Best Current Credit Card Sign up Offer - May 2020

Big Bad Bagheera on 04/05/2020 - 14:03
Last edited 04/05/2020 - 17:11

I've just cancelled my ANZ Frequent Flyer Black credit card as I'd already received the bonus points and the annual fee renewal was approaching.

I'm having a look at the best offers in market. (Given current & likely future flight restrictions I'm not interested in air miles rather value of gift cards I'll be able to redeem).

Edit: I was converting points based on $50 gift cards rather $100 gift cards so the offer actually earns you approx $585 not $1,171 gift cards.

From quick check of the main players, the best current offer appears to be the Bank of Melbourne Amplify Signature card - https://www.bankofmelbourne.com.au/personal/credit-cards/rewards/amplify-signature

  • $139 First year fee
  • 130,000 Amplify points ($Roughly $1,171 worth of gift cards)
  • Spend requirement - $12,000 within 12 months. (points credited once spend requirements met)

Seems like a relatively low sign up fee & big amount of points offset by high spend requirement.

from further research it appears that the Westpac Altitude Black card may be a better offer
https://www.westpac.com.au/personal-banking/credit-cards/rew…

With the following details:

  • $250 annual fee
  • 150,000 Altitude points (Roughly $714 worth of gift cards)
  • Spend requirement $4,000 within 90 days

Have a couple large upcoming payments such as council/body corp fees, registration renewal etc. so spend criteria shouldn't be a huge issue within a few months.

Is there anything else better in market that anyone knows of, or is there (historically) likely a much better deal to come up soon?

Not super familiar with bouncing around credit cards for points maximisation.

any advice or insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks :)

Financial Credit Card

Comments

  • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 04/05/2020 - 14:27

    Doesn’t this affect your credit score due to the amount of inquiries on your credit report?

    • jimbobaus on 04/05/2020 - 14:44
      +1

      It can take 30-60 days for a closed card to be marked as CLOSED on your report so when applying for a new card before card is recorded as closed can result in a rejection (they would see an "active credit card" on your report) as you may not meet the Criteria for lending (credit scores are not used by most lenders and your score is not provided by the credit agencies, they simply supply your report)

      So for example :
      You close a Credit card with a $15,000 limit on June 1
      Apply for a new credit card on June 6th, new lender checks your credit report which shows you have a $15,000 active credit card so they have to count than in your assessment
      They decline your application due to the "active $15,000 credit card"
      This decline is now shown on your file and future lending applications will see you were declined for a credit card which can have a negative impact on your getting credit in the future.

      • TheMindsetTraveller on 04/05/2020 - 15:35
        +3

        Whilst true; you could easily show the new lender that you have closed your account if you have a closure confirmation letter / email.

        • jimbobaus on 04/05/2020 - 15:59

          that is if they just do not reject you before you get to that stage, a lot of auto approval processes (like "results in 1 minute") scan and read your credit file and would just auto reject you if you failed on the capacity to repay portion of the process. (if that makes sense)

      • El-Rhi on 05/05/2020 - 13:11
        -1

        Lenders do use credit scores from the bureaus

        • jimbobaus on 05/05/2020 - 13:26
          -1

          Nope they do not.
          It literally says on every single credit score website
          Your score is not an indication of your ability to get approved for credit and that your score is not provided to lenders but is an indication of your ability to borrow.

          Some lenders use a score system of their own and scores are generated based on their own internal systems and requirements.
          The score you see on these websites is never shared with lenders.

          They are made up numbers to keep you checking your scores monthly so they can sell your data to lenders who pay them a commission if you sign up.

          • El-Rhi on 05/05/2020 - 16:41

            @jimbobaus: I work for a bank and literally see credit bureau scores come through on applications every day. They aren’t made up numbers.

            When you apply for credit your details get sent to a credit bureau, they match your file, then return a whole bunch of information. One of the pieces of information they return is the applicants credit bureau score.

            But you’re right, the websites won’t just send your details to lenders if you haven’t applied for credit.

  • bohn on 04/05/2020 - 16:43

    I have had an amplify card before, it's not bad. But I dislike any points offer that is over a year or more.
    I will take up another amplify offer when they have a regular deal (spend x in 90days).

    • Big Bad Bagheera on 04/05/2020 - 16:49

      Sorry spend requirements within my initial post may not have been worded best.

      My understanding is the points are credited (within 12 weeks) of meeting the 12K spend requirement during the first year. Not after the first full year of card ownership.

      • bohn on 04/05/2020 - 17:53

        ah ok. In the past they have actually made it over a year (1000 per month).
        anyway, it's still a pretty crap deal to spend $12,000 for those points. I do like krisflyer miles personally, and 130k amplify transfers as 65k krisflyer miles which isn't that good when you have to spend 12 grand.

        I used to signup to credit card deals all the time, but there haven't been many around lately.

        The westpac deal is definitely better, but you may find some promotions coming out shortly.

        • Big Bad Bagheera on 04/05/2020 - 21:12

          The Westpac deal is only 4K spend so think I can make that pretty quickly, cash it in and sign up to the next better card offer which comes around.

  • HeWhoKnows on 06/05/2020 - 19:25

    My recommendation is to go to the Specilaist card comparison sites

    Thats where I have found the best credit card deals

    • Big Bad Bagheera on 06/05/2020 - 21:54

      Which site do you use?

      I found points hacker to be good for finding best airline point cards however not so much for wanting greatest amount of points to convert into gift cards.

      Finder .com was rubbish overall.

  • Miso on 07/05/2020 - 09:53

    Am in the same boat.

    Just got my points from the Points Hack ANZ deal.

    Looking around there is not much out there in terms of new deals for FF points - doesn't help that Virgin are in the shit.

    • Big Bad Bagheera on 07/05/2020 - 13:01

      Think the Westpac is best bet.

      $464 in gift cards profit in a about 3-4 months seems decent to me.

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