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Tag: BOC

  • Bank of China slashes BOC Elite Miles card earn rate from 15 Jun

    Bank of China slashes BOC Elite Miles card earn rate from 15 Jun

    The revised rates are abysmal, so remember to cash out your points by 15 Jun

    BOC with its spectacular BOC Elite Miles card, has finally blinked.

    BOC Elite Miles card

    The card, which has one of the highest local spend earn rates for a general spending card, will be effectively reducing the earn rate of BOC Elite Miles card from 15 Jun, according to a revised terms and conditions document sent out to cardmembers yesterday (via SMS, no less).

    The keyword here being ‘effectively’ because of the way the change is made. Most other banks will usually change the earn rate of the cards, but BOC has taken the other approach by changing the conversion rate.

    BOC will be changing the conversion rate of your BOC points to miles from 15 Jun, as follow:

    Frequent Flyer ProgrammeCurrentlyFrom 15 Jun
    Krisflyer30,000 points to
    10,000 miles    		45,000 points to
    10,000 miles
    Asia Miles18,000 points to
    6,000 miles    		27,000 points to
    6,000 miles

    This means that the conversion cost of your BOC points has gone up by 50%, effectively reducing your earn rate by 33.3%.

    Spend typeCurrentlyFrom 15 Jun
    Local spend1.5 mpd1 mpd
    Overseas spend3 mpd2 mpd

    While the change will kick in on 15 Jun, note that the change will impact all BOC points held on the account, including those that are earned before 15 Jun.

    Excerpt from the revised T&C document

    What the new conversion rates mean

    As Milelion rightfully pointed out, the change in conversion rate effectively diminishes the ‘earnings’ before 15 Jun, given that BOC has decided to tweak the conversion rate rather than the earn rate.

    The key issue with this approach is that it penalises past spending, given that the decision (to use the card) was taken in consideration of alternatives available at that point in time. Interestingly, if you refer to the current terms and conditions, there is actually no mention of the conversion rate. The earn currency listed in the document is also BOC points, so legally I reckon they are pretty well protected.

    Final thoughts

    Sneaky one, this bank.

    When this card first launched in 2018, it generated a lot of fanfare given its incredible earn rates for a general spending card, possibly the highest among its competitors in those days. The popularity was reflected in an oversubscription of sign ups, to the point where the bank couldn’t cope and applications were taking up to a month to process.

    Over the two years while the card last, there were a lot of scandalous moments with the card, such as BOC unilaterally deducting points in lieu of an annual fee ‘waiver’ (I personally experienced it and needed to call to claw them back after many painful conversations), and also the very backward method of converting points to miles, given you literally have to print out a form, fill it up, scan it and send it back.

    So if you still have yet to cash in on your BOC points, this is the time to do it. The danger for you is that BOC has not been clear whether it will take 15 Jun as the submission cut-off date, or the actual conversion date. This little detail is critical, as in my own experience, BOC took at least two weeks to convert the points to miles.

    So, good luck everyone.

  • BOC Elite World MasterCard revised terms & conditions

    BOC Elite World MasterCard revised terms & conditions

    The good ol’ days are over. Bank of China is now tightening what used to be a quick and easy way to earn miles.

    So back in July 2018, Bank of China created an uproar in the miles chasing community in Singapore with what was possibly the best miles card ever launched in Singapore.

    Of course, if you were one of those like me and applied for the card, you would have experienced the very rudimentary application process (read: paper and pen, coupled with snail mail), the incredibly long wait for the card to turn up before enjoying the absurdly good miles earning ratio.

    As with many new programmes, all good things must come to an end. As MileLion have explained in a few articles, Bank of China has slowly, but surely, introduced changes to tighten the ways they dish out miles.

    The latest set of terms and conditions was strangely postdated 15 March 2019, and is probably a sign of things to come.

    So what have changed since the launch?

    (1) Definition of local spend and foreign spend: Under the original T&Cs, foreign spend was defined as “all transactions posted in foreign currency”. Based on the latest definition, this has now changed to “all Card transactions charged overseas, including card transactions made overseas but effected/charged in Singapore dollars, and online transactions effected in Singapore dollars or foreign currencies at merchants with payment gateway outside of Singapore. “

    By contrast, the latest definition of local spend is: “all Card transactions charged in Singapore, and online transactions effected in Singapore dollars or foreign currencies at merchants with payment gateway in Singapore. “

    While this is pretty standard industry practice, one common issue faced by cardholders is the ability to identify whether a payment gateway was located in Singapore or overseas.

    (2) More exclusions, including GrabPay: The original wording had a generally standard exclusion clause, which excluded instalment plans, loading of prepaid cards and so on. While the exclusions were broad, the BOC Elite Miles card was great for all ad hoc payments, including Parking.sg payments and using it as my public transport card.

    In the latest set of T&Cs, BOC have put in a table of excluded merchant, as below:

    It’s noteworthy that BOC has decided to exclude GrabPay, Transitlink, SP Services and all government payments from earning miles. That’s a pity because I personally use the card a lot for GrabPay credit topups, as well as transport.

    For those who are not aware, Grab payments (i.e. for transport services) are classified as MCC 4121 – Taxicabs and Limousines, while Grabpay credit top-ups are classified as MCC 7399 – Business Services Not Elsewhere Classified, so your best card to go with for GrabPay credit topups will be Amex.

    (3) Capping of mileage conversions from BOC Bonus Points to Asia Miles or Krisflyer: As MileLion has pointed out, this is a strange one. BOC has decided to cap the number of miles that can be converted per transaction to 60,000 Asia Miles or 100,000 Krisflyer miles each time, at a cost of S$30 per conversion. The only reason I can think of for BOC to do this is to earn more conversion fee, which is pretty petty and silly.

    (4) Plaza Premium Lounge complimentary entries: When BOC Elite Miles was first introduced last year, one of the key perks was the four complimentary passes a year. This was reflected in the first set of T&Cs back in July 2018, but have since been deleted.

    However, according to Milelion’s post, this is a time-limited offer that is still available as long as you get your card approved before 30 June 2019:

    I’ve been told that the four Plaza Premium lounge visits offered to cardholders is a limited-time promotion, and the decision to extend it has not been made yet. However, any cardholder who applies and is approved for the card before 30 Jun 2019 will still receive the vouchers- it’s just that all the access vouchers expire on 30 Jun 2019.

    Milelion

    Final thoughts

    When it was first launched, the BOC Elite Miles World MasterCard was somewhat of a unicorn: an incredible offer, higher-than-usual earn rates, and definitely got the town talking.

    However, like i said, good things never last. The card was obviously subject to a lot of gaming and abuse (there are plenty of people with enough free time to do that), and as we are more than six months in, it’s high time for a revision.

    These changes are not all that bad, save for the cap on the number of miles that can be converted at a time (it’s quite… a cheap move).

    In spite of a relatively high foreign currency processing fee, this card has still one of the best miles earning rates at 1.5 miles per dollar spent locally and 3 miles per dollar spent overseas. I’ll definitely be keeping the card for now, unless things change further down the road.