Triple Dipping in Credit Card Promotions

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Cards Required:

  1. New ANZ Travel Visa Signature Card
  2. Registered EZ-Link Imagine American Express® Prepaid Card
  3. Amazon Account (Optional)

Applicants who apply for the ANZ Travel Visa Signature Card under the promotion from 01 February 2014 to 31 April 2014 can qualify for 2,750 Travel$ (which can be redeemed for $50) and an additional bonus 2,000 Travel$ after $700 of eligible spend within 30 days from the date of approval. For the full terms and conditions of this offer, please click here. Redeeming the bonus Travel$ for cash rebate will give me $100 back for $700 spend with 230 Travel$ remaining (approximately 14.9% rebate). 

However, since I do not have any planned expenses of $700 or more coming up, I decided to top up $700 to my Imagine Prepaid AMEX Card to hopefully qualify for this promotion. The second promotion is offered by the Imagine Card. A pair of Shaw Movie Vouchers will be issued to registered customers upon a minimum of SGD $100 spend in a non-SGD currency. The accumulated spend needs to fall between 11 to 20 March 2014 (settled by 25 March 2014) - full details here. 

Once again, I have no immediate plans to spend more than SGD $100 in foreign currency and therefore I decided to send myself a gift card on Amazon in order to qualify for this promotion. I have chosen a slightly higher value - USD $83 (approximately SGD $105) to make sure that the order exceeds SGD $100. It is worth noting that these gift cards have no expiry dates. 

Additionally, spending on the AMEX purse of the Imagine Card grants me 5% rebate (for up to $5 each month). Essentially, this gives me $5 back for the $105 spent on redeeming the USD $83 Gift Card on Amazon. 

In conclusion, charging my Imagine Card with SGD $700 and then spending SGD $105 on the gift card will potentially give me SGD $105 (from ANZ and Imagine Card) in cash back and two Shaw Movie Vouchers. 

Hilton Honors Points for Singaporeans (Credit Card Spend)

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As covered in my previous entry, Hilton Honors Points are incredibly difficult to earn in Asia. In Singapore, there are only two credit card companies that allow you to earn Hilton points from spending (albeit still at a very low rate). A reader recently brought the American Express Rewards Card to my attention. The low fee credit card allows for an excellent chance at earning HHonors Points (or miles, if you prefer). 

There are a couple of requirements you have to fulfill before you are eligible for the bonus points:

  1. Annual Income needs to be greater than SGD$30,000.
  2. You need to be a new American Express Rewards Card applicant (it is ok if you are currently holding a Platinum or Krisflyer card).
  3. You need to pay the annual fee of $53.50 (inclusive of GST). 
  4. You need to spend $1,500 from the date of approval. 

Upon spending $1,500 within three months from the date your credit card was approved, you will receive 21,000 bonus Membership Rewards Points. On a normal rate of earning, this card gives you 1 Membership Rewards Point per SGD$1 spent. As a bonus, you get 100% bonus points for the first three months of your new account. Therefore spending $1,500 would normally give you 1,500 points but you will receive 3,000 points should you spend this amount within this time frame. Combined with the 21,000 bonus points, you will receive a total of 24,000 Membership Rewards Points for spending $1,553.50 [$1,500 + $53.50 (Annual Fee)]. 1 Membership Rewards Point is equivalent to 1.25 HHonors Points. Therefore, this opportunity will present you with $1 to 19.31 HHonors Points for the first $1,500 spent (within the first 3 months), leaving you with 30,000 HHonors Points. 

This truly is an exceptionally rare opportunity and I beseech everyone who is a HHonors Points collector to make use of it. 

Citibank is the other bank that allows consumers to earn Hilton Honors Points from spending. The Citibank Rewards Card provides 10x base earning bonus when you shop for clothes, bags and shoes or at departmental stores (e.g. Tangs) or online shopping websites (e.g. Amazon). With a base earning of 0.4 HHonors Points per dollar, this is equivalent to 4 HHonors Points (or 4 Miles) per SGD$1 when you shop and these locations. 

Alternatively, the Citibank Premiermiles (VISA) allows you to earn 1.2 Citi Miles per SGD$1 spent on anything (or 2.0 Citi Miles per dollar in Foreign Currency). 1 Citi Mile is equivalent to 1.5 Hilton Honors Points, and therefore:

Local Currency (SGD): $1 = 1.8 Hilton Honors Points
Foreign Currency (SGD - after conversion) = $1 = 3.0 Hilton Honors Points

There is an American Express version of this Citibank Premiermiles card with slightly higher earning rate but I personally think the AMEX version is more restrictive and you generally end up paying more after currency conversion due to higher charges. For those that are interested, here are the conversion rates:

Local Currency (SGD): $1 = 2.1 HHonors Points
Foreign Currency (SGD - after conversion): $1 = 3.0 HHonors Points
Singapore Airlines/SilkAir (SGD): $1 = 3.75 HHonors Points