Pay by Credit Cards to Reduce Your Expenses

Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship

                                                          (Benjamin Franklin)


I have a few credit cards and I take advantage of the cards to reduce my spending:


• EON Bank Visa: I have made arrangements with the bonk to charge all my insurance premium, monthly telephone bill, and mobile phone and electricity bills to this account. It is very inconvenient to pay so many bills all by yourself. The advantage of charging them to my credit card is that I get one point for each ringgit charged. With the accumulated points I can redeem for useful household items such as cookers, Thermos flasks, ovens, and wallets. You have to pay for these items normally. EON bank credit cards are not free for life. You have to charge 12 times on your classic card or 24 times on your gold card in a year in order to waive the annual fee. With the standing orders, I don't have to worry about the annual fee. I will keep this card.

• EON Bank MasterCard: I use the card to purchase big-ticket items like a mobile phone at 0% interest in installments up to 24 months with no extra charges for the purchase and it does not hurt my monthly budget. The monthly installments and other purchases will offset the annual fee. I will give up this card upon full payment of the monthly installments.


• Citibank Giant Visa: Every time I shop at Giant I get 2% rebate. I also get up to 1% rebate at other outlets. This card is only free for the first year. You don't get an instant discount. The rebate is in the form of Giant vouchers in the denomination of RM20/= each. I will surrender this card by end of the year to avoid the annual fee.

• CIMB Bank Petronas MasterCard: I get 2% discount every time I fill up at Petronas petrol station. On top of that, I get a 0.5% discount on all other purchases. This card is free for life and the discount is given at the end of the month. You only need to pay for the discounted amount. I will keep this card.


By year-end I will maintain only two cards; EON Visa for the insurance premium and utility bills and CIMB Petronas MasterCard for petrol and other essential expenses.

In order to really enjoy the reduction in your spending, you need to set aside an amount every month so as to make payment promptly to avoid late charges and finance charges. The other point is that you must be disciplined enough not to use the cards to spend on other non-essential items. Buy the things you need and not the things that you want.

The best credit card to keep is the CIMB Bank Petronas MasterCard. It is free for life and there are no conditions attached to it. You get an instant cash rebate and you pay only the net amount monthly.