Referrals that make Cents!

Hi,

So I guess recently there are too many good deals and startups trying to give us money or vouchers when we refer people. So here I am, sharing all my referral codes.

You may copy my article and replace it with your own referral links to help yourself gain some referral perks!

And no, this is definitely not a sponsored post. Im a user myself, and I just want more referral money!

1.Youtrip

Youtrip is an amazing debit card/wallet for you to hold your overseas currencies or to do away with expensive conversion rates. You first topup to your Youtrip wallet and then you can immediately make purchases in their native currency. If you choose to change from SGD to other currencies first(10 to choose from), then it will be charged in that currency. Otherwise, it will be converted real time using Mastercard rates(but without any transaction fees!)

The card can be used in SG as an Ezlink card too! You will need to activate its function.

One good point about it is that you can lock the card via the app when you are not using it, thus improving security from fraudulent charges.

Terms to note:

-         Dormancy fees of $5 if you didn’t use it for a period of 12 months.

-         You may avoid Dormancy by using it as an ATM or Mastercard in SG.

-         Money inside your Youtrip card cannot be taken out as SGD (you cannot withdraw SGD via ATM using this card)

-         ATM charge of $5 or other banks rates when you withdraw cash via ATM overseas.

Referral Link:　 https://youtrip.app.link/JUNG%20HAO%20BENJAMIN35820

Website:      https://www.you.co/en-SG/

2.SoCash

SoCash allows you to draw money at nearby paces that accepts SoCash. Many small convenience shops and Buzz and iWeekly stands actually accepts SoCash withdrawal.

The fun part is that for every withdrawal of $30, you get a rebate of $0.30 on your next withdrawal. In some cases, the rebate can be up to $1. This is essentially free cash!

Terms to note:

-         Must link to DBS ibanking or DBS Paylah

-         Daily only 10 transactions, which means you don’t get a lot of money.

-         The rebate is applicable to your next transaction. For eg, you pay $29.70 via paylah to the shop but the shop gives you $30 cash.

-         One shop max 3 transactions.

-         Its referral program is buggy.

-         Do note that for 7-11 withdrawal, you need to buy stuffs from them.

-         Do note you need to withdraw from shops with the promotions logo.

Referral Link: https://link.socash.io/gwqU818x4U

Website:      https://www.socash.io/

3. Shopback

Shopback is a cashback program. Simply login to Shopback, then go to the site you wanna buy stuffs from via Shopback. It takes very long before you can cashout($40). However, if you are buying a lot of hotels and air tickets via hotels.com or expedia, then reaching the $40 is pretty quick!

Term to note:

-         You have to clickthrough its website

-         You have to clickthrough its app if you using a mobile version. This is extremely irritating because the app will bring you to website version of the shopping site instead of app version. (For eg, you have to use a web version of qoo10 instead of app version in order to get cashbacks)

-         You can only cashout at $40.

-         The period to wait is as long as 180 days upon conclusion of deal.

Referral Link: https://www.shopback.sg/?raf=cAoRrR

Website:      https://www.shopback.sg/

4.Grab

Holy cow. If you don’t have Grab, you are either new to Singapore, have not had a smartphone, or are a technophobe.

But nowadays, many new and free sim cards. Maybe you wanna use my referral code instead of your own?

Referral Link: https://r.grab.com/grabi7jgdqn1

Website:      https://www.grab.com/sg/

5.Shopee

The hottest online shopping platform doesn’t need much of an advertisement. This is indeed one of the best shopping app in the market, where you can get literally everything you need at a click of a button.

Terms to Note:

-         If you intend to use it as a Seller, you now need to pay I think 2% of your selling price to Shopee.

-         They have a lot of rules for sellers, but for buyers, its pretty good.

Referral Link: https://shp.ee/cwwfqvi

Referral Code: NEBAM22

Website:      https://shopee.sg/

6. DBS PayLah

I am utterly surprised if you don’t have this or don’t know about its existence. PayLah is one of the more widely accepted e-wallet simply because DBS is king of SG. Every kid used to own the squirrel bankbook that encourages savings. With Paylah, it encourages spending, but in a digital way!

No more referral program L

My Bluecar experience

Hello,

The sharing economy is here. Looking at the mass of bicycles lying all around the grassy patch reminds me of my inability to cycle. However, BlueSg caught my attention. Car Sharing is new in Singapore and being a driver who doesn't have a car to drive, I was attracted to open an account and try their services. But bad press about their cars being abused have made me afraid of driving their car.

But with my fiancee getting her licence, it spurred me to start an account to let me haolian my driving skills to her.

I literally burned a hole in my pocket because i bet against

her passing her licence and lost a Kate Spade to her.

BlueSg

So what is bluesg?

It is just an electric car that you can rent by minute basis.(with minimum of 15minutes)

Sounds cool but still unsure if you would like to open an account?

Steps to Open an account
According to their official 9 page guide, it seemed pretty straightforward in getting an account set up.

- Username/password
- Personal Details
- Driving licence and NRIC photo (confirm easier than the selfie required by CoinHako)
- Payment for your premium membership* (the membership is Free if you register the premium membership before 31st March 2018, but you still need to insert credit card details to charge $0)
- Go to booth to activate EZlink card or use their provided token that will be posted to your address.



But...
Do note the fine prints!!
- It takes 10 minutes to create an account, but approval for you to start driving takes maybe a few days, though mine was approved pretty quickly.  Do make your account in advanced instead of leaving to the last minute.

- You need to go to a car booth to pair your EZlink card within the stipulated period.
I am not sure what will happen if you didn't pair in time.
 

- Free membership for first year but auto renewal of membership is activated! This meant that if you forget to close your account, you will be charged membership fees! And hear me clearly, Close your account, not cancel membership. Basically their 1 week membership is a trial for new users and you need to sign a 1 year membership in order to drive their cars. That is $180 at $15 per month! And if I am not wrong, you need a 1 year membership every time you register!
Last but not least, NO REMINDER FOR THE EXPIRY OF YOUR ACCOUNT.
You have been warned.







































- The touchscreen on the booth is pretty crappy. I kept typing the wrong pin. Do note that when you take the car, you can only type your pin 3x. DO IT WITH CARE!

- You MUST remember which credit card did you charge your usage to. There is no way to check back which Credit Card you charged to other than calling their hotline! Neither can you change your credit card with ease. The only way to do it is to call their hotline.



How it felt driving BlueCar
Quiet, like real quiet until I didnt know the engine is on. I was having difficulty with driving it because I cannot "feel" the car.
The car is pretty weak and small, but really quiet.
The car even rolled back if you are on a slope and you stop on it.
There is no pushing force if the car is not accelerating.

You also get a lot of eyes staring at you, because BlueCar!


The Damage
According to the app, I drove about 43 minutes, which translates to $14.33!


From my experience, if I were to take a ride during off peak hour for 43 minutes, it will cost me approximately $20. So yes, it is indeed cheaper by a bit if we compare to off peak rates. However, the inconvenience is that the parking locations is pretty little and not near to where I or Chew stays.

So yes, it is fun to drive this car for fun, but to use it for commutation will have to wait for it to further set up more spots for returning the car.

My Wedding Proposal

Hello,

So I think I am ready to settle down.
Chew and I have been together for about 2 years, but she have filled up so much of my void that I felt that im already a better person compared to the me before i met her.

The planning to the big day of proposal was actually quite simple.
She have long ago laid out her "requirement" for the perfect proposal.
- CAT (yes, you heard it right, CATs! she want CATS to be present when i propose!)
- Fairy Light(even in broad daylight, she still want fairy lights)
- Flowers (okay this one normal)

So to fulfill her first request, i booked a Cat Cafe at Company of Cats. It is a cozy little space whereby cats will be playful and yet feel relaxed in a fully air conditioned room.

Next, i wanted to choose a memorable date for the proposal. We first got together on 19th Jan 2015.
It was pretty lucky at our 888th day together happens to be 25th June 2017, Hari Raya Puasa. I have also consulted my lunar calendar and it is a good day!

As she is more or less knowing that I was about to propose, I decided that the surprise would come as her friends being in the attendance of the proposal.

Well, she said YES and the rest is history!

ben's shopee tips and tricks (buyer)

Hi,

I would like to share my personal Shopee experience.

Shopee is an app that allows you to do online shopping. To me, it looked like a fusion between Carousell and Qoo10. Qoo10 provides a platform for people to sell item and a small commission is payable to them. Carousell provides a platform for buyers to meet sellers and thereafter do their transaction independent of the platform.

Shopee on the other hand, provides services like credit card payment for its buyers, and yet allows sellers to list their products free on its platform! The money paid would be held by shopee until the buyers acknowledge the recipient of its purchase.
The UI is intuitive and is easy for both buyers and seller alike.

In this post, i will be sharing the views of a buyer.

Buy from sellers who provides free postage
This is kinda a no brainer. Who doesnt like free postage? However, when an item is so common that many people are selling it, choose the one best priced and yet have free postage!
Shopee provides a refund to people who do not receive their package, and if the sellers could not prove that they have posted the item. However, the refund amount will never include postage amount as it only includes the original item price.
So if an item is selling at 10cent, but have a shipping fee of $1, you will need to pay $1.10 but if the parcel did not arrive, only 10cent will be refunded to you!
This system seemed flawed. but it is beneficial and protects the sellers. In many occasions, there are buyers who refused to acknowledge the recipient of the product and lodged a refund. This causes trouble for the sellers who lost their money in postage AND the goods.

But dont try to game or abuse the system. Shopee admins are darn fast at tracking people down.


Timed Sales and Coupon codes
If anything to go by, Timed Sales are usually the best of the deals available. But do note that most coupon codes dont work for timed sales.
Coupon codes are only available during certain festive period. so load up your carts and wait for them to appear! also, do look out for store promotion of that seller. sometimes they do give out their personalised coupon codes!

Special Timed Sales
Special timed sales are sales during key dates such as Shopee anniversary, christmas, CNY, NY etc. These sales usually have super limited stocks at a super sexy price.
The upcoming of such sales as of time of post is on 5th Jan 2017.





















Many people have been saying that it is a scam as these deal usually sells out at the strike of the clock. Personally, i have bought once and i would like to share how i did it!

For this tutorial, I will try and buy the Fitbit flex 2.
Take note of the original price of $148.


So you will see the product that will be listed for sales at $148. Spend some time to read the product information prior to the sales.

1 min before the sales time, keep searching for this item in the event sales page. when the clock strikes the time, add it to your cart and proceed with payment!

Now, do note that your 4g services might not be as quick as a computer running on fibre broadband. So choose wisely if you wanna snatch the item via phone or a computer.


Thats all folks!

2016 in my nutshell

Hi,

I think I should just do this blog post to remind myself how great 2016 have been to me.
Of course, there are bad things happening and the occasional big fights i had with various people, mostly with chew, but 2016 has generally been an interesting and fulfilling year!

The year started off with me joining the Network Team where I go on to become a network engineer and subsequently promoted to Senior Engineer with Crimsonlogic. The work was fun and I have so much to learn. Opportunities appeared out of nowhere and I am caught unprepared and hence gave it a miss. But as the year progresses, an opening came by and I decided that a change of environment would be good for my professional growth. This change have brought me into another new domain that was totally unfamiliar to me. Lucky for me, I have tolerant superiors and encouraging colleagues which made learning fun and unreasonable project deadlines seemed possible!

Speaking of change, I think the biggest change apart from a job change would be changing of house. From the familiar neighbourhood and friends in AMK, i shifted to uncharted Punggol, where no one nearby are friends that I can readily ask out. Yes Punggol is a closely knitted location, but the convenience wasnt the "stay in same block" convenience i have been enjoying for a very long time. Even buying of food is no longer a block away. it has become a chore to walk out to get food even for a foodie like me. And, everywhere nearby serves shitty food.
But the perk of the new house is that i am finally given my own room, and had my dream came thru with the queen sized bed and television in my own room. The room is indeed a pigeon hole with the queen sized in it. But bed room space is more important than bedroom space to me!

2016 also brought along some crisis to me. I am formally addicted to netflix and have been watching much of its drama here and there. Fortunately for its new download functions, data have been saved tremendously and more shows have been watched during the loooong trip from Pioneer to Punggol.
Chew also changed job at the same period as me and both of us had difficulty adjusting. It brought along a lot of quarrels and the time for us to stick together was severely cut short simply because the ride home have just been substantially increased. i would also need to sleep earlier due to earlier working hour(8.30am)

Chew and me have done a little bit of travelling this year! We went to Bangkok and shopped till drop! I thought BKK would be too hot for her to be outdoor and she would have wanted to stay indoor at Platinum mall most of the time. Never have i been so wrong of the motivation of $4 dresses.
Penang was a regular yearly affair, but this time, we stay a little longer. As such, we managed to explore slightly more cafes and we travelled around using Grab! Cheap good and nice!
The last trip of the year ended up to be at Taipei. Unlike last year, we focused on shopping and going for good food and good hot spring.

2016 have been kind.
2017, please be good to me and chew!

Life Insurance and your health

Hi,

Disclaimer:
this post is not an advertisement for insurance, nor is it a sponsored post by Insurance agents. my personal profile can be found here.

This entry is to share that health is wealth, and that postponing insurance buying could result in being unable to buy insurance at all when things happened.


People my age are now shunning the random calls and surveys that people in the "financial industry" conducts. This is because we find them irritating and overbearing. Moreover, being young would mean that you are now healthy and well, so insurance is always the purchase you can put off until you have completed the other big ticket items. And with the myriads of insurance providers, people my age are spoilt for choice and are going into very fine details down to the cents and service levels.

Myself?
I am the complete opposite. I speak to any insurance agent who is willing to try. I apply for almost all company that existed. Some advisers even spend their own money to retrieve all those medical records that is required for me to pass underwriting. Others fill in all those forms many times. But before you call or message me to tell me you are willing to try for me with your company's underwriter, I have to show you all those rejections i have received.

I am 27 years old that is suffering High Blood Pressure and Kidney is unhealthy (High Creatine). It has all started when I was 20 years old due to a Urinary Tract Infection. I am given PES E due to this. My doctors have been saying that my condition improved and that it has stabilized. However, when i read the medical report submitted to the insurance company, I truly thought that they have given me a report for a 70 years old person. They literally say that i have all sorts of problems despite the doctors saying it is normal to have them ( think mild sleep apnea).
Here is a summary!
 

The insurance i am buying are Whole Life and Term Life.
I have included Critical Illness and TPD to my plans.

Total Company Rejected:
NTUC Income
AIA (not officially)
AXA
Aviva
Manulife
Great Eastern

 


And the ONLY company accepted is Tokio Marine
But, with conditions of:
No Critical Illness
200% loading for Term Life (approx 3k per year, until 99 years old for 350k coverage)




OR
3.4k per month for 15 years (Whole Life insurance, 300k coverage until X age(cant remember) and 100k thereafter)




























This post is not to tell you how bad my health is. Truth is, I do feel good. I can still swim, I can still run and I am still very happy with life!
But this is a gentle reminder to my friends who is getting older, and that health is wealth. As your age climbs, your insurance premium will climb to an amount that it is better you don't buy than you buy. As you age, working life will diminish you healthy lifestyle and make you deskbound more than you hope you will be.

I used to think like my parents, who have minimal coverage, why should i buy insurance to let those alive enjoy when i die?
but i know its not true. this money is to buy myself out of debt so that i don't burden the next generation with my medical bill. Do you think Medisave and Hospitalisation Insurance is enough to cover everything in a costly Singapore? The way Singapore does things is to provide best treatment, instead of a choice to euthanize. It gonna be costly if you are very sick, and yet takes years to die!

So my dear friends,
Look at insurance agents differently.
Not all is out to earn your money. Some truly just want to help.
If giving them some commission buys you peace and safety net, that is something i am so willing to do but wasn't given a chance to.

But a gentle reminder, buy within your means. don't go broke making your next generation rich. (3k a year is too much for me)

A heartfelt thank you to these agents who spent hours and even money to help me go through medical tests, get medical reports and speak to underwriters. I am sorry that your investment in time and hours have gotten you no commission.
Kris (GE)
Alvin (Manulife, Tokio Marine, MFA)
Kelvin (AXA, NTUC Income, Fnexis)
Hux (AIA)


Regards
Benjamin Chai

Bank of China Ibanking service

Hi,

So following my post that states that BOC have higher interest rates as compared to OCBC 360 account, I have decided to open a BOC account in hope to gain the additional interest.

While it is true that BOC have a pretty awesome offering in credit card (BOC Family Card), and that it has higher interest rates, i ended up still didn't switch over for my salary crediting.

Firstly, as i have previously stated here, interest my key concern is still if it is "user friendly".

Since i now stay at Punggol, and travels to Pioneer pretty often (GF stays there), I have no issues with finding ATMs as Waterway Point, Jurong WestGate and Pioneer Jurong Point all have Bank of China Branches.

However, the ibanking needs to mature before users will start to jump over.

First and foremore, the ibanking site does not work on mobile phone. This meant that you need to do transactions only on a Computer.

Next, the ibanking service only work with a physical token, no OTP services.
As of 18th Sept, you can choose to login via OTP service already!

Have a look at after i logged in!



It still looked okay apart from some directly translated English.

My biggest pain point would be to earn that last portion of percent by doing ibanking.
These are the only organisations we can pay our bills to.




You see, my current 3 bills with OCBC happened to be
Citibank M1 card (for m1 bills)
OCBC 365 card (for normal usage)
Amex true cashback (for usage where ocbc have no rebates on)


Even if I change, it would only be that the OCBC card be replaced by the BOC family card, since both needs to have a minimum spending of $500.


Again, please look at your personal usage pattern!
it might suit you!!


and oh, using UNION PAY gets 1 for 1 movie tickets at Shaw Theatres (both Waterway point and Jcube have them!)

The call center is pretty weak in english.

Regards
Benjamin Chai