The best credit card for my house reno & prep

As updated in my previous post, I have finally bought my own place solo. For the past few months I have been busy coordinating with various contractors and vendors for my house renovation. As I am still on flexi work schedule, I decided to be my own ID. With only a simple renovation in mind, I set my reno budget as 20k (aircon & fixtures inclusive).

The renovation process and acting as my own ID were not as easy as I thought. It took me about a month to gather and compare quotations from different contractors. I eventually settled for a main contractor who specializes in carpentry work but also provides painting, tiling and electrical services. I have grossly underestimated the amount of defects that need fixing for this resale flat. Fortunately, the floor tiles and some of the existing built-ins are still in good condition so I kept them, otherwise I would have burst my budget.

The first issue with being own ID was that all the fixtures I have got to source and purchase them by myself. Thanks to the wonder of online shopping, I got almost everything online (from sanitary wares to racks & accessories) based on reviews. The only thing that I went down to see and purchase physically was an Ikea mirror. The second issue with being own ID was the designing of carpentry built-ins. I have to painstakingly use Paint to draw illustrations of what I wanted and send them to the carpenter. It was frustrating that even with all the details marked out, he still could get my design wrongly when he showed me his draft. There's just so much details to handle - from laminate colour to things like where to drill the holes, the exact height and width of the drawers and how the table edge should be like. Thankfully everything turned out to be nearly how I imagined them. The only regret I have had with the built-ins was the useless fluted panels, which are not so aesthetically pleasing and worthy of the money paid.

Before I started my reno, I sought a new credit card sign up as my existing credit cards did not give much perk for online shopping (and I knew I would be spending a bomb there). I then did a quick comparison between the different credit cards that I owned to see which are the ones I could use to maximize reward for my new house spendings. See my comparison table as follow (correct as of last month):

It's no brainer that Maybank F&F won hands down for the monthly cash rebate (of 8% & $25 per cat cap). I can definitely hit the minimum spending of $800 if I include dining, transportation and groceries. There was also a $200 sign up cash reward (alternatively, one can opt for a Samsonite luggage). I spread my online shopping over a period of 2-3 months, with reno essentials first followed by furniture and other accessories. Should I max out the cashback of any category, I can just switch to my plain old vanilla Amex (UOB Absolute cashback) and get a 1.7% rebate. 

I have missed out UOB One Credit card in the comparison here because I didn't apply for it. If one is able to hit the minimum spending of $500 every month for a quarterly period, then it can be worthwhile too for Shopee purchases. If I can hit another $500 of monthly spending + Shopee purchases, the next best card to use would be UOB One Debit card which gives a 3% rebate cap at $20 per month, without needing to hit 3 consecutive months of minimum spending.

A thousand mile journey starts from a single step. It's relieving that I have achieved my housing and reno milestone!

Thanks for reading!

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