Help with Choosing First Credit Card

My partner and I are about to book a trip to USA next month and need a credit card for the trip so thought we might take advantage of it and book the trip with it for points.
My cards do you recommend?
I was looking at the American express platinum with the current bonus 200,000 points and trying to figure out if that would cover the annual fee.
We definitely won't be keeping it for more than a year. We probably won't do much international travel after this trip.

Being accepted for any card shouldn't be a problem for us, just not sure what's the best with the best benefits we can get out of it. Especially if we can use some of it to book this holiday and otherwise use bonuses locally or for non travel things.

Lounge access looked enticing but honestly we only have the flight from melb to la, then Vegas to Honolulu, and then Honolulu to Melbourne

Any advice for newbs would be great please.

Am I right that if you use the card and then pay it off before the interest free period that you don't get charged anything extra?

Comments

  • You are right hat if you use the card and then pay it off before the interest free period that you don't get charged anything extra. Except for international transactions, where for Amex, you will be charged a foreign currency conversion of around 2-3%. If you are wanting a card to use overseas, you would be best to apply for a card that doesn't charge these international fees (see link above).

    Most regular consumers are better off credit card churning ie. opening & closing cards to get bonus offers.

    There is no reason (depending on income & financials) that you can't open two credit cards. One with no international fees, and one for a bonus offer that you will close after meeting the spend criteria.

  • Also open a bank account with ING/Macquarie/Up for ATM access

  • Are you sure you don’t need to spend a certain amount for a number of months before you get the points?

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