You Gotta Love OCBC

[Wd40]

$1600 for annual fee??????

mindboggling, if you can afford an annual fee that big you probably don't need a credit card!

Sorry, but why not? Most credit card users, use it for convenience or for the benefits. If you make huge spends, all the more reason to carry a credit card than to carry a wallet(or briefcase?) full of cash.

[durain]

good job you didnt have the amex centurion card (the black one)! that's a whopper of about S$8000!

[Beeroclock]

$1600 for annual fee??????

mindboggling, if you can afford an annual fee that big you probably don't need a credit card!

Sorry, but why not? Most credit card users, use it for convenience or for the benefits. If you make huge spends, all the more reason to carry a credit card than to carry a wallet(or briefcase?) full of cash.

true, I was thinking of the core function ie. credit. You'd sure need a lot of benefits to make worthwhile.

[Strong Eagle]

So, what was the annual fee the previous year? What surprised you? The amount of the annual fee or the fact that they charged you an annual fee? If its the latter, its nothing to do with OCBC in particular. All banks do the same. They charge you the annual fee in advance for the next year. You need to call them and get it waived off or cancel the card.

There was no fee for the first two years I had the card. I actually got the credit card in order to get zero interest financing at Ikea. Once I received the standard card, I was given a "free" offer of the World card, which I took up, never aware of the giant fee.

It is now canceled.

[Wd40]

mindboggling, if you can afford an annual fee that big you probably don't need a credit card!

Sorry, but why not? Most credit card users, use it for convenience or for the benefits. If you make huge spends, all the more reason to carry a credit card than to carry a wallet(or briefcase?) full of cash.

true, I was thinking of the core function ie. credit. You'd sure need a lot of benefits to make worthwhile.

I would be interested to know what percentage of card users actually don't pay off the full amount every month and pay interest on it. To be eligible for most of the credit cards you need to make atleast 50k a year and about 80k for some of the cards. When you make that kind of money, I cant imagine someone having bad cash flow issues that they cant pay off their cards every month

The world card that Strong Eagle has is an "invitation only" card and not everyone gets it.

[ScoobyDoes]

You'd sure need a lot of benefits to make worthwhile.

I have both a World card and an Infinite card. I just got my annual fee for the Infinite one at something like $490 but it's better to pay that, get the 35,000 miles, plus all the other benefits (free limo to the airport, free Priority Pass........).

I've never paid for the World card but at the moment I don't really know what makes it different from a 'normal' Gold or Platinum one.

[x9200]

For me such fee is also shocking (I was really thinking it is cumulative for a few years) but I've never really chosen any card for it's benefits. It was always about convenience of the plastic money and some back-up payments options.

[sundaymorningstaple]

x9200, I tend to agree. Guess that's why two of my cards I've been carrying since 1979.

[Wd40]

I don't use them for benefits. Only for convenience and the cash backs. There are 2 kinds of cash backs. One in which on application of the card you get like $80 and another like the UOB one card you get like $30-$150 cash back every quarter, depending on reach specific minimum spends.

[ecureilx]

I would be interested to know what percentage of card users actually don't pay off the full amount every month and pay interest on it. To be eligible for most of the credit cards you need to make atleast 50k a year and about 80k for some of the cards. When you make that kind of money, I cant imagine someone having bad cash flow issues that they cant pay off their cards every month

I think and maybe got it affirmed now, that you don't have enough local friends

9 out of 10 roll over

[zzm9980]

Well, that card gives OCBC Premier Banking, which is like Citigold or HSBC Premier. There is probably a market for people who want that kind of thing (for the prestige and bragging of course) but can't keep enough cash on hand to maintain it normally. 3x OCBC points on Overseas spend is OK too, and I believe they used to give you a free scotch once a day at Quaich Bar. If you like scotch, that will pay for itself pretty quickly here in Singapore. (I'm hazy on the details, but I know this was discussed in a thread on Flyertalk)

[Beeroclock]

I would be interested to know what percentage of card users actually don't pay off the full amount every month and pay interest on it. To be eligible for most of the credit cards you need to make atleast 50k a year and about 80k for some of the cards. When you make that kind of money, I cant imagine someone having bad cash flow issues that they cant pay off their cards every month

I think and maybe got it affirmed now, that you don't have enough local friends

9 out of 10 roll over

I always sign up for the giro payment in full to make sure I don't forget. I reckon in a lot of cases it's due to poor focus/discipline as much as cash flow. The banks are certainly making money from all this despite the rebates/benefits!

[sundaymorningstaple]

I don't use them for benefits. Only for convenience and the cash backs. There are 2 kinds of cash backs. One in which on application of the card you get like $80 and another like the UOB one card you get like $30-$150 cash back every quarter, depending on reach specific minimum spends.

If you use them for the cash backs you are using them for benefits! d'oh!

[ecureilx]

I always sign up for the giro payment in full to make sure I don't forget. I reckon in a lot of cases it's due to poor focus/discipline as much as cash flow. The banks are certainly making money from all this despite the rebates/benefits!

and a lot delude themselves saying the points, benefits etc outweigh the interest

yah right

I have tough time fighting some friends who insist we use their CC even though there are no special offers and they are happy for the rest to chip in later - not in the sense of cashing the credit but in he sense of collecting points

I am card free now to avoid even the temptation

[Wd40]

I would be interested to know what percentage of card users actually don't pay off the full amount every month and pay interest on it. To be eligible for most of the credit cards you need to make atleast 50k a year and about 80k for some of the cards. When you make that kind of money, I cant imagine someone having bad cash flow issues that they cant pay off their cards every month

I think and maybe got it affirmed now, that you don't have enough local friends

9 out of 10 roll over

You are right I don't have local friends. But there are several credit card specific threads on Hardwarezone. I have read and was astonished at how good they are at making the most out of the credit cards. One person actually wrote that while making utility bills AXS payments using DBS cards he rounds it upwards to the nearest $5 because you get 3 points for every $5 spent. So if the bill is 61$. He pays $65 so that he doesn't lose the points on the $1. Ofcourse the extra $4 goes as advance payment for next month.

I got plenty of ideas from the HWZ forum threads. One of them is to pay off my sp services bill at the customer service centre in Orchard road, which is the only way you can pay the SP services bill using CC and get points. I usually go there like once in 3-4 months and pay in bulk like $500-600 at a time.