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Australian Credit Cards - Which cards should you get to have an all-rounded portfolio that suits all your needs?

This guide was initially created by illumination, and was inspired by this comment. Please notate any additions/amendments in the “edit summary” section when you update this page!

Introduction

The purpose of this wiki is to give you a broad recommendation as to which Credit Cards you should have to address your most common needs. This can range from Travel Insurance, Price Protection, Rewards Points, to AMEX statement credits.

If you cannot guarantee that you will pay your credit card balance in full each month then you should prefer a low-rate credit card over rewards (as the savings in interest will far exceed the low benefits obtained through rewards).

As a general rule of thumb, you should have the following cards:

  1. American Express Card - for highest points earn + AMEX statement credit offers
  2. Mastercard/Visa - as a backup where AMEX is either not accepted, or only accepted with a ridiculous surcharge
  3. Travelling Card/International Transactions Card - to avoid having to pay Overseas Transaction and forex fees

Depending on how specific you want to be, this can be further broken down as follows:

  1. Travel Insurance Card
  2. Extended Warranty Card
  3. Price Protection Card
  4. Lounge Access Card
  5. Supermarket/Department store card (e.g. David Jones AMEX)

In the examples given below, the percentage used to show “rate of return” is based on gift cards, NOT premium class airfares/upgrades which arguably provides greater value for your points. All rates of return are calculated per dollar spent.

Travel Cards (Debit and Credit Cards with no international fees)

Take a read of the Ozbargin Wiki located here:

Cards with no overseas transaction fees

Purchasing Airfares with Frequent Flyer/Rewards Points

It is arguable (and largely true) that points are greater value when used for redeeming flights. However, there are a multitude of reasons I will not be using the potential value from airfares in rewards points for the purpose of this guide:

There are a large variety of reasons why valuing points for airfares is complex. Factors include:

Maximising value from points for Airfares

Example booking: SYD-LHR on Qantas using QFF [Work in Progress]

Date Checked: July 3, 2015

Economy Class

Departure: Wednesday, March 9, 2016
QF1
SYD-DXB
16:50-01:25

QF1
DXB-LHR
02:40-06:20

Return: Wednesday, March 23, 2016
QF2
LHR-DXB
21:15-07:20

QF2
DXB-SYD
10:55-06:50

Cost:

Points: 128,000 points
Tax Cost: $845.18
Inclusions: 30kg luggage each way
Revenue Ticket price: $2226

With the calculation above, 1000 points = $10.79

Premium Economy

Depart: Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Return: Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Points Cost: 192,000 points
Tax Cost: $1209.78
Inclusions: 40kg luggage each way
Stopover: Dubai

Business Class

Departure: Wednesday, November 4, 2015

EK415
SYD-DXB
06:00-13:20

EK9
DXB-LHR
14:45-18:25

Return: Sunday, November 22, 2015

QF10
LHR-MEL (Stopover in Dubai)
12:35-21:35

QF400
MEL-SYD
06:00-07:25

Cost:

Points: 192,000 points
Tax Cost: $1586.78
Inclusions: 40kg luggage each way

Cheque to Self/Balance Transfers/Travel Insurance

Balance Transfers

I am going to assume the benefit of Balance Transfers would not be beneficial to a great deal of Ozbargainers, because to really take advantage of a Balance Transfer offer, you must already have a significant credit card debt. However, this presents two issues:

Having said that, a balance transfer can be a very good way of indirectly obtaining a personal loan for either no interest at all (e.g. 0% for 16 months), or a very low rate (e.g. 0.99% for 12 months). An example of such a situation would be if you wish to purchase a car.

Balance Transfer Example

Cheque to Self (an even better type of Balance Transfer)

Cheque to Self is currently only offered by Citibank.

This is almost the same as Balance Transfers offered by other banks, but is literally a cheque written to you in your name (greater flexibility). This means you can take it as cash, put it in a high-interest savings account, put it in a term deposit, or put it in an offset account for a mortgage. Assuming you are able to repay this amount back prior to the promotional period finishing, you have now earnt money in interest (or saved money in interest) by using Citibank's money.

Once again as in the case above, if you are to take advantage of a Balance Transfer, any purchase you make will instantly attract an interest charge, so it would be in your best financial interests to not use that card prior to paying off the Balance Transfer.

Travel Insurance

Complimentary Travel Insurance can vary greatly from card to card. For this reason, it is very important that you read the Product Disclosure Statement of the insurance offered to you by your Card Provider so you are aware and understand what exactly is and isn't covered, and to what extent it is covered. There is also usually a minimum spend required before Travel Insurance on a Credit Card becomes activated. This amount is most commonly $500 - i.e. a minimum of $500 of your travel expenses (including accommodation, tours, airfares) must be paid for on the card, which is not usually very difficult to achieve. It also common for the card holder + family members to be included.

The common inclusions of Travel Insurance can include:

When it comes time to claiming, a “claim amount” (excess) must be paid. This is a one-off fee and once again varies from insurer to insurer.

It is often said that standalone specialised Travel Insurance is often better than the ones offered by a third party through a Credit Card Provider, but as I am not familiar with Travel Insurance, I will stop here.

Card Insurance Excess Dental Cash (Theft) Electronic(laptop) sub-limit Mobile sub-limit Delay Resumption
ANZ Rewards $250 $2000 0 $4000 $1000 >6h $250 $2000 max >25% remaining $3000
Bankwest Zero Platinum $250 $2000 $600 $5500 $5500 >6h reasonable expenses $475 max >14 days remaining (within 30 days) $5750
CommBank $250-$500 $1500 $500 $2500-3000 None? >6h $250 +12h $150 (Max $400) $5000

American Express Card

These are the current standout AMEX cards with annual fees:

And three with no annual fee:

These American Express cards over the last few years (2014-2016) have always had a bonus points offer on sign up. The amount may vary on a roughly quarterly basis, but is usually a variation of the points awarded, annual fee waiver, and/or a balance transfer promotion.

All the following cards will give you access to many of the AMEX statement credit deals posted here - often times you could make savings worth hundreds of dollars annually with these offers. Some of these offers are exclusive to American Express direct issued cards, which means those listed on this page. This is as opposed to American Express cards issued by the banks - which at present are only issued by two of the four major banks of Australia: NAB, Westpac.

N.B. As of 2017-11-13 NAB no longer issues new AMEX cards and existing cards will expire on 2018-02-21 as per this link. Commbank stopped issuing AMEX cards and existing cards have been expired.

The common features of these cards are as follows:

Some of these also include a combination of the following, specified in more detail below:

American Express Explorer ($395 annual fee)

Official Page

American Express Platinum Edge ($195 annual fee)

Official Page

One free domestic return flight per anniversary year on Virgin Australia incl. baggage - this is worth more than the annual fee in itself and can (may be against T&Cs) be resold as it does not need to be in your name. You could almost argue this makes the card free, without factoring in the effort of having to resell the ticket.

American Express Velocity Platinum ($349 annual fee)

Official Page

Qantas American Express Discovery Card ($0 annual fee)

Official Page

Velocity American Express Escape Card ($0 annual fee)

Official Page

American Express Essential Card ($0 annual fee)

Official Page

Mastercard/Visa

(EDITED) Citibank Premier Visa Card (reduced $199 annual fee in the first year (normally $395 per year))

Official Page | Free for Life Promo this offer is now expired

HSBC Platinum

Official Page

Coles Mastercard

Official Page

Promotional Credit Card Table

Please Update as deals as they change.
Notes:

Bank Card Points Points Program Annual Fee Min Spend Min Income Min Credit Limit $/100pts MC/Visa Earn AMEX Earn Travel Insurance Other Main BonusOZ Bargain Link
AMEX Qantas Ultimate 55,000 Qantas $450 $1,500$65,000$3,000 0.818-1.5 -
AMEXVelocity Platinum 100,000Velocity$375 $1,500$65,000$3,000 0.375-1.5 Domestic Return Flight, 2x Virgin Domestic Lounge PassesLINK
ANZ Rewards Platinum 50,000 Qantas $0 $2,500$35,000$6,000 0.0000.75-
ANZ Rewards Black 75,000 Qantas $0 $2,500$75,000$15,0000.0001- 2x Qantas Club Lounge PassesLINK
CitiQantas Signature 50,000 Qantas $248 $2,000$75,000$15,0000.4961-
CitiEmirates 40,000 Skywards$159 ? $75,000$15,0000.3981-
HSBCPlatinum Qantas 60,000 Qantas $199 $3,000$40,000$6,000 0.3321-
MacquarieBlack Qantas 40,000 Qantas $100 $3,000$70,000$15,0000.2501-
QantasPremier 60,000 Qantas $150 $3,000$35,000$6,000 0.2501- 2x Qantas Club Lounge PassesLINK
QantasPremier Platinum100,000 Qantas $199 $4,000$35,000$4,000 0.1991 (Qantas)- 2x Qantas Club Lounge Passes, 75 status creditsLINK
St GeorgeAmplify Signature60,000Qantas$279 $3,000$75,000$15,0000.4650.75 -
WestpacAltitude Black 80,000 Qantas $195 $5,000$75,000$15,0000.2440.625 1.5
WestpacAlititude Platinum60,000Qantas $150 $3,000$30,000$6,000 0.2500.5 1

Credit Cards with the highest Rate of Return

AMEX

  1. The AMEX Platinum Edge ($195/year): ~2.61% return (3 pts/$1 at supermarkets)

Mastercard/Visa

  1. Jetstar Platinum Mastercard ($169/year): ~2% - but points can only be used towards Jetstar flight purchases
  2. Citibank Clear Prestige ($700/year): ~1.14%

Wrapping it all up/TLDR/Conclusion