Sunday, February 28, 2010
11:01 PM
thou i owned almost all the major banks' credit cards, i'm nv a fan of using them to accumulate pts for the exchange of things as gg for the upfront discount is definitely more worth it. however, it jus so happened dat i've to make a bulk purchase today, n there's no discounts available, no freebies to exchange, not even lucky draws promotion for any of the credit cards. hence, given my character, i went to do a research on which card is the best to use (for the accumulating of pts) in such a situation.
jus a summary of how each bank award pts...
DBS: every $5 = 1 pt
Std Char: every $5 = 1 pt
HSBC: every $1 = 1 pt
Bank of china: every $1 = 1 pt
OCBC: every $1 = 1pt
Citibank: every $1 = 1.2 miles (as i accum krisflyer miles wif this)
UOB: i dun get pts as i use the ONE card
so after figuring out each bank's reward pts system, i moved on to coverting the actual pts needed to exchange for an item into monetary value. in order to make a fair comparison, i tried to extract the same item (a $10 F&B voucher) from each bank and this is the outcome:
DBS
andersen $10 voucher = 360pts = $1800
Stan Char
ben&jerry/watson/crystal jade $10 voucher = 350pts = $1750
HSBC
anderson/delifrance/haagen dazs $10 voucher = 1800pts = $1800
BOC
watson/cold storage $10 voucher = 3000pts = $3000
OCBC
anderson $10 voucher = 1800pts = $1800
so morale of the story is all banks maintain the same "reward exchange rate" and there are not much differences (except BOC which is ridiculously ex). this further prove my pt dat it's definitely more worth to go for upfront discount as the pts system is crap. who'll spent $1800 jus to redeem a $10 voucher?! lol~~
jus a summary of how each bank award pts...
DBS: every $5 = 1 pt
Std Char: every $5 = 1 pt
HSBC: every $1 = 1 pt
Bank of china: every $1 = 1 pt
OCBC: every $1 = 1pt
Citibank: every $1 = 1.2 miles (as i accum krisflyer miles wif this)
UOB: i dun get pts as i use the ONE card
so after figuring out each bank's reward pts system, i moved on to coverting the actual pts needed to exchange for an item into monetary value. in order to make a fair comparison, i tried to extract the same item (a $10 F&B voucher) from each bank and this is the outcome:
DBS
andersen $10 voucher = 360pts = $1800
Stan Char
ben&jerry/watson/crystal jade $10 voucher = 350pts = $1750
HSBC
anderson/delifrance/haagen dazs $10 voucher = 1800pts = $1800
BOC
watson/cold storage $10 voucher = 3000pts = $3000
OCBC
anderson $10 voucher = 1800pts = $1800
so morale of the story is all banks maintain the same "reward exchange rate" and there are not much differences (except BOC which is ridiculously ex). this further prove my pt dat it's definitely more worth to go for upfront discount as the pts system is crap. who'll spent $1800 jus to redeem a $10 voucher?! lol~~
Thursday, February 18, 2010
11:53 AM
a long backdated post abt my trip to changchun last mth~~
while out doin bank cfm, the client brought me to visit one of the very famous place of interest 伪满皇宫博物院。 this is the residence of the last emperor of china, puyi, who ascended the throne when he was only 3 yrs old.
so by definition, i'm visiting a REAL palace!
the imperial garden (御花园) dat we often see on tv shows. it's really super big, no wonder they can always walk for miles before reaching another part of the palace.
the interior of the palace, as puyi's era was between the qing empire and the people's republic of china, the things and decorations inside the palace were actually very modern...
he even had pool table, piano & lotsa western stuffs! haha... i nv expect an emperor to play the piano, tink i used to classify all of them under very old dynasties!
an org chart of the departments in the palace~~ can u spot finance? lol!
this is already the oldest type of costumes i can find inside the palace, the rest are all modern suits...
some other exterior parts of the palace~~
during the wkend, we went shopping at the whoesale market there. it is really WHOLESALE! clothes there are so super cheap dat we've to stopped each other from buying more! while taking the domestic flight back to shanghai to transit, we got charged 340 bucks for excess baggages, n we almost cldnt board e flight as we've spent all our RMBs and have no money to pay! haha...
my hotel~~ it's called the changchun international conference and exhibition hotel, so u can imgaine the among of ppl coming here for meetings, seminars n dunno wat...
while out doin bank cfm, the client brought me to visit one of the very famous place of interest 伪满皇宫博物院。 this is the residence of the last emperor of china, puyi, who ascended the throne when he was only 3 yrs old.
so by definition, i'm visiting a REAL palace!
the imperial garden (御花园) dat we often see on tv shows. it's really super big, no wonder they can always walk for miles before reaching another part of the palace.
the interior of the palace, as puyi's era was between the qing empire and the people's republic of china, the things and decorations inside the palace were actually very modern... he even had pool table, piano & lotsa western stuffs! haha... i nv expect an emperor to play the piano, tink i used to classify all of them under very old dynasties!an org chart of the departments in the palace~~ can u spot finance? lol!
this is already the oldest type of costumes i can find inside the palace, the rest are all modern suits...
some other exterior parts of the palace~~
during the wkend, we went shopping at the whoesale market there. it is really WHOLESALE! clothes there are so super cheap dat we've to stopped each other from buying more! while taking the domestic flight back to shanghai to transit, we got charged 340 bucks for excess baggages, n we almost cldnt board e flight as we've spent all our RMBs and have no money to pay! haha...
my hotel~~ it's called the changchun international conference and exhibition hotel, so u can imgaine the among of ppl coming here for meetings, seminars n dunno wat...
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
2:14 AM
happi CNY 2010~~ 祝大家虎年行大运！
this yr's cny is a series of super packed days... 感觉好像每天都在赶场!
our whole family spent e new yr's eve decorating e hse~~
reunion dinner was at my aunt's place, tght wif all relatives... activities after dinner was 逛花园 and gg to chinatown after midnite to 扫 all the 便宜货! haha... i realised only my family has this culture of gg to chinatown in the wee hrs of 大年初一, but it's super fun & u can really get all e cheap lobangs (like a big box of mandarin oranges only cost $3?!)
first activity of 初一 was visiting my grandma,
then went over to kian's side to visit his relatives in e afternoon, n kian came over to visit my relatives at nite. i finally get to see 3 mths old 小杰！
i've always been very close to my cousin since young, n i even wanna participate in her delivery process, but sadly i missed it all as i was in china when she gave birth. subsequently during e 满月, i'm STILL in china... so i missed it again. ha!
anyway, 初二was allocated to kian's 姑婆's hse & relatives, then my hse & relatives and finally gathering at xg's hse to 捞鱼生！we bought the 鱼生 from sakae, not bad!
we invented a new way to play taboo, n it's to use chinese to describe! haha... everyone ended up speaking so weird and make all of us roll on e floor laughing!
i've always been very close to my cousin since young, n i even wanna participate in her delivery process, but sadly i missed it all as i was in china when she gave birth. subsequently during e 满月, i'm STILL in china... so i missed it again. ha!anyway, 初二was allocated to kian's 姑婆's hse & relatives, then my hse & relatives and finally gathering at xg's hse to 捞鱼生！we bought the 鱼生 from sakae, not bad!
we invented a new way to play taboo, n it's to use chinese to describe! haha... everyone ended up speaking so weird and make all of us roll on e floor laughing!visited kian's sister new hse at fernvale on the 3rd day of cny, as they've oni moved in 2 wks ago, the rooms are still quite empty and looked spacious, but i tink 92 sq metre is quite small, i definitely wan my hse to be more than 100.
Monday, February 01, 2010
10:16 PM
kian suddenly pop up on msn today n thks me for accepting who he is... then he wishes me a happi monthisary~~ *beams* :)