A huge covered truck stopped outside my gate the other day. My missus thought that I had ordered some new furniture or something but no, it was some courier service agency delivering something that I had requested for…
– absolutely free from my credit card company. For one thing, I really must say that I am very impressed with the company or the people handling the bonus point-exchange for them considering that I had just put in the request online the previous week and I never expected it to be delivered so quickly.
Coincidentally, my blogger friend, Happy Surfer, had a post on credit cards not long ago. Well, I have two but I hardly use them as I don’t go shopping. Usually, I would use them to buy air tickets online, pay for hotels or at fine dining restaurants and so on. That is why I am not able to accumulate a whole lot of bonus points to exchange for free gifts.
Then the other day, I had a notification from the company saying that some of my bonus points would expire in December so I decided to just make use of them and claim one of the free gifts on offer. Unfortunately, with my limited number of points, I was not eligible for any of the nicer things they have in their catalogue. I do not need another toaster or a frying pan…and I do not think the watches are all that nice. In the end, I settled for this barbecue set…
I had a barbecue set before and we used it a lot a long time ago when we entertained at home more but for years, it had been left out in the sun and the rain…at the back of the house. It wasn’t big and was not getting into anybody’s way or anything but one fine day, I noticed that it was missing so I asked my missus and she said that it had gone rusty and she had thrown it away. Of course, it had gone rusty! It was cast iron…but would it matter at all since it was just the base to hold the hot burning charcoal? The grills are all nice and new, spick and span since we keep them in the house. Sigh!!! So, considering that I do not have a barbecue set anymore, I decided that I could just order one.
I heard it said that these days, if you order furniture, it would come in a box…and so it is with this barbecue set…
Hmmmm….I am not too good at assembling things and may end up getting the parts mixed up or the bits and pieces missing. Never mind, I will get down to it one of these days and with a little bit of luck, I will be able to put it all together nicely. Hehehehehehe!!!!
I wonder what the end result would look like but it doesn’t matter really. As they always say, the best things in life are free… LOL!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I love hibachis. Just put a few shrimps, green or red peppers, zucchini, cucumber, shitake mushrooms on skewers, fire them over the grill and you’ve got yourself a nice dinner. Actually, I’ve found nothing in life is free. You pay for it one way or another.
Haven’t got round to putting it together yet. It is handy, eh?
Well, it came free for spending what I HAD to spend so I guess that is better than spending and getting nothing. There is a promo right now – they keep sms-ing me asking me to spend up to RM5K and I will get a free smartphone… That one, I would say…no, thank you.
I get what you mean, just waxing philosophical, not meant to be taken literally.
Ya…best to spend wisely, no matter what or how…especially these days when my only source of income is my measly pension. Sobssss!!!!!
So BBQ party soon!?… 😉 I must agree with you that the efficiency of delivery of items in this points exchange via credit card. My recent purchase from Groupon let me down ‘coz the goods delivered at much beyond the expected period 😦
I never bother about this Groupon and whatever…and I never do any online shopping other than the purchasing of air tickets. But last time, I used to send the claim forms for the gifts by snail mail…and it would take at least one month or a lot longer before I would get the item. This one really impressed me – I was so pleasantly surprised.
NZ is almost a cashless society and thus we do use a lot of eftpos and credit cards. Since credit cards allow us to collect points and since Amex gives double points, we got quite a lot of points over the years. Got quite a lot of stuff from those points eg. iPhone for J’s birthday last year, 50″ flat screen tv, air tickets etc.We always pay in full every month and we don’t pay any yearly fees on any credit cards and thus, those free gifts are really free!
Yes, must pay full. The interest is killing and you end up paying and paying your whole life through. I know many young people will just pay the minimum amount every month and drag on and on…. If I owe people money like that, I would never have a good night’s sleep…
I get my fees waived too. Here, I think if you use more than 12 times, they will waive the fees…so I charge monthly my wireless internet broadband subscription to my card and that would be 12 times a year already.
Wahhhhh!!! Obviously you spend a whole lot to be able to get all those gifts… Hmmmm!!!! @.@!!!!
That’s the beauty of the NZ credit cards. No annual fee whatsoever, and certainly no GST either.
I think the RM50 is to discourage any Tom, Dick or Harry from getting a credit card…or a string of them, for that matter – too may bad debts, failure to pay…declared bankrupts but I do not think it is working. Nobody seems to give a damn!
Well, if you have enough bonus points, you can use them to pay off the tax – I do that every year instead of exchanging for stuff that I do not really need…and I get my annual fee waived automatically. My 2nd card, 1st year or two years free, they said…and 3rd year, they charged…so I called them to cancel the card and they quickly counter-proposed…no annual fee!
As for GST in NZ, last I heard you pay 15% of everything you buy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goods_and_Services_Tax_(New_Zealand) Count your blessings, girl…
I know, but I meant the credit card….
And like I said, my annual fees are waived – all free. Do you pay fees for yours?
And like I said also, the tax is to discourage (young) people from having too many…and like I said, sadly, it is NOT working, not at all!
I have many credit card stories to tell but no point telling them – those who will listen already know and those who will not, no point telling them. It will be like casting pearls to swines. Just the other day, a young friend told me that as long as he pays the minimum plus a bit of the outstanding balance, it will be all right. Call me old fashioned, old school, a dinosaur…but I simply cannot see how it can be all right when the amount is growing faster than you’re paying because of the high interest – and that’s not all! He went and signed up for another credit card!
And like I said too, I use my bonus points every year to pay off the tax. Don’t you do that too? But actually, I do feel that if one can afford a card and shop till one drops, what is RM50 a year? Chicken feed…unless one has half a dozen cards or more which is more often than not, the case. Sad, real sad!
My Mom had to pay for it for a long time – the credit card points weren’t never enough to cover the annual fee until now. I’m on the supplementary. As for the tax, she had to threaten the bank that she wanted to cancel it before they reluctantly agreed to waive it.
Yup, I know those stories…. in fact, I know someone’s who’s smacked dead in the middle of the credit card debts. I find that the banks should up the requirement on the applicant’s salary from the current amount. Maybe that might help to reduce the debt a lot.
What I meant in the earlier post is that I don’t remember her being charged the GST for the credit card in NZ.
Ya…and they get charged 15% for everything they buy – bet that will total up to a lot more than RM50 a year!
Like I said, the RM50 tax was imposed so people here will not have too many cards – too many bankruptcy cases…but people will never learn. You know one case – I know many. One borrowed money from me and took years to pay me back, uni graduate and a professional at that, one…the father had to mortgage the house to get a loan to pay…etc…etc…etc…so if the RM50 can dissuade people from getting a credit card, I would say it is a good tax. Maybe should raise it to RM100 since RM50 is not working…obviously.
Yup! You’re right – they should make it more difficult for people to get a card…but then again, my friend – the one who borrowed money from me, is a professional with a degree. I’m sure his monthly salary is not little, definitely more than what I get! These days, I see a shift now from credit to debit card. – maybe that is better as you cannot spend unless you have money in your bank account.
I wonder which bank your mum got her cards from. I have two – from two different banks…and I am very happy with both – good service, good security e.g. they will sms me to see if I have used them time and again…and their phone-in customer service is excellent. No complaints.
P.S. By the way, they can waive your credit card fee (Mine’s RM150 a year) but the tax, they can’t. However, you can use your bonus points (10,000) to offset that when they charge you…and they will credit the RM50 back to you the following month. That’s how it works…or at least, in my case.
Err.. I’m afraid that it’s not true that NZ credit cards do not have any annual fee. They do charge and quite a lot too for platinum or titanium cards but this can be waived when spending certain amounts. It depends on the bank’s discretion. What is free with no fee is eftpos cards but certain banks do impose transaction fees.
Same here then – can request the credit card company to waive the annual fee. Mine, one’s free for life…but must use at least 12 times a year and the other one, now free for life after I called and wanted to cancel after the initial free period of two years.
Eftpos is a debit card – Melissa used that when she was in Wellington. I dunno about debit cards here – that day, they wanted to give me one – Hong Leong uses Visa debit cards but I said….no, thank you. They charge RM2, I think…for the monthly statement – I do not need that, and cancelled everything on the card and now, I can only use it as an ATM card.
Hope u get some nice weather over there and u can get your BBQ set out and throw a party! 😛
The weather has been pretty good here – it rains once in a while, not all the time and not everyday and we enjoy nice and cool weather most of the time… Not over at your side, I gather?
It’s good to know that it’s really free. Raining once in a while is nice – not like here, raining daily with not much sun to dry the laundry. =/
We don’t really use credit card either, just for those groceries, but we’re now racking up on the points to redeem that lovely watch and the robot vacuum cleaner.
And like they say, two heads are better than one. Perhaps you can rope in a friend or your wife to help you assemble the BBQ set? =)
Never mind! I have all the time in the world…will get down to it and work through it slowly. The credit card company concerned – the watches are not very nice…and I don’t need another vacuum cleaner…and instead of just letting the points expire, I thought that hibashi may come in handy someday…
wow, such a handsome set of hibachi grill!! and you are going to have BBQ and grill tonight for dinner?? hehehehe.. ish!! where got free?? you use your credit card points to exchange for that, anything that is exchanged with something is not free!!
Yalor! If you want to look at things that way, nothing is free. I send you things, also not free – after all, as they say, hutang budi dibawa mati…so you owe me! As far as I am concerned, as long as they do not ask me to fork out any more money for it, I don’t give a damn…whether you think it is free or otherwise. Tsk! Tsk!
I don’t think a barbecue set needs little points, I’m sure you have like thousands and thousands of points to take this?
Have a nice weekend !!
It’s one of the items that need to lowest points, not thousands and thousands. I wouldn’t have that many! Enough for a back pack, not enough for a cabin baggage…and what would I need a back pack for. Not many things that I can choose with those few points that I had.
so nice.. 🙂 my credit card company never offered me anything..
ha.. bbq in Christmas party?
Can, no problem… You wanna join? 😉 Hmmmm…I wonder what company you’re using.
ooo, i usually use credit card bonus points just to redeem cashback rebates… RM50 at a time, painfully slow to accumulate enough points though. maybe i should try ordering something someday 😀
Got such thing lah? Gee!!! I have to check that out! I wouldn’t mind that! Better than exchanging for things that I do not really need nor will use… 😦 But then again, if it is painfully slow for you – eating at all those classy, expensive fine dining places and all…I can imagine how much slower it would be for the likes of me… 😦
What a nice and portable barbecue set. Just in time to use for this coming Christmas. Happy a great weekend, Arthur.
Haven’t thought of what we would have for Christmas yet… You, too! Enjoy your weekend.
Nice and handy BBQ set. By the time we get to Sibu and it’s still in the box, we’ll assemble for you lah. But I think the young cikgu in the house will be helping the old cikgu in assembling it soon 😉
Great idea! I’ll just leave it there and wait for you to come. Must make yourself useful while here mah! Hehehehehe!!!!
Not Bad, not bad! and I can see you having fun with the assembling too;) and treating missus with a nice garden BBQ party 🙂 Life is good Arthur!
Will consider… Maybe BBQ for Christmas… 😉
can have korean bbq and do the gangnam style now!hahaha!
Good luck in the assembling though! Sometimes can be quite tricky! We used to assemble a lot of ikea stuff n me always very impatient, can’t believe all the languages i can speak when doing so! Post up what you bbq! I also have a new built in bbq set, so would love to have recipes on how to do interesting bbqs!
Not really a fan of BBQs…but would be good to have one…panggang fish and prawns…or sua too bak! Who knows? Hehehehehehe!!!!
BBQ Party! Wooo!
We’ll see… I don’t like the heat…and the lingering smell on one’s clothes….
why not change to vouchers ke instead of the BBq set since you don’t really like it?
I do like it…just that whether or when I would get down to using it, that’s another story. I imagine panggang-ing fish wrapped in banana leaves on it – anytime nicer than baking that in the oven.
wow thats a pretty cool and handy stuff and you got it for free you gotta be kidding me hahaha i never got anything like that for free
Yes, I did not have to pay for it. Just informed them that I wanted that in exchange for my bonus points…and they sent to my house. Not too sure if I really need it or not. Maybe can give away to someone as a birthday present or for Christmas. Then, I would not have to spend any money on that, can save a bit… Hehehehehehe!!!! 🙂
I guess we’ll be seeing lots of grilled recipes soon 🙂
I usually just go for the vouchers…. not enough to redeem the nice stuff. Like you, I hardly use the card unless it’s some significant amount and I don’t carry that kind of cash around or when I discover I’ve forgotten to fill up my wallet 😀
I buy air tickets online…and auto-pay my ASTRO, internet & electricity bills to get the points…and pay for hotel when travelling. Other than that, I hardly use. Hardly ever go shopping and lazy to use to pay for petrol even – small town, we do not use that much…
I love grilled food, we do it often during the warmer months. Sometimes even on cold days you’ll find me bundled up, grilling outside.
I hope you put it together soon, so I can see some of your lovely grilled food. 😉
Hahahaha!!!! I hope so too… 😉
Nice grill you’ve got there! 😉
Seriously, I didn’t know there were so many good things you can redeem off your credit card points. The last time I did that was…I can’t remember actually.
Time for a peek at what’s on offer!
Oh, them telco points are good too – used it to redeem a phone last time.
Looking forward to your posts on grilled food buddy! 🙂
It depends on whose card you’re holding – I have two. One’s better in the sense that with fewer points, you can exchange for better things – the other one, you will need to accumulate a lot more if you hope to get something worth having. Telco? Mine’s pre-paid…so I guess I do not get any bonus points…unfortunately. 😦
Have not redeemed any as yet accumulating enough points to exchange for Lamborghini Aventador hehe.
Not in any of my catalogues… I guess I do not have a card like yours – exclusively for the rich and famous! Hehehehehehe!!!! 😉
I love these grills…they are really lovely to have..and once you start on it…its almost a weekly grilling affair.
Ok…must get down to it soonest then!
Oh, I hate it when the points are expiring and I don’t have enough to exchange for something nice. Some cards make it quite difficult to exchange points because you need a lot of points just to exchange for a measly product. So far, Maybank is pretty good as their points don’t expire. So, will we be seeing BBQ or grilled food from you soon :)?
We’ll see…we’ll see. I don’t have an account with MayBank as the branches here are always very crowded. I prefer to go elsewhere. One of my cards is like that – would need a lot of points to change for anything…but my points for that one are not expiring yet so no matter.
going to have BBQ party or not like that? Not really free lo coz have to use the card baru will get. Ya i also just redeem a mini oven from the bank. that’s why busy experiment with muffins LOL
Oven!!!! Wah!!! You obviously had many many points!!!! So kaya, spent so much!!! 😉 I wouldn’t even bother to dream about exchanging for stuff like that – will never have enough points.
Oh goody! Someone has a new cooking equipment! Cool! Now you can have your social gatherings again.
Shopping for free is a great feeling, eh? I recently redeemed an alternative to an iron. Have been wanting to get that for the longest time but none came close to being presentable on the eyes until the last visit to the rewards fiesta. I send my clothes to the dhoby for ironing currently, so with this new gadget, I should at least be ironing the blouses and scarves. haha..
I still have points that will expire in Mar so am still looking to redeem something that won’t become a white elephant in the house. Thanks so much for the link, STP. It brought some traffic from your way. Will return the favor, most definitely.
Welcome. Yes, I can change for an iron too…but I already have an iron at home. Pans and woks, I also have a lot already…so in the end, I chose the grill. Dunno when I will use it.
Oo…my friend just bought something similar. I think is quite handy. Next time we can go ur hse and BBQ!! hehehhehe
No problem! So when are you all coming again? Payung’s waiting! And Ruby…and Noodle House…and Rasa Sayang!!! LOL!!! 😀
I wonder what would your first dish be with the barbeque set. Happy BBQ-ing with your new toy!
First things first! Have to assemble it! Hehehehehehe!!!! 😉
Hmmm…when are you going to host a BBQ Partey? *wink wink*
Pressure! Pressure! I haven’t even assembled it yet!!! Long life… 😉
BBQ party for christmas?? *wink wink* Sound good? kekekkekekek
I also use my credit card to redeem gift..so far i redeem quite a few..tefal frying pan..2 of it, then steaming thing then robot vacumn cleaner, juice extractor and all.
You’re coming? Then I will get down to planning for it… Wink! Wink! 😉 So far I have one Tefal non-stick wok, a wallet/purse, a radio/alarm clock…this BBQ set…can’t remember what else.
i mean my *credit card point*
Yup!
Hi, wah… interesting BBQ set. So when you going to invite all of over to your place for BBQ? LOL
Have a nice week ahead.
Everybody’s invited anytime… Anyone who lets me know he/she is coming to town, I will definitely do all I can to make his or her stay a memorable one and the visit worthwhile.
Wow! A new Barbeque set! You will mix them up, so give it to me as Christmas present ok? Wink! Wink!
Ok, what will you give me in return? The new ipad…or iphone5? Wink! Wink! 😉