• expired

Westpac Altitude Qantas Platinum MasterCard: 75,000 Bonus QFF Points ($4,000 Spend in 90 Days), 1st Year Fee $49, $50 Qantas Fee

1180

Looks like this expired deal is back and is running till June 30

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/659221

75,000 bonus Qantas Points with $4k+ spend on eligible purchases within 90 days of card approval. (Increased from previous 60K QF Points offer)

Plus, a reduced first year annual card fee of $49 ($150 thereafter)*. Already with Westpac? Sign in and apply and we’ll waive your first year annual card fee. A $50 annual Qantas rewards fee still applies.

Credit to @aussiedeals for the previous post

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closed Comments

  • +1

    Just in time to swap from NAB :)
    But with the qf fee it's essentially $100 fee for the year

    • +4

      First year annual fee waived if already a Westpac customer so you could just open a disposable transaction account.

      • +2

        Correct.

        This what I did few years back. They're charge a monthly fee but waive if you deposit $2K/month. Just deposit and withdraw immediately is ok - or leave there to pay your CC.

        One nice thing about WP is that they don't lock you out (unlike StG or ANZ) if you don't have any active account with them. So you can log back and apply this kind of deal every year - to take advantage of existing customer promo - and not need visit branch to ID yourself again.

        • +3

          Confirming that this works. Dug out my customer number from a previous closed credit card and got the no annual fee offer despite not having an open account

    • With NAB, just cnfirming but we get most of the annual fee paid back if we make min spend and cancel right?

  • What is this Qantas rewards fee? You're just paying Qantas a small fee for the points? Can someone explain please.

    • +2

      Westpac (not Qantas) charging a fee for the privilege of having a card that earns Qantas Points.

      • -2

        What if we already hold a similar card from other bank

  • +4

    I got this card recently and the QF points got deposited immediately after min spend. Didn't have to wait for 90 days.

    • Did you get it after the first statement or instantly? The reason I ask is I have the same card and paid some council rates through Post Bill Pay > paypal and wasnt sure if the spend was counted as eligible.

      • +1

        The points come on the day of the statement for this one.

        • Ok, thanks

  • +3

    I think the anz platinum is a better deal, $0 fees and 70k points

    • And less spending.

    • Also better QFF earn rate.

      This is not a bad option though if you've exhausted your options with ANZ, NAB and Qantas MC, i.e. still under cooling period.

    • +10

      Interest rate doesn't mean anything if you pay your stuff off on time. If you're going to get a credit card you should be responsible with your money.

      • Totally agree. You should always pay credit cards off each month to avoid interest. Otherwise please do not get a credit card as they all have high interest rates

      • +22

        There should be a OzBargain training course for these cards

        1. If you cannot repay it on time, without any doubts whatsoever, do not go chasing points
        2. If you cannot achieve the minimum spend as part of your normal purchases (bills, groceries, planned expenses. Basically if $4k in 3 months sounds a lot, don't do it) do no go chasing points
        3. The banks aren't running these programs as a good will gesture, they're out to make money out of all of us. So unless you're sure, do not go chasing points

        And if you have brutal credit card debt, find a zero interest balance transfer, get off ozbargain and stop buying anything unnecessary until you're paid it off. People living outside their means is why the banks make billions each year, it's something like half of all credit card debt is accruing interest that pays for the other half getting free points.

        • As someone benefitting from points… I'm OK with the half debt being paid for my flights

          • @OzCheapo: the way I see it the banks will be trying to fleece as many people as they can regardless of what we do so if I can get some benifit out of it then why not

      • -4

        If you need a credit card….then very unusual that you are responsible with your money. In most cases buying products that you can't save for and afford. Just wiped out my 10K that had a QFF Deal credit card. Best thing I ever did.

        • +4

          Haha. If you're going to claim to be so on top of things by saving for things and spending responsibly, yet unable to see the value in the points and rewards you get for spending the same amount of money without going into debt, there's no point discussing anything with you.

          • -4

            @mrstealyourdeal: Firstly not a claim…1st hand experience. Claimed my 130,000 points and then balanced transfered over to a lower interest rate card as soon as I could. These deals are a debt trap. But go ahead. Get yourself one of these 19.99% too good to be true offers and manage the complexities of Credit Statements and find out first hand just how awesome they are. Your clearly on top of things and obviously know the fine print rort of 55 day interest free periods. Good luck with that. The old utopian credit card theory…pay the balance off before interest is due, is a mirage.

            • +1

              @klaatu: The OzBargain mentality is to apply for the credit card (and get the rewards) only if you need to spend the points and can afford to so you don't need a balance transfer. As in you have the funds coming in or in your savings account.

              As a side note, I don't think they have the 55 days now… It's only 45 days

              • @OzCheapo: Thanks explained in a very clear and concise way. Intention was a word of caution for OzB's to be careful with these forms of high interest credit. They can lead to issues that far outway any QFF incentive offered.

            • +2

              @klaatu: its really not that hard, I have been using credit cards for all of my purchased since I had a full time job 17 years ago. I get paid monthly, all my pay goes straight onto my home loan, then I use credit card for all my day to day spending. Few days before the CC is due I redraw the money from my home loan and pay the bill, not overly complicated. Now have close to 700,000 Qantas points and redeemed $1000's in gift cards from other cc reward point scheme. The people who get caught are the ones that spend beyond what they can pay off, usually on things they dont need or things they have an addiction to. I would say anyone who gets into a situation they cannot pay off then they should transfer to a 0% interest card and then pay it off and stay away from CC after that.

              • @Stuntdriver: The people who get caught are the ones that spend beyond what they can pay off, usually on things they dont need

                100% agree ….When you have a structure like yours then you can work these to your own advantage….as long as you play by their rules.
                Happy your system works and you can cash in on deals like these. Top stuff.

  • A $50 annual Qantas rewards fee still applies.

    If choose Altitude Rewards program, don't have to pay this.

  • Thanks, just cancelled the AMEX Premium card from last years deal - will give this one a crack!

  • +2

    Low amount of points for the min spend no?

    • -2

      Yes 33% more spend for 25% less points. Oh and don’t forget the annual fee! Ozmarketing!

      • -1

        How did you come up with those figures?

        • -7

          Previous deals. Real deals.

          • @Champ888: Got any CURRENT deals??? Other than ANZ there’s not much.

  • +2

    Are they still doing the awful verification process of making you go in to a branch and asking the staff to call some credit card team? Last time I tried this they verified my ID at the branch but said it wasn't valid because they didn't call this other team…

    Needless to say I gave up on the card

    • +3

      I applied for the card and got approved. After a week, I got a text message saying that I had to go to the branch for ID check. Turns out that their Fraud department flagged my card and prevented the card from being dispatched. They can’t tell me why that happened, but I suspect it was because I tried using the digital card on their app before the physical card was activated. Not a great experience. ANZ’s app and process is more savvy. Just thought I’d share in case anyone else experienced the same issue.

      • hey mate, am having similar issue, cant activate digital card, they said First issued cards are unable to be used as a digital card until the physical card arrives.
        also had to go bank for verification but nothing has progressed.
        Did you manage to activate it?

    • I got approved easily but they won't let me activate unless I go verify my ID in a branch, apparently anti fraud department blocked me before I even started using it

      • Good to know it's still bad

      • Same.thing happened to me. Difficult when the branch opening hours are so limited… Am an existing customer.too, albeit with no open accounts…..

  • it was 120,000 points in August last year. Bad deal.

    • Was never 120k QFF points for Altitude Platinum. It was 120k QFF for Black maybe like 2-3 years ago.

    • +2

      Pretty sure that is for the black rather than the Platinum. A deal like that is still available.

      https://www.westpac.com.au/personal-banking/credit-cards/rew…

      Will cost you a full annual fee ($300) in the second year to get the last 30000 points.

      If you churn it's $200 annual fee in year 1 for 90000 points vs 50 for 75000 if you are an existing westpac customer.

      Plus minimum credit limit is 15k vs 6k

  • +1

    If you have the income to get through application, 180,000 rewards points ($800) gift cards ($900) statement credits for $49 fee if you create a Westpac transaction account too.

    https://www.westpac.com.au/personal-banking/credit-cards/rew…

    • This requires $6K min spend within 120 days - is my understanding correct?

      • Yes, it shows the details in cook99's link

    • +1

      It says on the link that 180,000 points is for $750 of gift cards? How did you get it to be $800 gift cards or $900 of statement credits?

      • +2

        It’s because there has been some rounding, plus different redemption options require different amounts of Altitude points.

        I’ve pulled some examples from the Altitude Rewards website:

        Redemption Type Redemption Cost 180,000 Points is Valued at…
        $100 WISH Physical Gift Card 24,100 $746
        $100 WISH eGift Card 23,500 $766
        $100 Bunnings Physical Gift Card 23,200 $776
        $100 Bunnings eGift Card 22,600 $796
        $100 David Jones Physical Gift Card 21,600 $833
        $100 David Jones eGift Card 21,000 $866
        $100 Account Cashback 28,200 $638
        $100 Annual Fee Rebate 20,000 $900

        If there is a specific gift card you’re looking for and want to know whether it is a redemption option (and if so, its redemption rate), let me know and I’ll check the Altitude Rewards website. There are more gift cards available for redemption than what the publicly-facing website suggests.

        • +1

          Wookie is the real MVP!

  • Question, is the bonus applied after 3 months or once eligibility met? I ask as I signed up the ANZ one, but 1st statement didn't show the bonus added and when called they said it's after 3 months? Is that the case?

    • Applied on the next statement after the eligible minimum spend is made.

  • the reward points of Altitude drops from 130k to 110k now (but you don't have to pay any fee)

  • Just finished churning this one and closed. Spent the required amount and paid as well before first statement. Got 75k bonus points when first statement was generated. Only $49 charged for qantas rewards fee.

    Now onto NAB.

    • How long did it take for the points to actually show up on your Qantas account? I just got my first statement saying I earned X amount of points, but when checking with Qantas nothing shows up.

      Tried contacting westpac support but every time they give me a different excuse

      • Give 2-3 days from statement generation.

        • +1

          Good to know, I received my statement on Monday but no points yet, I'll keep pushing Westpac but this is so annoying

  • Anyone know of back of Melbourne classes as an existing customer?
    Also, anyone have any issues getting approved for this? If it's the 15k limit one, they knocked me back a few weeks ago even though everyone I talk to at the bank agrees I should be able to get it…

    • BoM does not count as a WBC customer.

  • Any rewards cards out there (apart from ANZ) that has no annual fee first year?

    • Westpac Altitude Platinum.

      It currently comes with a 110,000 Altitude bonus points offer (if you spend $3,000 or more within 90 days of being approved), which is equivalent to nearly $470 in gift cards. It was previously 130,000 Altitude bonus points (equivalent to approximately $550 in gift cards), but that offer ended a couple of days ago.

      However, you must be an existing Westpac customer in order to be eligible for the annual fee waiver for the first year. If you’re not an existing Westpac customer, you can sign up for a new Westpac Choice transaction account. There are a number of ways to avoid the pesky $5 monthly account fee, including depositing at least $2,000 every month.

      • Are gift cards considered eligible purchases under their altitude rewards program to be able to get the bonus 110,000 points.

        I'm looking at a buying a MacBook Pro M1 in the next week or two & I have access to discounted Apple gift cards as well.

        This would sweetin the deal even more.

        • Gift cards are eligible. Matter of fact, people usually (me included) bought gc to meet the requirement spending.

        • +4

          tl;dr purchases of gift cards should be eligible


          If you’re purchasing gift cards through a supermarket (e.g. Coles) or department store (BIG W), it is considered an eligible spend.

          I spoke to Westpac, and they said that my recent gift card purchase at Coles is actually considered a “grocery” purchase, because Coles nearly always uses a Merchant Category Code (MCC) of 5411 for transactions (which corresponds to Grocery Stores, Supermarkets).1 I also earned Altitude points and not charged a cash advance fee for that transaction at Coles, which is additional evidence that the transaction would count towards any bonus points offers. I’ll explain why I say that below…


          If you’re purchasing gift cards through a dedicated gift card portal (e.g. Suncorp Benefits, Reward Gateway), it should be considered an eligible spend, but there may be some weird edge cases I am not aware of.

          The Westpac Altitude Rewards terms and conditions (page 5) state you will not earn any points on a cash advance. A cash advance is defined on page 12 to include “cash-equivalent transactions”; an example given is stored value cards (SVCs). I had a look at AUSTRAC, and they state that gift cards are an example of closed-loop SVCs (i.e. SVCs where you cannot withdraw cash).

          Based on this, you may think that purchasing any gift cards would therefore be considered a “cash-equivalent transaction”, but it doesn’t always seem to be the case. I purchased gift cards through Reward Gateway recently, and I was awarded Altitude points and was not charged a cash advance fee, which means that Westpac did not treat that purchase as a “cash-equivalent transaction”. I’m not sure whether there are any gift card portals that use an MCC that Westpac would consider to be a “cash-equivalent transaction”, which is why I say purchasing a gift card from a gift card portal should be eligible.

          If you look at the terms of the bonus points offer, “cash-equivalent transactions” are an exclusion. Even though purchases of gift cards may seem like they are “cash-equivalent transactions”, the fact that my purchases of gift cards through a supermarket and a gift card portal earned Altitude points and did not attract a cash advance fee mean that purchases of gift cards should count towards the minimum spend requirement of the bonus points offer.

          Fun fact: the MCC for the Woolworths Group gift card portal is 5411, because the gift card portal is hosted on the Woolworths website, which is the exact same website as the one where you order groceries online. Woolworths’ website’s primary business is selling groceries, which is why the gift card portal uses the same MCC. If you ever get an offer telling you that you’ll earn cashback from grocery purchases, purchasing gift cards through the Woolworths Group gift card portal will count!


          1. The only situation where Coles (and Woolworths and other retailers) would change the MCC would be when they are doing an EFTPOS cashout (i.e. where you withdraw money from your bank account at the checkout). 

          • +1

            @WookieMonster: Now thats what I call a detailed analysis, thank you so much for that information.

            I'll be purchasing the gift cards through the HCF Thank You Loyalty Program & their rewards & discounts portal is operated by Edge Loyalty Systems Pty Ltd trading as Lifestyle Rewards, which is part of Blackhawk Network Australia.

            However, I couldn't find any information on which Merchant Category Code (MCC) they use for transactions.

            • +1

              @ilmg: I actually also have access to the HCF Thank You portal too, and they're actually my preferred portal for getting WISH gift cards, because the Fuel Gift Card (which is a rebranded WISH gift card) is sold at a 4.05% discount. AMEX also exclude cash advance (including "cash-equivalent transactions") from earning points, but I have used an AMEX multiple times on that portal in the past and I was never charged with any cash advance fees and still earned points on purchases of gift cards from HCF Thank You, so I think you should be all good with HCF Thank You too. (Btw, wouldn't the current Apple gift card deal at Coles be of better "value" than getting Apple gift cards through HCF Thank You?)

              You'll be hard-pressed to find information on MCCs published anywhere, because this is usually determined by the financial institution managing payments on behalf of the merchant (in this case, Lifestyle Rewards). Even when I reached out to Westpac to find out the MCC for transactions on my account, I was met with some resistance from the customer service person, as they were perplexed as to why I needed to know that information. It is something that does not matter to 99.9% of card transactions…

              • +1

                @WookieMonster: I won't be able to make it to Coles before the offer expires so that kind of rules that out & I don't want to get someone else to do it incase they mess it up.

                I have purchased a gift card through HCF Thank You in the past & that was classed as an 'unknown category' transaction & wasn't treated as a cash advance.

                However, that was with an ANZ card with no rewards attached to it & I haven't read the latest ANZ T&C's to check what they consider a cash advance on a non rewards card.

                Again, thank you for going in to so much detail in explaining how it all works, really appreciate it.

      • Thanks for that. I have a black card with them already!

        • Ahhhh, in that case, you should still be eligible for the annual fee waiver, but not the bonus points offer:

          Existing Westpac customers who currently hold an Earth Classic, Earth Platinum, Earth Platinum Plus, Earth Black, Altitude Classic, Altitude Platinum or Altitude Black credit card, or who have held one in the last 12 months, are not eligible for this offer.

    • You can get the fee waived for this card by opening a bank account with Westpac (which you can later close)

  • I'm in my 4th week waiting for my westpac credit card to arrive - fyi, they take a very long time

    • Pretty sure you can activate the virtual card via the app and start spending on Google or Apple pay

      • Good to know, once I figure out what my customer ID is I will give it a try!

        • Mine never arrived. I just used the virtual card to hit the spend.

  • Whats the chances of getting approved with payslips untill december, but no jan & feb. But bank statement showing still getting paid.

    On leave, and no access to payslips

    • +2

      In my opinion, with the inflexibility of some banks and the associated credit inquiry that will be triggered by applying for a credit card, I would want to make sure all my documentation is ready to go. You could try emailing your HR/Payroll team to see if they could email you the PDFs for January and February?

  • Anyone aware what constitutes an eligible spend with Westpac? For example will ATO transactions count towards the $4000 spend criteria?

    • +2

      According to the terms and conditions of the offer…

      Eligible purchases do not include:

      • interest, fees and charges,
      • cash or ATM cash advances,
      • cash equivalent transactions,
      • gambling transactions,
      • a purchase from or payment to a local, state or federal government or government related agency,
      • BPAY or similar transactions (such as Post Billpay),
      • refunds and balance transfers debited from the card account.

      Essentially:

      • If you make a payment directly on the ATO website, that is ineligible, because the ATO is a government agency.

      • If you make a payment in-person at Australia Post, that is ineligible, because Australia Post is a government agency, plus paying bills in-person at Australia Post runs through the Post Billpay system.

      • If you make a payment online at Australia Post via Post Billpay and directly input your credit card details, that is ineligible, because Post Billpay itself is ineligible.

      • If you make a payment online at Australia Post via Post Billpay and use PayPal as the payment method, that may be eligible. I’ve made payments to other government agencies via Post Billpay using an AMEX tied to my PayPal account, and it was classed as a regular purchase, and not a government purchase. However, I’m not sure whether Westpac would do the same, which is why I say may. Having said that, I’m not sure whether the ATO actually supports Post Billpay payments on the Post Billpay website, because I have not seen an ATO payment slip…


      However, if you use your Westpac credit card to purchase prepaid gift cards, things get interesting:

      • If you purchase prepaid gift cards from Coles or Woolworths or BIG W or The Reject Shop (etc) and go onto the ATO website and use prepaid gift cards as a payment method, it should work. Keep in mind that there are gift card purchase fees (unless you take advantage of one of Coles’ 10% off prepaid gift card deals that crop up every four months or so), so this certainly comes at a cost. Additionally, OnlyONE Visa prepaid gift cards block all payments to the ATO, so that is not an option.

      • If you purchase prepaid gift cards from Coles or Woolworths or BIG W or The Reject Shop or Westfield (etc) and go to Australia Post in-person, it may work. The warning around gift card purchase fees still apply, plus you need to keep in mind that you’re not supposed to use prepaid gift cards to make payments at Australia Post (and apparently this is something Australia Post monitors). Some staff will let you do this, whilst other staff will stop you, so YMMV.

      • If you make a payment online at Australia Post via Post Billpay and directly input any prepaid gift card details, it may be ineligible, because I’m not sure whether Australia Post accepts prepaid gift cards on their Post Billpay portal (or whether the prepaid gift card issuers block payments made via Post Billpay online). Prepaid gift cards do not support 3D Secure, which is a security feature that some payment processors mandate as a minimum requirement for processing card payments; I’m not sure whether Post Billpay online requires this feature. Also, I’m not sure whether the ATO actually supports Post Billpay payments on the Post Billpay website, because I have not seen an ATO payment slip…

      • If you make a payment online at Australia Post via Post Billpay and use PayPal as the payment method with a prepaid gift card tied to the PayPal account, that may be eligible. I’m not sure whether the ATO actually supports Post Billpay payments on the Post Billpay website, because I have not seen an ATO payment slip…


      Does this help?

      • So paying off bills online using the BPAY biller code won't count towards the eligible spend?

        • Yes, that’s my understanding.

        • As a generalisation any transaction that earns points counts as eligible spend. BPAY normally doesn't.

          However, if you Use Credit Cards to BPAY Your Bills with $0 Fee @ Beem It it should be treated like a normal credit transaction, earn points and qualify as eligible spend.

          Beem It counted as eligible spend with this CommBank card, and I should be able to confirm it with Westpac soon (assuming the bonus points are awarded on my first statement).

          • @UrMumsOnlyFan: I've heard of this method. Please let me know how you go using it with Westpac.

            • @SenorQuack: The Beem It transactions earned points. The spend requirement was already met without the amount spent through Beem It, however the Beem It spend should have counted as eligible too.

      • Great write up. Thanks for sharing!

  • When I click 'Already with Westpac? Sign in to apply', I receive an error saying page does not exist. Anyone else with this problem?

    • +1

      I'm using the app and can see this offer in there.

  • I am not a member of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program yet. Do I need to apply to join the program 1st before applying for this card?

    • Recommended do that first.

      Note, don't pay for the $99 sign-up fee. It's cost you nothing to sign-up for QFF program - just google for one of dozen ways to do that.

  • This is great timing. Time to churn. Open a Westpac bank account and they will waive the annual fee for the first year =)

  • Is this better option if I want to convert to Krisflyer points ? 2 amplify points equals to 1 Krisflyer. So 130k would give me 65k. Whereas with Altitude it's 3 points = 1 point Krisflyer point.

    https://www.stgeorge.com.au/personal/credit-cards/rewards

    Downside is this comes with $49 Annual fee, which I could avoid with Westpac being an existing member.

    • I can see this is also free if you are existing StG customer - log into app.

      • Really ? I am not an existing customer so had no access to the app. But I did ask over the phone if fee is waived for existing customer and the lady on the phone said NO. Then I just applied. I think it’s too late now. Also the offer ends tomorrow. So I don’t think I could open an account and apply for a car in just 1 day.

        • +1

          This may help next time

  • Do you need to show aus payslips upon signing up for the cc?

    • Yes and No.
      Their income checking has 2 options.
      1. Use their system and connect direct to your income receiving bank account to auto retrieve the income details.
      2. Send them last 3 payslips.

  • -1

    Looking to apply for this card, i keep saying that its 75k bonus "altitude" qantas points
    What if i dont want altitude points, but i want QFF instead.

    How do i ensure i get QFF pts instead of altitude points, is there a selection on the application? Do i just pay the $50 qantas fee?

    Please let me know thanks

  • how strict are they on the 12 month waiting period. I closed my card 25/05/2021 should i be ok to re-open and be eligible for the bonus points?

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