I'm looking to buy a new motorbike for about $15k. I have the cash but was wondering if there is a way to get some points for it that outweigh the surcharge. I would pay it off before I incurred interest.
I currently have Amex Qantas platinum card and Citi reward card that replace my PayPal one that I want to replace or get rid of.
All points schemes cost someone somewhere - either a slightly higher price for the consumer or a cut in profit for the retailer.
My guess is the retailer will allow you to pay a deposit using a point scheme CC, but require the balance with either a bank cheque or bank transfer.
I've done this with car purchases.
No dealer is going to eat the cost of the points on the total purchase, nor the fees on a CC transaction.
Are you saying retailers are the one paying for the CC points ?
Yep. In one way or another, either directly, like big hotel chains or through fees. No free lunch.
Good insight.
Probably not worth the fee, unless you can find a new credit card that will give you a huge bonus in rewards points with a <$15K minimum spend and a free/cheap annual fee.
My Citi and AmEx only earn me like 0.5% return, so pretty much any % fee and they no longer give any value. You can work out what the rewards are worth to you based on what you would likely redeem it for, and how much you would likely spend to buy it normally.
If you usually buy business class plane tickets, the points can be worth more than if you redeem it on items from Qantas store or gift cards.
I paid for my car using my CC to get points recently, negotiated a deal with the dealer where I purchased some extra addons for the car as a package price. I love them points! Got me a PS5 last year through them :)
I just bought a $50k car on Amex with 0.9% surcharge. That's an easy win I can recuperate when flying business class
Find out the visa and Amex surcharges then see if it's justified.
Or as mentioned get a new card with good sign on bonus then it's worth paying the surcharge
Half the time they don't even know what the surcharge is 😅
You're most likely looking at 2% cc surcharge from the dealer which will be $300. If the points outweigh it then do it. If not buy $15k prepaid visa cards when they are on sale for better than 2% off.