Beauty of Standard Chartered Xtrasaver account

笨mummy has been late in discovering the beauty of the Standard Chartered Xtrasaver account. But it is still better late than never. 


So what is so great about this account? It allows one to get cashback from Mastercard spending (extra for petrol) depending on how much you have in the checking account:

Checking account deposit balance	CashBack on petrol with MasterCard	CashBack on local and overseas MasterCard transactions
		If you spend on petrol	Do not spend on petrol
$6,000 and above	7%	1%	2%
$20,000 and above	10%	1%	2%
$50,000 and above	12%	1.5%	3%
$200,000 and above	15%	1.5%	5%

In addition, there is also 0.5% cashback from Nets transaction. This is what that makes 笨mummy excited over the Xtrasaver account. 


Every Jul, 笨mummy needs to pay her annual insurance premium of $3.5K to Prudential and the best credit card to use is , of course, the Standard Chartered Manhattan Credit Card that offers a 5% rebate on any spending of $3K in the month (capped at $200 cash rebate per quarter). 


Now with the Xtrasaver debit card, 笨mummy can now pay the bill to her Manhattan Credit Card using the Net function of Xtrasaver debit card at the AXS machine and this would give her an additional $17.5. 


To let more about Xtrasaver account, please refer to http://www.standardchartered.com.sg/personal-banking/deposits/xtrasaver/en/

笨mummy's KL trip

笨mummy just came back from KL from a short getaway trip with a group of friends over the weekend. During the trip, 笨mummy was frustrated by the speed of how slow the people in KL process documents, etc. The wait for the tickets to the sky bridge to twin tower was unbearable. 笨mummy and friends got number 76 and wait for 1 hour 10 min before it was 笨mummy's turn at the ticketing counter to buy a ticket. The time took for the airport staff to process check-in also is a test on 笨mummy's patience. 

It could be that 笨mummy is too used to the speed of things in Singapore, everything need to be fast fast fast. 

But one thing that 笨mummy likes about KL is the attitude of the service staff. They are always friendly despite the fact that we are asked a lot of questions about the products and ended up not buying. This is something that we seldom see in Singapore. 

The friendlines of the services staff has helped to compensate the "slowness" in services. Overall, it is a great place to re-visit again for 笨mummy..

笨mummy's daily rant - 08 Mar 2011

There is this lady in her late thirties working in the same office building as 笨mummy. 笨mummy has been noticing her for a while. 笨mummy always saw her in the office gym toilet in the past when 笨mummy was still hardworking enough to go gym [which she has not been doing so lately due to laziness].

It is not surprising to see a co-worker in the office gym toilet, but the thing is she is not there to workout, rather to bath. Normally this co-worker bath once in the morning and in the evening before going home. 笨mummy guessing that this co-worker wants to save her water bills by bathing in the office gym toilet. 笨mummy cannot believe that there are such people in the world who would resort to this. But this co-worker is not the only one, apparently, 笨mummy was told by one of the guy colleagues that there is also an uncle who come to office gym toilet to bath and brush his teeth every morning.

$1 tendergrill burger by Burger King

Burger King offering a $1 tendergrill burger on this Thursday. 

Great bargain!!

笨mummy 's take on samples

Disclaimer: 笨mummy is not doing an advertorial for "TheSampleStore"

笨mummy loves to get samples of different products. She normally get them from the respective products websites, magazines, even ebay sg at times and more offen "The Sample Store". 笨mummy has been a member of The Sample Store when it was still known as fr3b. Why does 笨mummy likes about  "The Sample Store"?

Firstly, of course is about the free samples!!

Rather than spending money getting a product at its retail price and finding the product not suitable after a few usages, getting the sample pack for the product for testing before committing to getting the product at retail is a much better option. Unlike getting from products websites and magazines, it consists of reviews from other users of the products, and one can decide whether to get the product samples or not depending on the users' reviews.

Secondly, it also helps 笨mummy to solve the travel restriction of a maximum capacity of not more than 100ml each for the liquid and gels on handcarried luggages. The sample size is normally sufficient for a few applications and of course less than the restriction limit of 100ml each and it also allows one to do away with buying travel size container.

This is something that  笨mummy recently ordered from http://www.thesamplestore.sg/product/details/2502/0/name-the-sample-store-hair-care-kit-35pcs-free-normal-mail-delivery

Though it costs ard S$10,  it is still quite worth it. Plus 笨mummy is traveling to Malaysia in Mid Mar and also Japan in End Apr and these samples would come in handy for the two trips.

Standard chartered 15% cashback on dining is back

Standard chartered 15% cashback on dining is back again from 1 Mar to End April 2011.  Standard Chartered Cardholders who like to enjoy this cashback need to register first with them and according to the website, it is restricted to the first 50,000 who registered. For more information, check out their website - http://www.standardchartered.com.sg/promotion/15_dining_promo/index.html?camp_id=subpage_15_dining_promo_promo_latestpromo

Some of my friends commented that it is hard to hit the S$500 usage as they do not spend much on their credit cards and there are certain restriction to what qualify to be included in the S$500 spending limit and it is not possible for them to qualify to get the 15% cashback. 

Here is a little trick that 笨mummy used to ensure that she can hit the spending limit which is to pre-paid her monthly expenses. There are certain bills that are needed to be pay every month - Phone bill, internet subscription, utilities bills, etc and there is no harm from paying them way in advance, anyway the bank interests that you lost due to the amount used for advance payment is also very little as compare to the 15% cashback on your dining assuming you eat out at the fancy restaurants once a week. 

Discounted card pricing for online booking of tickets at GV

It is very common for banks to have credit card promotions that allows the cardholder to enjoy discounted movie tickets. For example, OCBC credit cards and GV - S$7 for Mon to Thurs and S$8.50 for Fri, weekend and PH. You can access to the list of credit card with GV movie ticket promotion on GV site - http://www.gv.com.sg/promotions.jsp

However such promotions are not extended to online booking. As cardholders, we need to queue for the tickets in order to enjoy a discounted movie tickets and for those newly released movies, we may not even get a good choice of seats when we try to purchase at the ticketing counters.

Now ANZ is having similar credit card promotion for discounted movies tickets with GV, and it is  extended online booking as well -

https://sg.anz.com/ANZPrivileges/gv.html

One thing to point for online booking, the ticket fee and booking would be charge in FULL to your credit card and ANZ would "refund" the excess paid to your credit card.

It is definitely a good new for movies lovers like me, no need for queuing, can purchase tickets in advance. and a chance to choose a good seat. 

But happiness is short, as this promotion is only valid from 1 Mar to 30 Jun 2011. Enjoy it before it ends.