Getting Started with Credit Cards from Scratch

First, let's explain some terms:

Bank cards are divided into credit cards and debit cards.
Credit cards are issued by banks based on your credit and have a certain credit limit. You need to repay the amount before the specified repayment date. Generally, credit cards are only issued to people with sufficient repayment ability (i.e., those who are employed), but there are also a few exceptions, such as CMB's First Card.
Debit cards allow you to directly consume the balance in your bank account. As long as you are of legal age (and sometimes even if you are underage in certain cases), you can obtain a debit card.

Warmth: Refers to the reduction of credit card benefits (including the cancellation or downgrade of certain benefits).

Annual fee: Refers to the fee that needs to be paid for using a credit card for one year (calculated from the activation date).
Fee waiver: The annual fee can be waived by earning a certain number of points or making a certain number of transactions.

So, why do we use credit cards instead of debit cards?

Credit cards provide a one-month interest-free period, allowing you to earn interest on your funds for one month. For example, if you spend 10,000 yuan in a month, at the current annualized interest rate of 2%, you can earn about 200 yuan in one year.
Banks usually offer more activities for credit cards compared to debit cards. For example, CMB often has a lucky draw for every 18 yuan spent, with a chance to win 0.1-3 yuan in cashback.
Credit card spending can accumulate bank points, which can be used to redeem airline miles (even if you don't use them, you can sell the tickets to cash out) or gifts, etc.
High-end credit card products come with many valuable benefits, including domestic/international airport VIP lounges, appointments with top-tier hospitals, road rescue, airport transfers, dental cleaning, medical check-ups, and various other benefits.

Now, let's get to the point. Which credit cards should we apply for? It depends on your card usage goals and personal conditions.

Currently, credit card benefits can be broadly categorized as follows:

Comprehensive cards. Representative card: CMB Classic White.
Travel cards. Representative cards: ABC Essence White, CCB Dashan White, ICBC Striving White.
Cashback cards. Representative cards: BOC Super V Card, CGB Dragon Master, CEB Red Bonus Card, HSBC Pulse.
Airline cards. Representative cards: Co-branded cards with major airlines.
Car owner cards. Representative cards: ...

Now, let's introduce some commonly used credit cards.

CMB Classic White#

A standard platinum card with a wide range of benefits.

Annual Fee#

3600 RMB (2000 RMB for supplementary cards)

You can use 10,000 permanent points to redeem the annual fee, and the annual fee for supplementary cards also requires 5000 points.

Under normal circumstances, you earn 1 point for every 20 RMB spent. This means you need to spend 200,000 RMB per year to waive the annual fee. However, there is a birthday promotion that allows you to earn 10 times the points on your birthday. This means you only need to spend 20,000 RMB on your birthday to waive the annual fee.

Benefits#

Free annual medical check-up (worth 120 RMB)
Free annual dental cleaning (worth 100 RMB?)
6 opportunities per year to book hotels at a price of 300 RMB (can be used during holidays)
6 times per year access to domestic airport VIP lounges
12 times per year access to golf practice ranges
1500 points = 2000 miles for Eastern Airlines/Air China; 1800 points = 2000 miles for Asia Miles, with an annual limit of 50,000 miles
Delay insurance: Compensation of 600 RMB for delays of 3-5 hours, 2000 RMB for delays of 6 hours or more, with a maximum of 12 claims or 20,000 RMB per year. Compensation of 100 RMB for flight cancellations and 600 RMB for diversion or emergency landing.

Application Requirements#

Currently, the requirements have been increased. You need to have a Golden Sunflower account (with a deposit of 500,000 RMB) to apply for this card.

ABC Essence White#

The easiest card to get unlimited access to airport VIP lounges, with a very easy-to-waive annual fee.

Annual Fee#

800 RMB (500 RMB for supplementary cards)

You can use 50,000 points to redeem the annual fee for the main card and supplementary card in the first year, and the annual fee for supplementary cards also requires 5000 points.

You can waive the annual fee for the following year by making a few transactions.

Under normal circumstances, you earn 1 point for every 1 RMB spent. This means you need to spend 50,000 RMB per year to waive the annual fee. However, there is a WeChat five times points promotion (discontinued in July), which means you only need to spend a total of 10,000 RMB on the main and supplementary cards to waive the annual fee.

Benefits#

3 appointments for top-tier hospital registration
Unlimited access to airport VIP lounges
Roadside assistance
12,500 ABC points can be redeemed for 500 Eastern Airlines or Hainan Airlines miles

Application Requirements#

Annual income of over 200,000 RMB for employees of state-owned enterprises, and over 300,000 RMB for employees of non-state-owned enterprises, based on the base of social security contributions.

CCB Dashan White#

Difficult to waive the annual fee, but better benefits than Essence White.

Annual Fee#

Main card: 1800 RMB/year
Supplementary card: 1200 RMB/year

Annual fee waiver policy:

Main card: From January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024, the annual fee for the main card can be redeemed for 400,000 points, and the annual fee for the supplementary card can be redeemed for 200,000 points.
Supplementary card: If you apply for a supplementary card during the year 2024, you can apply for one card with waived annual fee, which will be waived during the validity period. Supplementary cards can now be applied directly through the CCB app.

Points-based fee waiver promotion:

From January 1, 2024 to June 30, 2024, if you apply for the Long Card Platinum Card for the first time and use the card to make any amount of transactions, you can receive 100,000 comprehensive points, limited to the first 15,000 applicants.

Benefits#

Business and travel:

1 night at a luxury hotel:
- From January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024, you can enjoy a discounted hotel stay. You can choose to redeem a stay at a high-end hotel for 398 RMB + 1000 points or 998 RMB + 1000 points.
Domestic airport/high-speed rail station pick-up and drop-off service:
- The main cardholder can enjoy 3 pick-up and drop-off services at domestic airports/high-speed rail stations each year. This service is available upon card activation. If you meet the spending requirements, you can receive an additional pick-up and drop-off service (spend 60,000 RMB in the first quarter of 2024, and if you meet the requirements by the 15th of the following month, you can receive an additional service, up to a maximum of 1 service).
Global airport VIP lounge service:
- You can enjoy 5 visits to global Priority Pass airport VIP lounges each calendar year, covering 90 countries and 275 cities.
Domestic airport VIP lounge service:
- You can enjoy unlimited access to more than 40 designated domestic airport VIP lounges each calendar year.
Chauffeur service:
- 6 one-way chauffeur services within 50 kilometers in mainland China per year, calculated on a calendar year basis.

Sports and fitness:

If you spend a cumulative amount of 30,000 RMB in a quarter using the Platinum Card, you will receive 2 sports points the following month. Each customer can only participate once per activity year. Activity period: Q1 2024 (cumulative amount based on calendar quarters); Booking period: April to December 2024, expired if not used.

Accident insurance/flight delay insurance:

The flight delay insurance details have not been updated yet, but it is expected to be the same as last year. The coverage is provided upon card activation and does not require card payment. Compensation of 1,000 RMB for delays of 4 hours or more, with an annual limit of 5,000 RMB.

Health benefits:

6 appointments for expert outpatient services at top-tier hospitals each year, available for yourself and 2 family members (a total of 3 people).
VIP service at CCB branches, with priority service.

Supplementary Card Benefits#

The first supplementary card has a waived annual fee during the validity period.
No hotel, chauffeur, pick-up and drop-off, or roadside assistance benefits, but other benefits are the same as the main card, including delay insurance, Priority Pass, and airport VIP guest services.

Application Requirements#

It is easier to apply if you have your salary directly deposited into CCB. For others, it depends on income/assets.

CGB Dragon Master#

Easy to get, suitable for those with poor conditions but want unlimited access to airport and high-speed rail VIP lounges. The only drawback is the inflexible annual fee, although it can be offset by cashback.

Annual Fee Policy#

Fixed annual fee of 480 RMB, cannot be waived!

Main Benefits#

Unlimited access to CGB-operated airport/high-speed rail VIP lounges
2 points for Longteng high-speed rail VIP lounges per year
1 point for Longteng airport VIP lounges per year
1% cashback for WeChat/Alipay/UnionPay QuickPass payments, with a maximum monthly accumulation of 200 cashback and a maximum usage of 100 cashback
Choose 2 out of the following benefits:
- 10% cashback for Meituan/Douyin/Dewu/Heytea/Starbucks/McDonald's, with a maximum monthly accumulation of 200 cashback and a maximum usage of 100 cashback
- Choose one out of the four interest benefits packages in the categories of audio/video, reading, fitness, and gaming by spending at least 3000 RMB or making at least 12 transactions in a month

Application Requirements#

Easy to apply

BOC Super V Card#

A combination card with both UnionPay and Visa, looks very nice!!! The drawback is that the cashback from UnionPay has a monthly limit of 50 and only lasts for three months. The 10% cashback for overseas spending seems great, but I spent $700 on May Day and still haven't received the cashback, so there may be some issues with it.

Annual Fee#

First year fee waived, next year fee waived with 6 transactions

Main Benefits#

Tencent benefits: Choose 1 out of 6 monthly benefits (worth 240 RMB): Spend at least 199 RMB in a single transaction using WeChat Pay to meet the requirements and choose one benefit from the 6 options. Usually, choose the 20 RMB repayment voucher, which is equivalent to receiving 20 RMB for free every month.
Free repayment of up to 4,000 RMB per month: Not very useful, free repayment using UnionPay QuickPass
Domestic cashback: During the first three months after card issuance, you can enjoy cashback for every transaction, up to 10%. The cashback rate is based on the transaction amount:
- 10% cashback for transactions between 10 RMB and 100 RMB
- 1.5 RMB cashback for transactions between 100 RMB and 150 RMB
- 2 RMB cashback for transactions between 150 RMB and 200 RMB
- The cashback amount increases with the transaction amount, with a maximum cashback of 10 RMB per transaction and 50 RMB per month.
3 free visits to overseas airport VIP lounges per year: Use Longteng VIP lounges, better than nothing
10% cashback for overseas Visa spending, with a monthly limit of 1,000 USD (100 USD cashback). However, I have been waiting for the cashback for my $700 spending for a month and a half, so there are doubts.

Application Requirements#

Easy to apply

HSBC Pulse Credit Card#

Annual Fee#

First year fee waived, annual fee waived with voice call.

Benefits#

RewardCash: Earn a certain percentage of RewardCash for every transaction. 1 RewardCash can be used to offset 1 HKD of your bill (equivalent to 1 RewardCash = 1 HKD). However, since RewardCash can be exchanged for miles at a high rate, you can sell unwanted RewardCash on second-hand platforms at a rate of 1 RewardCash:1.05 RMB, which means each RewardCash is worth about 1.05 RMB. You can also redeem airline miles: 1 RewardCash can be redeemed for 10 Asia Miles (Asia Miles currently has a 10% bonus, so it's actually 1:11), British Airways miles, or Singapore Airlines miles. If you hold a Premier card, the redemption rate for British Airways and Singapore Airlines miles can be increased to 1:15.

Cashback:
- Basic cashback rate: 0.4%
- Additional 2% cashback for WeChat Pay QR code payment or Alipay/Apple Pay/UnionPay QuickPass payment
- Additional 2% cashback for RMB/HKD spending (after registering for the "Rewarding the World" program)
- New customers can receive 800 RewardCash as a reward for spending 8,000 HKD within 60 days (equivalent to 10%)
- Additional 3% cashback for spending over 8,000 HKD (up to 28,000 HKD) after registering for the Travel Guru program

This means the basic cashback rate is 0.4% + 2% + 2% = 4.4%. The cashback rate for spending up to 8,000 HKD is 4.4% + 10% = 14.4%. The cashback rate for spending between 8,000 HKD and 28,000 HKD is 4.4% + 3% = 7.4%. The cashback rate for spending over 28,000 HKD is 4.4%.

Application Requirements#

You must have an HSBC account in Hong Kong. You can either open an account in Hong Kong with a mainland HSBC Premier account (with assets of 500,000 RMB) or open an account in person in Hong Kong.

You need to deposit more than 10,000 HKD into your HSBC account in Hong Kong. 10,000 HKD corresponds to a credit card limit of about 5,000 HKD; 30,000 HKD corresponds to a credit card limit of 10,000 HKD.

Drawbacks#

Cashback is only available for UnionPay + Apple Pay, and it is only supported by certain merchants on WeChat and Alipay in mainland China. However, many merchants do not support it.
RMB bills need to be paid with offshore RMB, which requires converting mainland RMB to HKD, then converting to offshore RMB, and finally making the payment. Alternatively, you can bring cash (up to 20,000 RMB) to Shenzhen and deposit it directly for payment.
The cashback rules are complicated, and there are many things to register for and use.

Summary#

These are just some credit cards that I personally hold or think are good. If you have other needs, you can search for more information. There are many credit card-related public accounts (without promotions), such as:

Following one or two of them should be enough.

Also, try not to have more than five credit cards, as having too many may affect your personal credit.

If you have any other questions, feel free to message me~