So I’ve read that bpay is not eligible for credit card points but does anyone know if auspost billpay is eligible?
Is Auspost Billpay Eligible for Credit Card Points
thewhale on 01/08/2023 - 22:26
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Which card do you have?
If you don't normally earn points by paying that bill directly then you won't earn points by paying it through Auspost Billpay.
I normally pay by debit card.
Aus Bill Pay and its paypal method is considered a government merchant. If your credit card's eligible spend states that points do not or earn at reduced rate for government merchants, then this applies. Check your credit card's PDS.
The PDS says payments processed via bpay are not eligible. Is billpay and bpay the same thing? I haven’t been able to find an answer.
No, they are two separate systems.
Good
In my experience, it depends on three factors:
- The way you access Post Billpay and the biller you are paying a bill for.
- Whether you pay directly with your credit card or via PayPal.
- The terms and conditions of your credit card’s reward program.
With regards to (1):
If you go in-person to an Australia Post outlet to access Post Billpay, the MCC (merchant category code) reported to your credit card provider should be MCC 9402 (Postal Services - Government Only). The transaction description should also say you were at an Australia Post outlet. These two pieces of information would make it quite clear to your credit card provider that you were spending money at Australia Post and therefore was spending money at a government agency.
If you go to the AusPost app and pay a bill through there, the MCC will actually change depending on the biller. For example, if you pay an Origin Energy bill through the AusPost app, the MCC should be MCC 4900 (Utilities - Electric, Gas, Heating Oil, Sanitary, Water), but if you pay a vehicle registration notice through the AusPost app, the MCC should be MCC 9399 (Government Services - Not Elsewhere Classified). The transaction description should still say you went through Post Billpay.
If you go to the Post Billpay website, I am not sure how that handles payments, but I suspect it is similar to the AusPost app works (i.e. the MCC changes depending on the type of biller you go through).
With regards to (2):
If you pay directly using your credit card, the MCC for the transaction will reflect the MCCs I highlighted above. The credit card provider would also directly see the transaction description.
If you go through PayPal when paying through the AusPost app or online, I cannot tell you how your credit card provider will handle the information coming through, because PayPal is an intermediary. It will depend on the information PayPal passes onto your credit card provider, as well as how your credit card provider handles this information incoming from PayPal.
With regards to (3), you should look at your credit card provider’s PDS to see what they say is ineligible spending for earning points/rewards. For example, I have seen both Post Billpay and government spending listed as ineligible spending for some credit cards, whereas only government spending is listed as ineligible spending for some other credit cards. With this in mind:
If you pay at an Australia Post outlet, I would expect any credit card provider listing Post Billpay or government spending as an exclusion to exclude any spend at an Australia Post outlet.
If you pay through the Post Billpay website or AusPost app, it is a mystery to me how the transaction would be handled. For example, if you pay an Origin Energy bill and do not use PayPal, your credit card provider would see you are spending at MCC 4900 (a utilities company), but it would also see you went through Australia Post. If the credit card provider lists Post Billpay as ineligible spend, there is a good chance you paying that Origin Energy bill would be counted as ineligible spend. However, if the credit card provider only lists government spend as ineligible spend, it is hard to tell whether the credit card provider would count the Origin Energy bill as eligible or ineligible spend. If we use the vehicle registration notice as an example, it should use MCC 9399 (i.e. a government spend MCC), so if a credit card provider lists government spending as ineligible, I would expect paying that vehicle registration notice to be ineligible.
I hope that makes sense…
Thanks that’s a very detailed answer. Is billpay considered a cash advance or is that something completely different?
It is up to each credit card provider to determine whether a transaction should be considered a cash advance. I would have thought that Post Billpay would not be an example of a cash advance, because cash advances are transactions where you are obtaining cash (or something equivalent to cash), but Post Billpay is a service where you pay bills, and is not designed for you to obtain cash. I have not heard of any reports of Post Billpay transactions being treated as cash advances.
Additionally, for in-person payments at Australia Post, I believe Australia Post does not change the transaction information reported to a card provider if you are paying a bill or buying regular goods (e.g. stamps, stationery, mobile phones). If a credit card provider wanted to treat in-person Post Billpay transactions as cash advances, they would basically need to treat all in-person transactions at Australia Post as cash advances (which may not be reasonable). Keep in mind I have not touched on in-person transactions where you purchase money orders or reload Australia Post Everyday Mastercards, as those most likely use a cash-equivalent MCC, rather than MCC 9402.
You should refer to the PDS for the relevant credit card product to see what is considered cash advances, because you never know what a credit card provider would consider to be cash advances.
A good thing with Post Billpay is that you can pay government charges via Paypal without getting extra fees. I had an immigration invoice of $5,000. I chose Paypal on government, which would charge 1.4%. I chose a credit card, which charges 1.6%. There are BPAY and Direct Credit which are free. I saw that they had the option to Post BillPay. I chose that option and paid via Paypal. It was just the exact amount of $5,000 - no fee. In terms of AMEX points, I earned 2.25 per dollar spent so 11,250 points (AMEX Platinum Charge).
Yes, this has also been my experience. CC T&C states that you will not receive points on Government spending, but I always have on things such as Local Govt. rates, land tax and Water rates. I have received points on Westpac, NAB, ANZ and AMEX QFF earning cards.
my credit card works