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Bank West Zero Platinum MasterCard $0 Annual Fee and Premium Benefits

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Bank West Zero Platinum MasterCard $0 Annual Fee and Premium Benefits
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Lcoolsteps on 16/09/2009 - 14:42 bankwest.com.au (1532 clicks)
Last edited 16/09/2009 - 14:52

Bankwest Zero Platinum MasterCard® -
Zero annual fee credit card
4.99% p.a. on purchases for 9 months
4.99% p.a. balance transfer rate for 9 months
15.99% p.a. ongoing
Complimentary international travel insurance
24/7 concierge service
This is the only current Platinum credit card that doesn't charge an annual fee on the Australian market that I've been able to find. I'm considering in getting one because of the Complimentary international travel insurance and the lower currency conversion fee while overseas. The staff member wasn't sure if it was 2 or 2.5% and if you could top it up with your own cash to make ATM withdrawals overseas or not. Has anyone done this? Its only con's as far as i can see is it doesn't offer a rewards program and you need an annual income of 65k. However i found a way around this. If you currently have a Bank west credit card with the minimum required credit limit of $8000 or more you can simply ask for a product transfer form from a branch and still qualify for one without putting another record entry on your credit file if you were to reapply. You may also get the previous Bank west credit card annual fee pro rata refunded too i heard from staff. I'm just waiting for my 9 month 0% balance transfer deal to expire before i consider converting my Bank west more card to the Zero Platinum MasterCard. Has any one gotten one of these new Zero Platinum cards yet or tried to do a product transfer?

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  • battler on 16/09/2009 - 14:46

    Picture link is not to the 'zero' platinum card.
    this is a better link:
    http://www.bankwest.com.au/Personal/Credit_Cards/No_Annual_F…

    there's some minor talk of the card over at the frequentflyer forums:
    http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/community/general-credit-car…

  • coolsteps on 16/09/2009 - 14:52

    thanks , i will update it.

  • Sharp on 16/09/2009 - 14:55
    -1

    I have citibank platinum with the same benefits (no annual fee, travel insurance etc) plus free rewards program. You may want to check them out.

    • anthony on 16/09/2009 - 15:11

      I have citibank platinum with the same benefits

      The citibank platinum card is much better if you want to transfer your points to Qantas.

      You may want to check them out.

      There is no point looking into it, that offer is long gone.

  • coolsteps on 16/09/2009 - 15:01

    thanks Sharp , im trying to get my citigold card upgraded to a citibank platinum free for life too. But they told me over the phone that they wont do it now less i agree to pay the $250 annual fee. The no annual fee citibank card deals aren't offered anymore to the general plubic as far as i can tell? btw citibank charge a high currency conversion fees of 3.3% so thats another reason i'm considering getting a bank west ‘zero’ platinum card as an additional card.

    • CyberMurning on 16/09/2009 - 15:04

      true, i got my free citbank card initially as gold then got upgraded to platinum - still no ann fee ! lucky me… no they wont do it anymore imagine losing $250 for each card everyyear…

      • anthony on 16/09/2009 - 15:19

        imagine losing $250 for each card everyyear

        But the fees a shop pays to accept a platinum credit card is more than a non platinum credit card, so by giving the platinum credit card to high spenders citibank is better off compared to keeping them on a gold card.

    • anthony on 16/09/2009 - 15:13

      im trying to get my citigold card upgraded to a citibank platinum free for life too

      It wont happen, someone i know on a free for life gold tried and tried but citibank wouldnt budge.

      i’m considering getting a bank west ‘zero’ platinum card as an additional card.

      Check out the wizard clear advantage mastercard.
      It has no currency conversion fees.

      • FloatingPoint on 16/09/2009 - 16:22

        Agree. Wizard clear advantage is the only CC in Australia that has 0% international conversion fee with no annual fee. Best card for travel! But they don't come with free travel insurance. (Then just pay your ticket on this card to enjoy both!)

        • McLarenHonda on 16/09/2009 - 19:28

          Awesome for travel indeed!

      • [Deactivated] on 16/09/2009 - 17:32

        It wont happen, someone i know on a free for life gold tried and tried but citibank wouldnt budge.

        I was on a free-for-life Citibank Gold Visa for a couple of years, and earlier this year out of the blue (without any prompting on my part) I got sent a Platinum card with a letter saying they had upgraded me for free. So I suspect they do offer free upgrades as long as you meet certain criteria.

        • anthony on 16/09/2009 - 23:54

          That would be because they upgraded you to a chip card.

          There is no criteria. I know of people who have never used their gold card (ever) and were upgraded to the Platinum card yet those who use the card daily did not receive the upgrade.

          It seems completley random at the time of issuance of a chip card.

  • CyberMurning on 16/09/2009 - 15:02
    +2

    yeah please change the title… btw, no point i guess?? and how many days interest free ? - not clear on website

    • dansor on 16/09/2009 - 15:15

      nevermind…

  • anthony on 16/09/2009 - 15:14
    +2

    and how many days interest free ? - not clear on website

    It is pretty clear to me

    The third dot point says "Up to 55 days interest free on purchases"

  • anthony on 16/09/2009 - 15:36

    From what i can see the Gold card offers everything the Platinum card does except the 24*7 concierge.

    Currently all credit cards must be treated equal, eg a Platinum visa must be accepted and treated the same way as any other visa if the merchant accepts visa.

    The RBA is looking at changing this so merchants can treat different status cards from the same issuer differently. Basically this means they can charge a higher fee to accept a Platinum Visa (as it costs the merchant more to accept Platinum cards) and a lower or no fee for non Platinum cards.

    In the long term you might be better off with the Gold card as if the RBA changes things you might find yourself getting hit with more fees to use your Platinum card.

    • TheBooleanOne on 16/09/2009 - 16:03

      I googled around trying to find some info on what you mention about merchant fees. Can you post a link to the RBA's consideration?

      • anthony on 17/09/2009 - 00:24

        If you want information on merchant fees you will need to go to each card underwriter. Visa, American Express, Diners and Mastercard.

        Rough merchant fees would be somewhere in the area of
        Visa/Mastercard: 0.64%
        Visa/Mastercard Planitum 0.9%
        American express 0.9%

        When someone tries to charge you 3% for american express (which is quite common) or anything above around 0.8% for visa/mastercard they are not covering their fees. They are covering their fees and making extra money.
        Credit card acceptance fees cannot be charged if credit card payments are an accepted common form of payment for the business and if a fee is charged it must be the same for all non common payment methods (ie you cannot charge more for American express then you do for visa however can only charge the fee if accepting the card is out of convenience and not common occurrence)

        As credit cards are the main payment for all retail stores the charging of a credit card fee can hardly be because it is an uncommon form of payment so such fees are against the rules merchants agreed to agree to.

        This is against policy set out by the RBA and the card underwriters however you have no change of having the merchant back down if they want to charge an excessive fee.

        It is also against merchant agreements to require a minimum transaction value before they accept a credit card.
        This is covered in section 5.9.2 and 5.9.3 (Page 89-90)
        http://www.mastercard.com/au/merchant/en/downloads/BM-Entire… (The mastercard one is easy to find)

        • alexportnoy on 17/09/2009 - 02:13

          You can scream about all the rules in the world, but it is all useless.

          They are not enforced AT ALL by neither Visa nor Mastercard.

          Only American Express ever enforces their merchant agreements, I've found.

          Visa and Mastercard just don't care.

          • HueyData on 17/09/2009 - 09:34

            @alexportnoy: I don't think anthony is "screaming" about anything. He did note:-

            This is against policy set out by the RBA and the card underwriters however you have no change of having the merchant back down if they want to charge an excessive fee.

          • anthony on 17/09/2009 - 09:50
            +1

            @alexportnoy: I wasnt screaming, just stating the facts. I am sure it is not very well known that such fees and restrictions are not supposed to be imposed.

            It annoys me most when i question a 3% American express fee and i am told that that is what american express is charging them because it is complete BS.
            American express fees used to be a fair bit higher than what visa charged however for a long time now american express merchant fees have been very competitive with what visa charge

            A restaurant i went to not long ago charged 5.1% for accepting Visa, not sure how anyone is supposed to believe that is simply recovering their merchant fee..

        • mawinmawin on 17/09/2009 - 08:41

          I dont understand, then how come BP Master card (and may be few more) can give 1% cashback !?.

          • anthony on 17/09/2009 - 10:04

            @mawinmawin: What i stated above is in relation to being charged a fee to have your card accepted.

            If you are talking about the merchant fee and what the card gives you back.

            The card offers 5% cash back at BP and 0.5% back everywhere else.

            BP can obviously afford to loose the 5% on transactions (they simply make 5% less profit from you) as it keeps you as a BP customer and you will probably also buy some food/drinks as you get a discount on those which would likley mean you are going to spend more in one transaction that you would if you were not getting 5% back
            Chances are whatever you buy will cost you more than the 5% discount you receive so BP is no worse off by offering the discount.

        • DrLobster on 17/09/2009 - 23:00

          Sign me up anthony! When I was shopping around for the best merchant eftpos facility for my business without dropping any names I was offered in the range visa/mastercard 1.1% to 3.45% and this was from the major banks. AMX/Diners seems to be around 3.5% consistantly. This was my cost of the transactions alone not including terminal fees about $100 p/m and chargebacks (dont get me started) etc which pushed my cost even higher.

          Sure I was a small business but I did quite a lot of turnover so this costs added up but we are talking small businesses here arnt we Anthony?

          BTW I did not charge this to my customers but I can see why you would.

          So Anthony have you got any contacts for me with these brilliant transactions %'s you would like to share? :)

          • anthony on 17/09/2009 - 23:22

            @DrLobster: I dont have a merchant account, a friend has a small cafe and we were talking about the merchant fees not too long ago.
            From memory his Visa/MC fee was about 0.7% and amex was about 1.5%, the cafe is only small and credit card sales would not be very large.

            Chargeback fees are completley avoidable.
            Once a customer has initiated a chargeback the bank will contact you to let you know.
            You are then given a few weeks (i think it was a month) to refund the customer, if after the month you have not performed the refund the bank will do it and only then will you be charged the chargeback fee.

            One company i do know if is Tyro, you can see their fees here and they are already less than you have said you have been quoted. Their terminal fees top out at $35/month and after 36 months you own the terminal.
            http://www.tyro.com/challenge/plans

            Shoot me an email through my profile and i will find out who my friend uses for his cafe (This is probably getting quite off topic to keep discussing here)

            • DrLobster on 17/09/2009 - 23:37

              @anthony: Agreed…lets not bore listeners with our dribble :)

  • cute_dimples on 16/09/2009 - 15:37

    What a coincidence, just applied today and got approved. Also got credit card insurance (which includes life insurance etc). You pay for it only if you don't pay your credit card on time, but if you're stingy like me and you always pay on time, then you get free cover.

    It is disappointing about the no reward points.. but travel insurance got me! also thinking of getting the AMEX blue sky credit card, same thing - no annual fee, travel insurance BUT u also get reward points. Pretty good but not all places accept AMEX.

    • sriver on 16/09/2009 - 16:28
      +1

      But for the blue sky card you still have to enrol in a rewards program which is around $80.

      The amex gold ascent card comes with no annual fee and free enrolment in the rewards program, the rub is that you only get 1 point per 2 dollars spent.

      It's a pity that the citibank card (no longer available with no annual fee) just trounces everything else around right now =(

  • anthony on 16/09/2009 - 15:40

    but travel insurance got me!

    Make sore you have a read of the terms and conditions.
    You will likley find that the travel insurance only covers you if you book your flights using the card.
    So if you use frequent flyer points to make the booking then the built in insurance will not cover you.

    • Tiger on 16/09/2009 - 20:31

      Try an Amex Platinum Charge card - you don't need to pay for any of your trip on the card, yet you and supplementary card holders get free travel insurance. Therefore, when you use frequent flyer points for the airfare and/or hotels, you can still have free travel insurance. The con is the annual fee - $900pa., but you also get a fantastic rewards scheme.

      • bigheadache on 16/09/2009 - 22:07

        The platinum charge card requires a $100k annual salary. Its not comparable to any of these cards at all because its a genuine high end product, whereas they'll give any monkey a gold or platinum credit card these days.

  • zenzen on 16/09/2009 - 15:52

    is there any min. income requirement for this card?

    • anthony on 16/09/2009 - 16:00

      Stated in the description

      Its only con’s as far as i can see is it doesn’t offer a rewards program and you need an annual income of 65k

  • auMouth on 16/09/2009 - 16:12

    Bugger :( I already have a Bankwest Lite Mastercard, but the fine print says balance transfers for the 4.99% rate is only valid for non-Bankwest credit cards. So they only benefit if you already have a Bankwest credit card is a annual fee saving, but this is offset by a much higher interest rate.

    • anthony on 16/09/2009 - 16:29

      If you need a balance transfer have a look at Citibank Clear Platinum
      It does have an $85 annual fee however you get 0% on balance transfers for 6 months.
      http://www.citibank.com.au/AUGCB/APPS/portal/loadPage.do?pat…

      Or have a look at the Wizard Clear advantage mastercard
      No annual fee
      4.99% on balance transfers for 6 months
      http://www.wizardclearadvantage.com.au/

      • HueyData on 17/09/2009 - 09:49

        The Wizard Clear Advantage Mastercard has some very good strengths, particularly for travelling (i.e. no currency conversion fees), however note that the annual rate is 18.49%.

        Purchases are interest free for up to 55 days but there is no interest free period for cash withdrawals. (Wisest to load the card with funds before travelling and to only withdraw your own money.)

        • anthony on 17/09/2009 - 09:58

          The interest rate should not bother people, if you dont have the money to buy something they you shouldn't be buying it. (Just my belief)

          but there is no interest free period for cash withdrawals.

          No credit card offers interest free periods on cash withdraws

          • HueyData on 17/09/2009 - 10:25

            @anthony:

            The interest rate should not bother people, if you dont have the money to buy something they you shouldn’t be buying it. (Just my belief)

            While that is logical and we may share that approach, many others do not (the credit system wouldn't exist as we know it if everyone did) and the interest rate is relevant information. Particularly for those that have ongoing requirement for credit for whatever reason, or needs arising from emergencies, which can happen to any of us.

  • McLarenHonda on 16/09/2009 - 19:25

    If you don't mind dealing with stingy and rude staff over the phone, then yeah go for it! I'd rather deal with them Indian call centre staff than the arrogant, rude and abrupt Bankwest consultants. On the other hand, I've had good experiences with HSBC, who believe currently have a $0 fee gold card offer.

    Westpac have a similar deal on their gold and platinum too and they have been fab to deal with. The catch - annual fee is only for 1 year, but once you threaten them to quit, they happily waive the fees.

  • [Deactivated] on 16/09/2009 - 21:42

    I agree. Definately the worst customer service out of all the banks and also extremely slow with the whole process. I found HSBC gold card to be the best as it includes rewards program plus all the benefits this bankwest card has to offer. However, they do that an annual fee for $89 which is free for the year. So, keep it for the year and see how you go after that. Plus if you spend more than $8900 a year then it works out to be free anyways as rewards are approximately 1% of spending. So, if you spend more than that then you are better off getting the hsbc gold card with $89 in fee as you get more benefits. I would definately never recommend bankwest to anyone. They are the worst. Also, I wouldn't mind hearing about other good cards avaialable at the moment. All of the comparison website seems like a scam as their recommendations seems biased. They probably get commission from the banks.

    Following are the best cards I found:

    1. American Express Blue Sky: No annual fee, complimentary travel insurance, rewards programs, other basic features of other gold cards. However, catch is that it is ammex and only few places accept ammex without charging any fee.

    2. HSBC Gold Card: $89 annual fee (free first year), complimentart travel insurance, warranty insurrance, rewards program. If spend over $8000 then it is the best card in the market.

    3. Westpac Gold: Looks the same as HSBC Gold Card

    4. Bankwest Gold Card: No annual fee, complimentary travel insurance. Even though they are pretty, I must agree that it is a pretty good value.

    I would love to hear about more.

    • McLarenHonda on 16/09/2009 - 23:09

      Well said! Agree with your analysis and observations. Westpac Platinum 55 day interest free card also has the fee waiver for first year, which Westpac offered to me for free after I decided to quit after my first free year on Gold. But HSBC are the most willing in terms of showing interest in your customer and will waive the late fees if a legitimate reason is provided. Bankwest on the other hand will only just stop short of telling you to p!$$ off.

      • POWERevolution on 17/09/2009 - 03:19

        You 2 seem to be happy with Westpac & HSBC but just wondering why Commonwealth Gold have better rating than the 2 you mentioned above?
        *American Express Blue Sky 1 star
        *HSBC Gold 3 stars
        *Westpac Gold 3 stars
        *Commonwealth Bank Gold 5 stars

        • McLarenHonda on 17/09/2009 - 19:06

          sory never dealt with CBA, partly because of the annual fees and partly because CBA own Bankwest and if Bankwest service is anyting to go by, then I'd steer clear of their parent bank.

  • Pigey on 16/09/2009 - 23:15

    No rewards on this card…

  • Raz on 17/09/2009 - 06:04

    Great analysis goblin. what is the fee on the CBA gold?

  • funsize on 17/09/2009 - 15:02

    just applied for this zero platinum card - quite pleased with staff service over the phone…

    i also agree on the wizard card as being the best card to use overseas…

    • McLarenHonda on 17/09/2009 - 19:04

      They are all pleasant when you want to sign up - its just the ongoing service where cracks start to surface. Just wait till the honeymoon period is over

  • McLarenHonda on 17/09/2009 - 22:56

    BTW watch out for sneaky Bankwest charges like fees for every online BPay transaction. They'll pinch pennies any which way the can! I'd stay away from them, seriously!!!

    • [Deactivated] on 19/09/2009 - 16:01

      I didn't see any details on Bpay transaction fee. So, does it mean when you pay off you account balanace via BPay you get charged a fee? Do you know how much?

      • anthony on 19/09/2009 - 19:48

        I think you will find the fee is to use bpay from the bankwest card (eg bpay from your credit card to your electricity provider)

        If you bpay the balance of the card from your bank account then there will be no fee imposed by bankwest

  • coolsteps on 17/09/2009 - 22:58

    I think the branch service is great not to sure about the phone service though. I always stop by to have a free cup of coffee and the staff seem to be eager to help and polite. I called today to enquire about the free insurance through Zurich. I was told that 75% of the airfare needs to be put on the card. Also the purchase cover is 12 months extra on the manufactures warranty. However the price guarantee is only if the same item can be purchased within a 25km radius and $75 less. Still not bad for being a No annual fee card. Overall a good back up card to have if you can’t get a free for life card or your annual fee waived. I just need to find out more about the credit card insurance (which includes life insurance) and if its free if you pay of the full balance every month that "cute_dimples" mentioned above before I sign up. Then I will just need to try and find a no annual fee Diners club card so that I can get free lounge access overseas. The best I could find was the ANZ branded diners club card for $24. Anyone know of a better Diners club card deal?

  • mawinmawin on 18/09/2009 - 09:42

    Has anyone used the extended warranty or other benefits advertised by these cards?. Will this warranty is like DickSmith's extended one?

    • anthony on 18/09/2009 - 10:24

      I have not had to use the extended warranty of my credit cards however save yourself money and dont pay for extended warranty.

      Consumers have protection under the trade practices act which states 'goods must be of merchantable quality and fit for purpose'

      If your laptop breaks after 18 months (im guessing they generally only have a 12 month warranty) then it clearly was not fit for purpose as reasonable expectations would suggest that any laptop should last longer than 18 months before it breaks.

      The manufacturer is obliged to fix it

      • mawinmawin on 18/09/2009 - 11:10

        thanks for reply.

        I used dicksmith warranty for my laptop (yes, motherboard died in the 18th month :-)), but I am not too happy as my 2 year extended warranty (total of 3 years) is over already as the fix they done reached the value of laptop - so effectively i paid for 2 years but got only 6 more months of warranty.

        So was wondering these credit cards are providing similar level of service in reality? (or even worst then DSE).

  • coolsteps on 22/10/2009 - 10:40

    does anyone know if this card covers car rental overseas? also if you get a pro rata refund of the annual fee from a more bankwest card if u do a product transfer?

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