I tried looking for information on The Gardens website but that site is appalling. There is no information whatsoever to be found about parking facilities or parking charges.

I actually got my information from the Isetan Kuala Lumpur website. Here are the new premier parking rates at The Gardens Mid Valley :-

RM5 for 3 hours?

I did use to park at the Premier section because it was always easier to find parking spaces there. Otherwise, parking at MidValley is just hell.

With this new change in the parking charges, I might find myself not frequenting either MidValley Megamall or The Gardens very much anymore. Not only is it hard to find parking, they now want an arm and a leg from us… in these uncertain economic times, for a chance to park in their mall.

Go figure!

I maybe late to the party but my car road tax was only renewable towards the end of last year so I was among the last few people I know to pick up the RM625 road tax rebate the Government was giving out last year.

The road tax rebate was given out last year and if I recall correctly, will be until April this year when I reckon they will not be continuing it for another year since the petrol prices have come down and global oil prices seem rather stagnant for now.

Still, this is a friendly reminder for you to pick up the RM625 from the Government once you renew your car’s road tax (for cars up to 2000 cc I think). Just go to any post office, fill out a form, place your thumb print on it, and wait for the cold hard cash to call into your lap!

Unlike life insurance where people usually compare term life insurance rates to get the best deal, car insurance is all quite standard so get your car insurance, renew your road tax and pick up the rebate before this policy is revoked this year!

I am a very careful spender because money is so hard to earn and so easy to spend! More so in these recent times which have seen most of us tightening our belts.

I thought I’d offer a little tip on how I maximise the use of my credit cards’ interest free credit period.

The next time you get your credit card bill, look at the date the statement was issued. Let’s say its June 11. This bill will be for all your credit card charges in the month of May until 11 June.

Now, take notice of the due date for payment. This is usually about 20 days after the date the statement is printed and sent out to you. So, in our example, the due date for payment will be July 1.

There are 2 things to bear in mind:-

(1) The date the statement is issued is fixed. It might differ by one or two days but its usually about there.

(2) The due date for payment is also relatively fixed differing only by a day or two.

Therefore, the date of issue of the credit card bill is your cut off date for billing.

Therefore, in our example, if you make a purchase after 11 June you will fall into the next billing cycle which will be issued only on 11 July and due for payment on 1 August. This effectively gives you nearly 2 whole months of interest free credit!

What I do is note all my cut off dates for my credit card bills and make my purchases accordingly. iF I have a big purchase to make, I do it this way because I then then up with 2 pay checks to cover my purchase. If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself and see!

It takes a while to get a grip of the system but once you do, its easy to maximise the interest free period of your credit card. Of course, this only works if you pay off your total outstanding every month. If not, you’re back to paying interest from day one! There are benefits to paying off your bill every month – you save on interest rates too. But I’ll write about it another day

I recently received an unexpected upgrade to one of my credit cards from a regular run of the mill card to a gold card. It was unsolicited and in my mind, unwarranted but it came anyway with an upgrade to my credit limit too. All I had to do was to call up the card issuing company and activate the card. Perhaps, I keep Excellent Credit with this bank as I pay off all my bills on time most of the time.

So, did I accept it? No I did not. The reason is simply because I have no need for yet another gold credit card nor for a rise in my credit limit. Also, I was unhappy that the bank was only going to transfer across a certain percentage of my accumulated points. It would seem therefore that I was using my points to “buy” an upgrade to my credit card which any other bank would have offered without restrictions anyway!

This isn’t the first time I’m receiving a pre-approved credit card. I’ve rejected all previous cards too for various reasons. The key reason for all my rejections is that I already have sufficient credit cards for my needs and I want to control my credit spending limits. Do you accept all the pre-approved credit cards you receive? It sure is tempting!