My 2 new credit cards

As I opened my mail box together, I was pleasantly surprised to see two thick packages sent to me. As suspected, there are the 2 credit cards from Citibank that is mailed to me when some very persistent salesmen tried persuading me to sign up for credit cards. Since that guy is so sincere and very helpful, I decided to give him the commission by applying (I heard that they will get something by sending in an application form, regardless of whether it is approved or not) for 2 cards, knowing fully that the applications will be rejected.



Hence, when I received the cards, I was quite surprised. To those readers who have been following my posts, my only credit card is the POSB everyday card. Somehow, after been rejected from various banks, I got that POSB card application accepted, then followed by another strings of rejection. Until today that is.



One of the cards is the dividend card. I read through the brochures that there's some cashback given in the form of cheques when you accumulated enough. Something like that. This makes it quite similar to my POSB everyday card except that for the POSB card, you don't have to wait for the rebate to be sent to you since it's already 'stored' inside the card and you can use it to offset your bills anytime.

This is the dividend card. I can't find the Joy x10 card, so I assumed it to be newly launched

The other seems to be a new card by Citibank, called the Rewards card Joy x10 or something. It's those cards where they don't give you cash rebate but rather points. The difference is that this card gives you 10 points for every $1 spent, hence the moniker "Joy x10" I think. I think we can broadly classify credit cards goodies by two groups - one accumulates points in exchange for vouchers or gifts. The other gives you cash rebates, so that if you spend say $100, they will give you 50 cts back in cash. You can use the cash for anything you want.



Which one do I prefer? The cash rebate of course. With the cash, you don't have to be tied up by their reward program and you can use it anyhow you like, so cash is definitely better than rewards point. I'm very happy to keep using my first 'love' POSB everyday card because it serves my needs pretty adequately. I guess I'll just be using the Citi cards when it gives me discounts off my dinning bills, which is one of the good advantages of using credit cards. If you're like me who had problems getting even one tiny card no matter hard you try, you'll appreciate the discounts a little more. However, I'm actually more happy that the institutions are seeing me as more credit worthy now than before, which is always a good thing.



Will I spend more now that I've three cards under my name? Nah, don't think that's very likely. I'll probably save more by having more discounts, haha!