Coles credit card - thoughts?

press711 on 12/09/2013 - 09:25

Hi,

I was looking at switching credit card providers. I pay my credit card on time so not worried about the interest rate. Currently with Myer but they cap the points at 2000 a month.

I was looking at the coles card and the merits I see are:

  • Low Annual fees $49.
  • 2 points per dollar when shopping outside coles group (which equates to roughly 1% back as 2000 points gets you a $10 off coles voucher)
  • 3 points per dollar when shopping in coles group (which equates to roughly 1.5%)
  • Uncapped points (Found nothing which says the points are capped)

I am not sure about their additional cardholder fees. But I also looked at some of the Amex+Visa(or mc) cards and they can be quite expensive esp. when you consider two cardholders)

Any thoughts or better offers?

Thanks.

Financial

Related Stores

Coles Financial Services
Coles Financial Services

Comments

  • bluedufflecoat on 12/09/2013 - 09:35

    I am with them… generally ok, until they went through a phase of "upgrading" their system. They didn't send the email notification about my bill being ready as well as the payment reminder. So, I got hit with their late payment fees and interest charges, two separate days.

    Called up once - and they waived the interest charges. Next day, got hit with late payment fees. Called them a second time, and although they waived the fees, I still got a mild "ear-bashing" - really, when it was their fault for not sending me the bill? Wasn't too impressed with them.

    But otherwise, the card is fine.

    Btw, the 3 points per dollar shopping at Coles - is marketing speak. You still get 2 points per dollar with your credit card. The additional point comes from your normal shopping at Coles. So, if you were already getting 1 point per dollar using your flybuys card, then they count that towards the points you earn. But the CC only gives you 2 points.

    PS. They are not that great with international transactions. Bought the nexus4 with them, and the exchange rate fees and commissions etc was horrible. Yes, yes, I know I should get a 28D card. :) Have too many cards to manage at the moment, so I haven't signed up.

    • press711 on 12/09/2013 - 10:05

      Thanks. Hadn't thought about the 1 point per dollar from flybuys being available even without the credit card.

      Although, I don't use flybuys currently. I stopped using them years ago when you had to accrue points for 5 years to get a $10 card. And I never bothered to check to see if they had improved the scheme.

    • retiredfeline on 12/09/2013 - 10:10

      Set up a recurring event every month in your calendar about 10 days before the bill is due, it's always around the same date every month. Then you won't forget.

      Since a lot of bills went electronic, I have entries in my calendar to remind me of these things. Can't rely on letter mail any more, and it's good to have a backup to email notifications.

      • CyberMurning on 12/09/2013 - 11:13

        why not setup automatic debit from bank account? cant miss, and your $ stays till last minute

        • retiredfeline on 12/09/2013 - 11:18

          The last time I looked you could only set up a debit of a fixed amount, not the exact amount you owe.

        • CyberMurning on 12/09/2013 - 11:42

          thats funny. all my other cred card has option to debit my link bank account for all balances due (not just the minimum, and not fixed amount)

      • jumbuck on 13/09/2013 - 10:40

        BPay your payment when your bill comes in, then set the "process" date as your actual due date. Don't give them your money before you have to.

  • CyberMurning on 12/09/2013 - 11:12

    i didnt thought anything when see the deal apply and get $50 voucher.
    just use the voucher and cut the card straight away, i have 3x CC already :)

  • evol on 12/09/2013 - 11:56
    +2

    Coles Mastercard is rubbish - don't get it. Also, voucher redemptions are one of the worst value use of points, no matter which rewards program it is.

    Amex Platinum Edge card is great value. https://www.americanexpress.com/au/content/platinum-edge-cre…

    $195 annual fee, but you get:

    1. Free return domestic flight every year on Virgin. This can be redeemed in anyones name and easily pays for the annual fee in itself.
    2. 3 points/$ at supermarkets, 2 points/$ at petrol stations, 1 point/$ everywhere else except government & utilities where you get 0.5 points/$.
    3. The usual insurance cover that comes with platinum cards.
    4. Supplementary cards at no extra cost.

    The value in this is that the points can be redeemed for a whole bunch of things and that you don't have to transfer points into different programs (e.g. Virgin AU, Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines etc) until you actually want to use the points. You can accumulate all the points in Amex without any expiry and aren't locked into how you want to use them.

    The best value is with flight redemptions. E.g. For 52k Amex points you can go from Australia to Europe in business class on the Malaysian Airlines A380. This is easily worth $6-8k. Compare that to how long/how much you would need to spend to redeem something of equivalent value on other "rewards" cards like the crappy Coles one, and it's pretty clear the Amex is the winner.

    The points are easy to rack up if you just put your weekly grocery/fuel costs on them. There is a sign-up bonus of 10k points, but I have a referral link that provides you with 15k points on sign-up if you use it. Please comment below or PM me if you/anyone would like the referral link.

    Hope that helps! :)

    • pyramid on 12/09/2013 - 12:24

      This card looks interesting considering i travel atleast twice a year to overseas and few times domestic. Where can i check total points required to travel to any asian destination in economy class?

      • evol on 12/09/2013 - 12:38

        You will need to look up the respective airlines website for their rewards charts/calculators to see how many points you need. Amex points transfer over at various rates, but are generally 1:1 for most of the 8-9 airlines you can transfer to.

        Best points value is from Business/First redemption though. From memory, Australia to Asia on Malaysian Airlines Economy is around 35-40kish points one way.

    • Eivad on 12/09/2013 - 12:41

      Keep in mind if you're with any affiliate societies (CPA, Law Society, etc), the annual fee drops about $50. Also, the annual fee used to be $149 (or $99 with affiliate program) before they upped the price in the last couple of months - the benefits were unchanged.

      Also, be careful with the insurance policy and make sure you read the PDS before signing up. Different credit card providers offer different levels of insurance cover - see this link as an example (slightly outdated but you can check to see if the policies are the same).

      • press711 on 12/09/2013 - 13:31
        +1

        Thanks Eivad and evol. My main problem with Amex is the limited outlets that accepts them. Besides the big stores and supermarkets a lot of times other retailers will charge extra fee for using amex.

        I like the joint amex + visa (or mc) cards but the annual fees for a primary and additional card holder is a lot more. Compared to $49 for the coles card.

        • evol on 12/09/2013 - 13:41

          I found that nearly everywhere I went in Melbourne accepted Amex. If you have a 28 Degrees Mastercard ($0 annual fee, great for online/overseas purchases), you can just use that as your fallback card whenever Amex isn't a viable option.

          Don't bother with joint Amex + Visa/MC cards that banks usually offer are as they are all crap value and have high fees. Make your own Amex/Visa combo that suits your needs.

          If you just want a Visa/MC with rewards I'd say get a Woolworths Platinum Qantas Mastercard ($89/year, 16k QFF points on signup, $1:1 QFF point) or a HSBC Platinum Qantas Visa ($199/year, 35k QFF points on signup, $1:1 QFF point).

        • press711 on 12/09/2013 - 14:20

          Hmm Will have to rethink Amex :)

          As far as i can tell from the amex website the points are uncapped. is this correct?

          Thanks.

        • evol on 12/09/2013 - 14:30

          As far as I am aware, there is no points cap for the Platinum Edge Amex. There is no mention of a cap in the terms & conditions nor have I ever come across anything mentioning it when speaking with Amex reps.

  • MelbBargainChaser77 on 12/09/2013 - 17:31
    +1

    Look I have the Amex and the Coles cards. Both have pros and cons. I find with the Amex, (a) Not all places accept them (Council Rates) and (b) some that do will slap at least a 2% surcharge for using it (JB HIFI). As im a collector of both Flybuys points (120k) and AMEX points (180k), I will use the AMEX where accepted without paying ANY surcharge, if this isnt possible I will use the Coles card.

  • cloudy on 03/12/2013 - 18:28

    I just a tv add for the Coles credit card, $50 voucher for signing up and being approved, and no annual fees ever. Sounds like a free $50 as far as I can see!

  • budgetman on 12/12/2013 - 20:55

    Hi I'm a new member and this is my first post so I hope you all get something out of it.

    I have the coles platinum MC, no annual fee, no supplementary card fees but the reward points are not that great. 1 point for $2 spent outside of coles and 1 point for every dollar spent in store. I joined and received a $50 credit which was nice but we rarely use this card.

    My main card is Amex. We have the Platinum Edge card https://www.americanexpress.com/au/content/platinum-edge-cre… .The fee per year is $195. What I do is call Amex on 1300 363 276 ext 52611 and ask for the fee to be credited back to your account. I do this every year. They used to give me gift cards to the value of but now I just get a credit on my card. We use Amex for everything as long as there is no merchant fee. We also pay out the full balance each month so the card costs us nothing at all. In fact we get around $300 in gift cards every year! Amex have a lot of special offers too, spend $50 on westfield gift cards and get a statement credit of $10. Westfield charge 2.95 per card but we still save $7. Many more, too many to list. Almost forgot to mention that you can book your free flight for anyone, anyone at all, now that is a good deal.

    I also have the virgin flyer card. http://virginmoney.com.au/credit-card/flyer/cards/ 2 for 1 flights
    I call 133739, the normal enquiry number and ask to speak to someone about reversing the annual fee on my card.
    In the first year I used them to pay out my Westpac card $12K at 6 months interest free, also got interest free for all purchases for 6 months. When I paid out the card I asked to close the account and they asked what can we do to keep you. Return my annual fee was the answer and that's what they did. Too easy!!

    Be warned though, if you don't pay out your cards in full or do not have a strict budget and live beyond your means then you will pay big time!

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