The Most Cost Effective Way To Plan Your Travel Without Compromising on Quality

Travelling is the most common hobby which we as Singaporeans have. I see most people travel at least once a year and increasingly people are travelling multiple times a year. I love travelling also and its really to see more of the world outside as we live in a really small city in Singapore.

In this article, I'll share how I plan my travel for this coming year and some tips you could follow to really get some good deals out there. Its not about getting the cheapest option to travel as it would mean compromising on quality but its about finding the most cost effective way to plan a good relaxing travel experience.

Booking the flight

When it comes to travelling, booking the flight is always the first step. I use the website skyscanner to search for flight to the destination I want. Its easy just key in your destination and dates and click search and this website will search for the best flight across almost all airlines in the world. You can also filter base on your budget, preference for direct or transfer flights or the airlines you want.

Flexible on your dates? You can also choose to find the lowest flight tickets for the whole month by searching using the whole month as shown below:

After selecting the month (eg June), click search and it will show you a calendar view of the lowest flights available for the whole month:

That's it. You can find the best deal for your flight by using the method above.

Another tip is all airlines have several promotions at certain periods. You can subscribe to email alerts on the airlines website and you will get notified when there are promotions ongoing.


Booking the Hotel

The next major step for your travel plan is to find a good hotel to stay in. Trivago is a good website I always use to find the best deals out there. This website search for hotels in any destinations and then compares the best price across all other hotel websites such as Expedia, booking.com, hotels.com, Agoda and many more. Most of us may just search our hotels on one website such as Expedia but with Trivago, you can compare across all websites with just a click.

For hotels, besides the price as a comparison, I always emphasize on the location as well as the reviews. To me, staying in a good location will save time and also good reviews means a better stay and better travelling experience. With Trivago, you can sort the hotels by ratings and even see them on a map view.

After you find a hotel in a good location with good reviews, just select view deal and it will take you to the website which has the best deal to book your hotel.

Getting good hotel deals doesn't just stop here. If you own credit cards, banks do offer special deals for hotel bookings also. For example, Citibank card holders get 10% off hotel bookings on Expedia with any Citi card. Do note you can get this offer only if you book through the URL www.expedia.com.sg/citibank with promo code CITIEXPSG. I'm sure other bank credit cards do have such promo also so do check out the banks website for more information.

*Apply for Citi Cash Back card and get $300 worth of vouchers here

Buying travel insurance

The next thing to consider is travel insurance. To me this is quite important to get a peace of mind and its not too expensive also. NTUC is so far my favorite travel insurance as I've made claims before due to an unexpected cancellation of trip and they refunded me for all the expenses I incurred on flights and all that. NTUC almost always have discount on their travel insurance plans. The highest I've seen is 45% discount while most of the time is around 30%-40% discount.

FWD is another increasingly popular travel insurance which you can consider. They are the cheapest so far in the market but I'm not sure how good the claim process is? If you've claimed travel insurance from FWD before, do leave a comment below to share your good or bad experiences.


Getting internet in a foreign country

Wifi/data is extremely important for us now who can't live without our phones. Its also important when we need to use it to navigate around in a foreign country. If you're travelling in a group, you can consider Changi Recommends portable Wifi device which is quite affordable in my opinion. This device can connect multiple devices at a time to use the internet. Its as low as $4 for Asian countries including Japan and sometimes they offer promo with 2 free days off which they have currently. The best thing about Changi Wifi is you can collect and return the device  at the airport in all terminals.

Another alternative is to use your own Telco's mobile roaming plans. Singtel offers data roaming at $5-$12 per month for 1GB of data in up to 9 different countries. If you're travelling to multiple countries, this is a good choice. Starhub also has this happy prepaid card which has data roaming plans you can choose. I used this when I went to Australia 2 years back and it was quite affordable with good coverage.


Book travel attractions and transportation on Klook

While you're planning your travel, you would also need to book transportation or maybe local travel packages to enjoy your travel experience more. I always book any additional travel plans I need through Klook where I get can discounted tickets to attractions and transportation options.

For example, if you're going to Tokyo, you can book the train tickets on Klook at a discount and collect at Tokyo's airports on the day you arrive. You can also book Disneyland tickets in advance at a discount.

If you're new to Klook, you can get $5 immediately on Klook using my link here. Now you can book your travel experiences easily without any hassle.

Get additional cash back on Shopback

To push it even further, we can get additional cash back through Shopback. Shopback is my favourite cash back site to use not just for travel but for online shopping and almost any other things as well.

You can get cash back on flight bookings, hotel bookings as well. Look at all the places you can get cashback below:

I've got almost $50 in my Shopback account for me to cash out so far. You can use my lin6k to sign up and get $5 in your account straight away. I get $5 in return too.


Summary

Planning for travel becomes easier with all the resources out there. Let me summarise the complete travel plan below:

1. Search flights on skyscanner
2. Search for hotels using trivago or check your bank credit card privileges
3. Buy travel insurance with discount
4. Get wifi/data with Changi wifi or your Telco's data roam
5. Book travel attractions and transportation with Klook ($5 giveaway here)
6. Use credit card to pay for all the above to earn miles or cashback (Get $300 worth of vouchers when you apply here)
7. Get additional cashback with Shopback ($5 giveaway here)

That's a comprehensive travel plan! Any other ideas? Leave your comments below.

Latest Comparison of High Interest Savings Accounts in Singapore - May 2019

There have been numerous changes to the banks' interest rates in Singapore lately. As interest rates rises for loans, good news for savers who have savings in the bank as the interest we can get on our savings account is increasing as well.

However, the interest on normal savings account is still not increasing but the banks have come up with more creative ways to attract customers and offer higher interest with some small conditions. Let's take a look at which are the best high interest rates account in Singapore today?


OCBC 360

This is the bank account which I have most of my money in right now. They have revised their interest rates upwards without me not having to do any additional thing from before so those who already own this account will be happy to hear that as well.

The conditions is simple for this account. Let me summarise it:

1. Salary credit of at least $2000 to OCBC 360 and you will get 1.2% on first $35,000 and 2% on next $35,000. 
2. Spend at least $500 on OCBC credit cards and get 0.3% on first $35,000 and 0.6% on next $35,000
3. Increase account balance by at least $500 as compared to the previous month, get 0.3% on first $35,000 and 0.6% on next $35,000
4. Insure or invest with OCBC Bank and get 0.6% on first $35,000 and 1.2% on next $35,000

In summary, those who hold more than $35,000 to $70,000 in OCBC 360 account will enjoy much higher interest than before. As you can see, just by having salary credit will earn you 2% for the next $35,000 in the bank account which is quite a decent interest rate to me.

$70,000 savings in OCBC 360 account with salary credit will get you interest of $1120 per year just like that. This is close to $100 per month free money.


CIMB Fastsaver

For those who have extra cash lying around, CIMB fastsaver account is a no frails account which gives up to 1.5% interest with no conditions at all.  It was 1% previously for first $50,000 in the account but they revised it to include 1.5% for the next $25,000.

• First $50,000 - 1% p.a.
• Above S$50,000 to S$75,000 - 1.5% p.a.
• Above $75,000 - 0.6% p.a.

This is quite a good account which I am using also. No salary credit, no credit card spend or anything required at all to earn that higher interest.

Standard Chartered Bonus$aver - $100 account opening special

The next account gives pretty high interest for those who can meet its conditions. With salary credit of at least $3000 and spending of $500 per month on a SCB card linked to the bonus$aver account, you can get 1.78% interest on the first $100,000. If you can spend $2000 per month with the salary credit, then you get a very substantial total interest rate of 2.78%. 

• Salary credit of at least $3000 with monthly credit card spend of $500 - 1.78% p.a.
• Salary credit of at least $3000 with monthly credit card spend of $2000 - 2.78% p.a.

Furthermore, there is a special account opening deal of $100 cash when you open an account. You can apply for the bank account through this link to get your deal. This deal is in partnership with Singsaver. 

You can pair this savings account with the SCB unlimited card to get additional unlimited 1.5% cashback on all eligible spends. You can apply for the card here and get $100 cash + up to S$120 cashback from SCB. 

DBS Multiplier Account

The last account worth mentioning is the DBS multiplier account. Previously, they only give higher interest for the first $50,000 in the bank account but this has been revised to $100,000. However, there are certain conditions and it may be a little complicated for those who are new to this account.

Getting higher interest on the first $50,000 is easy as we just have to have our salary credited and have another category such as credit card spend. This will earn us at least 1.55% on the first $50,000 only. For the next $50,000 to earn higher interest, we'll have to have our salary credited plus additional 3 or more categories such as credit card spend, home loan installment, investment or insurance. You can get a minimum of 2% interest on $100,000 in your bank account if you meet the above salary credit + 3 or more other categories. Otherwise, in my opinion, the OCBC 360 still works better to get higher interest for the first $75,000 without having to meet so many categories.


Best Cashback Credit Card

Apart from getting higher interest on our savings in our bank accounts, we can also get cashback for our spending with cashback credit cards. I saw this promo by Singsaver on the Citi Cash Back card which they are giving out $300 NTUC, Taka or Grab codes for new customers. This is surprisingly quite a generous offer to give out $300 worth of vouchers.

Citi cashback credit card offers 8% cashback on Dining, Groceries, Petrol & Grab rides daily, worldwide with a min. spend of S$888 per statement month. You can apply for the Citi cashback card here to claim your offer or view other cashback cards available here.

The offer ends on 9 June 2019. In this battle of the cards, you can get an additional $50 if you "choose" (apply & get approved) for the winning card. You can also get a chance to win a trip to Tokyo per battle! 

All you need to do is: 

1) Apply & get approved for the winning card 

2) Click on "Submit to Win" and write why you think the card will win.

Click on the above image to find out more!

Let your money roll!

I've always try to make the best out of my money with all the deals out there. The interest which I get on a high interest bank account such as the OCBC 360 is far better than what I would get in a normal savings account. It just takes the initial setup to open the bank account and thereafter the interest will be credited to my savings account on a monthly basis. I can get more than $100 in interest per month just like that.

Pairing the high interest savings account with cash back credit cards is a smart way to make our money work harder for us. Hope this article helped you in searching for the best savings account and cashback credit cards out there with the deals you can get at this moment.

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Homemade and Handmade CNY goodies

Chinese New year is just around the corner. I like CNY as its the festival to spend quality time with our family with good food surrounding each family reunion table and lots of goodies too.

Recently, I got to find out about Poon Confectionery where we can purchase CNY goodies online and have it delivered right at our door steps. Poon confectionery was started in 1971 back in Pahang, Malaysia and they recently expanded to Singapore to offer the same delicious goodies to us.

Their CNY goodies are homemade and handmade which makes them different from the ones we buy at retail shops outside. Being homemade and handmade, the goodies do taste quite different from the ones I've tried before. I got to try the Almond cookies, Green pea cookies, pineapple tarts, peanut love letter and salted egg chips all with courtesy of Poon Confectionery and cnydelivery.com.

The cookies were so soft and tasty and to be honest its quite different from the ones I tasted before anywhere. The cookies are quite brittle and breaks easily which makes it extra tasty when eaten. I like the pineapple tarts especially as the pineapple filling is fresh and the outer layer is soft. I must say they really know how to make goodies and being handmade is really different from machine made.

A close up shot of the green pea cookies shows the texture of the cookies itself where you can definitely see its not machine made as its not in the best of shape but taste the best. Check out their website at https://cnydelivery.com/ and see what they can offer. They also offer free tasting at their retail shop located at 502 Macpherson Road, Singapore 368204. Feel free to drop by and have a taste of the delicious handmade cookies.

* The CNY goodies are with courtesy from Poon Confectionery and cnydelivery.com. All views on this article are from SG Young Invesment. 

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Cashback vs Airmiles, Which Is Better? - Deal of the year 2019

I am always looking out for good deals and playing the cashback game has enabled me to spend smarter plus get the best value out of my money. This is definitely one of the must do if we want to manage our finances well. How about Airmiles for those who are playing the miles game? Does it let you redeem free air tickets easily or enable you to upgrade to business class or even first class for a more luxurious travel?

With increased competition, the deals out there gets even more attractive for consumers like us. I could even order food for free through Grabfood when they had the $18 promo code for first time users. Free Grab rides were even possible when there were lots of promo codes. Besides all these freebies which emerge out recently, the best thing offered is still free CASH! Banks have been actually giving out free cash for the longest time and with so many banks in Singapore, we can always rotate around and continue getting free cash.

Deal of the year 2019 - Team challenge Starts Now!

For the year 2019, the competition heats up with a special challenge by Singsaver among the financial bloggers. Yes, I am part of this challenge and you can be part of this too. As a run up to Chinese new year in February, lots of Ang Bao $ will be given away for this challenge. All who participate in this challenge will be entitled to guaranteed rewards up to $200, bonus angbao of up to $50 and special giveaway of $888 cash.

This challenge is called team Airmiles Vs Cashback - Which Team are you in? I choose to be in team cashback as I think its a safer, easier and sure win way to be smarter with our money.With cashback credit cards, getting cashback is easy as often there are no hidden conditions to fulfil, no minimum spend required. You get instant cashback on your spending to offset your next credit card bill automatically. Its that simple.

For now, let me introduce the cashback cards available for this challenge and the perks that comes with each application:

1. Citi Cashback credit card

• $200 vouchers for new Citibank customers
• $30 vouchers for existing Citibank customer

2. Standard Chartered Unlimited Credit Card

• $150 cash + $100 cashback = $250 for new SCB customers
• $50 cash + $20 cashback = $70 for existing SCB customers

3. AMEX True Cashback 

• Singsaver Exclusive: $150 cash for new and existing AMEX customers
• $20 CapitaVouchers from Bank if you apply via MyInfo
• 3% cashback for first 6 months

4. HSBC Advance

• $150 cashback for new HSBC customers (T&Cs Apply)
• $100 cashback for existing HSBC customers (T&Cs Apply)
• Bonus 5% cashback on contactless payments

5. UOB YOLO

• $50 cash for new and existing UOB customers

6. OCBC 365

• $100 cashback for new OCBC customers

The sign up bonus are attractive as usual. The difference is this time there is a mechanism that if Team Cashback or Team Airmiles win, those who sign up for the respective card will receive additional angbao. The angbao bonus starts with minimum $20 for each person who applied for a credit card in the winning team. It can go up to $50 bonus for each person if total card applications is more than 1000. I'm not the only blogger participating in this challenge, there are probably 5 other bloggers who are also in this so its quite possible that we can get more applications together. 

So which cashback credit card is good?

Personally, I've tried 2 of the cashback credit cards above. They are the AMEX True Cashback and Standard Chartered Unlimited credit card. The AMEX true cashback credit card boost a high 3% cashback for any spend for the first 6 months, up to $5000 total spend. This will come in handy for the upcoming Chinese New Year spending or if you're planning to buy some stuff for the start of the new year. For $5000 spent, you will get back $150 cash in your credit card statement. For every application now, you will also get $150 instant cash reward. Sounds like a good deal isn't it? 

For the Standard Chartered unlimited credit card, I still own this card and I must say this is the most fuss free cashback card I've ever had. It gives 1.5% unlimited cashback on all eligible spend with no minimum spend required. Basically, I just use this card to pay for everything and I will get cashback for every dollar I spend. For each application now, you will get $250 cash & cashback instantly, which is the most attractive offer among all the cards here. If you don't have this card and are new to standard chartered, then this deal is really good for you.

I'm also considering the HSBC advance card which gives 2.5% cashback if you spend more than $2000 per month or 1.5% cashback for any spend below $2000, no minimum spend required. HSBC has good offers with partners such as Golden Village to offer special rates movie tickets at $9.50 on weekends or $7 on weekdays. We can also get Gold class tickets at $24.50 for weekdays and $34.50 for weekends. This is good for those who love to watch movies at the cinema. 

Bonus: Ang Bao & $888 Cash Giveaway for 2019 Team Challenge - Cashback vs Airmiles

The team challenge will run from 7 Jan to 31st Jan 2019. The status of the Ang Bao per application will be updated daily at this link as seen in the image below. As long as either Cashback or Airmiles wins, the minimum Ang Bao payable is $20 and up to $50 per card application. Do remember to check the link daily.

Share this with your friends as the more applications we have, the more Ang Bao each one of us will get!

To stand a chance to win $888 cash, comment and tag 3 Friends on this post on why you think Airmiles or Cashback is better. The top 3 most creative answers from the winning team will each receive $888 cash!

Apply for a cashback credit card and join the team challenge

If you do not have a cashback credit card or looking to get other bank's cashback card, this would be the best time to do it with such good deals on the table. Personally, if you do not have any cashback credit cards at all, the Standard chartered unlimited credit card will be the best for you. Its $250 cash given to you instantly after you apply for the card and additional Ang Bao $ if cashback team wins. I am quite confident that cashback team will win as its a more common credit card among the masses in Singapore as compared to Airmiles cards.

Let's make cashback team a winning team to start off 2019 with good luck and prosperity!

Apply for your cards here today.

Unlimited 1.5% Cash Back And Up To $220 Cash And Vouchers Giveaway For This Credit Card

How does it sound to have unlimited 1.5% cashback on all your spending? There is no cap and no minimum spend required. This is very different from the other credit cards in the market which only gives you points or cashback for certain types of spending. There is often a minimum spend too to be eligible for the cashback. This is not the case for this new unlimited cashback card which was just launched last year. This card can also be used for public transport with automatic EZ-reload top up function.

I have got an exclusive offer for readers here where you will get all of the gifts listed below for sign up of any SCB cards at this link

• Up to $120 cashback
• $100 Takashimaya Vouchers
• First 2 years annual fee waiver

I have been using this card for about a year now and the cashback is always credited to my card on time every month automatically to offset my bill. The $100 voucher will only be given if you apply by clicking on the above image. Be sure to follow the instructions on the page to claim your free voucher. One more thing, the card has 2 years annual fee waiver so we don't have to worry about paying for the fees upfront.

Another SCB card is the Standard Chartered Spree Card. This card seems to offer the highest cashback of 2% for all online spend and also all contactless and mobile payments. Its easy to find contactless payments now all around Singapore which shouldn't be hard to get the 2% cashback. Just use visa pay wave easily at many locations island wide.

• Up to $120 cashback upon sign up
• $100 Takashimaya Vouchers
• No minimum spend and up to $60 cashback monthly
• Earn 3% cashback on all online spends in foreign currency and all vPost spends
• Earn 2% cashback on all online spends in local currency, all contactless and mobile payments
• Earn 1% cashback on all other retail spends
• Many other privileges for Singapore Post and vPost services
• Annual fees waived for 2 years
• Minimum annual income of $30,000 for Singapore Citizens and PR

Sign up at this exclusive link to get your $100 Taka Vouchers and $120 cash back.

Offer ends 31st march 2018. 

If the SCB cards does not suit your needs, OCBC cards are coming soon with the same $100 Takashimaya vouchers.

*This offer is brought to you in collaboration with Singsaver

How I Use Credit Cards To Better Manage My Finances

Credit cards are great tools for me to better manage my finances. There is ease of tracking my expenses as there is always a record of my spending. I also use credit cards to get bonus interest on my savings plus get rewards in the form of cashback and miles.

In this post, I will share the credit cards I have and how I use them in the right way to maximise the benefits. Let's begin.

1. Standard Chartered Unlimited Card & AMEX True cashback card

The first card I have is the SCB unlimited card. This card is straightforward to use as it just gives 1.5% cashback on all spending. There is no minimum spend and no cap to the cashback given. I use this for most of my spending to make sure I get cashback on every single cent I spend on. I seldom use cash to pay for anything now unless the shop does not accept credit cards which is rarely the case now.

Another good cashback card is the AMEX True cashback card which also gives 1.5% cashback. AMEX has good perks and their customer service is top notch. Many offers they have linked up too for their customers.

You can apply for both the SCB Unlimited and AMEX True cashback card here.

*Get 1 Year LiveUp subscription + 3 x GuavaPass classes + $50 Takashimaya vouchers on approval for both cards above


2. American Express Singapore Airlines Kirsflyer card

This is a new card which I got as AMEX offered the card to me in exchange for my previous AMEX true cashback card. The previous true cashback card is similar to the SCB unlimited card so I opted for a switch to this krisflyer card instead to try earning air miles.

Maybe you've heard of miles card or you have not heard of it. Initially, I was confused on how miles card work too but after some searching, I begin to understood it better. Its true when people say miles card earns better rewards as compared to cashback card. For this AMEX krisflyer card which I have, it earns 1.1 miles per $1 spend. There are also some spend which earns 3.3 miles for every $1 spend such as on Grab and Uber.

Miles can be exchanged for free air tickets as well as purchase upgrades. You can apply for this card here. You can get 5000 free bonus miles on your first spend (any amount) and first year annual fee waiver.


3. Safra DBS Credit Card

The third card I have is the Safra DBS credit card. There is 3% cashback on groceries, all online spend and also all contactless payment. The only issue here is you can only get this card if you're an existing Safra member. I applied for Safra membership during my NS days so I still have the membership until now. There is no annual fees for this card as long as you remain a Safra member which is not expensive to be one. Its just $270 for a 10 year membership but of course you have to be an NSF or NSmen in order to apply for membership.

You can apply for this card here.

Paying my credit card bills to get higher interest on my savings

After all the spending I have on my 3 credit cards, I pay all the bills in full every month using my OCBC 360 account. With the salary credit plus the 3 credit card bill payment, I can get 1.50% interest on my savings. This is what I do to get close to $100 every month on interest alone.

Bonus Card: UOB Yolo Card

There is another card which I think is good for those who frequently eats out or enjoys spending on entertainment. This card gives 16% rebate on dining and entertainment on weekends. You can also get 3% rebate on online, fashion and travel spend.

You can apply for this card here

In collaboration with Singsaver, they are also giving away one year LiveUp subscription plus 3 Free complimentary Gym classes from GuavaPass. For the gym classes, you can choose from Yoga to Kickboxing, Spinning to Dance, CrossFit to Pilates!

You might ask what's LiveUp subscription? It is actually a membership programme started by Lazada and Redmart together with other online services. You can get discounts and special deals from Lazada, Taobao, Redmart, Uber, Ubereats and the membership even included a 6 months subscription of Netflix. This promo applies to the SCB Unlimited card, AMEX True cashback card, UOB Yolo card and some other cards as well. You can check out the cards available here.


Credit cards have worked well for me so far. I will always pay my bills on time to avoid the high interest and the late payment fees. I did miss my payments once and was charged a late fee but just one call and they waived the fees for me. If we really cannot pay up, the fees are really high so it is important to control our spending if we were to use credit cards. Never spend any money which you are not able to afford. This will get you into more trouble than what you could imagine.

However, when used wisely, credit cards can be a good tool to better manage our finances.

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The Dangers of Credit Cards And How To Use It Smartly?

All of us know that credit cards can be dangerous if we overspend and end up not being able to pay the bills on time. The interest on credit cards is extraordinary high because it is an unsecured debt, different from home loans which are considered secured debt. Interest on credit cards are around 24% which is 2% a month if we could not pay the full sum. There are also advantages of credit card which we will explore in the later part of this post as well.

Dangers of Not Paying Your Credit Card bills in Full

There is always a minimum sum we have to pay on the credit card bill. It is always important to pay your credit card bills in full and NOT just the minimum sum. Paying just the minimum sum will incur the interest on your outstanding amount.

For example, if you have a credit card bill of $1000 and you just pay the minimum sum of $50, the interest will still be charged on the $1000 which is:

2% x $1000 = $20 (assuming 24% annual interest)

The minimum payment will be used to pay the interest charge first before reducing the outstanding balance. So, out of the minimum sum of $50, after deducting $20 to pay interest, there is $30 left to pay down the outstanding balance.

The outstanding balance is now = $1,000 - $30 = $970

Moneysense has a good illustration on how long it takes to pay off your bills if you just pay the minimum sum:

As we can see, even just $3000 outstanding credit card bills can take as long as 5 years to pay up if we just pay the minimum sum only. It is not advisable to delay any of your credit card bill payments as the interest is unbelievably high. If you do not even pay the minimum sum, your credit rating will be affected and it will affect your eligibility to get any other loans later. Legal action will also be taken against you if you continuously fail to pay the bills.

Advantages and benefits of credit cards - How To Use it smartly?

However, credit cards can also be beneficial for those who know how to use it to your advantage. I've heard and said a lot about the different cards out there (cash back, miles card, discounted items etc) which all helps us to be smarter in our spending. I also have some of the cards myself and it has given me lots of cashback and benefits.

In this post, I will specifically look at which card is the best for each of our life stages.

Before we get into the specific cards, I would like to offer a deal to all readers here. If at the end of this post you do not need any credit card or even if you applied for a card yourself, you can consider signing up as a referral and refer any friends whom you think will need any credit cards. You will get $25 choice of vouchers and your friend will also get extra $25 choice of his/her vouchers as well (choice of vouchers include NTUC fairprice, Grab, Lazada or Qoo10). Click here to be a referral.

Here are the cards for different life stages:


1) Fresh Graduate who just started working or adults who love cash back

For fresh graduates who just started earning a decent pay above $30,000 annually, a basic cash back card is a good one to start with. Both Standard Chartered and American Express provides good cash back cards with no minimum spend and no limit to the cash back you can get. Its a simple card with no strings attached. You just get cash back on everything you pay with your card including student loans or any other bills etc.

The cards to consider is the Standard Chartered Unlimited and the American Express True Cash back credit card. Both cards give 1.5% cash back on all spend without any minimum spend. For the AMEX card, they even give you 3% cashback on the first 6 months.

If you want to up your cash back even further, you can consider the Standard Chartered Spree card which was just launched recently. This gives you 2% cash back on all online and contactless transactions. Its what most young people will be doing nowadays.

Deals available for each card:

• Standard Chartered Unlimited card is giving away $138 instant cash back which will be credited into your card upon approval
• American Express True Cashback card application entitles you to $50 choice of vouchers (NTUC fairprice, Grab evouchers, Lazada or Qoo10)
• Standard Chartered Spree card is giving away $138 instant cash back which will be credited into your card upon approval
• In addition, if you are not referred by your friend through his or her referral code, you can use this code 1963671 to get extra $25 choice of vouchers

* Instant cash back is given and fulfilled by the bank subjected to terms and conditions. Please refer to the bank's page for more detailed information

Apply for any of the above cards here

2) Couples getting married or individuals and families who love to travel

For couples getting married, there is sure to be some big expenses for the photo shoot, the booking of the banquet and so on. These big expenses can be greatly taken advantage of using the right credit card. Apart from the above cash back cards, miles card are the best for couples getting married.

How attractive is the miles card for couples getting married? Do you believe you can get free tickets for your honeymoon to places like Europe, Maldives, New Zealand, Tokyo or even San Francisco or New York? Yes this is possible. It may be complicated but let me explain below:

The Citibank Premier Miles card has the best miles offer now. It is especially good for couples getting married as they give bonus miles upon $10,000 spending in the first 3 months. Paying for the wedding expenses easily goes above $10,000 in this case. For the Citi Premier miles card, they give 15,000 miles on your first spend (any amount) and additional 27,000 miles upon $10,000 spending in the first 3 months. This is already 42,000 miles which you get as a bonus. For wedding expenses especially the banquet, it can easily cost more than $40,000 for the banquet alone ($1200 per table x 35 tables=$42,000). As the Citi Premier miles card earns 1.2 Miles for every dollar spent, this is additional 50,400 miles earned.

Does the miles calculation sound confusing to you? Let me summarise below:

Item	Cost	Miles Earned
First spend (Any amount)	$xx	15,000 (bonus)
$10,000 spend within first 3 months	$10,000	27,000 (bonus)
Wedding Banquet	$42,000	50,400 (42000x1.2 miles)
Miscellaneous (photoshoot, wedding gown etc)	$10,000	12,000 (10000x1.2 miles)
Total		104,400

Just like that, we can get 104,400 miles. Where can 104,400 miles fly you to? I went to Citibank website and found the air tickets which we can exchange for to which destination:

For economy class, the miles can bring you to almost all countries across the globe. You can easily get free tickets for both you and your spouse on a honeymoon to Maldives or even New Zealand.

You can even fly for free in business class to some of the countries below.

The miles card doesn't just apply to couples getting married but also individuals and families who likes to travel. Share this with your friends who are getting married or who love travelling.

Deals available for each card:

• Citi Premier Miles card entitles you to get $100 choice of your vouchers (NTUC fairprice, Grab evouchers, Lazada or Qoo10) on top of the up to 42,000 free miles given
• In addition, if you are not referred by your friend through his or her referral code, you can use this code 1963671 to get extra $25 choice of vouchers

To sign up for any of the cards, click on the card names below:

• Standard Chartered Unlimited card
• AMEX True Cash Back card
• Standard Chartered Spree card
• Citi Premier Miles card

Many more cards available with vouchers up for grabs here.

The voucher deal ends on 31st December 2017

How To Be A Referral And Earn $25 Vouchers for each friend you refer?

Not interested in any cards but want to earn vouchers? Be a referral and refer your friends to sign up. You and your friend can each get $25 choice of vouchers (NTUC fairprice, Grab evouchers, Lazada or Qoo10) for each successful sign up. Sign up to be a referral here.

After you get your referral code, simply refer them to my blog post for them to apply for the cards above or just send them this link to apply for any cards they need.



Get The Benefits, Pay Off Your Bills On Time - The Smarter Way To Spend

Nowadays, I seldom have much cash in my wallet. Wherever I go, as long as credit cards are accepted, I'll just use paywave to make the payment. Its easy to use and I get the benefits by spending smartly as well. I even pay all my credit card bills through my OCBC 360 account to get the higher interest.

However, always remember never pay just the minimum sum for your credit card bills. Make the payment in full and on time to avoid interest charges and late payment fees. This is the smarter way to spend.


PS: I have both the AMEX True cashback card and Standard Chartered Unlimited card for cash back. Will be looking at miles card soon to fulfill my travelling dreams

SG Young Investment is an affiliate partner of singsaver.com.sg so I get a referral fee for every sign up.

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A New Cashback Card with Up-sized 3% Cashback

There seems to be competition among the banks in Singapore which is good for consumers as they start to give more interests and benefits to get more customers. Previously, many cashback cards were launched with no minimum spend and no other conditions. You get cashback for any spending.

Today, there's a new cashback card which gives up to 3% cashback. This is the NEW Standard Chartered Spree Credit Card. Again, to match the competition in the market, there is also no minimum spend to get cashback. Here are the details I managed to pull out from the bank:

• No minimum spend and up to $60 cashback monthly
• Earn 3% cashback on all online spends in foreign currency and all vPost spends
• Earn 2% cashback on all online spends in local currency, all contactless and mobile payments
• Earn 1% cashback on all other retail spends
• Many other privileges for Singapore Post and vPost services
• Annual fees waived for 2 years
• Minimum annual income of $30,000 for Singapore Citizens and PR

This card seems to offer the highest cashback of 2% for all online spend and also all contactless and mobile payments. Its easy to find contactless payments now all around Singapore which shouldn't be hard to get the 2% cashback. Just use visa pay wave easily at many locations island wide. 

If you're interested, apply from now till 15 November to get $150 Grab Gift for use for your Grab car rides. This is for new SCB cardholders only and not eligible for any other promotions from the bank. Apply here today to get your $150 Grab Gift and get your cashback started!

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Money Hacks To Make The Best Out of Your Money - Part 2

Money Hacks is a 2 part series to share about the deals which I used to make the best out of my money. Read Part 1 here.

In Part 1, I shared on the high interest bank accounts, the cashback cards and also the dining discounts which I can get. In part 2, I will write about the deals for movies, shopping and also how to travel smartly.

Finding the best deals - Movies and Shopping

For movies, here are a list of discounts for 3 of the main cinemas in Singapore:

Golden Village Cinemas

HSBC's Movie Card - $7.50 weekday movie tickets, $9.50 weekend movie tickets

DBS GV iCard - $7.50 weekday movie tickets, $11 weekend movie tickets


Shaw Theatres

Safra Card: $7.50 weekday movie tickets, $10.50 weekend movie tickets and 1 for 1 weekend tickets (for first 500 redemptions per day only)

M1 Customers: 1 for 1 movie tickets on Sunday (valid for first 450 customers only)


Cathay Cineplex

Mastercard - $8 weekday movie tickets, $10.50 weekend movie tickets (not valid for online bookings)

Singtel Customers - 1 for 1 movie tickets every Thursdays (valid for first 500 customers only)


Shopping

Shopback.sg

For shopping, a good website is Shopback to get cashback. You can get cashback on all the popular stores such as Taobao, Qoo10, ebay, AliExpress, Lazada, Shopee and many more. There are many other popular stores too which includes food panda, Expedia, Agoda etc

What's more, you can use my link to get $10 free when you sign up. Sign up here to get your free instant cashback.


Carousell

Many of you should have heard of Carousell where you can buy and sell stuff. Its getting so popular that I'm hearing more and more people use it. Besides selling your stuff, many people actually buy things from there too. You can get some good stuff just searching around and most of the time its much cheaper than what you get in the retail shops.


Ezbuy.sg

Ezbuy is an online shopping portal which brings you the stuff from Taobao without you having to buy your stuff in RMB. There are quite a lot of stuff available for sale and its fairly easy to use. For delivery, you can choose either to deliver straight to your doorstep or choose a location near your house. This can save you quite a lot of delivery charges.


Travelling Smartly

For travelling, the 2 biggest expenses will be the air tickets and accommodation. Let's talk about air tickets first.

Air Tickets 

For comparison of the best air tickets, you can use skyscanner which will instantly compare for you the cheapest air tickets across many airlines. In just less than a minute, you can get the best deal for your flight tickets instantly.

However, air lines do not offer promotions all the time so its crucial to know when the promotions are offered. There are a few ways to keep up to date on the promotions. Firstly, you can follow the different airlines on their Facebook page and also subscribe to their newsletter. For Scoot, they seem to offer special rates on Tuesday and for Jetstar, its on Friday. Full fledge airlines such as Singapore airlines do offer promotions too and it can be quite attractive once they have it. Another website to follow is moneydigest.sg which always have the latest deals updated on their site.


Accommodation

For accommodation, there are more choices now as compared to the past. Besides staying in the traditional hotels, there is airbnb where you can stay at someone's else home. If you're going on a trip with your family, you can actually book the whole apartment with kitchen, living room, bedrooms all for yourself. I've stayed in a few before and its quite an unique and fuss free experience. Just remember to check the reviews to make sure its good before booking.

For hotels, we can use trivago.sg to compare for the best hotels. You might have used Agoda or booking.com before but now with Trivago, they instantly compare against many websites (including agoda and booking.com) for the best hotel deals. Its the best "skyscanner" for hotels.


Regardless if its getting higher interest on your bank account, cashback for spending, shopping, dining, watching movie or even travelling, there are money hacks which we can use to make the best out of it. With the power of technology and the rise of comparison portals and sites, it makes it easier to get the best deals now.

P.S: I've started a comparison portal on my blog too to allow you to compare for the best deals. Check it out here. 

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Money Hacks To Make The Best Out of Your Money - Part 1

Money comes and go like a running tap water. However, we can always make the best out of our money by using a few simple hacks which I've done over the past few years. I believe this has significantly added to my savings and at the same time I still continue to enjoy the finer things in life.

Some of the hacks I employ includes:

1) Enjoying higher bank account interest

2) Getting cashback on my spending

3) Finding the best deals (Dining, movies, shopping etc)

4) Travelling smartly

Let me share in detail what I do to make the best out of my money which you can too to make the best out of yours!

Enjoying higher bank account interest

Since 2005, I started putting my money into higher interest account because the banks in Singapore just slashed their interest rates like nobody's business. Since then, I've switched a few accounts here and there because interest rates in the accounts changes over the years too.

For now, my 2 main high interest accounts are from OCBC and CIMB. OCBC 360 is easy to use and we just need to meet 2 criteria to enjoy 1.5% interest rates on the first $70,000 in the bank account. I just need to credit my salary and also pay 3 different bills to get the 1.5% interest rate. This is easily an additional free $1050 for the year.

Above $70,000, I put into CIMB fast saver account to earn 1% interest on the first $50,000 and then CIMB star saver to earn 0.8% on any balance. The best is there is no conditions to meet for CIMB so its very straightforward. It is very easy to open too just need to do everything online without the trouble of going down to the bank.

Possible extra cash savings: $1000+ a year


Getting cashback on my spendings - Free $150 Grab Gift

I started using cards to get cashback on my spending when I heard a friend say how he had a debit card which gives 2% cashback on all spending. I went to apply for it and used it to pay for my university fees where I got hundreds of dollars in cashback as a result.

Nowadays, its hard to find a debit card which can give good cashback. One of the debit card which gives cashback is the DBS visa debit card which gives 5% cashback. However, you have to use visa paywave for your payments and have to keep withdrawals from the ATM at 3 times or lesser. For me, this is very hard to achieve.

So, I signed up for some credit cards which gives good cashback for my spending. This is easily done for those who has a stable income. If you've started working or have been working for awhile now and do not have any problems controlling your spending, getting a credit card is more beneficial than not having one.

My favourite cashback credit cards is still the Standard Chartered Unlimited card and American Express True Cashback card. Both gives 1.5% cashback on ALL spending (online or offline) and 3% cashback for the first 3 months for the AMEX card. Getting credit cards has even more perks because often there is good sign up bonus. For example, I got $138 credited into my card when I signed up for the SCB unlimited card and additional $100 vouchers.

There's also a new credit card that gives 2% cashback. This is the Standard Chartered Spree credit card. There is no minimum spend and 2% cashback is given for all online and contactless payments.

Currently, there is promotion to get $150 Grab gift for many of the credit cards below. Promo ends 15 Nov 2017.

There are many other cards available too. Click on the image to apply and grab your Grab Gift:

*Note: Grab Gift only applicable when you apply through the above links


Possible extra cash savings: $150 gift + a few hundred dollars cashback

Finding the best deals

There are many deals I've found out over the years which is so good sometimes I don't believe its true. Fancy some 50% off for your dining? Special discounts for movie tickets? Or half price for your shopping? All these are possible with just a touch of your fingers.

Most deals are found online now. For dining, some of the best websites to make reservations is Chope and Eatigo. For Chope, they give 100 Chope dollars for very reservation made. Just 400 Chope dollars and we can exchange for a $10 restaurant voucher. That's $10 off for every 4 reservations only.

The best is still Eatigo which is a dining reservation app that gives up to 50% off your total bill for the restaurant you book at. You can get 50% off for a buffet at Swissotel The Stamford or fancy 50% off for some Michelin star restaurant at Marina Bay Sands? All these can be done using Eatigo to book your reservation.

There are many restaurants on the website which you can look through. Many people are paying the full price for their dining but you can enjoy the same meal for just half the price at the same restaurant. That's the smart way of dining.

Possible extra cash savings: $100+ for each meal


There you go, 3 simple money hacks you can start to make the best out of your money. Part 2 will go more detail into money hacks for movies, shopping and travelling. Stay Tune!

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