ANZ Rewards Travel Adventure Card

[Mr H]

Just spotted that this card is no longer available. I'm sure it was still available when I looked a couple of days ago.

 

[burmans]

Just spotted that this card is no longer available. I'm sure it was still available when I looked a couple of days ago.

Shame, its actually a decent card.

 

[Mr H]

Shame, its actually a decent card.

Yes. ANZ has abolished the free card for Breakfree package holders and I'm about to be whacked for the annual fee for my Rewards Black card - so looking for a new port. The Travel Adventure card looked ideal - it has the travel insurance, a modest fee and free overseas transactions. There are no ANZ cards any more with the free overseas transactions. I guess I will jump to the Rewards Platinum unless I can find a way to get my fee waived.

 

[MattA]

Yes. ANZ has abolished the free card for Breakfree package holders and I'm about to be whacked for the annual fee for my Rewards Black card - so looking for a new port. The Travel Adventure card looked ideal - it has the travel insurance, a modest fee and free overseas transactions. There are no ANZ cards any more with the free overseas transactions. I guess I will jump to the Rewards Platinum unless I can find a way to get my fee waived.

Shame. Had this one earlier this year for the insurance as ANZ had COVID cover and the activation rules were easily achieved in our case (prepay $500 of trip costs on the card, from memory vs all our other cards that required the full cost of the flights, which isn't possible on a redemption obviously). The earn rate wasn't great but the ability to earn on OS spend without fees is few and far between. Makes a huge difference on a trip of any decent length.

There's still the Coles Rewards MC, which has fee-free OS transactions and a $99 AF and effectively earns 1VA/$, or 0.65KF/$ (assuming converting FB to VA, or onto KF via VA), but as above the insurance requires the entire trip cost to be charged to the card. CBA Ultimate also, but that can have a hefty AF depending on your spend ($420, but waived month to month if you spend over $2.5k in that month). Earn rate isn't great there though so not well suited as a "stick in the drawer unless travelling" kind of card -- you either cop the fee in months when you're not travelling or hit the spend threshold by missing out on higher points earn on a better card...

Not sure if there are any others left in the market?

 

[Mr H]

Shame. Had this one earlier this year for the insurance as ANZ had COVID cover and the activation rules were easily achieved in our case (prepay $500 of trip costs on the card, from memory vs all our other cards that required the full cost of the flights, which isn't possible on a redemption obviously). The earn rate wasn't great but the ability to earn on OS spend without fees is few and far between. Makes a huge difference on a trip of any decent length.

There's still the Coles Rewards MC, which has fee-free OS transactions and a $99 AF and effectively earns 1VA/$, or 0.65KF/$ (assuming converting FB to VA, or onto KF via VA), but as above the insurance requires the entire trip cost to be charged to the card. CBA Ultimate also, but that can have a hefty AF depending on your spend ($420, but waived month to month if you spend over $2.5k in that month). Earn rate isn't great there though so not well suited as a "stick in the drawer unless travelling" kind of card -- you either cop the fee in months when you're not travelling or hit the spend threshold by missing out on higher points earn on a better card...

Not sure if there are any others left in the market?

I got knocked back for the Coles Card as I currently have two hefty cards.

The ANZ Rewards black has a minimum credit of $15,000 which I would be happy to reduce to make it easier to get other cards. I am not that fussed about earn rates - I have not got that many points on spend from ANZ Rewards. It's mostly the insurance I value. It would have been nice to avoid overseas transaction fees as I found when I was travelling that I defaulted to cash rather than pull out a card. That meant carrying a lot of cash and losing anyway on ATM withdrawal fees.

It just seems a pity as I was about to ask to switch to the ANZ Travel Adventures card as a keeper card a couple of days ago - it hits all the right sweet spots - but I procrastinated.

 

[MattA]

I got knocked back for the Coles Card as I currently have two hefty cards.

The ANZ Rewards black has a minimum credit of $15,000 which I would be happy to reduce to make it easier to get other cards. I am not that fussed about earn rates - I have not got that many points on spend from ANZ Rewards. It's mostly the insurance I value. It would have been nice to avoid overseas transaction fees as I found when I was travelling that I defaulted to cash rather than pull out a card. That meant carrying a lot of cash and losing anyway on ATM withdrawal fees.

It just seems a pity as I was about to ask to switch to the ANZ Travel Adventures card as a keeper card a couple of days ago - it hits all the right sweet spots - but I procrastinated.

Ah. Sounds like bad timing all round then. In our case the Coles one is in my wife's name, which allows me to churn through other options without missing out on points earn between cards (and always having an appropriate OS card on hand).

Barely spent any actual cash at all on our 2 month jaunt through Europe earlier this year. I think we used an ATM about 4 times in total.

On that, if you haven't already there's the ING Orange Everyday transaction account. No points, obviously, but no OS fees and they rebate up to 5x ING + operator ATM fees each month if you jump through their hoops (5 transactions, plus deposit $1k each month, although you can withdraw the $1k same day without any issues -- I transfer $1k in and out and top up a myki card with 5x $1 on the 1st of the month, takes about 5 minutes).

 

[burmans]

Ozbargain has a useful table, more fee free foreign exchange cards than you would think!!

How to Choose a No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Card

If you use a credit card overseas, foreign transaction fees can quickly snowball and increase your card balance. Find out how you could save.

www.creditcard.com.au

 

[lilkid28]

So what happens to existing cardholders?

 

[Mr H]

So what happens to existing cardholders?

According to the website they continue as before. But my guess is that they will be moved across to ANZ Rewards Platinum or Black at some point.

 

[MattA]

Ozbargain has a useful table, more fee free foreign exchange cards than you would think!!

How to Choose a No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Card

If you use a credit card overseas, foreign transaction fees can quickly snowball and increase your card balance. Find out how you could save.

www.creditcard.com.au

Not many fee-free cards that also earn points, though. None of the ones on the linked list are points earning, apart from the BoM Amplify Signature, which is an odd inclusion on that list given it has a 3% FX fee. Also the list doesn't include either the Coles MC or CBA Ultimate.

 

[burmans]

Sorry, wrong link!

Debit & Credit Cards with no international fees - OzBargain Wiki

www.ozbargain.com.au

 

[Mr H]

Not many fee-free cards that also earn points, though. None of the ones on the linked list are points earning, apart from the BoM Amplify Signature, which is an odd inclusion on that list given it has a 3% FX fee. Also the list doesn't include either the Coles MC or CBA Ultimate.

I'm willing to forego earning at a high rate on my daily credit card in return for:

(a) reliable travel insurance that is easy to activate and reasonable in its rules
(b) no foreign exchange fees
(c) low-ish annual fee
(d) does not lock me out of any excellent churning opportunities.

Or if I can't get everything, then the best all-rounder within these parameters. Given that ANZ Rewards cards are expensive and offer relatively low sign up bonuses, they are not great for churning. So I am willing to stick with them as a daily card, and their travel insurance seems to be streets ahead of anyone else. In particular, they are willing to accept two one way tickets as a return ticket whereas other cards/companies get flaky with that.

 

[burmans]

I'm willing to forego earning at a high rate on my daily credit card in return for:

(a) reliable travel insurance that is easy to activate and reasonable in its rules
(b) no foreign exchange fees
(c) low-ish annual fee
(d) does not lock me out of any excellent churning opportunities.

Or if I can't get everything, then the best all-rounder within these parameters. Given that ANZ Rewards cards are expensive and offer relatively low sign up bonuses, they are not great for churning. So I am willing to stick with them as a daily card, and their travel insurance seems to be streets ahead of anyone else. In particular, they are willing to accept two one way tickets as a return ticket whereas other cards/companies get flaky with that.

I'm somewhat the same though I actually have multiple cards and the ANZ Travel card really only gets used for travel where the above really holds.

 

[Thibault]

There is the new Bendigo Fee Free B.Ready (like 28 degrees) with no fees overseas and no annual fees + insurances but unfortunately no points earn.

 

[djkelly69]

I'm willing to forego earning at a high rate on my daily credit card in return for:

(a) reliable travel insurance that is easy to activate and reasonable in its rules
(b) no foreign exchange fees
(c) low-ish annual fee
(d) does not lock me out of any excellent churning opportunities.

If you consistently spend $2.5k a month on your CC, CBA Ultimate would fit all of those criteria.

 

[Mr H]

If you consistently spend $2.5k a month on your CC, CBA Ultimate would fit all of those criteria.

It would lock me out of CBA churning, so a cost of 90k Qantas points a year. Not sure about their insurance. My understanding was that ANZ insurance is way more user friendly than other card based insurance.

 

[burmans]

If you consistently spend $2.5k a month on your CC, CBA Ultimate would fit all of those criteria.

Anyone know if you can get the Ultimate on a CBA home loan package. Does not say so on the CBA site but seem to remember people here who have successfully got it?

 

[djkelly69]

Anyone know if you can get the Ultimate on a CBA home loan package.

Pretty sure it specifically says you can't, but I don't have a home loan with CBA so can't confirm if real world may vary.

 

[burmans]

Pretty sure it specifically says you can't, but I don't have a home loan with CBA so can't confirm if real world may vary.

Yes I knew the T&Cs say no but I’m interested in the real world.

 

[Mr H]

So in some good news, I noticed on the ANZ website that there was an option to switch credit cards, and that the Travel Adventures card still had a ticky box. So I ticked the box and now my Rewards Black has been replaced by a Travel Adventures card. This is the one I will use as my daily use keeper. It has a much lower fee, free overseas transactions, fee free overseas ATM withdrawals, and full ANZ premium card insurance package. Also I can lower my credit limit which should help me in applying for churnable cards. I have sacrificed perhaps 15k SQ miles a year that I would have earned with the black card.

I don't know how long this loophole will exist, but happy to have spotted it while it was there.