You always hear the positive comments from credit card comparison sites, now hear the true story from an actual card user!
Even though the BOC Miles Card is one of the best generalist credit card available today that gives 1.5 miles per dollar on local spending and 3 miles per dollar on overseas spending, there are several other non-reward factors that have made me super pissed.
Just one month ago, I was helping some friends to purchase concert tickets, and offered to do the booking to get the 3 miles per dollar reward for my overseas spend. After checking www.whatcard.sg, I saw that BOC Miles was one of the best cards for miles rewards. I decided to optimize my rewards, instead of spending on my Citi PremierMiles card (only 2 miles per dollar of overseas spend).
One day before purchasing the ticket, I realized that my remaining credit limit for the month was insufficient to pay for all of our tickets. Realizing this and not wanting to get into an overdraft, I dialed into the hotline to request for a temporary credit limit extension.
Now those of you who have a BOC account & credit card will realize this all-too-common frustration; when nothing goes wrong, all is fine. When something goes wrong,its painfully frustrating! I was unable to connect to the “24 hours” hotline despite dialing in several times. When I finally connected (after calling several times per hour for several hours), I was re-directed from the BOC account hotline to the BOC card hotline.
When I called the hotline later,they told me to apply for the credit card extension in person at the branch. When I went to the branch (luckily I didn’t have to queue for too long), I was told to fax in my CPF documents, for the credit limit to be processed in 7 working days. 7 days! By that time, the tickets would have been sold out and I have to buy from scalpers, probably in cash and I can’t even get my credit card rewards!
When I told the staff that other cards could approve the temporary credit limit extension electronically, the staff apologetically told me that there was nothing they could do, as their existing system is not set up for this.
In conclusion, I urge readers to consider some of the non-reward aspects when applying for credit cards. No point optimizing obsessively if you are going to go through a horrible service experience like that! Because of this experience, I have decided not to use this card after I redeem my miles (in the 30,000 BOC points bracket).
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