So I'm sure readers all have credit cards to optimise returns on spending.
Like if you use the UOB One card, you will need to hit a minimum of SGD500 per month to get the increased bonus on the UOB One account and also get the SGD50 every 3 months. Or if you can hit SGD1000 you will get SGD100 every 3 months.
Or you may want to use the Citibank Cashback card with a minimum spend of SGD888 and you can get 8% cashback on some spending categories. It's actually quite a good card if you use it stand alone.
But you know, if you're on this blog or any other financial blog for that matter, it probably means you're not spending as much as your peers or any regular person on this Earth.
I know a friend who easily clocks SGD4000 every month total on EACH of her and her husband's account. And she wonders how I can keep my spending low.
How low? You may wonder? Well, my wife and I keep our spending at SGD500 each on our UOB One card. With a bit of other miscellaneous spending on other cards which may provide a better rebate in small amounts. Like using the POSB Card when buying stuff at Sheng Siong cos that gives 5% rebate, or using the Amex Platinum Card cos that gives us 50% off on food at some restaurants, etc. Which end up to be around SGD200-300 in total added across various cards.
Every once in a while we have this really BIG problem. We can't hit the minimum spend of SGD500 on our UOB cards. Now this might sound really ridiculous, but it's a real issue with us. Cos it happens maybe 2-3 times a year when there's really nothing happening in the month. No birthdays, no big ticket items to buy, nothing to replace, etc. And at the end of the month, we'd have spent maybe SGD300 on each of our UOB cards, and may a little on the miscellaneous cards (I'm not gonna use my UOB card and miss out on 50% off right...) and have a headache on how to push our spending up another SGD200 each. That's SGD400 in maybe 1 weeks' time frame!!!
This happened this month (July) and will probably happen in August as well. Previously, I would clock the additional spending with NTUC vouchers. Just go up to the counter and buy X dollars of NTUC vouchers. Easy enough solution. But these days I don't do my grocery shopping at NTUC, I find Cold Storage, Giant and Sheng Shiong a better choice for different aspects of my shopping. I find NTUC kinda in the middle of nowhere. Convenient but the stuff isn't really cheap or of great quality. It's not bad or anything, just doesn't suit my purposes.
So I was really reading up last month on what to push my spending on cos this was the first time this issue happened this year. Last year I bought NTUC vouchers, but I realized that I had difficulty finding stuff at NTUC to buy so this round, I would prefer not to get NTUC vouchers cos I took sometime using up the vouchers last time.
I'm probably kinda slow in finding this out cos the solution was quite readily available in the forums. It also solved my problem of having to find something to buy at NTUC or any supermarket for that matter.
The grand solution???
Prepay your bills...
It's really simple. I could just prepay my telco bills and utility bills.
All the 3 telcos will accept this. You can just go up to the retail outlets and request to repay your account. Or you can also download the app and prepay your account electronically. It's quite an awesome solution.
For your utility bills, you can only prepay up to 2 months of your average monthly usage. You MUST go down to the customer service counters at their office to do this.
All other methods to pay utility bills are only available via DBS/POSB cards. Meaning if you want to pay using AXS or using the app, you must use DBS/POSB card to pay.
You can swipe other cards at the customer service at Toa Payoh HDB Hub, Shenton Way PWC Building, Woodlands Civic Centre.
https://www.spgroup.com.sg/contact-us
So I dropped by PWC Building and went to swipe my UOB card.
And the cashier looked and me and said, "You're trying to hit some minimum spend on your card?"
I smiled and responded, "Yea, a lot of people come here to do this as well?"
Well anyway, I found that this was the best way for me to clock any additional spending required on my credit card. Cos I wouldn't need to think of what to buy if I had bought vouchers.
This issue with this is that basically it's just kicking the can down the road. Cos the next few month's of bills would now be prepaid and I would probably have difficulty in hitting the minimum spending next month as well. But I know my spending will average out to SGD500 a month so I'm pretty confident my spending will even itself out eventually.
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Like if you use the UOB One card, you will need to hit a minimum of SGD500 per month to get the increased bonus on the UOB One account and also get the SGD50 every 3 months. Or if you can hit SGD1000 you will get SGD100 every 3 months.
Or you may want to use the Citibank Cashback card with a minimum spend of SGD888 and you can get 8% cashback on some spending categories. It's actually quite a good card if you use it stand alone.
But you know, if you're on this blog or any other financial blog for that matter, it probably means you're not spending as much as your peers or any regular person on this Earth.
I know a friend who easily clocks SGD4000 every month total on EACH of her and her husband's account. And she wonders how I can keep my spending low.
How low? You may wonder? Well, my wife and I keep our spending at SGD500 each on our UOB One card. With a bit of other miscellaneous spending on other cards which may provide a better rebate in small amounts. Like using the POSB Card when buying stuff at Sheng Siong cos that gives 5% rebate, or using the Amex Platinum Card cos that gives us 50% off on food at some restaurants, etc. Which end up to be around SGD200-300 in total added across various cards.
Every once in a while we have this really BIG problem. We can't hit the minimum spend of SGD500 on our UOB cards. Now this might sound really ridiculous, but it's a real issue with us. Cos it happens maybe 2-3 times a year when there's really nothing happening in the month. No birthdays, no big ticket items to buy, nothing to replace, etc. And at the end of the month, we'd have spent maybe SGD300 on each of our UOB cards, and may a little on the miscellaneous cards (I'm not gonna use my UOB card and miss out on 50% off right...) and have a headache on how to push our spending up another SGD200 each. That's SGD400 in maybe 1 weeks' time frame!!!
This happened this month (July) and will probably happen in August as well. Previously, I would clock the additional spending with NTUC vouchers. Just go up to the counter and buy X dollars of NTUC vouchers. Easy enough solution. But these days I don't do my grocery shopping at NTUC, I find Cold Storage, Giant and Sheng Shiong a better choice for different aspects of my shopping. I find NTUC kinda in the middle of nowhere. Convenient but the stuff isn't really cheap or of great quality. It's not bad or anything, just doesn't suit my purposes.
So I was really reading up last month on what to push my spending on cos this was the first time this issue happened this year. Last year I bought NTUC vouchers, but I realized that I had difficulty finding stuff at NTUC to buy so this round, I would prefer not to get NTUC vouchers cos I took sometime using up the vouchers last time.
I'm probably kinda slow in finding this out cos the solution was quite readily available in the forums. It also solved my problem of having to find something to buy at NTUC or any supermarket for that matter.
The grand solution???
Prepay your bills...
It's really simple. I could just prepay my telco bills and utility bills.
All the 3 telcos will accept this. You can just go up to the retail outlets and request to repay your account. Or you can also download the app and prepay your account electronically. It's quite an awesome solution.
For your utility bills, you can only prepay up to 2 months of your average monthly usage. You MUST go down to the customer service counters at their office to do this.
All other methods to pay utility bills are only available via DBS/POSB cards. Meaning if you want to pay using AXS or using the app, you must use DBS/POSB card to pay.
You can swipe other cards at the customer service at Toa Payoh HDB Hub, Shenton Way PWC Building, Woodlands Civic Centre.
https://www.spgroup.com.sg/contact-us
So I dropped by PWC Building and went to swipe my UOB card.
And the cashier looked and me and said, "You're trying to hit some minimum spend on your card?"
I smiled and responded, "Yea, a lot of people come here to do this as well?"
Well anyway, I found that this was the best way for me to clock any additional spending required on my credit card. Cos I wouldn't need to think of what to buy if I had bought vouchers.
This issue with this is that basically it's just kicking the can down the road. Cos the next few month's of bills would now be prepaid and I would probably have difficulty in hitting the minimum spending next month as well. But I know my spending will average out to SGD500 a month so I'm pretty confident my spending will even itself out eventually.
<<PREVIOUS POST // NEXT POST>>
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