It's the time of the year to renew car insurance and road tax. I was slacking this year, as I was last year, until a mistake by my usual broker and an anonymous sms by another agent promoting his service prompted me to do my homework on the car insurance premium.
So here is my findings. AXA and NTUC premiums are on the high side. The new comer, DirectAsia, shows potential in their pricing but I finally narrowed down to MSIG and Aviva. Both Aviva and DirectAsia are online offerings so you have to apply online on your own instead of going through an agent. The quotes are instant and most information are readily available online. You can use it as a gauge and compare them to what your agents are offering. The rest however do not offer instant quotes and the information are not so readily available. Probably easier to go through an agent who can help compare the different companies for you.
I have tabulated my own findings between MSIG and Aviva on this link. Will probably settle for Aviva this year. The online quotation system makes it very easy to customise and compare the features and options available as well as how much the premium the features will cost. Then you can decide if you wanna pay for it or not. One of the questions you might wanna ask, in view of the recent flooding and falling trees, is whether the insurance cover it and if your NCD is affected if you do a claim for flood and falling tree.
Update 02/10/10: There is a new online car insurance comparison portal call CompareXpress.com. Try them out and let me know how good are they.
Monday, 27 September 2010
Sunday, 26 September 2010
Biggest Speeding Fine In The World?
F1 Singapore Grand Prix is happening this weekend. I'm not a big fan of F1 but I thought I post something on speed. There was a report in August 2010 of a Swedish man facing what is to be the biggest speeding fine in the world, £650,000.
He was caught travelling at 180mph (about 290km/h), two and a half times the speed limit, while driving in Switzerland. Unfortunately for him, speeding fines in Switzerland are calculated based on the wealth of the traffic offender and the speed. So what car was he driving? One that looks almost like a mini plane, Mercedes SLS AMG. It will be the safety car for the F1 Singapore Grand Prix.
He was caught travelling at 180mph (about 290km/h), two and a half times the speed limit, while driving in Switzerland. Unfortunately for him, speeding fines in Switzerland are calculated based on the wealth of the traffic offender and the speed. So what car was he driving? One that looks almost like a mini plane, Mercedes SLS AMG. It will be the safety car for the F1 Singapore Grand Prix.
Saturday, 25 September 2010
Xavier And His Two Lollipops
We were at Orchard on Friday wondering what to eat there and decided to go somewhere we haven't been for ages, like almost a decade. That place is The Ship Restaurant, at level 4 Shaw Centre.
I have the feeling of going to an old skool steakhouse where its pretty dim (although our 1st visit many years ago was dimmer), have white table cloth, where some of the waiter/waitress are old enough to be my grandparents and there are only two ice-cream flavours, Vanilla and Strawberry. It's a nice change from the many other modernized steakhouse. I had the "Ship Steak" which was visually exciting where they pour cognac over the steak and set it on flames. However I found the mushroom sauce too salty for my liking. As it was an impromptu decision to eat there, I also didn't bring my camera along.
Xavier however was having a great time charming the waitresses by calling them 姐姐 and scoring two lollipops from them. See his excitement over the two lollipops.
I have the feeling of going to an old skool steakhouse where its pretty dim (although our 1st visit many years ago was dimmer), have white table cloth, where some of the waiter/waitress are old enough to be my grandparents and there are only two ice-cream flavours, Vanilla and Strawberry. It's a nice change from the many other modernized steakhouse. I had the "Ship Steak" which was visually exciting where they pour cognac over the steak and set it on flames. However I found the mushroom sauce too salty for my liking. As it was an impromptu decision to eat there, I also didn't bring my camera along.
Xavier however was having a great time charming the waitresses by calling them 姐姐 and scoring two lollipops from them. See his excitement over the two lollipops.
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Happy 34th Anniversary, Mum and Dad!
Wishing them many more wonderful years to enjoy.
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Breakfast with Chairman Lee
Having a rare Saturday alone at home so grab the opportunity to finish up some overdue blog post. Below are some photos from Xavier's first encounter with MacDonald's sometime back in May. And judging from his reaction, I don't think its gonna be the last. ;p
Chairman Lee was a nick given by Johnson probably cos he looked like someone with a big presence for his age. Doesn't the photo above look like one of those lunch interview photos with 大人物?
He also found the Ronald MacDonald statue amusing...
We also brought him to the playground nearby to try out the swing for toddlers.
Chairman Lee was a nick given by Johnson probably cos he looked like someone with a big presence for his age. Doesn't the photo above look like one of those lunch interview photos with 大人物?
He also found the Ronald MacDonald statue amusing...
We also brought him to the playground nearby to try out the swing for toddlers.
Sunday, 12 September 2010
Online US shopping
I have a few friends who have asked me how I went about to buy those sales stuff in USA. I'm no shopping expert but here are some tips that I can share.
- Most of the online sites have a mailing list you can subscribe to. So whenever they have promotion or sale, you will be automatically informed.
- Summer sale at the end of summer is probably what you are looking for as USA puts summer clothes on sale.
- Quite a number of USA sites accepts Singapore credit cards (like Amazon, Eastbay and Ralph Lauren) but there are other (like Nike and Finishline) who only accepts US credit cards. For these, either have a friend with a US credit card help make the purchase for you or use the concierge service from Borderlinx or vPost.
- How the concierge services works is you place the order with Borderlinx or vPost and they do the purchase on your behalf. But the store has to accept the order for it to work. So in the above case, Nike refused to accept such services whereas Finishline is happy to take the order.
- Last part is the shipping to Singapore and that's where Borderlinx and vPost comes in. Both provides you with a US address where you can direct your purchases to. The reason this service is popular is because most US online stores ship only within USA. Some, like Amazon, ships international too but I find the rates pretty high. So once you register with either sites, you get your personal USA shipping address. When your goods arrived at their processing centers and you pay for the shipping, it will be on the way to your doorstep.
Now the reason why I only mention Borderlinx and vPost is because I have only used these two before. There are other service provides like Comgateway but I have not used them before so I shall not comment. You need to be a Citibank credit card holder to use Borderlinx though.
There are differences in the service Borderlinx and vPost provides and their shipping rates changes so do your own comparison with their online cost calculators. vPost charges a "base charge" of S$13.40 on top of shipping cost; Borderlinx doesn't. vPost holding period at the warehouse is only 2 weeks before it starts charging; Borderlinx is one month. vPost's concierge service charge a handling fee of 5% of the total invoice value; Borderlinx is free if the value is above USD50. vPost uses Speedpost; Borderlinx uses DHL. I tend to favour Borderlinx more for the reasons above. But vPost views GST differently from Borderlinx, so it has its merits.
GST is applicable when the total Cost of your purchase + Insurance + Freight (both USA shipping and shipping to Singapore) exceeds S$400. What Borderlinx does is it uses the total value of all consolidated packages for GST calculation. E.g. if I bought like a pair of shoes from Finishline at about S$200 and 5 Blurays from Amazon at about S$250, I would need to pay for GST if I ship them together via Borderlinx. Its actually cheaper if you send them via two packages.
vPost practice something which makes more sense to me. Consolidated packages do not incur GST. vPost calculates GST separately so as long as each package total cost + freight + insurance do not exceed S$400, they are not subject to GST even though the total value of all packages is more than S$400. Because they are viewed individually for GST purpose.
So choose your service provider carefully.
Update 26 May 2012: Also check out my post on Online Shopping Encore.
- Most of the online sites have a mailing list you can subscribe to. So whenever they have promotion or sale, you will be automatically informed.
- Summer sale at the end of summer is probably what you are looking for as USA puts summer clothes on sale.
- Quite a number of USA sites accepts Singapore credit cards (like Amazon, Eastbay and Ralph Lauren) but there are other (like Nike and Finishline) who only accepts US credit cards. For these, either have a friend with a US credit card help make the purchase for you or use the concierge service from Borderlinx or vPost.
- How the concierge services works is you place the order with Borderlinx or vPost and they do the purchase on your behalf. But the store has to accept the order for it to work. So in the above case, Nike refused to accept such services whereas Finishline is happy to take the order.
- Last part is the shipping to Singapore and that's where Borderlinx and vPost comes in. Both provides you with a US address where you can direct your purchases to. The reason this service is popular is because most US online stores ship only within USA. Some, like Amazon, ships international too but I find the rates pretty high. So once you register with either sites, you get your personal USA shipping address. When your goods arrived at their processing centers and you pay for the shipping, it will be on the way to your doorstep.
Now the reason why I only mention Borderlinx and vPost is because I have only used these two before. There are other service provides like Comgateway but I have not used them before so I shall not comment. You need to be a Citibank credit card holder to use Borderlinx though.
There are differences in the service Borderlinx and vPost provides and their shipping rates changes so do your own comparison with their online cost calculators. vPost charges a "base charge" of S$13.40 on top of shipping cost; Borderlinx doesn't. vPost holding period at the warehouse is only 2 weeks before it starts charging; Borderlinx is one month. vPost's concierge service charge a handling fee of 5% of the total invoice value; Borderlinx is free if the value is above USD50. vPost uses Speedpost; Borderlinx uses DHL. I tend to favour Borderlinx more for the reasons above. But vPost views GST differently from Borderlinx, so it has its merits.
GST is applicable when the total Cost of your purchase + Insurance + Freight (both USA shipping and shipping to Singapore) exceeds S$400. What Borderlinx does is it uses the total value of all consolidated packages for GST calculation. E.g. if I bought like a pair of shoes from Finishline at about S$200 and 5 Blurays from Amazon at about S$250, I would need to pay for GST if I ship them together via Borderlinx. Its actually cheaper if you send them via two packages.
vPost practice something which makes more sense to me. Consolidated packages do not incur GST. vPost calculates GST separately so as long as each package total cost + freight + insurance do not exceed S$400, they are not subject to GST even though the total value of all packages is more than S$400. Because they are viewed individually for GST purpose.
So choose your service provider carefully.
Update 26 May 2012: Also check out my post on Online Shopping Encore.
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Air Jordan VI Retro
I mentioned last week about over-spending on online US sites and this was the main reason. I chanced upon Nike.com selling Air Jordan VI retro shoes and got all excited.
These Air Jordan VI shoes were all rage during my SJI days when Michael Jordan won his first NBA championship wearing these. I remember quite a number of my rich classmates having at least a pair of these and I often watch with envy as my parents wouldn't buy me a pair. Well I could understand why as these shoes were way too expensive.
20 years later (in 2010), Nike decided to launch a retro version of the shoe and I couldn't help but get myself a pair. And I also got Xavier a matching pair as they were all so cute. The toddler ones looked slightly different for the adult version but the boy version was too big for him. I got him a kid size 10. Hopefully he can wear them for Chinese New Year.
Saturday, 4 September 2010
Terrible Twos starting early
Xavier is growing up fast right before our eyes. He started walking on his 1st birthday and he seems to be in the "Terrible Twos" phase now at just 18 months.
He has started making his own decisions and expressing it. This includes telling us "No" to food he doesn't want to eat and wanting to drink water from the open bottle instead of his straw. And he seems to hate the word "Wait", throwing a fit whenever we ask him to wait while we prepare his food or cool his food by blowing. And just Tuesday morning, he threw tantrums by screaming and kicking when he refused to let the teacher take his temperture, instead wanting to go straight in to play at the indoor playground.
A friend of mine, Arthur, brought up the topic on "Terrible Twos" and gave me two sites which have useful information not only on "Terrible Twos" but also other kids related issues. I find the first site, DrGreene.com, very informative. It has many useful articles on babies and kids. The two articles on "Terrible Twos" which I find interesting are here and here. The other site is Childzilla.com and the article on "Terrible Twos" is here.
I've been trying to get a clip of Xavier throwing his tantrums for the post but it seems that he is aware of it when I'm shooting him and tend act all calm and good. Watch the clip below. He was just kicking and punching and screaming just moments earlier. But by the time I manage to get to the camera app on my iPhone, he realise I'm shooting him and act all calm and good.
Here is another video of him making noise for more food. But I haven't been able to get a clip of him kicking, punching, screaming, crying and rolling on the floor all at the same time. Maybe I should take up my brother's suggestion to stick a camera on my head so he will play good in front of the "camera".
Update 03/10/10: Lilian got a clip on her phone of him throwing tantrums. Here is it.
He has started making his own decisions and expressing it. This includes telling us "No" to food he doesn't want to eat and wanting to drink water from the open bottle instead of his straw. And he seems to hate the word "Wait", throwing a fit whenever we ask him to wait while we prepare his food or cool his food by blowing. And just Tuesday morning, he threw tantrums by screaming and kicking when he refused to let the teacher take his temperture, instead wanting to go straight in to play at the indoor playground.
A friend of mine, Arthur, brought up the topic on "Terrible Twos" and gave me two sites which have useful information not only on "Terrible Twos" but also other kids related issues. I find the first site, DrGreene.com, very informative. It has many useful articles on babies and kids. The two articles on "Terrible Twos" which I find interesting are here and here. The other site is Childzilla.com and the article on "Terrible Twos" is here.
I've been trying to get a clip of Xavier throwing his tantrums for the post but it seems that he is aware of it when I'm shooting him and tend act all calm and good. Watch the clip below. He was just kicking and punching and screaming just moments earlier. But by the time I manage to get to the camera app on my iPhone, he realise I'm shooting him and act all calm and good.
Here is another video of him making noise for more food. But I haven't been able to get a clip of him kicking, punching, screaming, crying and rolling on the floor all at the same time. Maybe I should take up my brother's suggestion to stick a camera on my head so he will play good in front of the "camera".
Update 03/10/10: Lilian got a clip on her phone of him throwing tantrums. Here is it.
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