Forex Exchange

Planning on a trip overseas and trying to understand the forex table that is on the back of all these money changers. But this is a cheat sheet to try to understand them:

Remember, buy and sell is always from the money exchanger point of view
Hence in Singapore,
Buy Rate:	The bank buying TWD (multiply)
Sell Rate:	The bank selling TWD (divide)
Hence in Taiwan
Buy Rate:	The bank buying SGD (multiply)
Sell Rate:	The bank selling SGD (divide)
At home, look for selling rate. Overseas look at buying rate.

Examples:

1. You are from Singapore going to Malaysia.
a. If you are changing money in Singapore, you will look at the 'sell rate' say it is 0.4013
b. You will then 'divide' by the amount you want to change say $100
c. So you will net: $100/0.4013 = $249.19 MYR

2. You are from Malaysia going to Singapore.
a. If you are changing money in Singapore, you will look at the 'buy rate' say it is 0.3987
b. You will then 'multiply' $100 * 0.3987 = $39.87 SGD

Singapore Credit Cards for Miles

The two best cards are the DBS VISA Altitude Card and the UOB PRIV Miles Card

DBS Visa Altitude
- 1.6mies if you spend $2k per month
- What i like most about the card is that it is a VISA. i.e. more generally accepted and I can use this one card for literally everything
- What i dislike most about this card is the travel insurance, take note their travel insurance may cover your LIFE for $1million but it does not cover anything else e.g. late baggage, medical (which is the main reason why one should buy travel insurance anyway)

UOB PRIV Miles Card
- 1.6 miles without a minimum spend
- 2.5 miles for purchases overseas
- Partnership with AMEX and quite a lot of the shops I go to do not accept AMEX
- Apart from good miles, the travel insurance is fairly comprehensive (it includes medical)
- Free limo trip to the airport if you charge the airfare.

These two are certainly the top two. The other cards (that are within reach of normal/slightly affluent Singaporeans) are really shitty, the worst being Krisflyer gold, Citi Premier Miles etc.