November 5th, 2008

HLB Credit Card Promo/Scam?

Posted by vampire at 06:45 AM on November 5, 2008.

If you have a Hong Leong Bank credit card like me, you'd be notified of the "Swipe for Cash" promotion.

These are the wordings for the promo you see everywhere, and on their website:

RM1 Cash Back with every RM50 swipe
Swipe anywhere, anytime on any purchase
Plus extra cash back: 5% at Tesco, 1% at Parkson
RM1 million cash back to be given away

Their hidden terms and conditions (small print) are not mailed to you. You'd have to search for it online on their website, and quite hidden too. Here is the link after much clicking and searching.

Below are the T&C number and my comments in the bullet point.

Qualifying swipe is defined as a minimum retail spend of RM50 in a single receipt.

You have to swipe a minimum of RM50. If you swipe RM1000, you still get only RM1 cash back.

Cash back is awarded for each block of 5x qualifying swipes, capped at a maximum of 20x qualifying swipes per month.

This means you only get RM5 when you swiped for 5-9 times, RM10 for 10-14 swipes, and so on. You do not get any cash back if you swiped only 4 times.
You swipe more than 20 times (>RM1000) but you only get max of RM20 cash back.

Split transactions shall be strictly disqualified. Cardmembers with multiple transactions of more than one (1) time on the same day, at the same card acceptance channel/ terminal/ merchant shall be disqualified.

So you thought "hmm... today i am buying a total of RM160 from Giant, so I should split the goods to blocks of RM50 and perform three transactions". You're wrong. They will disqualify your swipe for the cash back reward.

To participate, Cardmembers are required to register with HLB via SMS once within the Campaign Period to 36600 and type HLE<space>16-digit Credit Card No.

Each SMS you sent is charged normal SMS rates, but each SMS confirmation you receive is charged RM0.30! Even if you SMS-ed the wrong code or cc number, you are still charged RM0.30!! Happened to me when I sent HLB instead of HLE!! Why the heck do they choose HLE as the code when their bank is called HLB!!

Both Principal and Supplementary Cardmembers are entitled to participate on an independent basis and any attempt to combine or merge their transactions will be disqualified.

You have to SMS, and your supp card holder also has to SMS! What cheats! For HSBC Padini promo, we only need to send one SMS for both cardmembers.

The cash back shall be credited into the Participant’s credit card account for which the credit card account shall be the card used by the Participant for SMS registration within ten (10) weeks after the end of each calendar month and shall be reflected in the Participant’s credit card statement, itemized under "Swipe For Cash (Oct08)".

Wow, they pay us back only 2-3 months after we swiped! What kiam siap ppl. HSBC gives us the Padini vouchers so quickly.

It is Cardmembers’ responsibility to notify HLB Card Centre in writing no later than 31 March 2009 for non-receipt of cash back. Failing which, the Cardmembers are deemed to have had received and accepted the cash back from HLB and all unclaimed cash back after 31 March 2009 will be forfeited.

wah... if we forget after 3 months (so long) and didn't inform you, u mar quiet quiet keep our money?

The Participant shall personally bear and be responsible for ALL incidental costs relating to accepting the cash back including but not limited to any applicable taxes, insurance payments, registration fees, processing fees, handling fees and all other personal expenses whenever applicable.

I donno wat these incidental costs mean, but I don't like it when they say I have to personally bear it.

This one is the shocker:

No Reward Points will be issued for ALL retail spend from the month of successful SMS registration by the Participants until Campaign Period ends.

WTH! If you wanna reward ppl for cash back, and take away the reward points, you're like telling us "you work for us, and we will treat you to makan KFC/McD everyday, but we won't pay your gaji instead".

no wonder they can run this promotion for 4 months! -_-

I only see this useful when you purchase RM50 per swipe and not more. Or you use for petrol only (cos no reward points are given anyway).