Amex & ATO payments

[jadeqld1123]

info for all those who pay the ATO with there Amex cards.

the card fee with amex payments is 1.45%

the card fee with visa payments is 0.48%

do the maths and forget the payment by Amex.

i have a Citibank "SELECT" visa card. it gives me 2 award points for every $1 spend and we get the choice to keep points in the citibank a/c. and transfer to Krisflyer, Verlocity and Cathay or qantas when we need to. the only problem with transferring to qantas is, you are then locked in to qantas for all future transfers.

regards

jadeqld

 

[DTM1]

I think you'll find that you do not have a choice of transferring Citi rewards points to Qantas. You can have 1 or the other.

You have to elect to have your points either go to Citi rewards or Qantas. There is a fee for electing to have them go to Qantas, and when you choose Qantas, they go automatically and do not remain with Citi. Also, the QF points accrue at 1:1 and not the higher 2:1 Citi rewards rate.

However, I also agree it's a great card.

cheers

 

[burmans]

info for all those who pay the ATO with there Amex cards.

the card fee with amex payments is 1.45%

the card fee with visa payments is 0.48%

do the maths and forget the payment by Amex.

i have a Citibank "SELECT" visa card. it gives me 2 award points for every $1 spend and we get the choice to keep points in the citibank a/c. and transfer to Krisflyer, Verlocity and Cathay or qantas when we need to. the only problem with transferring to qantas is, you are then locked in to qantas for all future transfers.

regards

jadeqld

I've done the calculations and while what you say is certainly true if you have the Select card this does have a $700 annual fee. For cheaper cards & if you have tax deductability not necessarily so true.

E.g. for a CitiBusiness or Cit Plat card transferring to Krysflyer vs WBC Krysflyer Amex assuming a 10K Tax bill and a 45% tax rate (inc. Medicare), i.e. assumes that if not used to buy points then its used to pay me (which is the case for me).

Amex costs me $79.75 after tax to get 15000 points
CitiBusiness costs me $26.40 to get 8333 points

Clearly much cheaper per point for Visa but the relevant bit is the delta

Amex gets me an extra 6667 points for $53.35, i.e. ~1.25 points per cents. This is above my value threshold (albeit only just) so worth doing.

 

[Dyslexic traveler]

Now Amex has changed there points system and you only receive .5 points for every dollar spent at the ATO, the citi select looks a lot better.than the Amex

The Dyslexic Traveler

 

[cove]

Not all Amex cards have changed to half a point per dollar to the ATO. Westpac Platinum Altitude Amex,Westpac Platinum Kris Flyer Amex and Amex Ulimate Qantas and Amex Ultimate Velocity still earn 1.5 points per dollar. The Ultimate cards are no longer being marketed so that does not help.
ANZ, NAB and Commonwealth probably still have Amex cards that earn 1.5 points per dollar in their co branded Visa and Amex card series.
The cost of Amex is higher but for folks struggling to get enough points for a front of plane flight then these points cost about double but it still can work.

 

[moa999]

And this needed a new thread??

 

[Dyslexic traveler]

Yes cove I have seen a number of amex cards that still offer 1.5 and that why I'm so pissed off with Amex I'm a Centurion member.

 

[cove]

Yes I can understand your pissedoffessness as Centurion used to be an inspirational card.
I changed and there will be no going back and that was only from Platinum!
There are ideas for you in the main ATO thread in AFF.

 

[Isochronous]

Is the 0.5 to ATO also applicable to Amex Platinum Charge Card?

 

[Stephen65]

Is the 0.5 to ATO also applicable to Amex Platinum Charge Card?

Yes. It's one of the two main reasons many AFF posters (including me) have dumped their plat charge cards recently. The other one is the reduction of the travel insurance cover to uselessness.