Got an email yesterday offering me a new credit card (don’t you all get these ones all the time?), but this one has a nice reward system. Somehow BP and Citibank are teaming up together introducing this new BP-Citibank MasterCard, which (1) gives big saving on fuel purchases in BP (2) gives small percentage cash back on other purchases (3) has a low interest on balance transfer (4) use this link to get $50 BP prepaid card.

I was very tempted to apply yet another credit card. But after reading the fine prints and thinking through, I don’t think it justifies. Let’s look at this deal.

• 5% off your petrol and everything else you buy at BP

  What else are you buying from BP? Hmm. Nothing. I don’t buy grocery in petrol stations unless in very urgent circumstances. That leaves 5% off petrol purchases, which equals to around 5-6 cents per litre these days, up to $15 saving a month.

  Not bad. However I am currently using our Coles Source MasterCard, which gives us 4 cent docket + 4 cent mail-in coupon discount per litre from Shell. That’s 8 cents per litre saving! Procedure is a bit more complicated as you need to remember to keep the shopping dockets and coupons, and have to make $30+ grocery purchases from Coles, etc, but so far we have no problem getting 8c/litre off everytime we go and fill up at the pump.

  5% off will only win out if the petrol price raises above $1.60/litre. Or if BP Ultimate is your fancy (I know some people do). Otherwise stick to Source MasterCard with Shell.

• 1% off everything else you buy anywhere

  1% rebate on everything! Yeah!! It is capped at $600 a year, but seriously, I don’t see myself rocking up $60,000 a year on my credit cards. My current NAB Visa Mini also has 1% cash back but capped at a relatively low $10 a month, but so far it works fine for me. Moreover, BP-Citibank MasterCard has annual fee $79 + $30 per additional cards, whereas NAB Visa Mini is only $19 with free additional cards.

• 6.9%p.a. for 6 months for all balances transferred

  … and a ridiculously high 17.95% afterwards. I always pay my credit card bill in full, so no thanks. I have to say that credit card is the worst way to borrow money because of the high interest. Use a credit card for convenience and associated rewards’ sake, but don’t use it if you might have difficulties to pay the bill in full at the end of the month.

Any other good rewarding credit cards that I should consider?