Credit Cards with Rewards and No International Fees

samfisher5986 on 14/10/2024 - 16:39
Last edited 14/10/2024 - 17:10

With so many rewards credit cards adding international transaction fees or currency conversion fees, I'm struggling to find a credit card with rewards that is profitable to have.

Most of the cards I'm seeing either have high annual fees that are too hard to make free, a one time offer which means I have to churn after a year or the requirement to eliminate the annual fee is way too high to be practical (As I use HSBC 2% for under $100)

For example I can see is Commbank Smart Awards credit card looks great but having to spend $2000 every statement isn't very practical.

I currently have the Suncorp Clear Options Platinum Credit Card which I've now redeemed the great signup offer but I've already been stinged a few times by accidently buying something with an overseas payment processor.

Financial Credit Card

Comments

  • hamza23 on 14/10/2024 - 16:53

    Commbank Smart Awards credit card looks great but having to spend $5000 every statement is simply not practical.

    Isn't it only $2000 per month?

    This deal and table at the bottom of the description may help.

    • samfisher5986 on 14/10/2024 - 16:57

      The card that has a $2000 per month requirement has international fees unfortunately.

      Strangely enough you are right, the ultimate awards only needs $4000, but even then I won't be able to maintain that. Thats 48k per year!

      • Gdsamp on 14/10/2024 - 17:01
        +4

        Clearly your'ren't doing your bit for the economy

      • soan papdi on 14/10/2024 - 17:03
        +2

        https://www.commbank.com.au/credit-cards/smart-awards.html
        - No monthly fee3 if you spend at least $2,000 during your statement period. Otherwise the monthly fee is $19
        - Pay no international transaction fees for purchases you make overseas or online6
        - Earn unlimited Awards Points or Qantas Points each year
        - Choose to earn CommBank Awards points or opt-in to earn Qantas Points2 for $60 per year4

        • samfisher5986 on 14/10/2024 - 17:10

          Woops you are right I misread. Its $2,000.

          $2000 might be easier to meet every month as I'll still need to combine with HSBC so I can't put any groceries etc on it.

          If there's nothing better I'll have to do the maths. I really wish there was something without a minimum spend.

          • soan papdi on 14/10/2024 - 17:17
            +3

            @samfisher5986: So you want all the good features without an annual fee? Why would any bank do that?

            • JDMcarfan on 14/10/2024 - 18:02

              @soan papdi: think they mean a low AF and not a monthly spending requirement. the monthly spend is a tedious task if you have >1 card.

              the CBA offerings are are a good option for people with no incentive to churn and dont really care about the points/dollar spending
              my parents would fit this category, they want one stable credit card that they can use both at home and o/s (at a competitive rate) whilst still getting some $ value in points vs a debit card.
              all this whilst having $0 annual fee when they meet the spend criteria (sucks that there no leniency to this, like >9 months a year of $4k p/m, but $48k p/a total required. some months are just low expenditure, and others are high, and they've been slugged the monthly fee a couple times for inadvertently being just short of the min spend)

              • soan papdi on 14/10/2024 - 19:03

                @JDMcarfan: I understood the need. The smart awards card does fit OP’s needs except they want to use HSBC too in parallel. Have to make a choice.

          • bbinc on 15/10/2024 - 09:31

            @samfisher5986: Smart Awards has bonus points for major retail inc. Colesworths. Plus random Cashback deals.

  • Drakesy on 14/10/2024 - 17:26
    +3

    Anz Travel adventures card used to be perfect for this.
    $50 AF
    $0 transaction fee
    Free virgin flight each year
    70,000 velocity points

    life was good.

    • bobokingdom on 14/10/2024 - 18:37
      +1

      Life "was" good. :)

  • bazingaa on 14/10/2024 - 18:19

    we use CBA ultimate awards

  • onceupon8 on 14/10/2024 - 19:05
    +5

    but having to spend $2000 every statement isn't very practical.

    If you aren't spending at least $2000 every statement, don't worry about the rewards. Just look for a low cost card that gives you no international transaction fees. You won't get many rewards spending only $24,000 per year on the card. If you want rewards, you would be much better of churning to take advantage of sign up offers.

    • Davo1111 on 14/10/2024 - 20:30
      +1

      this

  • itoyjobed on 14/10/2024 - 19:15
    +3

    I am using Bendigo for no international fees. It has zero annual free. It doesn't give any rewards but its offset as it provides free travel insurance for international travel (if you spend $500) on travel related expenses.
    So, my plan is to use Bendigo to buy flight tickets (get the complimentary insurance) and use for international spends.

  • edisonAU on 14/10/2024 - 22:37

    In between Good Rewards, No International Fee, Low Annual Fees, you can only pick 2 of 3. Otherwise it is just not profitable to the bank.

    I have NAB Rewards Signature Visa which has great rewards + no international exchange fee. But it has $24 monthly statement fee but is waived if you spend >$5000 per month. I keep getting it waived due to high monthly spending. Right now it has 130K NAB Rewards Points as offer for the first 2 months.

    • samfisher5986 on 15/10/2024 - 10:01

      I hate their website, I can see there is no international transaction fee but they don't make it clear that there is no stated (Or hidden) currency conversion fee, can you confirm? Is it VISA rate?

      Its not a card I would keep but a great card to get and then cancel.

      • ol mate on 15/10/2024 - 14:13

        I'm using this OS atm, can confirm it is the Visa rate.

        • samfisher5986 on 15/10/2024 - 14:24

          Awesome, thanks for letting me know :)

  • Eeples on 15/10/2024 - 07:52

    My daily driver is still the Citibank Signature (now called Premier) card with no annual fee for life.

    Rewards, 2 Priority passes etc.

    You will need a Time Machine.

    • md333 on 15/10/2024 - 16:02
      +1

      Its missing free international transactions, which is a bit of a pain because I often need to use it for overseas transactions to qualify for the travel insurance. Was using Bankwest zero instead but they canned the travel insurance last month so now on to Bendigo.

  • mini2 on 15/10/2024 - 09:52
    +1

    CBA Ultimate's earning rate is shit but it beats paying forex fees.

    If you're already banking with HSBC, why not open an Everyday Global, move AUD into the respective foreign currency and debit that card? Earns you no point but at least you're not paying fees or opening an unnecessary credit card.

    • samfisher5986 on 15/10/2024 - 09:57

      Last time I tried a euro conversion with HSBC I was shafted a ton of money compared to my Bendigo Ready Card.

      I assume HSBC take a secret cut on their conversion.

    • 6079 Smith on 15/10/2024 - 11:40

      I thing the earning rate on the Ultimate is great. If you’re looking to get VA points you get 0.5 ppd minimum, 1 ppd on major AU spend and utilities (which is the bulk of most peoples day to day) and then 1.5 ppd on fee free international spend.

      If you wait for a 20% transfer bonus which runs 2/3 times a year you end up with 0.6 / 1.2 / 1.8 which for a card I’ve never paid a fee for is pretty great

      • soan papdi on 15/10/2024 - 21:12

        Is there a fee to link awards to velocity? I can see $60 for qantas but nothing clearly mentioned for velocity.

        • 6079 Smith on 16/10/2024 - 11:00
          +1

          Nope, just collect CommBank Award points and transfer them to VA when there’s a bonus

          • soan papdi on 16/10/2024 - 11:15

            @6079 Smith: On re-reading the terms for smart awards (not ultimate), do only specific retail transactions count for the monthly spend limit? Fuel, cafe, supermarkets. What about school fees, hotels, flights etc?

            • 6079 Smith on 16/10/2024 - 11:45
              +1

              @soan papdi: My reading is that it’s the same as ultimate where everything (Inc cash advances) counts to the monthly limit but the extra points are only on Australian supermarkets, department stores, petrol stations, dining and utilities

    • Helmutson on 23/10/2024 - 22:42

      I have an HSBC Everyday Global account and am about to take a trip to NZ next month. Is there any reason to convert AUD into NZD? Looking at the account inclusions, it says there are no international transaction fees and no ATM fees. Any reason I should not just use this card as a regular Debit card while overseas?

  • dqtl74 on 15/10/2024 - 11:21

    I was looking into this recently and Bankwest seemed to be a good choice. Both of their rewards credit cards (Qantas and More rewards) that are Platinum or World tier offer no foreign transaction fees.

    • samfisher5986 on 15/10/2024 - 11:25

      But you'll never earn enough points to cover the annual fee will you?

      Makes sense for introductory offers but I can't imagine how much you need to spend just to break even.

      • dqtl74 on 15/10/2024 - 11:29

        Sorry, I missed the part about the annual fee. I think it'll be quite hard to find a card with rewards that doesn't have one without some other diffiicult requirements to meet.

  • Love a bargain on 15/10/2024 - 12:18
    +1

    Bankwest. I have the no annual fee but no reward points version because I don't use it enough to justify the annual fee.

  • md333 on 15/10/2024 - 16:09
    +1

    The ING Orange One Rewards Platinum could be a candidate.
    Rewards are a direct cashback at 1% which seems to be about double typical rewards, but it is limited to $30 per month (ie no rewards on spend over $3000 a month).
    Free travel insurance.
    $149/yr fee uses up 5 months worth of the rewards, so averages about the same as 0.5% rewards on a no fee card.
    Needs 5 transactions and $1000 deposit per month to qualify for the free intl transactions which could be a pain if not already doing it for a savings maximiser.

    • soan papdi on 15/10/2024 - 17:29

      If you're paying $149/yr, nothing extra needed to qualify for zero international txn fees. Also same story if you have an ING home loan, the $149 is waived too.

      • md333 on 15/10/2024 - 18:51

        That's not what the product web page says. How do you get it waived? https://www.ing.com.au/credit-cards/orange-one-platinum.html

        • soan papdi on 15/10/2024 - 20:00

          My bad, the waiver is only for home loan customers. Didn't realise the 5-txn requirement applies even for the paid card. FWIW it's easy to 5 1c transactions per month at Colesworths if you just do self-checkout.

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