The "Where to from Citibank?" thread

[Colin 2905]

Burmans suggested it here.....

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-velocity-krisflyer-71803-21.html#post1339543

..... and since can't see one yet, here goes......

For a non-Amex card with direct earn to Velocity there's a couple of Virgin Money Visa cards:

• Virgin Australia Velocity Flyer card. $1 = 1 point, but only up to $1500. After that, the earning rate halves. Annual fee of $129, but there's usually an offer of $0 for the first year (and some bonus points), and many have reported getting the annual fee waived when calling up to cancel in subsequent years.

• Virgin Australia Velocity High Flyer card. $1 = 1.25 points, uncapped. Annual fee of $289, but currently halved for the first year.

Both of these cards come with the "TWO41" flight deal, but the T&C's don't make it particularly easy to take advantage of it.

I'll add some more later, but feel free to join in.

 

[M@rcoPolo]

Both of these cards come with the "TWO41" flight deal, but the T&C's don't make it particularly easy to take advantage of it.

What's the TW041 flight deal ???

 

[coles525]

What's the TW041 flight deal ???

My wording/translation would be: 2 for 1 / B1-G1F.

 

[Colin 2905]

What's the TW041 flight deal ???

Reduced Price Flights - Velocity Benefits

For me, the big gotchas are that the cardholder has to be one of the travellers, and that you need to book at least 30 days ahead.

 

[lm118]

The 2-for-1 is quite restrictive in terms of advance booking, Saver fares only, and it can only be used for 2 people. It's also not quite half price flights, as the discount is applied to the base fare and not taxes, for both passengers. I've found it useful and good value for lateish notice and school holiday bookings when there are no sales. Both passengers earn SCs and eligible sectors.

I've managed to get the annual fee waived for the High Flyer card, after a significant amount of spend the previous year.

 

[Buzzard]

I'm looking into the ANZ Black Rewards. Currently have the Black QFF version, uncapped, annual fee $370.00 + $55 Reward Program Fee. I also have the Citi Signature card.

The fee is high but I get the use out of it/points earn to justify the cost. YMMV.

 

[maelissk]

What about the NAB Velocity Platinum Amex? The earn rate is pretty decent at 1.5/$ plus they're currently offering the 60k sign on bonus which for $150 annual fee seems reasonable.

 

[Colin 2905]

What about the NAB Velocity Platinum Amex? The earn rate is pretty decent at 1.5/$ plus they're currently offering the 60k sign on bonus which for $150 annual fee seems reasonable.

As per my initial post, this is to primarily discuss our non-Amex options (ie; Visa and MasterCard) since Citibank has reduced the effective ppd for Velocity and KrisFlyer transfers. (I have a Citibank Signature Visa, so have gone from 1 ppd to 0.75 ppd. At least, a) I got it on the free for life deal, and b) I only have about 25,000 Citibank points warehoused.)

But yes, as far as Amex cards go, the NAB Platinums are good.

EDIT: Welcome to AFF by the way.

 

[maelissk]

As per my initial post, this is to primarily discuss our non-Amex options (ie; Visa and MasterCard) since Citibank has reduced the effective ppd for Velocity and KrisFlyer transfers. (I have a Citibank Signature Visa, so have gone from 1 ppd to 0.75 ppd. At least, a) I got it on the free for life deal, and b) I only have about 25,000 Citibank points warehoused.)

But yes, as far as Amex cards go, the NAB Platinums are good.

EDIT: Welcome to AFF by the way.

Haha thanks! Long time stalker second time poster (FF devaluations can make you do crazy things!) Oh whoops I didn't see the non-Amex part but yea I'm in the same boat as you with the Signature Visa.

I'm just going thru Keith's spreadsheet (dub dub dub dot pointhacks.com.au/community/tools-calculators/credit-cards-master-table/) to see what alternatives there are in terms of earn rates. Pretty gutted about the d*** move by Citi though :/

EDIT: Had to put the dub dub dub as I can't post links due to less than 10 posts lol.

 

[Colin 2905]

Anyone considering the 20,000 bonus point offer on the Virgin Flyer card should also consider if they'd prefer 25,000 bonus points instead. It doesn't seem to be advertised, but this link still looks like it'll work.....

Virgin Credit Cards | Virgin Money

That's the one that I went for, and it as went smooth as silk. They even gave me double points during one of the five months. After I'd pocketed the bonus points I put the card in a drawer, intending to call up to "cancel" at the appropriate time. But now it's back in my wallet, and will get the first $1500 of my non-Amex spend each month for the foreseeable future.

 

[kevrosmith]

As a temporary fix only, the Suncorp Clear Options Platinum credit card is offering triple points for first six months, up to 30,000 points (which allows for $12K spend in 6 months). Reduced first year annual rate of $89.

Usually $1 = 1.25 Reward points.

Seeing the card is run by Citigroup anyway, the new conversion rate is now 2.5 Reward points = 1 Velocity point. (Prior to Nov 1 it was 2:1)

So with triple bonus, $1 = 3.75 Reward points = 1.5 Velocity points. It's not bad for a Visa option.

Prior to the change, that worked out at 1.875 Velocity points per dollar, so I was trying to jam through as much as possible to maximise the triple bonus points.

 

[yohy?!]

cant say either of the High Flyer cards are particularly compelling with high annual fees and points capping (and administered by Citi).

i'd be tempted to stop putting spend towards velocity at all, didn't realise how poor the transfer rates were across the board apart from Amex and Diners. ill stick with my ANZ Black till the Annual Fee is up next year and put spend to QF instead - i usually have a foot in a few camps and end up doing redemptions that comprise creative routings and different carriers and programs anyway.

 

[Mark3000]

St George Signature gives 0.825 points per dollar which is 0.75 plus birthday bonus

 

[Colin 2905]

cant say either of the High Flyer cards are particularly compelling with high annual fees and points capping (and administered by Citi).

.... didn't realise how poor the transfer rates were across the board apart from Amex and Diners.

There's only one High Flyer card, and it's uncapped. The other card is just "Flyer", and is the one that's not so much capped as crippled after $1500 per month.

Yes, they're issued by Citibank, so if you know your way around Citibank's online banking you'll feel right at home. There's no mobile banking app at all, though.

As much as the reduced earning rate from Citibank sucks somewhat, most other MasterCard and Visa earning rates suck even more, with 0.5 and 0.625 ppd being the most common it seems. Particularly for those of us not paying Citibank an annual fee, 0.75 ppd is still one of the better ones of a rotten lot.

 

[andye]

The Diners/MC combo earn rate is now quite competitive if you have a big enough spend to justify the fee. The MC alone earns 0.78 AA miles/$ ( Diners 1.78 when you can use it)
Still owned by Citi and history of iffy customer service which may put off many though

 

[kpc]

ANZ Black Rewards: 1 Velocity pt per $ on Visa spend and 1.5 Velocity pts per $ on Amex spend. $375 fee pa. Regular 15% TF bonus to Velocity (current pormotion available til 30 Nov). This is my go to Visa card now as I wave goodbye to Citibank Visa card (which i will keep as fee free for life)

 

[notzac]

ANZ Black Rewards: 1 Velocity pt per $ on Visa spend and 1.5 Velocity pts per $ on Amex spend. $375 fee pa. Regular 15% TF bonus to Velocity (current pormotion available til 30 Nov). This is my go to Visa card now as I wave goodbye to Citibank Visa card (which i will keep as fee free for life)

$375 annual fee is pretty ugly still, the earn rate is reasonable and can also xfer points to SQ ($3 per 2 miles is the effective conversion rate)

 

[quokka77]

This discussion highlights the difficulty for the consumer in the current environment. My guess is the falling AUD has made citi's transfer rates to KF and VFF less profitable, and they have checked the competition's offers, released they were ahead of everyone else in PPD, and made the change: that is their prerogative. My only problem with their action is the lack of notice. The virgin high flyer and virgin flyer cards may be next cabs off the rank, as they are both citi products (check the t and c's if you've got one, but they are direct sweep so your exposure should be minimal anyway). Amex is one alternative but I find asking re acceptance tedious. I might look into the Diners / MC thing but that sounds annoying too. Maybe just suck it up for the time being and wait for a new product.

 

[theblank]

I have an ANZ Black which used to be free under loan package, but I refinanced away, so soon will be paying $420pa in fees, buggar that. thats about $40,000 spend just to break even.

I am going to stick with Citibank Signature no annual fee for life with a Velocity earn rate of 0.75ppd
I also have NAB Velocity for the Amex at 1.5ppd - also no annual fee (shareholder)

That will do me.

 

[lm118]

From 9.2 of the Virgin Money T&C's...sounds more clear cut, and I can't see any other clauses that would allow them to get out of it.

We may vary these Terms and Conditions from time to time. If we decide
to change the rate at which Velocity Points in the Rewards Program are
generally earned or converted we will give you 90 days notice of that change.
We will give you 30 days written notice of other changes to these Terms and
Conditions