Hi all,
I'm looking to get a credit card and maximise the value while obtaining these two benefits (minimum):
1) Must have no foreign exchange fees
2) Must include travel insurance (we are travelling for 10 months).
I need two cards (one for me and one for partner).
The trip expenses plus normal bills for the 12 month period June to June will be somewhere between $75,000 and $90,000. For any point calculation valuation I used $84,000.
From what I can tell the only two cards that seem to fit this are Bankwest More World and ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures. The Bankwest More Plantinum which is free in our home loan package only covers six months travel insurance.
Now it seems the annual fee for each is $290 (for ANZ as it is $225 plus $65 for additional card holder) and $160 (for Bankwest additional cardholders free).
The ANZ benefits are 40,000 bonus Velocity points plus approximately 38,000 velocity points from the $84,000 spend ($2000 x 1.5 points x 12 months, then 0.5 points x $60,000). This roughly equates to the points needed to get a Perth to Sydney and Sydney to Los Angeles flight, one way, which I think after fees and taxes is worth about $750. EDIT: So I forgot about the domestic flight which I guess is worth $300 approx. And also messed up point calculation.
ANZ has apple pay app, Bankwest does not.
The Bankwest benefits are 200,000 Bankwest points which equate to about $486 worth of Woolworths eGift cards (as good as cash, minus the 5% discount of course!). Plus, if we spend $84,000 or more we also get another 115,000 points which equates to $280, so all up $766. I figured we could pretty much guarantee $84,000 spend as if we needed to do we could just buy eGift cards to get there.
The other big benefit is lounge access to something like 860 lounges. As we are travelling far and wide, we probably would use these at least once or twice during the trip.
From what I could tell, the travel insurance comes from Allianz and looks fairly similar. It seemed that the Bankwest policy allowed you to return if a loved one passed away, but the ANZ policy may not.
So my questions are:
1) Am I missing anything about the benefits? Have I under/over valued any of the points?
2) Is there a card that is better value than these two?
3) Which is better? The ANZ card which is $130 more upfront, but has more potential value. Or the Bankwest card, which is worth less on paper, but the value is easier to access and it costs a lot less.
4) Finally, has anyone had any success applying for either of these cards and getting the first year annual fee waived/any promotions on that do this?
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