New Credit Card Suggestion

JuryWheel on 12/10/2017 - 14:35

Hi All
I have been using a NAB qantas rewards card for the last 8 or so years which was free as part of my nab home loan. This is now changed, as i have taken up a loan with ANZ instead. Just trying to weigh up my card options atm. Some brief details are: rough annual spend of $50000, need two cards (wife and I) pretty much put everything on the cards and pay off before the due date, shop at a combo of coles and woolies.

Ive tried to break down the options and seem to be gravitating towards the coles mastercard. From my calcs, i think ill get about $500 back from them in flybuys points, which pays for the $99 fee (not sure they if they charge more for a second card or not). Other option would be an amex essential which would get about $350 if it was transferred to wish gift cards (closest thing to money i guess) and has no annual fee. Obviously not every shop allows amex so it might be a bit lower then this).

I dont travel much at all so anything that includes free flights, seat upgrades etc is probably wasted on me.

The ANZ options look pretty crap, need to pay $110 per year to get the platinum rewards cards, and this only seems to get me a bit over $200 per year (again, in wish gift cards)

Any suggestions?

Financial

Comments

  • bluesky on 12/10/2017 - 15:52
    +2

    If I were you, consider the option of more than one card (e.g. Coles MC and Amex Essential), for optimum benefit. I have both the Coles MC (free version) and the Amex Essential. In my case, Amex as primary works out better, by pooling most spending on Amex, but of course your circumstance may be different. I use Amex to buy Wish cards at 5% discount for Woolworths use. Coles Myer/BP giftcards can be obtained at discount during some Amex cashback offers. And btw, with Amex Essential, you don't need to use points for gift cards (see my post), you can use it to pay off the account balance, at the same rate. There is also a current thread, for those wanting to sell Amex points at a higher rate (although I have not done this before). So I guess my point is, you can get more than one card, say both the Coles MC and the Amex Essential. The latter is fee-free, you can use it for cashback offers or smartphone screen insurance, if nothing else.

    • dcep on 12/10/2017 - 16:16

      how do you maximise amex or other cc to pay bills without incur surcharge?

      rego, water, bodycorp, etc. etc.

      • bluesky on 12/10/2017 - 16:16

        Quite a few bills provide the option to pay with AustPost BillPay (e.g Yarra Water, certain council bills). Or Paypal (e.g Telstra). In those cases, I pay with these methods, using Amex to earn points. (Using these methods earn 1pt/$ for Amex Essential, whereas using the card directly earns half of that for utilities, telecom etc). So far, the bills I pay with using these methods have no surcharges. It is dependent on the bill, of course, but should say so on the bill. If there is a surcharge, then I won't use the method.

        • knobbs on 12/10/2017 - 18:35
          +1

          I tried to use my amex to pay my auspost bill but they only accepted cash, cheque or eftpos. Couldn't even use my visa. What is the trick?

        • bluesky on 12/10/2017 - 18:38

          @knobbs: I don't think there is a trick to make it work, if the bill is set-up deliberately not to accept other forms of payment. There are some bills like that, unfortunately.

        • MathNerd on 12/10/2017 - 20:32

          @knobbs: when you say auspost bill, what do you mean?

    • JuryWheel on 12/10/2017 - 16:47
      +1

      Cool, thanks for the info - so you reckon free coles and free amex over the $99 coles should be ok? There arent many bills i have that done accept amex.

      • bluesky on 12/10/2017 - 16:51

        Clearly, your circumstances may be different. I shared my thoughts why I thought the Coles Rewards Mastercard might not work out best, for someone like me at least - in this past comment. And a combination of two free cards could be better. Pls note some info (card fee etc) in this comment is out-of-date.

        • JuryWheel on 12/10/2017 - 17:08

          so you dont use the coles card when shopping at coles? Just use the 5% off vouchers bought using your amex right?

        • bluesky on 12/10/2017 - 17:17

          @cjb: For Woolworths, I use the 5% discount wish card bought with Amex from Cashrewards. So far, I haven't joined any programmes to buy coles giftcard at discount easily, although there are some threads discussing this. For Coles, I use Coles giftcards bought using some Amex cashback offers. When I finish those, I use my Amex card (0.74% return). The new no-fee Coles MC has a return rate lower than Amex Essential (0.25% return). But it can be useful for when Amex is not accepted or has surcharges.

  • donbot on 12/10/2017 - 17:02

    What about this strategy?

    1. I'd go something with a big sign on points bonus, and if you have no use for the points - redeem them for vouchers, or sell them in the classifieds here. Eg. Virgin Money High Flyer Card - $289 annual fee, but 120,000 Velocity Points which you could sell on here for $1,200 cash very easily. Based on your annual spend, I reckon you've got the $3k/month to qualify for the points covered - so even before you spend $1, you're already $900 up. Boom.

    2. Same goes if you're considering an Amex card. Amex Explorer gives off 60,000 points, which you could sell 50,000 (annual limit on transfers) on here quite easily for $500. Covers the annual fee of $395 before you've spend $1, and you've got a $400 travel credit which you can either use, or could probably sell on here for circa $300 no problem.

    See what I'm getting at? Look past a no-fee card as you might be better off paying a little more in the first instance.

    • JuryWheel on 12/10/2017 - 17:07

      my only concern with this was the negative impact on my credit rating. Just signed up for a pretty hefty mortgage - would hate this sort of apply, then cancel type behaviour to stop any new applications in the next 5 years

      • bluesky on 12/10/2017 - 17:34

        Tizey's is also a good strategy for some, and could relate to you, if down the track you wish to bag a big bonus with an Amex card that has a fee. Pls see my recent comment to another OzB'er contemplating a free Amex card. Because you seem to be weighing between ColesMC and Essential, it didn't occur to me to raise this point.

        • JuryWheel on 13/10/2017 - 08:32

          Thanks for the reply - I will definitely consider the velocity card. $900 is pretty good for doing not much (yep, easily spend over $3000 on the card, surprised so many in the deal thread said it was a difficult number to surpass). Are there any other cards with someting around the 100k points at the moment? I guess normally they are AMEX ones. I presume the good part of going up with the velocity card is that IF or WHEN a big amex deal comes up, i will still be eligble for that too.

        • knobbs on 13/10/2017 - 09:14

          @cjb: See my comment below I don't think it is a 120,000 point signup

        • JuryWheel on 13/10/2017 - 09:49

          @knobbs:
          https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/321933
          its 120k after 3 months of $3k spend each month

        • knobbs on 13/10/2017 - 10:02

          @cjb: Thanks, the ones I found going through the Virgin site were different to that.

    • knobbs on 12/10/2017 - 22:18

      Just checked out the Virgin Money High Flyer Card. Can't see the 120,000 point signup. Currently spend $3k a month and get 16,000 points, each month for the 1st 5 months

  • djkelly69 on 12/10/2017 - 18:08
    +1

    Assuming a reasonable amount of that spend is at Coles/Woolies, I would at least look at a Amex Platinum Edge for one of you (with free supplementary cards). It earns 3pts/$ at supermarkets and 2pts/$ on petrol, so you get 3x the amount of points as you would with the free Amex or most Visa/MCs on that spend.

    Other one can then get Amex Explorer or Virgin High Flyer as recommended by tizey for other spend.

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