ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[cove]

I love cutting up useless pieces of plastic with our trusty 3M titanium bladed scissors that I have at home and at work. I consider these scissors to be one of the top 10 products I have ever purchased in the US. I think they were $9.99 for a three pack plus tax and I think they are a real bargain.
My Citi Presige CC survived as it pays on everything other than ATO and the book 4 nights in a hotel and pay for 3 is working ok.

 

[whatmeworry]

Lately, I have started travelling a lot again and can easily spend around $20K a month on flights and hotels. I liked Qudos because of the 1:1 and the extra points for QF spend. I would have still kept the card for just QF spend; but the $259 annual fee and $2.5K per month limit just makes it not worth it.

Anyway, need to find an alternative perfect card that gives us everything we want - ATO spend, no caps, no fees, bonus for certain spend

The Amex Discovery Card has no annual fee, free supp cards, pays 1:1 and 2:1 for QF spend, plus bonus sign up. I believe this card still has 1:1 with no ATO (IIRC)and no cap.

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....s-american-express-ultimate-card-69829-5.html

 

[cove]

October is a large ATO month for us so it is a bit of a scramble to get it all paid by the dates where some is due by October 21st and some is by October 28th. I used the US CCs to their limits last night for some very close to zero cost AA miles and I will reload these cards this week....they don't like CCs in credit in the US. Not sure if that is a money laundering safeguard or something else.
I am trying not to use Kris Flyer cards this month as we have enough miles. That means it has to be AA miles, Qantas points or Velocity points and maybe Asia miles. This may be a first world problem......

 

[burmans]

This may be a first world problem......

Very much a first world problem, I saw your post elsewhere about doing status runs to get status, I though you had enough points to always go First (or at least business) with the help of the ATO anyway!

 

[cove]

Yes burmans I have a partner who would dearly love to be a Qantas P1 as she loves status. I put her on a double status credit run from Perth to New York and back that I paid for. The first time she made P1 she had to go for medical treatment for breast cancer so that messed up her 15 months of that status. She is quite ok now.
I had to buy her a ticket to get her home from Sydney the other day when she picked up a gastro bug so the points booking was a goner. My partner does not want to fly with the other carriers in Australia. Having Qantas status is helpful with the upgrade fairy using points for upgrading.
Dont worry that I buy some tickets as I think they work out at between 5% and 10% of our total retail value of our annual flights with our family on what we are doing here.
The ATO game continues and the AA miles are great for a run between Los Angeles and London.
Kris Flyer suits us out of Perth as Qantas has nothing for us on their metal.

 

[zoom&boom]

Hi Cove. Do you know if the US version of Citi Prestige CC is good for skin in this game?

 

[cove]

zoom&boom I think Citi Prestige US should work as long as there is no foreign exchange fee like the 3.4% that my Australian one charges. The US Citi Executive card is $450 and comes now with a lower sign on bonus than before. Using forex to send funds to the US is where the risk lies so often I buy the US currency before I process the ATO payments or the land tax payments.
AA miles are handy but their domestic first and business class fell a bit behind.

 

[zoom&boom]

Thanks for that. No foreign fees so I'll give it a small go next time and report back.

 

[Nizar]

I am trying not to use Kris Flyer cards this month as we have enough miles.

What a life

 

[Limewood]

Excellent article here on using CC's to pay ATO.

 

[cove]

Last night I booked to Los Angeles and back for the 2 of us so we are going LAX then LAX then LHR in 3 long hauls. They are short trips of up to 20 days because Mrscove and I have to watch out for the olds.
My love affair with Kris Miles is still running hot.

 

[andye]

Mostly accurate article but I do think it will hasten the demise. As it is undergoes revisions I suspect it will get shorter and shorter

 

[quokka77]

^ agree. This phase of the game is winding down.

 

[albyd]

I expect the MC processing fee will keep rising as the percentage of US issued cards used on the site increases.

 

[sumthinfornuthin]

The dreaded Qudos email just arrived. From 1 December, no ATO, only 0.5 points per dollar over $2,500 per month, 200,000 pa points cap and increase in annual fee to $249 pa. Said face.

I can sell you a cheap pair of scissors !

 

[ninja-tim]

Is the St George card ATO friendly?...and have they had their points program revalued yet?

Just checked my StG points and ATO spend awarded 1.5pts/$. My transaction was about 9k. As reported earlier, I think, someone did 30k in 3 separate payments (roughly 10k) and got reward program ceased, or something similar along those lines.
I forgot what their credit limit was. Not too sure if the cut was due to spending too much above their credit limit or an actual blanket ATO spend limit with StG.

So I would play it safe and not spend too much on ATO with StG.

 

[cove]

I received the Qudos email a few minutes ago so I will run a payment a day and I have started.

 

[Awesom Andy]

I expect the MC processing fee will keep rising as the percentage of US issued cards used on the site increases.

The use of US issued cards wouldn't increase very much. It's not exactly easy to obtain a US card (or cards from other countries). And then you would have to pay the fx fees as well.

 

[Salem]

Hi all, I just wanted to check if anyone has had points land after using MyGov to pay ATO rather than the Government EasyPay link? Are the CC fees the same?

Trying to get one more ATO payment on the Jetstar Mastercard through before Oct 28!

 

[cove]

They would be the same 0.54%