I had totally forgotten about a payment due on my credit card. I only found out about the late charge of RM5 when I logon to my account to check my statement.

I promptly made my payment by cash the next day, and called the customer service to have my late charge waived. I was glad to see the late charge waived two days later.

What I was worried most wasn’t the RM5 late fee, but the thought of having this late payment being recorded in my CCRIS report. The CCRIS stands for Central Credit Reference Information System is a database system containing credit information of borrowers in Malaysia.

When people apply for loans, the lenders will check the applicant’s credit history by referring to CCRIS. And a black mark in the applicant’s credit history could result in the loan application being rejected. Because I am planning to buy a property and apply for mortgage, I was very worried that this late payment will be recorded in my credit history.

I was given the “Debt Collection” department phone number of my credit card issuer to check if this will be recorded in my CCRIS. Fortunately, and I was surprised to learn, that late payments will only appear in a person’s CCRIS report if they are at least one month old. So, I was given the assurance that my late payment of a few days will not appear in my credit history. Thank God!

I was glad to see the late charge being reversed two days later.

I feel sorry for these people who resorted to colluding with merchants to take out money from their credit cards. These are people who could not control their spending. And colluding with these merchants to take out more money from their credit cards means digging bigger holes.Surely there must be a better way to reduce the interest payments without resorting to colluding with these unethical merchants.

First of all, why not choose to utilise the “zero balance transfer” promotion? The cardholder can transfer the outstanding balance of a credit card to another card and pay zero interest for a certain amount of time. I know not every card issuer have this promotion. And usually this promotion is offered as an incentive for new cardholders to sign up.

Next, can try to talk to AKPK. Perhaps they can help work out a repayment plan to pay off the credit card debt. Maybe they could even talk to the card issuer to have some of the charges and interest reduced.

Something strikes me as odd. These people can pay upfront 18% cash to the merchant. Seems to me these people are not cash strap. It seems to me that these people wanted to withdraw cash from their credit cards.

If taking a cash advance from their cards through the bank, they will be charged a 5% cash advance fee plus will start charging 18% interest on the amount outstanding immediately.

Instead, these people are willing to pay the 18% interest upfront to the merchant. And on top of that, another about 4% interest on the installment on the credit card. This clearly is a worse deal than taking out a cash advance directly from the card issuer. Because with the card issuer, the actual amount of dollar interest you pay will reduce as the months go by if you pay your installments monthly. The total amount of interests paid could be less than 18%.

Without analyzing the situation, options and financial impact properly, these people have dug a deeper hole. These merchants have no interest in helping the cardholders lower their interest expense. They are only interested in fattening their wallets.

CIMB credit card has this promotion on MPH. Every first Sunday of the month, the cardholder will get a 10% rebate for purchases from MPH.

On the first Sunday of June, I made two purchases from MPH. One time at the MPH bookstore and one time at the MPH book fair. When I received my July statement, I saw the rebate for the purchase from the MPH bookstore, but no rebate for the purchase from the MPH bookfair.

From July until September, I made at least 4 calls to the CIMB customer service complaining about this issue. It was decided by CIMB that I was not entitled to the rebate because MPH had used a different merchant terminal instead of the CIMB merchant terminal. I pointed out that the advertised promotion didn’t mention anything about requiring my credit card to be swiped at a CIMB merchant terminal. CIMB admit that it was a mistake but they couldn’t do anything for me. I was advised to talk to MPH directly.

I took my case to MPH. Within less than a week this case have been settled. I was given a RM10 voucher. MPH informed me they will inform CIMB to revise the 10% rebate promo to exclude purchases made at book fairs. The value of the voucher is more than the 10% rebate I would have gotten. So, I am happy at the outcome.

I wonder why couldn’t CIMB liaise with MPH directly? Why make the cardholder liaise with the retailer? What if I had made this purchase from outstation? Does CIMB expect me to go all the way back to the retailer to settle the issue?

I buy about RM1,000 worth of books every year to maximise my tax relief. And they can count on me to continue supporting them. However, this can’t be said of CIMB. I feel that CIMB is overpromising and underdelivering. I am seriously reviewing my relationship as a cardholder with CIMB.

Today, I used the rebate points in one of my credit cards to buy two pairs of short pants.

Last time, I would spend and collect credit card points. When I have accumulated enough points, I would browse through the bank’s rewards catalogue and choose items to redeem. Often times, I had to choose items which I do not really need from the limited choices available.

When rebate cards and cash back cards hit the town, I was glad and quickly got myself a couple of these cards. The rebates I earn could be used to pay for anything I buy from selected merchants. Today, I bought two pairs of shorts. The point I want to highlight is, I can choose any items I need from the merchants’ stores instead of browsing through the bank’s rewards catalogue.

Cash back cards are even better. These credits are credited into the account and reduce the amount outstanding on the card. This is as good as giving cash back to me.

When my colleagues and I go for lunch together, they usually want me to pay for the bill first and reimburse me with cash when we return to the office. I don’t know why they prefer to do this. But it works out in my favor because I earn credits from paying for these lunches.

On July 19th, I received a text message from HSBC that read like this, “Save more with HSBC credit card! Just for you, get 10% rebate up to RM30 (per customer) on your monthly total spend. Offer till Oct 31st. T&C apply.” I was pleased with HSBC’s generosity. Before month end, I had charged RM239.85 to my HSBC card.

My statement came in August and I couldn’t find my RM23.99 rebate. I called up customer service and was told the rebate will be credited to my account in November. I was further told that since there are 3 months in total (August, September and October) I have a maximum RM90 rebate to be earned.

I was a little disappointed. I had assumed the rebate period would start from July. It’s my mistake for not finding out the commencement date. If I had known earlier then I would have charged my RM239.85 on another card which would have earned me a rebate of RM1.20 plus cash voucher of RM15.

Instead of getting a rebate of RM23.99 I had lost RM16.20. This experience has taught me to be more careful in the future.