Hi all,
i'm thinking of switching over to Amex and getting rid of my Visa card. Just wondering what other Amex cardholders do as i'm seeing quite a few shops / restaurants not accept Amex. Do you have a back up Visa / mastercard in case?
FYI, i'm sure someone is going to ask why not just keep the Visa card as well. Simple answer is its a high fee one and doesn't make sense to keep both - i'll likely get a Amex platinum if I switch over.
thanks in advance.
I have Westpac credit card for this and 28 degrees also. Westpac because I spend enough and get enough points to make the cost of the card worth it plus it includes travel insurance, Amex travel insurance is totally shite now.
My backup and what I usually use regularly is my Coles Platinum mastercard. I still have a few thousand flybuys points from that promo a while back 50k bonus flybuys or something like that that I use at Coles, Liquorland, kmart etc.
Virgin Money Flyer card is my main go to. $129 annual fee but it’s offset with a $129 Virgin flight voucher.
thanks guys. Looks like everyone's got a back up card somewhere. Just annoying having extra cards.
@ bobbified
Yes thats why i gotta lose one of the high fee card. I have been with Citi Prestige for 6 years now and its time to go. Benefits are sh1thouse now - it used to be very good. I used to get 50% fee waived but all the benefits (1 free hotel night, 2 airport pick up, priority pass, etc). Its been heavily downgraded now sadly.
cash
Fee for life Citibank Plat
This but fee free for life citibank signature
I use the Commbank Ultimate Awards VISA card as my AMEX backup - if you spend $2.5k a month, the $35/month card fee is waived. It's the only premium card I'm aware of that has a way to avoid the card fee on an ongoing basis.
A bit of thought is needed to ensure you spend enough on the VISA to avoid the fee. I set up my quarterly bills (utilities, rates, strata, etc) to be paid monthly instead of quarterly, and I generally charge all "expenses" to the VISA (groceries, phone bills, etc) while routing things that benefit from AMEX protections to the AMEX (big item purchases for the extended warranty, flights/hotels for travel insurance, car rentals for damage insurance, etc). But in exchange I get points for a big chunk of spending that would've earnt nothing on another no-fee VISA/MasterCard.
If you don't want to futz around with that, just get a no-fee minmal-benefits VISA/MasterCard (28 Degrees, Citi Simplicity, ING Orange, etc) and load as many expenses on your AMEX as you can. YMMV, but I reckon I'd still get 70% of the points value of my current arrangement with zero effort this way.
You can also use a debit card. Tonnes of fee free options.
thanks guys.
I might just downgrade my citi to basic - the citi payall is still a good promo. thanks
Just buy a few grand of the pre loaded cards from Coles or Woollies when they are on sale.
We get a 'free' mac bank visa with our mortgage that is fairly decent - when you're allowed to travel.
Alright qantas points accrual, $0 overseas fees, travel insurance (which I never really looked into), some purchase protection/extended warranty options and apple pay.
Backup for my AMEX CC is a Coles 'fee free' Mastercard, plus the Coles card doubles as my Fly Buys Card.
waits for mainstream acceptance of SHIB
Just use your debit card.
Then why not just get a low-fee one?
…and you were just complaining about high card fees! lol
My backup used to just be my debit card.