Amex online, Bpay, Post bill pay and QFF points

[Hez]

Well after sitting in the business class check in queue with my friend for her flight to Cairns (paid for her by her father's QFF points) My partner and I have decided this year we want our money to work FOR us (given we spend it all anyway).

Have read around on here, some of the stuff it a bit old (2008) so was looking for some peoples recent experiences.

Applied for the Woolworths card but was rejected don't think they liked the gross:net salary (yay salary sacrifice)

We are instead looking at either the Amex Discover ($0 annual 1:1) or Qantas Amex express premium ($249 annual 1:1.25)

Now we know Amex can be difficult for accepting in places, so we are trying to make sure we will get the max out of our money so I had a few questions.

- Can you access BPay from Amex online?
- Do I get QFF from BPay through the Amex website?
- Can I BPay anything then from the website, or when I put the biller code in, will some blocked?
- Does purchasing a money order at the post office count as cash advance or purchase? If its a purchase I'm assuming I would collect points?

I've read with the PostBill pay it either depends on a) the biller and b) the person processing the bill.

The main one I'm trying to get is for our rent and our health insurance. Given we pay $20000 a year in rent it would be nice to be getting QFF points for it! If I need to I'll send them a money order once a month (though for that much effort - i think I'll go with the express premium)

Otherwise everywhere else we shop has a tendency to accept amex already. we will grocery shop at woollies using EDR and buy fuel and collect the points at woollies (then claim my fuel back from my salary package, because can't collect points with my starcard.) Only one I want to check with is my chiro and we spend a fair bit there.

So before we do this just wanted to work out how to pay the rent and get points, otherwise we will go with a MC/Visa that has a less ratio, but we will be better in the long run if we can claim all our rent, Health insurance and other health expenses with it.

Oh and Amazon - do they accept amex?

Kind regards, looking forward to your responses and advice.
Heather

 

[Hez]

Answered my own amazon question (yes they take amex..... well that would have been $200 in the last 2 days - damn Christmas)

PS if it matters i'm in WA.

 

[paul d]

Hi Hez, I may be wrong but i dont think you will get any points going through Bpay , best you get more advice on that though . I am quite interested in the idea of getting points through money orders though ... are these treated as cash advance ????? Anybody confirm or dismiss this !! :idea:

 

[lmere12]

Would be worth looking at c/c that offers you an amex and a m/card on the one account, in the north here not many ppl take amex so the m/card gets the biggest work out for me.

 

[RB]

From my understanding you cannot use a credit card to buy a money order. From Aust Post site:

You can pay for your Money Order using:

• cash
• EFTPOS (cheque or savings accounts only).

Please note you can't use a credit card or cheque to pay for Money Orders.
Once you've paid, we'll print your Money Order while you wait and give you a receipt of your payment for your records.

 

[Hez]

I didn't think that you would be able to use CC to buy a money order - otherwise I would just buy them in my partners name then get him to cash them into the joint account and pay of the CC. bahahahaha oh how that would have been fun!

Not to worried about the places that will take Amex - have looked at most places that we go to and they already do. Perhaps on holidays it would be a problem but there is always a cash option!

My income wont allow me to apply for most bank QFF cards, the Amex or St George seem to be the only that will allow my income level. The Amex will give me a better Points ratio.

The Bpay will be the one I'm most interested in - its trying to get the rent on the Amex that we are really after. our rent is normally paid through our rent connect card, they won't allow DD to an Amex (visa or MC only) they do allow post billpay - but unsure if the Post office will allow Amex for that particular bill........

So i guess the big question is Bpay.... anyone been able to use it on their amex and get points?

PS thanks for the info from the Auspost website - when I looked I just ended up going round and round in circles!

 

[wxxnxs]

Well after sitting in the business class check in queue with my friend for her flight to Cairns (paid for her by her father's QFF points) My partner and I have decided this year we want our money to work FOR us (given we spend it all anyway).

Have read around on here, some of the stuff it a bit old (2008) so was looking for some peoples recent experiences.

Applied for the Woolworths card but was rejected don't think they liked the gross:net salary (yay salary sacrifice)

We are instead looking at either the Amex Discover ($0 annual 1:1) or Qantas Amex express premium ($249 annual 1:1.25)

Now we know Amex can be difficult for accepting in places, so we are trying to make sure we will get the max out of our money so I had a few questions.

- Can you access BPay from Amex online?
- Do I get QFF from BPay through the Amex website?
- Can I BPay anything then from the website, or when I put the biller code in, will some blocked?

If most of your points are from Bpay, then AMEX is not your choice. AMEX does not support bpay function, which can answer your first 3 questions.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

- Does purchasing a money order at the post office count as cash advance or purchase? If its a purchase I'm assuming I would collect points?

This is the one that every newbie dreams up, or wishes for..

The perpetual motion points for nothing machine.

ie Buy a cash equivalent on your CC as a purchase...so that you can cash it in to pay off the card to then repeat and repeat endlessly to earn a squillion points..

Basically the answer here in Australia is no....for the obvious reason that points cost someone something and you racking about points for nothing will be of no benefit to them. So hence T&C will normally preclude.


However having said that in the USA:

* you can buy $1 coins with no commission from the US Mint...
* some bank accounts can have CC amounts placed if and not be treated as a purchase

In Oz:
* Some trading accounts accept CC (but watch you do not lose your cash!!!)
* Ditto for on-line gambling....and same warning!!! Normally you will have to have gambled the amount before they will refund. There is a a thread on this forum on do this. Caveat: Is obviously a high risk strategy.

 

[Stephen65]

Amex doesn't work with Bpay but some merchants have their own online CC payment portals and some of these portals do accept Amex.

 

[Hez]

Thought that might be the case with the bpay - when nothing is said on the website, you kind of know that they don't support it, they just conveniently forget that it exists.

bah, will ask the post office today if the post billpay will allow amex - otherwise might have to go down to 2 card option.... But how annoying it will be for me knowing I could be getting more than double the points if someone would just damn accept the amex for my rent that's the only problem i have!!!

 

[Ricardo]

Hi Hez, you need to look into the rental rewards program. You can arrange to pay your rent through them who will then pay your agent. If you pay by Amex you can then transfer your MR points to QFF if your on the right program. I have done this for the past year while I have been renting and waiting for my house to be built. The rental rewards people will charge you a fee for the service, I cant recall exactly what it is now days but check the website. I think its rentalrewards.com.au or something similar. They will also give you 1000 QFF points each year as well, if you do go with it make sure you give them your QFF card number.

 

[Hez]

this rental rewards things could be really interesting. I will have to check with my real estate agent - they are listed under their generic name, if they will accept it - it is almost to good to be true - so will check all the info then bombard real estate agent on monday - not willing to say no one this one if its a winner!!!

Seems like the thing with amex is, you might need to work a little more, so its really just like stepping back 5 years in AU and 5years forward O/S -

Pardon my 1.5 bottle of wine answer - fishing tomorrow - oh wonder how this will work

off to watch david tennant... yum

 

[MAX_1]

this rental rewards things could be really interesting.

Went to their web site........no mention of the fees involved."See tenant agreement"

This has a slight smell about it.

 

[greenfrog86]

Too bad you couldn't get Woolworths QFF card... I noticed that this is one of the only cards I've come across where BPay transactions are treated as purchases rather than what most issuers do which is treat them as cash advances...

I use Rental Rewards for the convenience, however please note there is quite a hefty processing charge which can add up...

 

[Hez]

The current people we have to pay through are not exactly cheap either. A bit of a shock after not paying any fee's for paying rent at any of our last 2 properties.

We are okay with paying for some fees and charges for these things, while at the moment we have very low fee accounts ect - the reality is we are getting nothing out of it. so paying an extra bit here and there isn't a huge deal.

We are more just getting very sick of getting nothing for paying all our bills on time (hell I bpay and amount every fortnight so the account is in credit when the bill comes through!) and we get nothing out of it.

Anyone else have ideas as far as chasing this goes? We may look at getting a second MC/Visa in a few months if we find there are just to many places not accepting the amex. Have changes our EDR to QFF rather than fuel discount - only annoyance with this one is going to be having to claim back my fuel rather than using my starcard - oh well they will live!

Regards,
Heather

 

[JetLagged]

Heather - with regards to your mention of amazon - andalready finding out that they accept Amex.

AMazon, I have found, are not always either the quickest or the cheapest (especially thelatter). For any books, DVDs etc - try www.booko.com.au - one of the other members here mentioned it - and have used it extensively over the past weeks, and saved a bundle of money.

No solution for your purchases made already - but should save you a fair bit in the future.

Happy shopping!

 

[Hez]

Yeah the last few weeks (damn Christmas and b'days) have been a bit of an online blitz. Its such a shame that I can buy stuff from overseas including postage at less than what I pay in Au (even taking the GST into account).

I noticed Stephanie Alexanders Kitchen garden companion is on the websites most viewed. must say I'm not surprised, even in shops in Au in varies from $60-$150! Just a tip with cookbooks - be careful what country you are ordering them from and what version of the book you are buying. don't want something in pounds and ounces if you only have a kg scale!

Heather