Article: By Global Standards, Australia Has Amazing Credit Card Offers

Completely agree that, behind the US and Canada, Australia has some of the best offers. Though Australia is a long way behind the US — if you really know how to churn cards in each market, the US is probably a 5-10x return on spend over Australia.

I've heard people say some South American countries also have very lucrative offers too (IIRC Brazil?).

The big problems for the Australian market as far as I can see are:
1. Consolidation. The loss of Citi will be a huge blow given the generous sign-up offers they used to have.
2. Trend. The trend has been downward in terms of higher annual fees (very few first year free offers), lower sign-up bonuses (remember the days of 130K+ offers — none of this wait 12 months and pay two annual fees to get it), and longer exclusion periods (18 months on NAB).
 
That was a really informative article. I think the only thing lacking in Australia is the transfer partners for some of the credit cards. For example, Amex only has 11 airline transfer partners and almost 80% are Oneworld partners. Having diversity in the partnership world would be amazing for finding reward seats and better cent per point redemption value.
 
Interesting observation but does anyone know why this is the case?

Is it because our banks our really profitable, or the credit card market is really competitive, or because Aussies love to travel and wouldn't have it any other way?
 
I was just searching to see what the credit card offers are like in europe and found out that it is pretty much non-existent there. I couldnt even find a dedicated point hacks website for european market.
 
Imagine if that article had been written 5 or 10 years ago!

The best times have definitely gone, but the OK times are still with us (at least for now).
 
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AFF Editor said:
By Global Standards, Australia Has Amazing Credit Card Offers is an article written by the AFF editorial team:


You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.
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Can I check - is it possible to update this awesome article (thank you very much for the indepth work!).. With when the annual fee is deducted ? i.e. is it paid immediately (so it's kind of like 'buying points' or after Xmonths, or can you actually get the points and cancel the card before the annual fee kicks in ?
 
maiuspala said:
I was just searching to see what the credit card offers are like in europe and found out that it is pretty much non-existent there. I couldnt even find a dedicated point hacks website for european market.
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Theres a couple in the UK (Head for Points probably the largest), but I will note that the European ones are probably nation focused, and thus in a different language, so google will probably struggle to pick them up.
 
One of the frustrating things for AU credit cards is the lack of ability to earn hotel points (say Hyatt or Hilton). Would love to be earning those points as the points are hard to come by. Whilst it would be great to get a US version of those cards, the International transaction fees would be horrendous.
 
andybrownaus said:
Can I check - is it possible to update this awesome article (thank you very much for the indepth work!).. With when the annual fee is deducted ? i.e. is it paid immediately (so it's kind of like 'buying points' or after Xmonths, or can you actually get the points and cancel the card before the annual fee kicks in ?
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In general, you can expect to pay the annual fee as part of your first month's bill. An exception would be if the annual fee is advertised as being waived or reduced in the first year, but you'll know that upfront.

NAB used to refund the annual fee pro-rata if you cancelled mid-way during the year, but that has now stopped.
 
WilsonM said:
Theres a couple in the UK (Head for Points probably the largest), but I will note that the European ones are probably nation focused, and thus in a different language, so google will probably struggle to pick them up.
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Could you suggest some more, if you know any? I have EU passport and have been thinking of movin back, but haven't decided on a country yet. Ideally with a nice weather and good ff programs
 
aikman said:
Interesting observation but does anyone know why this is the case?

Is it because our banks our really profitable, or the credit card market is really competitive, or because Aussies love to travel and wouldn't have it any other way?
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A big reason is interchange fees (the fees paid by merchants to card issuers). They are the main source of revenue for card issuers (along with interest and annual fees).

In Europe they are capped by regulators at 0.3%. At the other extreme is the USA, where I don’t think there is a cap at all, and they are quite high (above 1%).

Australia is in the middle.

This strongly influences both points earn rates and how much banks are willing to spend to acquire new customers (sign up bonuses).

The RBA forced a reduction in interchange fees a few years ago, and it’s only a matter of time before the RBA reviews them again here. With electronic payments being so dominant now, it’s probably in the interest of consumers that fees are reduced further (which means less points for bonuses and everyday spend).
 
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maiuspala said:
Could you suggest some more, if you know any? I have EU passport and have been thinking of movin back, but haven't decided on a country yet. Ideally with a nice weather and good ff programs
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Sadly I can't, as I barely know any non-English speaking ones (I cannot speak a lick of any other language). My suggestion would be to go through FlyerTalk if you can stomach it, but I'm sorry I can't provide more!
 
I'm keen on the HSBC Star Alliance/Aeroplan bonus offer but can't seem to join Aeroplan - is there a hack to join from Australia or is this a temporary glitch?
 
The Flying Schwartz said:
I'm keen on the HSBC Star Alliance/Aeroplan bonus offer but can't seem to join Aeroplan - is there a hack to join from Australia or is this a temporary glitch?
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Did you log into aeroplan australian website? Every time i go to aeroplan through google, it recognizes that im in oz and asks if i want to be redirected to au website.
 
maiuspala said:
Did you log into aeroplan australian website? Every time i go to aeroplan through google, it recognizes that im in oz and asks if i want to be redirected to au website.
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Yes, I tried a few different ways and with different browsers and even used a VPN to say I was in Canada but no go. This is probably getting off topic now but thanks 😊
 
maiuspala said:
I was just searching to see what the credit card offers are like in europe and found out that it is pretty much non-existent there. I couldnt even find a dedicated point hacks website for european market.
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Headforpoints.com covers the UK, and the UK market is probably the best in Europe (150,000 Avios from Barclays with some hoops last year for example, 100,000 MR from Amex very recently). But they’ve been hobbled by interchange caps harder than here, it’s 0.3% and they’re not a market that tolerates annual fees like we seem to.

The interchange cap killed the AA, EY, EK and UA cards entirely, for example. It’s basically a game between BA/VS over there now, plus Amex (like here I suppose but without heaps of bank transfer programs).

The UK also had hotel cards until recently (Marriott Amex still exists). Some people still have a Hilton Barclaycard, but it’s been closed to new apps for years, the IHG cards were all finally killed around a year ago. They were incredibly lucrative.
 

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