My sister brings my niece to buy textbooks and other school supplies every year. It is a ritual and some of us will remember doing the same when we were school children.
One of the places that we would visit was Popular Bookshop. Over the years, they have established themselves as the most sought after school textbooks supplier in Singapore.
This is probably one reason why they have managed to survive in an industry which is so plagued by online competition that names like MPH went the way of the Dodo.
Well, I was talking to my sister about buying some Popular Bookshop vouchers online because I am able to get a 6% rebate for all online shopping with my new and funky looking OCBC Frank Card (which I got because of the OCBC 360 account). Buying $300 worth of vouchers would mean saving $18.
My sister could then use these vouchers to buy school textbooks and other school supplies for my niece end of this year. She could also use her Popular Bookshop membership to get discounts, where allowed, before paying with these vouchers. Then, we would be getting a discount on top of a discount. Sounds good? I might buy the vouchers next month.
Then, recently, I received advice from UOB saying that I have reward points (known as UNI$) expiring next month. The thing I thought of doing right away was to exchange them for CapitaMalls vouchers simply because there are so many CapitaMalls around. So, there is always a good chance of being able to use the vouchers. There are Popular Bookshops in CapitaMalls too.
However, since Popular Bookshop have vouchers of their own, I decided to check if I could exchange UNI$ for Popular Bookshop vouchers instead. What did I find?
Wow! That is a big difference! I am glad I checked.
There is a catch with these "free" Popular Bookshop vouchers. They cannot be used with membership discounts and they cannot be used for the purchase of school textbooks. However, we can still use them for the purchase of stationery.
So, still a great deal being able to get 25% more in value for the same amount of UNI$ used. So, if you are a parent with school going kids and if you are a UOB credit card holder, you might want to take note of this.
Having said this, if your UOB card is a VISA Signature card and if you have accumulated UNI$ 4,000, there is an even better deal! What is it?
You could get a S$ 100 cash rebate (which translates to S$20 for every UNI$ 800)! This is much better than the rate for getting a S$20 voucher from Popular Bookshop or CapitaMalls.
Happy!
However, this is probably the last time I am getting any reward from my UOB Signature card as my credit card of choice now is the OCBC Frank card. I still use my Citibank Dividend card for the purchase of petrol because of the 5% cash rebate (for fuel purchases of above $50 per visit) but not much else.
Save some money if we have to spend some money? Yes, I like this.
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