Sunday, January 15, 2006

Frekin' smart

Jan 15, 2006'Card Goddess' Straits Times

Taiwanese woman makes money by running up hefty credit card bills to earn bonus points

TAIPEI - MS YANG Hui-ju, 27, shops and spends lavishly with her credit card, but has proved she is not one of the masses of heavily indebted 'card slaves' in Taiwan.
In fact, the unemployed MBA graduate has made a handsome profit by taking advantage of bonus point schemes and discounts offered to credit card holders.
Now her bank has suspended her card in a case which has generated much media interest.
Her money-making scheme began in October, reports said. She racked up credit card bills of up to NT$10 million (S$509,000) a month and chalked up more than 8 million points.
She used the points to redeem 20 first-class air tickets to the United States, which she then sold online for NT$45,000 apiece. She also sold her card points at NT$300 per 1,000 points, said local media.
In just three months, she was said to have made a tidy profit of more than NT$1 million. But the amount of bonus points she amassed aroused the suspicions of the card issuer, Chinatrust Commercial Bank (CCB). It has suspended her card, saying her transactions were 'fraudulent'.
A defiant Ms Yang has threatened to sue the bank. She told local broadcaster TVBS: 'CCB called me up and told me I couldn't spend so much on my cards as it would make them lose money. I said, 'That's your problem'.'
For turning the tables on banks, Taiwanese netizens gave Ms Yang the title 'card goddess'.
Most of her spending was on shopping vouchers issued by a TV shopping channel. Reports said she worked with her relatives to take up a card offer to buy vouchers at a discounted price of NT$19,000.
Under a money-back guarantee, these vouchers can be refunded - at the original price of NT$20,000 - upon expiry in a year's time.
Hers is an unusual story in a society with some three million 'credit card slaves' or overspenders struggling to repay debts. Rollover credit debt hit NT$492.9 billion in October.
Ms Yang, who has been giving interviews daily, has received a job offer from an investment consultancy and invitations to write a book on her experience, PCHome magazine said.

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