So I'm looking at some PC related purchases and for the first time ever (thanks to ozbargain!) I'm holding a qantas FF credit card.
Most PC shops charge a 1.5 - 2% surcharge for paying with credit or paypal and I can't decide whether it's worth paying the extra $15-20 on a $1k purchase for the points or simply paying cash / debit and skip the surcharge.
Is there an third option where it would be possible to get the points and not pay the surcharge?
in my case, 1 point was redeemed as 0.8ish cent (economy class return - 160100 point and it was worth 1300 AUD)
thus 1000 QFF point is only worth of $8 (if OP gets 1 QFF point for speding $1).
Not worth it in my view.
yeah, economy class tickets - don't bother imo
good in the states, allows u to by pass hub airports, and fly direct for flights that are normally a rip off… imagiune using in australia is terrible..
@unclesnake: with velocity points, im under the impression that domestic US fares don't include check on baggage (operated codeshare by delta). is qantas the same case?
yeah, i just booked first class for ord-jfk, incls 3x checkin, cheaper than getting economy and paying for checkin
+1 I value FF points at under 1c, so will never pay a surcharge
Not sure what flight the 160,100 points quote was for, that seams high conpared to a $1300 flight.
e.g. A return flight on Qantas Classic Flight Reward between Sydney and Los Angeles requires 96,000 points in Economy class.
See here: https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/do/dyns/InitialPointsRedeem…
Don't forget you have to pay taxes on top of that award flight.
160k/$1,300 (approx 0.8c/pt) is about the going rate I see for economy point redemptions.
You can obviously get higher c/pt rates with business and first class but most of us wouldn't be paying for those in the first place so their c/pt value is overinflated.
If it's an online shop, you can link your QFF credit card to paypal and checkout with paypal. In that case, you don't incur any surcharge but also get the points.
Apparently you can also link the AMEX which should earn more points than the visa or mastercard.
You may be able to just pay through PayPal without needing to create the account and link a card
most stores I've been looking at have a surcharge for paypal as well :(
That's actually against PayPal's user policy: https://www.paypal.com/au/webapps/mpp/ua/useragreement-full#…
wow I did not know that at all
http://www.scorptec.com.au/help_faq#a_7
http://www.cplonline.com.au/bank
Here's some examples of places that I know charge a surcharge for paying with paypal and / or credit.
I have done the maths before for basic hotel or domestic flights…
if u use qff for a qantas hotel the return is ~150 pts = $1 off, which is about .66% so i dont think its worth it… however if you are chasing a flight and it needs say 16000 points, and u r on 14000 and need to make up the shortfall then it can be worth it….which is what i did to pay an ATO bill which had a 1.04% surcharge.
this stuff certainly plays on your mind, but i don't believe in spending more money to save less, so i generally dont do this.
like some have said above business class flights would a sick return, but ive never bothered to chase one yet…
i find australian domestic flights r no real reward.. taxes still high and tiger is cheap as even though unreliable at times.
i fly domestic in the states and using qantas to fly AA or us airways is always a flat 5.60 tax and awesome… was 18000 pts to fly charlotte to lax a flight direct usually costs $600 for direct (30 points = $1).
have you thought about just paying extra off electricity or buying 1k of woolies vouchers which get u a 5% discount as well.
It also pays to consider other credit card perks. For example, the Citibank Signature also offers extended warranty (with some catches) which can be worth it for bigger purchases.
I would advise buying gift cards from the supermarket and using the gift cards for the purchase. Useful for companies like JB Hifi, Dick Smith to avoid the amex surcharge and get more points….
depends what kind of flights you redeem for. this impact whether you should absorb the surcharge or pay in cash/debit
i.e. if redeem for business class return flights, which are normally priced at $7000, so $6500 + $500 taxes
to redeem this flight as reward points, it'd cost 188,000 points return + $500 taxes
6500 / 188000 = 3.46% return
3.46% > 1.5-2% surcharge
so in this hypothesised scenario maybe, but if you are saving to redeem for economy, i highly doubt it'd be worth it