HK Tax and Air Miles

[NYHK]

I am due to move to HK in mid April from NY and was looking for information on the following:

Tax - As I understand it the top rate of tax is 16% and also that it is paid at the ened of the year. I have been told about schemes that you are able to invest the tax into during the year. Does anybody have any info or can recommneds any such schemes?

Air Miles - Apparently there are certain credit cards that are particularly beneficial in terms of getting air miles through to use for local airlines - e.g. Dragon air - basically looking to do as much travelling as possible when I out there and so would be grateful for any advice regarding air miles.

Thank you in advance

[discobay]

NYHK, not sure what these schemes are and considering the term of investment is relatively short I doubt that the return can be much higher than putting your cash into a HKD/foreign currency time deposit. I have friends who use Citibank's Cathay Pacific visa card which gives you 1 per HKD8 spent.

[Lammarite]

The Citibank/Cathay card is useful- if you're spending the money anyway you may as well pick up some miles for it! You can't use it to pay your tax though- only HSBC credit cards but you don't get Asia Miles for them anymore- as of Dec 12th or so. Another reason not to bother banking with HSBC.

[discobay]

Slightly off-thread but I am currently involved in a dispute with HSBC and may have to find another bank. Who do you recommend?

[Lammarite]

Put a blindfold on and stick a pin in the directory! I don't think many of them here offer much. I use Bank of East Asia because they have good service, are quiet and helpful. My wife uses Citibank and doesn't have much trouble with them. Although Hang Seng is the same as HSBC I have heard they are much better.
The only thing you'll miss is HSBC online which is good.

[discobay]

That's good to hear as I have a BEA account. Agreed about HSBC online.

[PDLM]

Citibank is restructuring their CX cobrand cards... the top of the range (Platinum Select Preferred) now has no annual fee if either you spend more than HK$150,000 per year on it or you are Marco Polo Silver or higher at the renewal date. You also get free Travellers/Plaza Premium lounge access at HKIA, and even free coffee and pastry at Cafe Deco at HKIA! Plus loads of other benefits. And still 1 AsiaMile for $8 in HK and 1 for $4 overseas (and foreign currency). That has pretty much saved me from moving somewhere else next time they tried to charge me the HK$1600 annual fee on the previous Platinum card.

[Lammarite]

No bank will charge you the annual fee if you make a fuss and tell them that you'll just get a credit card from another bank/vendor. They know that all the banks offer incentives to sign up so why would you pay them for the honour of them being able to rip you off. We put ours on direct debit so never accrue interest charges so the bank wouldn't be that bothered if we did change card though!!

[PDLM]

They still make 1-2% on every transaction (more if it's in a foreign currency) so they're not too unhappy even if you pay it off each month (or indeed twice a month as I often have to since for some reason they won't up my credit limit).

And I have never got Citibank to go below 50% waiver on the CX Platinum card - others I know report the same. But it still made sense for me because of the AsiaMiles earning.

[connecta]

The Citibank/Cathay card is useful- if you're spending the money anyway you may as well pick up some miles for it! You can't use it to pay your tax though- only HSBC credit cards but you don't get Asia Miles for them anymore- as of Dec 12th or so. Another reason not to bother banking with HSBC.

Hello Lammarite,

I am a bit late for bringing this up, but are you sure that it is not possible to pay the HKG IRD tax with the Cathay Pacific co-branded Citibank card? Just a few weeks ago, the Citibank promotion guy at the Times Square in Causeway Bay told me that it would be possible.

Before I used a Hang Seng to pay my tax, but their so-called Cash Dollars are way less worth than Asiamiles.