The Plastic Cards I keep and How I am Saving Using Them

UPDATED: July 2020

At this time of crisis, we must be smart financially. You can take a look at these financial products and take advantage of their technical and savvy features to earn rewards or even avoid fees like dishonour fees.

Summary:

1. Transferwise Debit Card 👈
2. HSBC Everyday Global (2% cash rebate, $100 account opening bonus, 0% intl fees)
3. ING (high interest, 0% intl fees)
4. UBank (high interest, sweep technology (avoid dishonour fees), best to link for Raiz and Spaceship Voyager)

5. Commonwealth Bank Diamond Rewards Card

6. Coles and Woolworths reward cards

In Australia, with almost all merchants have EFTPOS (electronic funds transfer at point of sale) machines already, I and my family rarely use cash any more to buy our things.

We use our debit/credit cards in combination with a loyalty card and/or discount card.

In this regard, I am happy to share with you the plastic cards we keep and how we are saving using them.

HSBC Everyday Global

Reasons:

 1. When you deposit at least $2,000

     - $100 Bonus (must deposit  at least $2,000 it for 3 consecutive months, within 6 months of opening your Everyday Global Account)

     - Earn 2% cashback on tap and pay under $100

2. International transaction fees = $0. I use this when travelling overseas.

• $0 Monthly account fee
• $0 Transaction fees
• $0 ATM fees charged by HSBC Australia

ING Orange Everyday Card

The following are the current features of this card:

Free ATMs - You can use every ATM in Australia for free the following month - no matter the amount or who it's operated by - when you deposit $1,000 or more per month from an external account into your Orange Everyday.


No monthly fees - There are $0 monthly fees, so there's more in your pocket for life's incidentals.

International transaction fees= $0. I use this as backup when travelling overseas.

UBank Debit Card

I primarily use UBank because of their 'Sweep' feature

Sweep Technology make it as easy as possible for you to earn interest on your spare cash, while ensuring you can still access your money when you need to.

You can maintain '$0' balance from your debit card (meaning you can put all your hard earned money to the high interest savings account) but be able to used the card during contactless payments and withdrawing cash from ATMs.

and because of this feature, you forget about being charge of dishonour fees, which means it is a good choice to link your:

     1. Utility bills like electricity, mobile phones, internet/NBN (you can but you wont earn rewards or points, so I use my CBA credit card for this purpose)

     2. Rent payments to your landlords. I suggest you can schedule it.

     3. Micro-investing apps like Raiz (formerly Acorns), and Spaceship Voyager (Get $10 in your account when you  enter this code S8CQ1MTTYB within 14 days of signing up and invest at least $5 in your chosen portfolio within 90 days of signing up)

     4. Money remittance (personally, I use OrbitRemit)

     5. Source funding for share or stock trading like Stake or E-toro

CBA Diamond Awards Credit Card

I only use my credit card if I cannot use my HSBC Global debit card (earns 2% rebate). I use my credit cards paying our:

•  electricity bills
•  phone and internet bills 
•  car-related payments like insurance and E-Toll 
•  paypal and online shopping
•  etc

CBA Diamond Awards

Why I like these cards

I pay $59 annually for this card but I get more in return. With the services and products I paid for over the year using these cards, I will accumulate enough points and eventually redeem a $100 worth of fuel later on in Caltex or other voucher cards.

They are 2 cards but the points earned are combined. You will earn 3 Awards points for every dollar spent on the CBA Awards American Express Card while 1.25 Awards point for every dollar spent on the CBA Awards MasterCard. (This feature has been discontinued)

Security (Lock, block and limit your card).

• Instantly lock, block and limit your credit card for extra control through the CommBank app or NetBank.
• Lock in-store international payments – so that no one can use your card in store overseas,
• Lock online international payments – to prevent anyone using your card to make purchases on international websites,
• Block ATM cash advances – so nobody can use your credit card to take out money except you,
• Limit your spending – by setting a maximum amount per transaction.
• The settings you activate will apply instantly and you can switch these settings on and off whenever you need to

How I acquired them
At first, as a client of CBA, I applied over the phone for the low-rate credit card. However, CBA sent me the Awards Cards instead. I don't know if they did it intentionally or by mistake. Being aware of the annual fee of the Awards Card as high, I called CBA and immediately requested for replacement. But in the process, they offered me to keep the Awards Card and waived the annual fee for the 1st year.

I also maintained a good credit history by paying full on time and perhaps this is the reason why CBA upgraded my cards to Diamond in just a year.


Coles Flybuys and Woolworths Everyday Rewards Card

When doing groceries, these cards are must-have. You will accumulate points that will soon be converted to cash or you can use points to redeem other items that are of interest to you.

Woolworhts Everyday Rewards

Coles Flybuys

UPDATED: 28 May 2020