I love the beginning of new months.
The reason being very simple. My credit card resets. Well not really...
To be really specific, I always write about using the UOB One account and combo with the UOB One card.
The UOB One account is based on calendar month. Meaning the need to spend $500 on any UOB card from 1st of the month til 30/31 to be able to enjoy the bonus interest.
The UOB One card is based on 23rd of the month. So it's 24th of Aug to 23 Sep. If I spend $500 consecutively for 3 months within this billing cycle, I get $50 rebate.
So to monitor this really efficiently, I always keep my spending between 1st to 23rd of every month. So by the 23rd of the month, I would have spent $500 on our 2 UOB One cards. This ensures that the credit card spending period is hit AND the UOB One account also gets the bonus interest. Basically, that's the overlapping period.
During the 24th of the month onwards, I get a bit of headache. Cos... well, there's no real good credit card to use.
During this period, these are the solutions which I use.
1. Spend using the DBS Visa Debit card. This card gives 5% rebate if spent via Paywave. This is provided that I keep my ATM withdrawals under $400 and within 3 transactions.
So this is great cos 5% rebate is the same as 5% discount. But not everywhere accepts Paywave payments.
2. Spend cash. During this period, I also tend to go to coffee shops, hawker centers. Since I don't have a good card to use, I just go to a cheaper eatery and pay cash. So we plan our eating around this as well. Since early of the month we have a card to swipe, we tend to go restaurants, and since end of the month there's no good card to use, we tend to frequent places which accept cash only.
3. Use vouchers... I just got my NS50 vouchers, I have some Robinson vouchers, some for Great World City, etc... It's a good time use these vouchers which I have accumulated for some time. I've been having difficulty spending the vouchers though, cos quite a lot of places accept Paywave at malls. So if they accept Paywave, I tend to use the DBS Visa Debit card to get 5% rebate. Free money right? But by doing that, I end up not spending my vouchers, which is troublesome cos they may expire. So it's a vicious cycle. I'm trying to make a mental note to spend vouchers first if possible especially for those places where I don't go often like Robinsons.
4. Use credit cards which still have a credit balance. We applied for a couple of credit cards previously which gave some rebates, we still haven't used them up yet. They don't earn any additional rebates and we aren't going to use them regularly so they are like "vouchers" which can be used anywhere.
So when the month restarts, I'm quite happy cos I don't need to take special note to use other forms of payment. I can just switch back to my usual UOB One card and spend without thinking which is the best payment method for the situation.
I'm wondering do other UOB users do this as well? Like put all the spending between 1st to 23rd of the month?
Cos it really is the most efficient thing to do, but it takes practice and monitoring and active management to switch to other cards or payment methods when the time is right. Also, I do take a conscious note to reduce spending during this period as well, so no restaurants and unnecessary spending.
Also, it causes me to induce spending if I cannot hit spending by 23rd of the month, which resulted in me building up a credit balance on our telco bills. I actually appreciate the positive balance on the telco bills now, cos I can manage when the funds are charged to the cards, cos sometimes the telcos don't charge on weekends and I won't know whether my credit card has been charged in time for the bill to reflect the charge. So now, I actively prepay my telco bills every month so that I am sure when the cards are charged.
Edit : As per what is mentioned in the comments, I have been greatly mistaken. I never knew I could call UOB to adjust the credit card billing cycle. I'll be doing that soon.
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