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

My Zenfone Obsession and Star Shield

Hi,

I am going to share with you guys about my experience with Zenfones.
I started off with a Zenfone 5 after I got rid of my Samsung S4. In less than a year, I encountered a screen crack on its Gorilla glass. Subsequently, the phone just went bogus and is currently in bricked state. It just meant that even if I spend the money to repair the screen, the phone is still essentially a paper weight.
It doesnt help more that its an Intel Chip.

So, I gotten a Zenfone Selfie to replace that fallen Zenfone 5. Again, in less than a year, the screen cracked. But this time round, I buy it from Challenger, which they convinced me to be a member where i get "free warranty for cracked screen". I paid membership fees. However, when i really send it in to repair, i was told that i need to pay 10% of the screen price. I was actually okay with that.
Afterall, the phone costs $399 and i doubt the screen is very expensive.

Now, this is where my nightmare with starshield starts. StarShield is a repair company with Challenger, where they allow you to buy insurance and additional warranty, It gives all android devices free 1st year screen crack warranty. This is because screen crack is the only issue that the original warranty doesnt cover.
I first called starshield and they doesnt know about this. So i called Challenger to clarify. Apparently Challenger call centers doesnt know about it too!
After a few days of emails and clarifications, I was told to bring my phone down to any challenger that has Starshield counter.

The phone reaches the counter and the guy just collected it without giving me any proof of collection. It wasnt after i emailed starshield before i received my service chit from them via email.
the promised time was 14days to collection. But they have no stock of the screen and they didnt bother to inform me until i chased them after 10 days to learn about the status of my phone.
I asked to collect back my phone until the screen arrive then i send it back in, since according to them, it will take 3 to 4 weeks for the screen to come.

True enough, the screen came and i requested for immediate fixing, which they declined. Mum went to collect the next day. I got it back, only to realised they have given me a screen with a defect.
On my off day, i brought it down again for rectifications, and end up they took 3 hours to change multiple screens as all the stocks they have are in pretty damned shape. I was about to collect back my phone when i realised that they fixed the phone, but spoilt my caller receiver and vibration module.

I asked to collect the next day, which they declined again as they are shifting from Funan to Pasir Panjang. So Wed is 29th, the day i stucked for 3 hrs, 30th is last day at funan, and 1st July is a friday and their first day at new place. I can only collect on monday 4th july.

Come 4th july, i collected my phone, and upon using, i realised the screen was insensitive and always scroll itself without me touching.

now i need to find a nice day go down again.

The staffs are friendly and nice. I just think their engineers have skill gaps and their processes needs to improve.

So as i have no spare phone, i gotten a zenfone laser as spare.
This is because there is no xiaomi off the shelf.

and zenfone is the only one at that price point that comes with 4g and big screen.

pray for me that i dont get trashed phone again.

Spark and their free photos

Hi,

I am here to introduce a pretty interesting app that allows you to get free photos!

Yes, i am talking about Spark!!

Spark's concept is to get people to print photos for free, while earning from advertisements.

So one side is the photo of your choice, while the other side is an advertisement that sometimes contain pretty good deals.

Every month, a user can only print 10 photos of choice, and the photos will be mailed to you. You can choose to do self collection as well. This will in turn give you more free prints.

Enough of words, let me share some nice photos of mine with you!!

the adverts

the high quality print!! and oh, that sexy cat is called wang wang. you can find him at instagram as meow.with.chew

disclaimer:
I do not earn a single royalty from this "advert". i just think this is an awesome app to get free and high quality prints and hope to share with friends and family.

Bangkok with Chew

Hi,

People have been asking how is thailand, if it is fun.

My reply is that it is downright boring (for me)

Let me elaborate.

I am literally the slave dog carrying everything, feeding my princess and flooding her with shitload of water. How can that be fun to me?

Glow Pratunam was a pretty decent hotel with nice toilet and clean room. However, it is not a "easy to find" place when you come from the airport BTS. Tell people you are heading towards Platinum Mall or Shibuya Mall. The hotel starts from level 7 of the Shibuya Mall. Once you find that place, you will realise that the hotel is pretty decently located.

Many blogs would advise to take the BTS or MRT as much as possible, and i agree. The jam were horrendous, and taxi fares aren't cheap even if you convert. However, if you are going with a shopperholic who also happened to go to BKK for the first time, i suggest you wear a good pair of walking shoes and start training long distant walking 2 week prior to going there.

Weather is hot and so far, she only thinks Pratunam Market and Chatuchak have good priced item. She thinks that Platinum mall is a tad expensive, although the shopping environment is a lot better. Union Mall was total disappointment. While items similar to Platinum Mall, Chatuchak and Pratunam Market, the price is a lot more steep.
Special Mention to Pratunam Market; walk deeper, endure the heat with shitload of water and fruits, and you will realise that it is the perfect place for ladies.

Food wise, all was well. Street food is a must try, but do drink more water and bring some diarrhea medication. Both of us have no issues with the food, but i cannot guarantee others wont have an issue as the food prep wasn't that clean after all.

Guys shopping? Almost non-existent. Platinum Mall have a section for it, Union Mall have a section for it. But nothing suitable for me personally. But suit making is a good to go item. Their prices are pretty standard if you go to the 4 shops at Armari Watergate Hotel. Bring SGD as they do accept them. 1 suit cost about $220(top and bottom). Google Armari Watergate Suit and you will have many reviews around that area. I personally made mine at Admire.

4 Days 3 night is quite a good length for shopping. Anything more i think my legs will break. But 4D3N meant we didnt cover any tourist attraction, apart from shopping. And having 1 day weekend was my best decision (many markets are only open during weekend, like Chatuchak). But she hoped to have more, so that she can buy even more.

That's all folks! The most useful guides comes from AroiMakMak!!

Bank of China Smart Saver Account

Hi,

Disclaimer:
I am not finance person, and i do comparison purely from what i have read from the site.
Please do correct me if i have my facts wrong.
To know more about my background, you can click here.

So there is a new savings account in town that seemed to be a little late to the game.
I would like to state that is a very good comparison article here from investment moats.

To learn more about my previous comparison of UOB and OCBC, it is here 

This new offering from Bank of China is pretty similar to the old criteria of OCBC, only that it is higher in interest in some parts.



I can tell you straightaway without calculations, this account gives you higher and better % if you are able to hit the criteria. For very basic amount of less than $5000, you will already have 1.55%+1%+0.6%+0.25% = 3.4%. And it gets better when you have more money.

Its criteria are simple,

• $500 charged across any credit card  OR debit card from BOC. 
• At least $2000 salary credited
• pay 3 bills using this account

While the rest of the bank requires you to use their Credit Card to get the reward, BOC allows you to use Debit Card to do so. Why is this awesome you may ask. There are some friends of mine who refuses to use Credit Cards simply because they are afraid to overspend or owe the bank money. I used to be like them until i got sucked into the promise of awesome rebates.

This account is also a Multi Currency Savings account. It doesn't mean much to me, but in basic, it means that all your statements in many different currencies would be consolidated. It would be useful for people who have many different currency dealings with the bank.

Last but not least, even if you do not meet any of these criteria, and simply wants an account to put your savings, its base interest of 0.25% to up to 0.4% is pretty awesome. 

But before you start to jump over due to these seemingly awesome rewards, let me caution you on a few lifestyle change.

Ibanking

I have no idea why, but when i am looking for Bank of China's Ibanking webpage, I chanced upon 2 of it. While i am not sure if both are legit, or 1 of them is a phishing site, do note that you require to install some special software before you are able to login to the site. This might not be a big deal to you, but do note that if you want your 0.6%, you need to use this to do your 3 online transactions.

And this site is not really Mobile Friendly, which brings me to...

 

Mobile Banking

I did a basic search on Google Play Store and i realised they do not have an Mobile Banking App. I am a current OCBC user and that app is pretty much what i use to make my 3 transactions, to keep track of my credit card spending, and to check how much i have left in that account. So if you depend on your Mobile Banking app quite a bit, i suggest you think through your decision to change over to BOC.

Lack of ATM

This is also an obvious problem for me if all my pay goes to this account. I would not have any ways 

to get the money out when i urgently needs it and i can only depend on a bank transfer via FAST to another bank account via a Computer (note: mobile banking is pretty problematic), then go to ATM of this other account.

Credit Card Rebates
This is dependent on your lifestyle and whatever that suits you. Being a foodie who always out to eat with Chiwawa, Rebates on dining and grocery shopping is my top priority. Hence, I would say BOC credit card didnt quite catch my attention. So it is a calculation of if switching over and clocking $500 on a BOC credit card with minimal rebates but high interest more worthwhile, or if your rebates and discounts are more worthwhile.
Of course, if you are able to easily clock $500 on this credit card without affecting your other rebates, then this would not affect you. One good way to do so is to pay insurance bills.

As a card user, I so far did not encounter any BOC card only deals(or maybe i just didnt realise).


In conclusion...
This might be a little late to the game despite having some pretty good interest. Many are already a happy user of OCBC or UOB, i doubt they would make the switch simply due to the lack of promotion of this account and the lack of presence of BOC. But if you are from China, or visits China often, then this is a good account for you to park your cash!

Also, the lack of facilities would be a problem for frequent bank services users.

My Exhilarating 2015

Hi,

2015 has been good to me mostly, and this blog post is to commemorate such a good year, that is SG50 for Singapore, the first time of many things that happened to me in my life.

The year started off being sad as I celebrated being single for yet another year again. However, not long into the new year, I found Chiwawa, the girl who gave colours to an otherwise boring and aimless life. With me being attached would mean lesser time for Dota and Yong Sheng, whom I play NBA 2k15 together every weekend, which is the only activity i look forward to as a zombified working adult.

She wasnt working when I first got together with her. This is a stressful thing not because i have to provide for her; she is fiercely independent, but because she have too much time on hand and i have to deal with a project that was nothing less than a pressure cooker. As every start of a relationship, especially that she is my first, she was my everything. Juggling with work and her would mean that i ended up exhausted physically and mentally, leaving me with no time for any other things, including visits to AWWA, meeting up with friends and doing my own sports and leisure.
Idling is also bad for health. With too much time on hand, she has no idea what to do, and her self esteem suffered very badly, especially when her peers are doing pretty decent while she does nothing for a living.

Things got better as she devoted more and more effort into finding opportunities everywhere, learning new things from reading and surfing the internet. And she finally found her job!

She was my lucky charm. With her around, i felt that i am the luckiest man on Earth. And so i started joining Facebook contests that i have always dismissed as waste of time. It wasnt long before i won something. The first of them all is a pair of computer chairs. Then things gotten more interesting. I won things ranging from Collagen drinks, vouchers, Beerfest tickets to foodstuff goodie bag and even a Diskette, a useless relic in the age of Cloud storage. But my best win is still a Braun Buffel clutch and long wallet which eventually went to mummy and Chiwawa.  I have to apologise to my mummy and lao sis that they have to accede to my requests to go get my freebies as collections are usually Monday to Friday working hours.

Work have not been easy this year. But despite tough times with the project, being there allowed me to get into contact with another group of people that are mostly unrelated to the rest of the company. You see, most staffs that are hired into this project have only ever worked in this project, and have never felt the warmth nor the good working culture of my company. So being there makes me felt like being in a different company. These people are generally nice and funny. They taught me many different things, both technical and soft skills. They also showed some negative examples. 9 months in the project was enough for me as firefighting for a prolonged period took a toll on my mindset and turned me negative. Fortunately for GTAP program, i have a legit reason to move out of it.

In my new department, people are even nicer. they understood that i have been firefighting and they are very supportive of me when i requested to clear my leaves, despite them having manpower issues as well. They are willing to teach, and while they do not give you everything, they would always give you a guiding light instead of letting you chase down the wrong tunnel.
I was also given a chance to attend high level meetings. Such meetings are eye opener as being at the lowest food chain of the company, we are non contributors in the meeting, and will only take up space. However, company doesnt think so and gave us chance.

This year also gave me chance to go overseas with someone to accompany me. Though we only made a major trip, that is Taiwan, we made mini trips like going to Penang to visit her Maternal Family members, and to Batam for a super short birthday getaway. We also have a rolling good time having a staycation at Xiuhui's hotel.
These small experiences were my first, and every time i see you falling asleep, I JUST FELT LIKE PULLING OUT THAT OVERFLOWING NOSTRIL HAIR. LOLOLOLOLOL. okay, i just feel so blissful.

But not all went well.
Some time in May, me and Chiwawa almost met with a fatal accident where a single lamppost stopped a car charging in our direction.
Quarrels still happened.
My regular visits to my old friends have became irregular until to almost none.
Less time at home and seeing popo getting older is also a painful process.
New home have yet to have any positive news as the year ends, moving towards a another new year.
weight wasnt lost.
OT and weekends working became more common.


Well, thats abt it! shall add more when im free!

The epic trip to Taiwan 2015

Hi,

I really think my Taiwan trip is a freaking interesting trip, and therefore I would really want to introduce our itenary in this blogpost.
I do not claim any credit for this itenary as it is done up by my super detailed friend, Alvin Ng.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/25169194/Taiwan%20Itinerary%202015.docx


So since we started our trip slightly earlier than others, we explored the area for Wen Quan. And yes, we did found it. It was a pretty comfortable experience, although the place looked like an old children water playground. No photos taken inside, but here is the exterior.


Nearby, there is this pretty epic fishball soup.
And since we explored this place without following the itenary, this place is known as Da Keng, which is damn near the Carton King that we would go on the next day...



this is pretty stupid. we went to the same region twice, two days in a row. The bus ride was nightmarish. the theme park is pretty boring, but if taking nice photos is your objective, this is a good place to go to.

And of course, since we are at Tai Chung, and staying in the midst of Feng Chia,nighttime would definitely be to scout Feng Chia Ye Shi for food and deals. For that, no photos were taken because of how devoted we are to our shopping and eating.

So the last full day at Taichung, we decided to book a van for the 6 of us to visit some Meh meh, building and some flower place. 

The Cai Hong Cun has nothing but decorated graffiti all around the place. While i find the place underwhelming, the history behind the place is pretty rich. An old man who refused to be relocated, started painting his area with weird yet striking graffiti, and ended up drawing enough attention to let him preserve the place and became a tourist attraction.

Pardon my 3 month pregnant stomach

Next, we head to somewhere with flowers. This place is pretty high up and hence it was kinda cold. At first look at the place, we thought it was a natural outdoor flower garden, with the temperature of Gardens by the bay Glass Domes. But as we zoom in into the flowers, we realised that not all the plants there are real. Some are plastic. But i enjoyed the place anyway, as i get to feed some ducks.

The last place is CingJing Cao Yuan, where sheeps roam and eat food off your hands. My suggestion is to get a big pack of sheep food and walk around and feed those hungry sheeps. Although there are shitload of grass all around the place, im pretty sure those sheep food pellets are akin to our titbits because they definitely prefer them to eating those lush green grass.

So after that day, we took a bus to Ri Yue Tan. To be honest, Ri Yue Tan is a place that i will only go once in my lifetime, similar to Ali Shan. 

At Ri yue tan, since 4 of us stay in a different hotel as the other 2, we happened to know that the other 2's hotel have better deals, as well as better services. 

I would suggest you go Mei Jen house if you are able to book it.

Anyway, there is a tour that you would require to buy ticket for the boat ride, and they are selling at 300twd. This is a price that you can try to haggle if you are lucky enough. Some people bought their tickets at 150, some 200. but mostly locals gotten cheaper tickets. 

I would say the island hopping was pretty much dull, apart from 1 of the island with an old street selling amazeballs food, which was mentioned in the itenary.

the dinner at ri yue tan as suggested is this!

The next day, we headed for Ali Shan, and thats the first and last time i go there. because going there is a PAIN and there isnt much to do. if you are expecting to see Ali shan de Gu niang who would serenade you with beautiful voices, sorry. all you get is shitload of trees, that are very pretty as well.

So after 1 day in the mountain, we went down to half way in the mountain. The tea garden minsu is pretty. but no aircon, which is okay, since the weather in the mountain is still quite cold. To me, we could have decided to explore alishan den gotten to halfway mountain to stay, instead of spending the night in alishan. this is because at alishan, there isnt much to do. and neither is there much to do at mid mountain during the night. 

the minsu is expensive, but that is because there isnt any cheap hotels in that region. 

And anyway, the only place we can go in mid mountain is fen qi hu. this place is worth going IMO, because this old street is pretty good to walk about, with some pretty decent food like the epic donut we ate there. oh, and not forgetting the squarish bamboo forest.

After this, we are back to Taipei, which is pretty much all about shopping. At there, we didnt have any photos as it is only 1 night for us before going back. but the rest stayed on, and the itenary also covered some of the nicer place to go in Taipei. 

Taipei is all about ye shi. So do remember to visit all of it, and take it easy during day time. their ye shi closes late, so u can shop till late, and wake up later.

Thats all folks!

This is a wonderful memory, and since i have no permission to post photos of others, i shall only include photos of 2 of us!