Here's Why I Stopped Volunteering My Charge card To stay The Bill First (Particularly when Eating out With Friends)

When you are looking at earning more miles and cashbacks on charge cards, probably the most common “hacks” is volunteering to pay for shared expenses, for example restaurant meals, movie tickets or grab rides first, and then collecting the cash from friends afterwards.

The logic is sound – I pay first, on a large bill which will earn more much more miles or cashback than my actual expenditure, then get my friends to repay what they owe me in cash. What happens in reality is a completely different thing.

While I initially agreed with this particular “hack”, I try to prevent paying first by any means these days. Here are four explanations why I believe you may even want to stop making use of this “hack”.

# 1 Being Labelled “The Shameless Friend”

We're all familiar with the moment once the waiter brings the bill to us at the end of an evening meal celebration. Most of us look around awkwardly while attempting to fish out our wallets. Invariably, the most shameless friend is definitely one step ahead to volunteer settling up the bill first together with his charge card.

We are all aware he hasn't volunteered from the goodness in his heart. He's just tried it because he really wants to earn the entire cashback or miles on a large bill, while only paying a small fraction of it. I was all considering doing exactly the same thing.

I’m a tall guy, and my wide wingspan gives me an advantage when it comes to beating my buddies to place my charge card on the bill. As i wasn't entirely averse to being labelled “the shameless friend”, my reputation wasn't the only thing that would be hurt by volunteering to pay first.

# 2 Begging In my Own Money

Not everyone I had been spending time with might have the exact change for that bill in their wallet. This means I was taking a chance by paying first among these 3 scenarios may play out:

1) I'd keep these things pay me back via cashless payment systems for example “PayLah!”, “Pay Anyone” or “PayNow”.

Chasing for payment from the 3 people via several different methods can get really complicated, especially if there are more bills to split during the same outing. If we've been short-changed, we'll only realise it after adding it all up whenever we get home. When that happens, we have to play detective to discover who hasn't paid us, try good to recall if they actually paid us in cash but we'd spent the cash later that night.

2) I pretended to become #Fam and let them know to pay for me back some other time.

Again, this is an equally stressful situation where we must either demand that the friend pays us back immediately or tell him/ her that they'll just pay us the next time we head out-because we're that close. Should there be some people like that or some friends that we rarely meet, we might never see our money-back.

3) I accept receiving payment a couple of bucks short.

Do you demand to get paid the precise amount or accept a few dollars lacking the particular amount you should be paid? What if that friend had accepted a few bucks short from us in the past?

For anyone who's actually calculative enough to want to game this “hack”, no scenarios look that appealing.

I got really bugged needing to constantly remind my friends and chase for payments if they hadn't paid yet and appearance my bank accounts when the money was at. I'd considerably happier just paying someone else on and on with no miles or cashback.

Moreover, if I didn't get paid in one friend or even if I accepted slightly less from one or two friends, this hack made no financial sense at all – because I might have lost out far more (much more than the pain to be detective and loan shark) than I would have gained in miles or cashback.

# 3 Paying For Friends-Acquaintances-Randoms-

When I went out for dinner with a large group of friends or colleagues, I wouldn't always know every single person. Some friends may bring along other friends – people who I didn't really know that well or at all.

Herein lies the problem – after paying first, I may not really obtain the full amount back. I'd remain playing detective once again to find out who hadn't paid. After shortlisting some people, I'd have to check in together, and the worst part was looking to get friends to get in touch using the people they brought along to check if they had already mortgage free.

This gets very tiring extremely fast.

# 4 Trying to get More Credit Cards Than Card Slots In My Wallet

If you have ever tried spending money on the bill first, you'd know that others have the same part of mind. One method to stay ahead of the game is to possess the right credit card that provides everyone an additional perk at restaurants, which may include getting a freebie or perhaps a discount.

This means I'd more charge cards than I possibly could keep track of just so which i could match or beat most other charge cards for the best deals.

After some time, I discovered it brought a different type of stress for me personally. I had to take care of the latest deals at the restaurants, the latest cards which were being released, in addition to checking up on paying my bills promptly (especially because different companies had different payment dates), asking for annual fee waivers, having the ability to lug each one of these cards everywhere and all the other little things that I didn't know I even had to consider.

Living Less Stressfully

We're all already living stressful lives dealing with many responsibilities within our workplaces and at home. Obtaining a little more cashback every month or a free flight to Bangkok every year isn't enough for that amount of additional stress I must take on by using this “hack”.

At the end of the day, there's only so many things I'm able to be worried about. The cost of earning the extra miles and cashback – playing detective and loan shark – is simply too much to pay. For this reason I've stopped volunteering my charge cards once the bill arrives, and i am glad to let another person be worried about whether I'll be paying, just how much I will be paying so when I will be paying!

There Are Easier Methods to Earn Charge card Perks And Air Miles

If you’re considering getting a charge card, begin using these links below to sign-up for any of these 6 air miles cards to get exclusive cash and vouchers from SingSaver, on top of any perks provided by individual banks. Them entitled to the promotion are:

1) American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Credit Card

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2) American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Ascend Credit Card

[SingSaver Exclusive]: $150 Cash for brand new and existing customers. 49,900 bonus miles should you spend $6,000 within the first three months, and the other $6,000 between 4th month and 6th month, and spend the money for annual fee of $337.05

3) Citi PremierMiles Visa Card

[SingSaver Exclusive]: $200 vouchers Cash for new Citi customers. $30 for existing customers. 30,000 bonus miles if you spend $7,500 inside the first three months and spend the money for annual fee of $192.60.

4) Citi Rewards Visa Card

[SingSaver Exclusive]: $200 vouchers Cash for brand new Citi customers. $30 for existing customers.

5) UOB PRVI Miles Visa Card

[SingSaver Exclusive]: $50 Cash for new and existing customers.

6) OCBC Titanium Reward Cards Credit Card

[SingSaver Exclusive]: $100 Cashback for new customers.