Money and Me: The Best Cards for Living Abroad to Earn Miles Without Losing Them to Fees

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Best of Live Well with Michelle.

It's not just about money, it's about you, Money And Me, where wealth meets self-awareness. Only on Money FM 89.3.

Michelle Martin (0:19)

Alright, Money And Me, we got a great show for you, because we are talking about cards and choices, what to do when you travel, if you have a multi-currency card that might earn fewer rewards, it could cost less overseas to use. Maybe you want to focus on Chris Fly Miles. There's rental payments, transport payments. The need for cash can vary from country to country. So many different variables, shall we say. So we turn to the king of credit cards himself, the man who can put his family on business for a couple of hundred bucks.

Tim Phillips, how are you?

Tim Phillips (0:50)

Hello, Michelle. Thank you.

Michelle Martin (0:53)

He's founder of TimTalksMoney and he's joining us live. So Tim, when did you start figuring out this credit card game?

Tim Phillips (1:01)

When did I start? I mean, to be honest, I actually was already playing the game, you know, quote unquote, the game back in, you know, my days in Hong Kong. So but the game here is actually much more attractive on a miles per dollar basis than in Hong Kong. And you have a lot more competition, I think, in Singapore in terms of the amount of miles you can earn and the different cards that are out there trying to attract people to spend on specific categories. So I've been playing the game in Singapore for about 10 years now. Wow, you are a pro. Yeah. And no, but I mean, to be again, it comes down to the fact that a lot of people don't want to have 10 or 12 cards in their wallet or on their phone. Yeah, or at all.

So if you can find a system that works for you with like two or three, you're not going to fully optimize it down to the last cent or dollar. But I think it's going to save you a lot of mental bandwidth. So I know there's a very dedicated community for Miles Chasing, which I also follow and I can be a part of. But sometimes I've kind of thought, OK, the tradeoff is I don't want to think so much about things. So I just take a bit more of a backseat and understand the tradeoffs of I don't have to think so much about this. I am just going to pick this card and go with it and then set up a system.

And then it kind of runs on autopilot after that, which I love.

Michelle Martin (2:20)

OK, so first rule of thumb, you don't need to be so kiasu that you go into 10 cards to maximize every cent. You're just narrowing it down to two or three.

Tim Phillips (2:30)

Yeah, well, I think it's also a game. It is also a game. I think a lot of us view it as a game because you're trying to maximize what you spend and then align that with the points that you're getting or the miles that you're getting, right? So I think if you love the game and you want to just spend a lot of time doing that and building spreadsheets and so forth, then okay, that's fine. But that's taking time away from other things that you could do as well, right?

So there's a trade-off, right? There's an opportunity cost. So it's all about what you value. So I would say the game is fun, but up to a certain point, right? Don't let that intrude or impede on other parts of your life. Is how I like to think of it and have that balance there. But once you automate the whole system, just like in investing, once you automate that and you kind of have it running, you know which card goes on which. And it's more just about picking the right card to use when you spend on the channel.

Michelle Martin (3:20)

The game can be crushing. So because I'm going to Oxford, I have to look for accommodation for about three months, right? So here I am. I found this cute apartment. It's got two bedrooms. It's everything I wanted. A heated towel racks. Hurrah.

And we're down to the last moment where it's payment time. And I've already mentally calculated the points that I'm going to get right on my credit card. And then they say, sorry, we don't accept that card. And I thought, oh, oh, no.

Tim Phillips (3:48)

Yeah.

Michelle Martin (3:49)

I've got to use something else.

Tim Phillips (3:50)

Is it the American Express that you tried to use?