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Check to see if the airline partners are worth it for you - wasn't for me. It's a much more limited selection compared with Chase or C1

Sorry no - we ended up canning the trip :(

To add to the C1 whingeing, C1 is quite painful with transfers if you have a non standard name. I’m currently struggling to move points to Aeroplan (despite having no issues with Amex to Aeroplan)

I'm going to start making some token US stock purchases to see if that gets them off my back I must say their web app is quite painful to use... it's like it's running on a 486 powered by a hamster wheel keeping the dialup modem going

With a 'brokerage' account, or is there a specific forex account ?

@nthd_nthd did iBKR seem ok with you using them purely for currency conversion ? I just got this in the last few days (funnily enough!) IBKR has noticed that your account is being used primarily for currency conversion at this time. As your account is a brokerage account, it is IBKR’s policy...

I found Wise stupid (eg charged me a fee to send money via Fastpay/NPP from Aus Wise back to my Aus NAB account). If you can keep $3k sitting in the iBKR account, each forex transaction is ridiculously cheap (~$1) compared to Wise

iBKR is dirt cheap. Requires a minimum retained balance in the account however (I think $3k)

From memory no ‘fee’’ but the exchange rate is a gouge

This is the crux of the problem All the major banks now make you fill in a W9 form when applying online, which specifically states that you “certify under penalty of perjury that I am a U.S. citizen or other U.S. person“ I’m not sure a few FF points are worth the ramifications of having this...

The barrier is opening a new account now. I think you’re fine if you opened it over 6 months ago - they didn’t appear to be asking about US citizenship back then

I think all the major banks have tightened up online checking/savings applications to exclude non-US citizens (regardless of whether you have an ITIN) - from what I can see you now have to do this in person in branch Alliant Credit Union and some of the online only banks like Sofi appear to be...

What did they define this as ?

I wonder whether the $500 AF Reserve companion card is a good exit strategy for the Platinum (where the end game is transferring to the US) Still has 2.25 points multiplier, sadly appears to have lost the extra travel credit freebie

I got an offer of the Reserve companion card but binned it… looking at it now, I can’t see anything about an extra travel credit Is that a grandfathered benefit for those who signed up in the past ?

Now that it’s official… I feel like the Au Platinum is only really worthwhile for as long as we can still transfer to a US card

Has this actually been officially announced, or is it speculation based on the RBA's talk about getting rid of interchange fees in the future ?

Over 2y seems to be the key… Will have to restrain myself from trying those links for a while yet 😂

What limit ? And how many years is your credit history ?

How many years did you have under your belt at that point ?