With my CBA diamond card's Amex earn rare decreasing very soon, I've got a headache in looking at what's best for our family. I think we've been using the wrong credit card all these years anyway and ozbargain is making me think more savvyily (if that's a word).
We typically spend $7-10k per month on our credit card, pay it off 100% every month.
Looking at the ANZ black with the bonus points at the moment.
Any help would be appreciated!!
HELP: Advice Needed for Credit Card That Will Earn Best Value Points with Not Big Annual Fee
fatming on 25/05/2017 - 12:12
Comments
ANZ is good for the bonus points, etc, but for ongoing use it doesn't have the best earn rate plus no Amex companion card any more.
Depending on what all of your spending is on (or more precisely where), you would likely want an Amex as well. Explorer or Platinum Edge are the highest points earning Amexes.
What are you planning on doing with the points? Travel, convert to gift cards, something else?
For years, we've been using flexible points for flight centre/Myer immediate redemption with the CBA Card but with all the recent reading, seems like travel upgrades give the most bang for buck so want to aim for a business upgrade one day.
I've got the free annual Amex qantas & velocity card too.If you do fly domestically at least once a year. I would invest in either the Amex Qantas or Velocity Platinum. They come with annual fee, but has free domestic return flight, and other perks that pretty much pay for themselves. Earn rates on these is 1.5 pt/$. Not as high as what the Edge can get you, but depends on where you use your Amex, these may give more than Edge can.
And there's a 100K pt sign up bonus atm for the Amex Velocity Platinum. That's a lot of domestic return flights.
Assuming at least some of your spend can be on Amex without surcharges, I would definitely get an Explorer (effective earn 1.5 FF points per $1) and/or Platinum Edge (effective earn 3FF/$1 at supermarkets, 2FF/$1 at petrol stations and 1FF/$1 on other spending) then.
You probably won't get an upfront bonus if you currently hold those other Amex cards, but these cards for on-going use mainly.
If you want to use for flights, flexibility is key (eg. keeping them in Amex Rewards until needed).
Any thoughts on St George amplify signature card?
its only good for paying the ato and birthday bonus will be canning it after no annual fee waiver ends
ANZ Black is better than St George Amplify points wise.
Only benefit is I think it has free BT and 0% purchase period.
I'm voting for Westpac Black but its Amex rate will be reduced too.
I don't have this particular card but I noticed HSBC is refunding the annual fee if you spend $6k each year here:
https://www.hsbc.com.au/1/2/personal/credit-cards/platinum
If your happy to change cards after the first year you can't go wrong with the Citi signature:
https://www.citibank.com.au/aus/credit_cards/cards_signature…
75000 points easily cancels out $199 annual fee in the first year and you might find citi will waive it going forward given your spend.
Citibank is about to water down the value of their points, and excludes BPAY and payments to government or part-government entities. That has made it far less attractive. Also, knowing that many people (including me) got it fee-free for life will always haunt you.
How much are they watering down the points?
They don't say in advance. Just that the redemption prices will increase…
mastercard low fee gold.
Would be helpful to state the card issuer.
CBA
Why do you think that would be a good choice? There are no reward points at all.
@tajid: That is a completely different card Low Rate or Low Rate Gold credit card Vs
Low Fee Gold as Tuzii has suggested. Also OP is existing CBA cardholder, Tuzii has stated "Not for existing customers"Once again , are there even reward points on offer? Even if there were,I would assume the Op's current Diamond card would earn more per spend. OP is trying to maximise his $100k per year spend.
@Baysew: Yea other than that I don't see any other CBA cards being better than Diamond.
I'm not sure about that current promotion but I have Diamond rewards card and I was able to participate in the previous similar promotion.
What about Amex Essential? Details here
It is fee-free, the reward rate is 0.741% generally. Very flexible rewards, reward points can be used to pay off charges. Also free smartphone screen insurance, extended warranty, buyer and refund protection, and eligible for Amex Cashback offers. But not great if you are looking for a big bonus signup - since it only gives $75 bonus via referral.Since I'm not familiar with rewards from other cards and how they stack up with the annual fee, please do a comparison, to see if it suits your circumstances best. It works out well for me - but I don't spend that much. Hope it helps.
ANZ Frequent Flyer Black credit card. Current sign on bonus is 75,000 Qantas points with $0 fee in the first year. 1 Qantas point per $ spent on the Visa card.
FYI 75,000 points is enough for a one way business class flight to Asia - they run for about 60,000 points.
Westpac altitude black