Westpac Singapore KrisFlyer Credit Card

[herman_aussie]

They offered fee free this year and 1/2 price next so will be keeping the Amex at least in my wallet.

That is a great deal.... welldone mate.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

So if you do (like me) still like the WBS SG Amex card worth negotiating! Will now try the same for my wife.

Each to their own as value is different for each of us.

In my case the Westpac KF have been completely free for my first two years via negotiating....So cost side =$0. However I never saw the value in using the Amex beyond the 3.0 point earn period that came with it. The lure for me was the VISA earning 1.0 SQ point per $.

However the killer for me is now the earn rate of 0.5 on VISA. Better off with Citibank (free for life in my case) for more points per $$$$ that arrive in my SQ account eventually.

On the KF Amex side..while it earns at 1.5 points per $$ there are some big disadvantages compared to using a Direct Earn Amex.

• Points have life of 3 years vs indifinitle
• Amex sometimes has bonus on transfer to SQ (so 10% extra can be had)
• Amex has regular promos and bonus partner offeings of various types so that ones effective average earn is a lot lot higher than 1.5 (in my case over the last few years I would have averaged many multiples of 1.5 rather than 1.5).
• Amex also can be sent to other airlines....so other options are available and some specials can be good value.

Fortunately the majority of my CC spend is on Amex and so VISA is only used for what is left. This means that I cannotjustify CitiSelect for the higher eran and so have to make do with only 0.66 points per $ to SQ. this is still better than KF at 0.5 though.

In addition for Direct earn Amex's one can also negotiate the fee and/or receive bonus points to offset fee cost.

 

[burmans]

On the KF Amex side..while it earns at 1.5 points per $$ there are some big disadvantages compared to using a Direct Earn Amex.

• Points have life of 3 years vs indifinitle
• Amex sometimes has bonus on transfer to SQ (so 10% extra can be had)
• Amex has regular promos and bonus partner offeings of various types so that ones effective average earn is a lot lot higher than 1.5 (in my case over the last few years I would have averaged many multiples of 1.5 rather than 1.5).
• Amex also can be sent to other airlines....so other options are available and some specials can be good value.

Agree on 2nd & 3rd but for most of my travel SQ is destination of choice and with a family of 4 (2 A, 2 C) have never found burning the points within 3 years a problem, in fact I usually use once they get to a reasonable amount almost straight away. As you say each have a different equaltion.

Fortunately the majority of my CC spend is on Amex and so VISA is only used for what is left. This means that I cannotjustify CitiSelect for the higher eran and so have to make do with only 0.66 points per $ to SQ. this is still better than KF at 0.5 though.

In addition for Direct earn Amex's one can also negotiate the fee and/or receive bonus points to offset fee cost.

Or Citibusiness at about .83 points is a good deal, particularly as in my case it was offered as an add on, i.e. no additional fee!

Don't disagree on the Direct Earn Amex's, the current offer on the Plat Reserve (30K points, $395 fee plus free flight) will probably be next on my hit list and where I would have gone if WBC hadn't negotiated. For now though need to hold off a couple of months until I have a genuine use for the flight.

 

[kamchatsky]

Has anyone else apart from burmans got their annual fee waived?
I am also looking at cancelling this card now that it is no longer that attractive for us. I am now using the Plat Edge Amex + Citibank Gold Free card as my points earning.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

for most of my travel SQ is destination of choice and with a family of 4 (2 A, 2 C) have never found burning the points within 3 years a problem,.

The last point was mainly to keep my options open, as one never knows what deals may bob-up.

I have a family of 5 too. however despite currently redeeming two sets of J tickets per year the 3 years could be a problem though I did move 1.5 million there to get the 10% bonus of 150K.

SQ have been getting most of redemptions the last several years. Mainly on SQ metal but also on Thai.

Main issue with SQ is that it is generally hard to get more than 2 J seats to beyond Asian destinations on the one day, so have to fly over more than 2 flights/days.

Thai has easier availabity and have scored 5 J seats at once to Thailand for example.

If I moved all my points to SQ the 3 years would be a problem...though having said that if I only used Westpac Amex to earn points I would only have a fraction of the points I do have. Direct earn Amex's are far more lucrative.

 

[burmans]

Direct earn Amex's are far more lucrative.

OK I'm convinced on what I need to do next, it was on my to-do list!

 

[penegal]

Rang up to have a chat to retentions unit, explained that I was probably going to cancel as Visa earn had been halved and had better Visa earn cards in my wallet, liked the Amex and Krisflyer but this did not justify a $250 annual fee and wanted to see if they caould offer me fee waiver before I cancel. They offered fee free this year and 1/2 price next so will be keeping the Amex at least in my wallet. For Visa/Amex now have Citi Plat (to get the 60K bonus) and Citibusiness Gold, will use the latter mainly, plus also have the Quantas EDR card.

So if you do (like me) still like the WBS SG Amex card worth negotiating! Will now try the same for my wife.

Congrats - I have had issues - read below.

Has anyone else apart from burmans got their annual fee waived?
I am also looking at cancelling this card now that it is no longer that attractive for us. I am now using the Plat Edge Amex + Citibank Gold Free card as my points earning.

I have had a similar issue with getting the annual fee waived.

They seem to want to charge me the fee due to the fact that they aren't making any money off me (apart from merchant fees). Despite complaining about the changes they are adiment to charge the fee.

The CSR on the phone was actually quite rude despite putting a substantial amount of cash through the card (including some business purchases of J and F fares on SQ). My opinion of Westpac has dropped because of how rude the CSR was (the woman was very very rude). I am considering cancelling the card before fee anniversary (next week) out of principal.

As others have mentioned AMEX plat can match for AmEx purchases (except on SQ web fares).

 

[cove]

Yes I had my previous annual fee refunded when I complained about a bad exchange rate on prepaying a Hilton hotel bill in the US for a stack of rooms.
It was their suggestion so I grabbed the refund....they did not want to do it any other way....apparently the annual fee rebating is an easier transaction for an operator to ok on the spot.

 

[Atom]

Has anyone else apart from burmans got their annual fee waived?
I am also looking at cancelling this card now that it is no longer that attractive for us. I am now using the Plat Edge Amex + Citibank Gold Free card as my points earning.

I got my annual fee waived 2 weeks ago for the coming year. It's free so will keep it for another year but as soon as they charge me for it, I will definitely cancel it. The fees are not worth it for 0.5 points per $ spent on the Visa card. For me, the woolworths qantas card will be the best option for non Amex spend.

 

[WA flyer]

Has anyone else apart from burmans got their annual fee waived?
I am also looking at cancelling this card now that it is no longer that attractive for us. I am now using the Plat Edge Amex + Citibank Gold Free card as my points earning.

I've also had this card free it's inception but will relinquish it in the next week or two.
As a 1:1 visa it was useful but as LTO said, far better to use an Amex Plat.

The 60,000 bonus made the Citi Select viable for me, plus now 1.33 KF per $ it is value
for big users. Customer service good too!

 

[crowman28]

I've also had this card free it's inception but will relinquish it in the next week or two.
As a 1:1 visa it was useful but as LTO said, far better to use an Amex Plat.

The 60,000 bonus made the Citi Select viable for me, plus now 1.33 KF per $ it is value
for big users. Customer service good too!

Does Citibank offer a good online saver account, like Westpac's E-saver, which offers 5% interest p.a.?

If they have one, then I can use that account to transfer funds straight into the Citi Select credit card online.

If Citibank doesn't have a good internet online bank account, then it becomes difficult transferring funds across immediately.

Cheers

 

[hummel]

Cancelled by Krisflyer gold today just before annual fee. Lady on the phone was lovely and when asked why am I cancelling I explained that platinum edge/citibank is a much better combo She said she will look into it

 

[ZeroPoint]

With my card anniversary coming up, I called to see if I would be refunded the annual fee after my anniversary if I decided to cancel within that month. The lady wasn't sure.

So I ask to be cancelled now, in case I couldn't get a refund, and she said she'll transfer me to the associated department. Was put on hold for a while, and rather then keep me waiting, she said she'll ensure I get a credit for the annual fee. So I'm happy to stay with Westpac for another year.

 

[albatross710]

Does Citibank offer a good online saver account, like Westpac's E-saver, which offers 5% interest p.a.?
Cheers

As a matter of interest I moved to Ubank online currently offering a respectable 6.51%.

Transfers are overnight.

 

[cove]

A number of us are switching out of the Visa from Westpac to either the Platinum or Select versions of the Citi card as the earn rate is double.
The Amex part of Westpac still works a treat but Amex is not universally accepted as the average merchant fee is far higher.
Last night after 2 months of zero points posted, CitiSelect came through and posted over 100k points to the account.
If you choose to go Citi I must suggest you should expect a glitch and then a series of calls to get it working properly.
Then if you are the lucky one and it gets set up correctly from the account opening you can consider yourself to be the Citi GURU.
I plan to now work with both cards namely CitiSelect Visa(KRIS) and Westpac Platinum Kris Flyer as both cards are uncapped and SQ redemptions can be so good.

 

[kamchatsky]

Finally cancelled the credit card. The CSR said that they could not waive me annual fee due to it being done last year. They asked me whether I want to go to Krisflyer Gold instead as I am already on a package with Westpac, I said no and they should have just waived the fee instead (esp I am on package). so bye bye.

 

[just.in]

I tried to cancel the credit cards to day but the CSR offered me of 0 Annual fee for this year, so I keep those cards for 1 more year. I requested for Annual Fee waive last year but no successful.

 

[yohy?!]

Does Citibank offer a good online saver account, like Westpac's E-saver, which offers 5% interest p.a.?

If they have one, then I can use that account to transfer funds straight into the Citi Select credit card online.

If Citibank doesn't have a good internet online bank account, then it becomes difficult transferring funds across immediately.

Cheers

Citi Onliner Saver would fit the bill, interest rate is 6.4% for first 6 months then 5.25%

 

[crowman28]

Citi Onliner Saver would fit the bill, interest rate is 6.4% for first 6 months then 5.25%

Yes thanks, already set up a Citibank account a few weeks back. Going to apply for the Citibank Gold Card, while there is a special promotion of 2 Citi reward points per dollar spent.

Much better than Westpac Kris Flyer VISA for sure now.

 

[MAX_1]

Called Westpac to cancel my card. They just said ok, and asked why. I said have a guess. Visa earn rate? was the answer. She told me many have left over this.

Last 12 months spend was $350 K .