you're in it for the miles and not the Punt. I'd recommend staying with low risk stocks just so u can jump in and out quickly without experiencing too high of a jump in P&L. Stocks like 2.HK 6.HK or 66.HK come to mind. Of course any profit makes your miles even cheaper than 0.1488/mile !

Originally Posted by toplayer

Yes exactly. You are trading for miles and not profit, which would be a bonus. I did this with only 5.HK for 3 months, hitting the cap each month (3 x credit limit) and luckily also made money in the process. My partner thought I was crazy but now I have enough for return long haul J flight just from the miles for those 3 months.

However towards the end I did what percysmith alluded to and bought an illiquid stock which is still stuck there. Paid a ridiculous HKD625 collection fee for dividends when the mirror holding in another brokerage account charged zero. So FB still has ways to go if it really wants to be an alternative to other brokers (or even banks) in town.

Originally Posted by chinatown

Oh damn i didnt know there was a cap. How does that work? say my credit limit is 100k... what is the max I can earn per month?

But yeah i agree.. Fubon still has ways to go.. their Visas and Mastercards haven't even incorporated chip technology.. their internet banking requires you to go to their branch, get a form, sign it.. bring it back. and then they mail you one of those encrypted envelopes, which is ONE PART of the log in. then you have to sign another form, bring it back and they'll mail you the second part of the log in. absolutely old school.

Originally Posted by chinatown

Ok I will ring them up when I get the chance. It looks like they have no online application anyway! Looks like i'll have to ask for at least a quarter mil credit limit to churn effectively. paying 3000 in brokerage is peanuts really.. its only effectively two 300K trades (1 buy 1 sell, twice) a month.

Originally Posted by chinatown

But yeah i agree.. Fubon still has ways to go.. their Visas and Mastercards haven't even incorporated chip technology.. their internet banking requires you to go to their branch, get a form, sign it.. bring it back. and then they mail you one of those encrypted envelopes, which is ONE PART of the log in. then you have to sign another form, bring it back and they'll mail you the second part of the log in. absolutely old school.

Originally Posted by percysmith

I envy you for having 300K free cash to bring in to run up the $3,000 in brokerage per month for three months!

You then get 25,000 miles for your trouble, which is less than a Tokyo/Singapore ticket. Tokyo tickets are going for $1,900 and Singapore for $1,410 on Priceline right now. It's really low return on capital unless you factor in trading gains.

Originally Posted by chinatown

I reckon the name of the game isnt Y tickets, (even if it is, it would be the HKG-CTS ones at 30k miles which retail for 5270HKD). but long haul J or F. thats where the value comes in. Or even the BA Prem Econ ---> J upgrade @ 30k miles. Return Tokyo tickets are 1900 on China Eastern I believe, which tacks on two airport taxes and comes out to about 3k. If i needed to fly to SG, i'd probably go budget on Jetstar or Tiger, as its an easy ride.

Good on Fubon though, coming through with the sweet deals.

Originally Posted by percysmith

My Fubon Plat Visa of Jan 10 has a chip.

Also, Fubon internet banking doesn't work in my office (13 other internet banking services do). Something to do with its e-banking's Java front-end.

Originally Posted by chinatown

I reckon the name of the game isnt Y tickets, (even if it is, it would be the HKG-CTS ones at 30k miles which retail for 5270HKD). but long haul J or F. thats where the value comes in. Or even the BA Prem Econ ---> J upgrade @ 30k miles. Return Tokyo tickets are 1900 on China Eastern I believe, which tacks on two airport taxes and comes out to about 3k. If i needed to fly to SG, i'd probably go budget on Jetstar or Tiger, as its an easy ride.

Good on Fubon though, coming through with the sweet deals.

Originally Posted by percysmith

Well if your second home/favourite destination is LHR then you're a lot better off with J availability.

I did a random search for next May. J availability filled my screen.

My family's second home is Syd. J's hopeless. So I price miles based on Y http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...ying-club.html (and end up with $0.102/mile), and am thinking of getting VFC instead where PE looks a bit more viable as a redemption option.

My colleagues from YVR are worse, they get next to no availability for Y or J to go back. *A's not much better they say. So they don't redeem miles with their credit cards. And if they somehow come across AM from business travel or holidays, they redeem regional holidays like Shanghai expo on Y.