Best credit card for rewards?

Business Money
1

Yes I know, not another credit card thread! However, this isn’t your typical “how do I get a credit card in Taiwan?” thread.

I am a Taiwanese citizen so getting a credit card isn’t the problem. My question is which bank/card offers the best rewards?

I did a search and couldn’t find very much info. Most of the threads related to airline miles which I have no interest in as I don’t plan on doing a lot of traveling.

I want a card which offers usable perks or rewards. A cash-back card would also be nice.

I saw a pamphlet from Mega bank offering a Visa card. This card lets you buy-one-get-one free when you go to the movies or something like that, can’t remember the specifics. This a useful perk that I’ll be content with. I’m just looking for rewards along these lines, nothing too crazy. I’ll probably go with this card if no one can point to a better deal.

I have two conditions, 1)no annual fee, and 2)no minimum charge amount.

Anyone know of any?

1 Like
2

If you’re a Costco member, then their co-branded card through Chinatrust is decent, but not anywhere as good as what I can get back in the US.

3

E. Sun -Jade Mountain logo card- gives you 1% cash back.

Citi also gives you 40% discount on movie tickets and other stuff -but the interest rate is outrageous -and teh service stinks.

Chinatrust you get a few presents and discounts.

Taipei Bank has buy one get one free for movie tickets, plus a universal miles gatherer card, really convenient but you are not inetrested in that.

Mega has good service, I get prizes from them for using the Pet Lovers’ card. Stuff for my pets, animal videos, etc. :smiley:

4

How much do you spend on your card each month and do you always pay off the balance in full? Do you make any purchases outside Taiwan (including online)?

Anyone spending at least NT$20,000/mo on their credit card should skip the cashback rewards and go for an airline miles card.

For example if you regularly spend an average of $50,000/mo on the Citibank Eva platinum cobrand card you get one mile for every TW$15 spent. In one year that is 40,000 miles. As an extreme example a business class ticket on Eva costs at least TW$100,000 and you could redeem one of these in around 3 years. The total value of your reward as a percentage of spend is then nearly 5%!

A business class ticket to e.g. Bali on Eva could be earned in just over a year (50,000 miles) and would usually cost over TW$20,000. The reward is then just over 2.5%.

There are also ways to convert airmiles into hotel stays etc. However you use them they are at least 3 times more valuable than 1% - 1.5% cashback rewards.

My current personal favourite airline card is the Amex Cathay Pacific Elite card. The earning rate is not quite as good as the Citibank Eva cobrand but CX is a much better airline, award tickets cost less miles to redeem and Amex customer service is top notch.

5

I’m not a Costco member, so that’s not gonna work.

6

[quote=“Icon”]E. Sun -Jade Mountain logo card- gives you 1% cash back.

Citi also gives you 40% discount on movie tickets and other stuff -but the interest rate is outrageous -and teh service stinks.

Chinatrust you get a few presents and discounts.

Taipei Bank has buy one get one free for movie tickets, plus a universal miles gatherer card, really convenient but you are not inetrested in that.

Mega has good service, I get prizes from them for using the Pet Lovers’ card. Stuff for my pets, animal videos, etc. :smiley:[/quote]

I’ve heard enough bad things about Citibank so I’m gonna stay away from them. I always see them hawking their cards by the bottom of the escalators at the Warner movie theater. Their tactics seem very invasive and inappropriate. I see the same thing at in the underground mall at Taipei Main.

Taipei Bank also has the free movie tickets? I’ll definitely have to look into that.

7

[quote=“llary”]How much do you spend on your card each month and do you always pay off the balance in full? Do you make any purchases outside Taiwan (including online)?

Anyone spending at least NT$20,000/mo on their credit card should skip the cashback rewards and go for an airline miles card.

For example if you regularly spend an average of $50,000/mo on the Citibank Eva platinum cobrand card you get one mile for every TW$15 spent. In one year that is 40,000 miles. As an extreme example a business class ticket on Eva costs at least TW$100,000 and you could redeem one of these in around 3 years. The total value of your reward as a percentage of spend is then nearly 5%!

A business class ticket to e.g. Bali on Eva could be earned in just over a year (50,000 miles) and would usually cost over TW$20,000. The reward is then just over 2.5%.

There are also ways to convert airmiles into hotel stays etc. However you use them they are at least 3 times more valuable than 1% - 1.5% cashback rewards.

My current personal favourite airline card is the Amex Cathay Pacific Elite card. The earning rate is not quite as good as the Citibank Eva cobrand but CX is a much better airline, award tickets cost less miles to redeem and Amex customer service is top notch.[/quote]

I plan on using it for everyday small purchases like food, gas, groceries, convenience items, household items, etc, anywhere that will let me pay with a credit card. The occasion semi-big ticket item and occasional out-of-Taiwan online purchase. Don’t think I’ll be spending 20K a month though. And I plan on completely paying off the balance every month. So interest rate doesn’t matter.

Like I said, I really don’t need an airline card. Don’t plan on doing a lot of flying and if/when I do need air tickets, I’ve got that covered through other means.

I’m more interested in tangible, usable perks that can be consumed in the immediate future. Store discounts, food, movie tickets, anything like that.

8

There should be a lot of sites in Chinese with more complete details on Taiwanese credit cards than a site for foreigners who have a hell of a time even getting a card. If I were a local, I’d be browsing bank sites. Unfortunately, my Chinese sucks.

I wish I could shop cards for benefits. It took me 3 years and 3 rejections to finally get my first card, and that was only because the bank branch manager wanted to practice English and maybe show his pull. Then it took another 2 years before I got another card, which took a local guarantor and a friend who used to work for that bank’s credit card department to make 2 calls to the manager to pull strings. The second call was after they rejected my application with no reason given, despite 5 years stable income in Taiwan, a bank account in their bank for 5 years with no problems, 2 years of perfect local credit history and a financially secure local guarantor. Benefits are nice, but I’m just happy to get a card.

So I can’t speak to the benefits of many cards, but I can share about the two I managed to get.

The card I just got was Taipei Fubon’s aPower card. I drive a gas guzzling tank and with the aPower card I can get a 2-2.5NT/liter discount on gas at NPC. That translates to about an 8% discount. Since I drive a lot for work, that’s a big benefit for me. Not sure what other benefits it might have because I just got it and haven’t really looked into it.

The First Bank card gets me an hour of free parking at some spots around Taipei and points for junk out of a catalog. Again, there might be other benefits but I’ve not spoken to anyone about it and I can’t read Chinese to browse their site.

9

Well, for example, a couple of days ago we went to a famous Pekin duck restaurant. Using the Citi card we got two dishes for free -they were good, a cabbage vinagrette and some liang mien- while Chinatrust use would give us only one. :smiley:

Taishin gives you a lot of perks -discounts, gifts- and since OP is not furriner, no problem. They really do not like us furriner, even spendrifts as meself. Plus it’s got most tie-ins with major department stores/restaurants, etc. My friends and oworkers use them the most, so I guess it’s good.

10

[quote=“CraigTPE”]There should be a lot of sites in Chinese with more complete details on Taiwanese credit cards than a site for foreigners who have a hell of a time even getting a card. If I were a local, I’d be browsing bank sites. Unfortunately, my Chinese sucks.

[/quote]

Correct. Such sites do exist. My wife got a card recently and I remember a particular site that lists virtually all major bank cards, their rates and benefits.

11

I would like to revive this post to ask in 2022 what is the best credit card for earning points and rewards? We put about 15,000 through my wife’s credit card every month, and at least once per year 75,000 in one month for our medical insurance. We always pay the card off straight away to avoid interest so we are the perfect people to go down the points hunting route. Any suggestions?

5 Likes
12

Money101.com.tw has a good credit card comparison page, you can filter based on your preferences. Generally I’d say you should choose based on your consumption habits. Some cards will have better benefits for specific things like online shopping at certain sites. Others have extra Cashback on Uber eats, or discount on movie tickets. Some offer restaurant deals or HSR discounts.

The best offers are usually time limited, so you’ll probably end up changing cards often if you really want to optimize.

(Personally I just use a Curve and Revolut card here in Taiwan, attached to a foreign credit card which generates way more miles than anything in Taiwan would offer. That’s my point hunting hack).

1 Like
13

I’m using the ESun PiCard. 1.3% on (almost?) everything in the form of “Coins” which can be redeemed like cash (I always use them to pay my electricity bill because no cash back on utility bills, I think). Some merchants have 4% when using the PiPay app.

The app has also semi-regular promotions - often in the form of 4% or 5% PiCoin cashback when buying pre-paid gift cards (Carrefour, FarEastern Department Store, …) with unlimited validity and the ability to use the balance on separate occasions (at Carrefour or Din Tai Fung in the A13 I exclusively pay like that).

Also, there are sometimes promotions for some extra coins when crossing monthly spending goals (e.g. 500 coins for spending more than $50k in one month).

Probably only an option for US citizens - in Europe, even 0.5% to 1% are difficult to find which are often below the 2% currency conversion fee.

2 Likes
14

I’m unfamiliar with Curve/Revolut—how does that help? Does it act as a local card? Or is it only usable in places where foreign cards are accepted?

15

This sounds amazing. Will look into this one

16

50,000 a month?! Just in credit cards? Are other foreigners really making enough money to spend 50,000 a month on their credit card and if so what line of work are they in?

My entire paycheck after taxes is only about 70,000 and I thought that was good for Taiwan

1 Like
17

Curve forwards a charge to my foreign credit card, making it looking like a local charge in both countries. Curve does the currency conversion (with a good rate, although the amount is limited per month). It’s so practical to use though.

Revolut does a similar thing, but instead of forwarding the charge you have to top up your Revolut account. Luckily for me, I can top up my Revolut account using my foreign credit card and generate miles in the process.

Both cards also allow ATM withdrawals without any fees (up to a limit per month).

1 Like
18

It is not that difficult to switch many of the cash transactions to credit cards: supermarkets accept credit cards, transportation (taxis and uber), Apple/Google Pay/Jkou for convenience stores etc. and in the end it adds up.

Also, spending 50K, is not an indication your are making a lot of money, it’s just an indication you spend a lot…

Generally speaking, rewards in Taiwan aren’t that great, and to over spend just to collect points isn’t wise.
if you can spend other people’s money on your card (e.g paying company expenses with your card, then getting reimbursed and keeping the cash back/points ) that is a better way of collecting rewards.

2 Likes
19

Power bill on JKOS was one of the big ones for me.

20

No idea if it’s best, but last year I got a LINE Pay card from CTBC (link, although who knows how long that’ll remain valid). No charge, unlike the NT$2,400/year for the Citibank one I was getting airline points on. LINE points worth 1% of the value of all domestic purchases, worth 2.8% on all international purchases - so that’s actually higher than the international surcharge. At some point I’ll have to figure out if it makes more sense for me to use this card or my Canadian card when I’m in Canada later this year.

You accumulate points and as far as I can figure can basically use them anywhere that takes LINE. Not exactly cash back, but close enough. It’s paying for a restaurant meals once in a while.

I’ve also got that card connected to the Carrefour and PXMart apps on my phone, and use the apps to pay at those stores; it’s also connected to JKOS for power bills and taxi rides. I’ve grown fond of using LINE to pay for things, but once or twice that habit has made things very mildly inconvenient for me because I’ve been out with my phone, without my wallet, and that’s limited restaurant options.

There were a bunch of sign-up bonuses as well, including I think a suitcase that disappeared into my wife’s guanxi networks, but I don’t think those are significant factors. In the first few months there were tons of “Extra LINE points for shopping here!” deals - I’m not sure if those have diminished over time, or I turned off annoying alerts, or my wife got tired of telling me about deals that didn’t interest me. (The browser window I had open for the link above is now scrolling through lots of special LINE offers, so I guess those are still happening!)

Only negative is that I can’t currently pay the bill online, so I’m back to withdrawing money from an ATM and promptly handing it to over to pay the bill. I think that’s more due to limits with my main bank (Post Office, because that’s what my job requires) rather than with CTBC.

Caveat: chosen by my wife and I’m assuredly missing something, such as how perhaps fees will kick in later, or point rebates will be reduced.

Versus the old Citibank card: I don’t even know what this is - information about it hasn’t been available on their website in years now. Price was $1,200 per year, jumped up to $2,400 a few years ago. I did collect enough points to buy a one-way business class ticket across the Pacific, but I’ve now got almost all my recurring bills off that card and onto CTBC. What with COVID I’m a lot less interested in airline points than I used to be. Plus using them can be such a pain.

3 Likes