Use a card to summarize it in one sentence - the ideal is very full, but the reality is very skinny.

Background introduction:

At the end of 2017, I was still a credit card (debit card) novice. I only had a CCB Dual Currency Dragon Gold Card that I got when I first started working. The card is purely because China Construction Bank pays wages on its behalf and it is convenient to pay back credit cards (debit cards). I use it every day, and I used it on Black Friday in 2017 to get 20 cash back on overseas shopping. By the end of 2017, this card only had more than 50,000 points. The main reason is that I used my husband’s CMB card after marriage. As of the end of 2017, my husband only held one CMB Young card. Over the years, my points have only been exchanged for small things, but I have used his CMB Young card limit until graduation. .

The opportunity for change at the end of 2017 was that I knew that I would be assigned to France for at least a year. Under this condition, I gave birth to my plan to add platinum cards from various banks.

Support plan:

Rights distribution: Based on the conditions of being abroad for a long time, taking into account the fact that I may take my children on long-distance flights, and the number of family visits will increase (I take my children abroad alone) , when choosing a card, mainly consider the following benefits:

1. In order to expand the market, domestic credit cards (debit cards) often have some overseas promotions, such as multiple points, such as cash rebates.

2. Platinum credit cards (debit cards) come with their own benefits, such as airport VIP lounges (suitable for traveling with children and the elderly), and delay insurance.

3. Points can be exchanged for airline miles to redeem air tickets.

4. Currency exchange fee (basically all banks’ full-currency cards and platinum cards have this discount)

*Voiceover: I also applied for a Nanjing Bank savings card. There are only a few cards in existence that offer no fees for overseas cash withdrawals.

Among them, the order of benefits I like is first to exchange multiple points for airline miles, because air tickets will definitely be a major expense for our family in 2018; secondly, to consider the problems during the flight , such as VIP rooms, such as delay insurance; finally, reasonable cash rebates.

Since my husband has graduated from the Young Card limit, Palm Life can directly apply for Classic White online, so I asked him to subscribe to Classic White. The main consideration was also the VIP lounge and 300 selected hotel rights of China Merchants Bank.

From this, you can see a summary of all the credit cards (debit cards) I have added since January 2018.

Next, let’s talk about my ideals and reality in 2018 in detail.

Multiple accelerated points, let’s talk about the Bank of Communications White Kirin that deceived me the most this year

The first card that comes to mind when traveling abroad for a long time is the Bank of Communications White Kirin. After all, this card has been used abroad without any thought. reputation. When I applied for the card, it was indeed such a magical card, and when I went abroad, YE Bai had not yet issued it. My husband also asked him to apply for Bai Qilin after he got China Merchants Bank Classic Bai, but he was awarded a gold card, which was inexplicable. All in all, I quickly applied for supplementary cards for my husband and my parents, so that the delay insurance for 6 VIP lounges at domestic and overseas airports would be guaranteed.

The ideal in 2018 is no-brainer. If you spend 2.5Wrmb, you can get 50W points/month. Although there is a threshold for 2.5W consumption, I think there should be no problem if you spend 6 months, so before The plan is to get 50W*6=300W points, which can be equivalent to about 16W airline miles.

The reality in 2018 was that when I went abroad at the end of March, the rules were changed that month. Instead of reaching the standard with just 5 strokes without thinking, 5 strokes were required to be greater than 500. So it was abolished in March, and changed again in Q2. As a rule, I am in Europe, so the upper limit of reward points becomes 20W. At the end of the year, the rules were changed again, and you could only get 200,000 points once in three months. The 18-year dream of multiple points was killed by Bank of Communications.

In addition, there is a cruel reality that must be said. I had never imagined that 5 transactions of more than 500 (65 euros) would really be a threshold.

In fact, in my daily consumption, if I don't buy things for friends, it is difficult to make 5 purchases of more than 65 euros a month. Although the total amount is not large, I can't go to the supermarket to stock up on groceries for 2 weeks =. =, you can’t stock up every week. Alas, it is the sorrow of the poor after all.

Due to the above reasons, mainly limited daily consumption, I actually mainly used Bank of Communications Bai Qilin when I was abroad. As it became more and more difficult to get multiple points, I even rushed to redeem 5 points for double consumption in the next month. After being unable to get 10,000 points due to time differences, this card gave me 1.2 million points in 2018. Although it is far from ideal, I am already satisfied.

There are also CITIC Visa signature and Bank of China all-currency programs that offer multiple points, but Bank of China points are too useless, and CITIC’s redemption rate for air miles is too high, so there is basically nothing to do with the limited consumption. brush. CITIC accumulated 150,000 points by buying bricks and mortar in the first half of the year (after buying a house in July and emptying out all the savings, the bricks and mortar were no longer available), while Bank of China simply participated in some overseas shopping cashback activities.

Lounge rights were defeated by Air China Silver, which had no choice but to fly into China

Because I have to fly internationally with my children, and my family will often fly internationally to visit me and my children, so the lounge is Rights and interests are also something I value more. But this one is actually relatively easy to get. My husband's classic white card has 6 times, my white unicorn 3 deck card has 3 times more 6 6, and ICBC Global Platinum has 6 more times. Here I want to talk about the ICBC Dabai that I made on a whim... I saw the ICBC card mainly because MasterCard's cashback activity is more attractive, and ICBC points can be exchanged for hotel group points; however, the cashback activity has been revised again in 2018. Then, there is no annual fee for spending 20W or more. People have to have dreams. What if they come true? Ideally, I thought there would be a lot of people asking me to buy things on my behalf, but in reality there was no such thing. I wanted to help people buy things but no one asked me to buy them. The consumption power of my circle of friends was really shocking.

However, in fact, the VIP lounge rights accumulated by multiple cards were ultimately lost to Air China, which seemed very useless by the end of the year. At first, my husband came and checked the Bank of Communications number several times. Later, because he flew 6 times to Europe in one year, he became an Air China Silver Card early (why he still had a Silver Card at the end of the year, because we are poor and only buy the cheapest air tickets!!!) Then he told me , the food in the Air China business class VIP lounge is better than Longteng. Therefore, the Dragon Soaring benefits such as the Platinum Card are actually not used.

As for myself, I basically fly back home for business trips, and this frequency is about twice every three months. When traveling with your boss on a business trip, you can either enter the VIP lounge with your boss and use your boss’s platinum card, or you can’t even think about entering the VIP lounge because your boss will arrive at the airport at the last minute. Moreover, I also flew early and got the Air China Silver Card, so I basically didn’t use Longteng’s VIP lounge. (I am better than my husband. After all, I am flying on a business trip, so I should be one flight away (just next week) before I can fly to a gold card)

Delay insurance, if you are a business trip dog, you have to admit it yourself. Bar (by the way, I want to complain about my unorganized husband)

Summary of delay insurance:

Bank of Communications: It is available when purchasing tickets, and a compensation of 500 will be paid for delays of 2 hours, and is available to spouses and children who are traveling with them. Supplementary cards also have the same rights and interests, except for mileage tickets

CITIC: Available for ticket purchases, and accompanying spouse must hold the card; 1,000 yuan will be compensated for delays of 2 hours; if the natural monthly transaction reaches 3,000, you can enjoy it at the end of the next month

Bank of China: *Never Too Little Series*, 1 yuan per minute for delays starting from 2 hours; 200 yuan for flight cancellations; 1000 yuan in total for the year

First of all, let’s complain about the Bank of China delay insurance that is never too little It was significantly reduced at the beginning of 2018. The compensation was changed from 200 yuan for 2 hours of delay to 1 yuan for every minute of delay.

Then, because I am on a business trip, of course the air tickets are purchased by the company. French companies do not encourage the method of buying tickets yourself and then reimbursing them. They all buy through a unified platform. Therefore, the delay insurance that requires purchasing a ticket is out of the question for me.

Fortunately, I only encountered one major delay this year, and as a result, I waited for more than 3 hours at the airport. Bank of China compensated me 96 yuan...

However, Bank of China's insurance compensation procedures are very, very special. It is simple and convenient, and the payment is received very quickly. Just upload the Air China delay certificate directly to the WeChat official account.

Finally, I have to complain about my husband. Maybe having an organized person in a family is enough. My husband is completely unwilling to spend time and energy on these things, so he also doesn’t like having too many credit cards (debit cards) and is too lazy to manage them. So I can only give him some tricks at China Merchants Bank, classic white, full currency visa, plus the JD Little White Card for JD loyal users, that’s all he has. However, China Merchants Bank has delay insurance, and the minimum compensation is changed from 4 hours to 3 hours. On his last flight at the end of the year, he finally encountered a major delay and was notified directly before departure that the departure would be delayed for 5 hours.

China Merchants Bank delay insurance: Only the person who purchases the ticket in full can pay up to 2,000 yuan (including a fixed allowance of 500 yuan) starting from 4 hours of delay (18 years)

Paid for more than 80 tickets You can enjoy the fixed allowance of 500 yuan for 3 hours, with an increase of 200 yuan for each additional hour, and a cap of 8 hours, with a maximum of 2,000 yuan (19 years)

This flight was delayed for 5 hours and was finally delayed by 3 Arrive at the airport in 50 hours, so please note that delay insurance is calculated based on the delayed arrival time. However, my husband actually paid for the ticket with Alipay. Hahahaha, I was speechless and choked.

Overseas cashback, the missed CCB card

In fact, many of the cards I hold have overseas cashback activities, but since I contribute all my daily consumption to Bai Qilin, so No special attention. However, among them, CCB’s activities are undoubtedly the most reliable and can be said to shine brightly. Bank of China and CITIC both need to grab quotas. Especially at the end of the year, China Construction Bank's cashback event comes again, and at the end of the year, the consumption power of the circle of friends increases linearly with the arrival of the year-end bonus. At this time, I happily took out the CCB Dual Currency Card that I had kept in my wallet for a long time, and then I suddenly discovered that it was about to expire in January 2019. Because I had kept it in my wallet for so long, I had not noticed it at all before. Isn't that still a month away? But China Construction Bank is so reliable that it sent a new card to my old address one month in advance (so I didn't receive the new card), and then canceled the old card... If God If you give me another chance, I will definitely choose to use the China Construction Bank card... In addition, I was not able to participate in Long Pay's points-giving activity because I was abroad.

In addition to the above-mentioned major rights and interests, in fact, it was later discovered that China Merchants Bank’s 300 hotel rights and the rights to exchange hotel points with ICBC credit cards (debit cards) were also defeated by the hotel loyalty program. Regarding the quota, I am not too entangled. In 2018, Bai Qilin, who was the main brusher, raised 6K.

Having said so much, since it is all complaints, it is not actually the sorrow of the poor.

To summarize, the credit card (debit card) points situation in 2018: Bank of Communications: 120W, Bank of China: 7.6W, ICBC: 1W, CITIC: 15W, CCB: 7.8W; husband’s China Merchants Bank card points: 2.9W; Airline mileage accumulation (non-credit card (debit card) points redemption): Air China: 7.6W; Flying Blue: 1.4W; AsiaOne: 1W (accumulation when booking a hotel);

Read my Story, you will find that this is definitely the daily use of cards by ordinary people. I haven’t finished yet. Now I want to disclose the credit card (debit card) bills of my husband and I in 2018...

In 2018, the Bank of Communications Baiqilin I used as my main account accounted for 95% of my consumption expenditure. , the annual consumption is 12.3W, of which about 3.5W is consumed for others or for travel. Therefore, my daily consumption is 8.8W yuan. This is basically the pure living consumption of me and a child. I can spend it in Europe. When it comes to credit cards (credit cards), I mostly use domestic credit cards (debit cards). I rarely spend money in cash. I will buy some clothes and cosmetics, but not frequently. 12.3W consumption accumulates 120W points, which basically guarantees an average acceleration of 10 times the points.

My husband’s 18-year-old China Merchants Bank card is also his main way of daily consumption. There is no plan at all. The annual consumption is 21.3W, of which 9.7W is transportation expenses such as air tickets and train tickets. Some of the 21.3W must be official expenses, but I can't count the specific amount. Anyway, men are very good at spending money. Then his China Merchants Bank card points are basically a structure of 10,000 points for swiping credit cards (debit cards) and 10,000 points for other rewards.

Do you think it is more realistic? Such consumption should not be low in ordinary families. In fact, I think these data can solve most people's doubts. The millions of points accumulated by the great masters, even with the blessing of various activities, are achieved on the basis of large consumption. For most people, daily consumption cannot reach that amount unless you buy something that can be sold twice. In fact, from an economic point of view, the transaction itself is a source of cost. As long as there is a transaction, there will be costs, such as time value, opportunity cost, etc. But I think there are some people who are very good at management and have opened up some upstream and downstream channels over the years. These are not comparable to ordinary people, so there is no need to compare. Most people who use credit cards, like me, will of course be enamored with the material and spiritual enjoyment these wools bring. Moreover, I also like to manage and plan these things, and it is more about enjoying the process. But many people are actually not good at or don’t like management and planning, so I think it’s better to consume rationally and do what you like in a way that suits you.

Of course, I must have ideals in 2019. I will continue to manage and plan my life. During the days I stay in Europe, I will still maximize my Bai Qilin points and support CCB muse. Participate in cash rebate activities reasonably, and you may add CITIC Easy Card after returning to China at the end of the year (provided you save some bricks). Just sell everything else that needs to be sold.

The most important thing is to improve your hard power in 2019. In fact, no matter how much effort you put in, it is just to make yourself and your family live a better life. The root cause is hard power. After staying in a capitalist country for nearly a year, I actually have deep feelings. My Director in France is an absolute Elite who is over 50 years old. He holds an unlimited card from a local bank in France (the unlimited cards from European banks are not as easy to get as those from domestic banks), has a lifetime Platinum membership with Flying Blue, and is on the VIP list of Hermes. There may be other items that I don’t know about, but the clothes I wear are all high-end, and I am very knowledgeable about food and red wine. When I travel, I always book all the food, accommodation and transportation with a travel agency. When I was young, I struggled seriously and had strict requirements on myself. Now I have looked down on all kinds of fame and fortune. This may be the highest state that most people pursue.

Therefore, I also wish everyone who plays cards will gain something in the new year and not worry too much about gains and losses. In fact, there is one thing about the French that is worth learning, that is, everyone has a true attitude of enjoying life, C'est la vie, just be happy!