MilesBuzz

I have an upcoming spending of S$5k on SQ ticket, which will give me about 14,250 miles by combining the 6x RC and the Winter Promo (maxing 1 week = 200 RC). I believe this is better than the miles that any Singapore cards will give me (except maybe for the S$1 for 3 miles promo on Citibank AE PM which I still hesitate to apply).

I initially want to consider using the BankComm Diamond CUP but too bad, even Swire Travel in HKG doesn't really accept CUP. Some Singapore TAs accept CUP but the rate they charge is higher than what online SQ website offered me. Is there any TA in HKG that accept CUP?

percysmith

This doesn't work. S$5,000 = HK$30,600 or so. Your cap for Winter Promo at the overseas rate is HK$5,000

Probably, but not by fax/phoner order. A visit to their office is necessary.

dannyhk

Many thanks, very helpful. I should have realised that the best strategy is to put the CCB account in credit by the amount of my wife's tax bill less her credit limit--then there's no problem paying it all off in one go. Only (remote) problem is that if, by any chance, some IT or other issue somehow prevented us crediting from CCB to IRD, we'd be left with 400K or so in the CCB card account.

Are there any other cards even worth considering for paying the next round of tax bills?

Yes, I can see why you would be proud of that one. You must be the only male Maryknoll alumni! Perhaps you should try for a DGS card as well?

percysmith

Have you considered paying $1 to IRD as soon as you get your CCB Internet Banking (serious! We did this for an even more complicated CCB hack (not miles related))

No but HSBC-->CCB will still be here in April (unless the CCB EPS payees are unified)

Actually not so much of a hack - the Maryknoll application form did have a check box for "Former student or family member of MCS" and my cousin (mother's niece) is alumni...

No I don't think DGS has credit card with any bank.
Nor my real HK, Australian alma maters.

I wonder why Big4 audit firms here don't issue alumni cards (I trained with one) - I really think it might be profitable for banks to ally with the Big4 firms to distribute cards to their alumni - given the firms are centralised, have even better alumni networks than university accounting faculties and we are more than less likely good credits (and very unlikely/professionally impossible to go insolvent).

percysmith

Oh let me answer my own question - the three other most twisted card jing I know (including the one sitting next to me right now) are all Big4-trained. Any bank issuing a co-branded card with a Big4 firm will find itself raped.

MilesBuzz

I know the cap for the Winter Promo is HK$5,000 = 200 RC right?

But I can combine it with the 5x Extra RC and my total RC based on a spending of HK$30,600 = 30,600*6/250 + 200 = 934 RC = 14k miles. Do correct me if my calculation is wrong.

The overall $/mile = 30,600/14,000 = HK$2.19/mile. Which is still not too shabby and better than the SCB past rate of HK$2.5/1 mile for overseas spending.

percysmith

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B206 Safari/7534.48.3)

Or put it this way

Additionally cost incurred: $30,600 x 1.95% = HK$600

Miles gained by HSBC: 794 (which is correct) x 15 = 14,000 miles

Miles not gained by using prvi: 30,600/6.13 = 5,000 miles

Net miles gain: 9,000 miles

Cost: $0.0667/mile

May be worth, but marginal

Neat0

Hahahaha. Awesome. I was always under the impression that the school cards were for alumni only as well. More churn!

Thanks for the optimal strategy, Percysmith. I can confirm that the $1 CCB->IRD to make sure the transfer works, well, works. If you're signed up for e-filing, IRD will send you an email confirming receipt of payment within several business days as well ^

CanucksHKG

Re: Winter Promo $500 minimum

What happens if I make a purchase > $500, but need to make a partial refund that will bring the amount to < $500. Ie. Purchase, $900, refund $500.

Normal RC / 6X, you will obviously be credited and debited respectively.

But how about the Winter Promo part that lowers it down to $1.04/mile? At the end of the promotion, when those extra bonuses are calculated....is the system smart enough to cross-reference the refund with the original purchase and realize that transaction is now <$500? To complicate it more, what if it's a store that you frequent (multiply transactions of the same merchant)?

Not that it would make a huge AM difference for one or two refund transactions like this, but would be curious to know

percysmith

Doubt it but have to wait til rebate to be sure.

CanucksHKG

That's what I was thinking...but at the same time, if you have multiply transaction of the same merchant, it's kind of hard for HSBC to keep track, no?

Ie. (Same store)
Transaction 1: Purchase of $600
Transaction 2: Purchase of $300
Transaction 3: Purchase of $400
Transaction 4: Refund of $300 from transaction #1

In HSBC's eye, they won't really know if you refunded $300 from transaction #1, 2, or #3. The store just credit the original credit card back the amount being refunded...

percysmith

Experience with other banks is they will write back bonus points (RC) on refunds during promo periods as if it was negative eligible spending. But since your refund is <$500 it should not be affected.

kaka

i think for HSBC they wont care. I've once reversed a 30K+ txn and nothing happened to those RC (Percysmith I've told you back then)

percysmith

Think you may be right.

HSBC's rebate system really snafued since November though - I'm still fighting for $650 extra cash rebate for summer Red Hot Festival (OK, I got five digits, but the $650 is still my money).

MilesBuzz

Have some queries about the designated merchants and local merchants spending for the HSBC Red Hot Winter Promo, with my impending trip to HKG next week:
1. I have drawn only one online voucher ($50 RC at Times Square) which means that I need to go to Times Square and buy some stuffs there. There's a limit of HK$3k for the designated merchants spending right, suppose I obtain option C?

2. To maximize the promo for Mannings and since I need to buy some stuffs from there, that means I need to go to the Mannings on NT Plaza on Friday next week. The question becomes, what is the optimal spending there considering there's a limit of 50 bonus RC per week that can be earned from Mannings? Does this 50 bonus RC includes the $10 extra (for spending on Mannings from Fri-Sun) as well as the HK$30 from designated merchants Option C?

3. Local merchants are not the same as designated merchants right?

Thanks for the advance for the answers