ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[cove]

This quarter is a biggie so I have passed the points opportunity out to five family members including myself. This month is Kris Miles for all of us.
One family member thought he might have to buy a long haul ticket which would be quite a shock for him.

 

[tristanium]

I've been buying my local targets out of Vanillla $250s on a Plat Edge - effectively buying points for $0.0102 ea. I can't seem to get local champ no matter how many purchases I make, it never pops up as an option. Having to travel further and further each time is getting a bit annoying, my other option is a 1ppd card (ie coles premium) and using b2bpay - this gets me points at $0.0132 (or $0.0084 with a tax deduction)

I notice the dragon gets a few mentions on here, but when i have looked at this, it only pays 0.75ppd (or 0.825 w/ BBonus) - if the charge is 0.78% i calculate a cost PP of $0.0095. Is my maths right or am I missing something?

I suppose the cost per point is good, but the earn rate isn't great. - for a $5,000 spend I can net 15,000 points under my current method, but only 4,125 with a dragon. Please let me know if I am missing something here!

 

[Kangol]

I've been buying my local targets out of Vanillla $250s on a Plat Edge - effectively buying points for $0.0102 ea. I can't seem to get local champ no matter how many purchases I make, it never pops up as an option. Having to travel further and further each time is getting a bit annoying, my other option is a 1ppd card (ie coles premium) and using b2bpay - this gets me points at $0.0132 (or $0.0084 with a tax deduction)

I notice the dragon gets a few mentions on here, but when i have looked at this, it only pays 0.75ppd (or 0.825 w/ BBonus) - if the charge is 0.78% i calculate a cost PP of $0.0095. Is my maths right or am I missing something?

I suppose the cost per point is good, but the earn rate isn't great. - for a $5,000 spend I can net 15,000 points under my current method, but only 4,125 with a dragon. Please let me know if I am missing something here!

How much time are you spending with your method?

 

[tuan_nobel]

You may want to check your point

I've been buying my local targets out of Vanillla $250s on a Plat Edge

You may want to check the points on your Target transactions, last few of mine didn't come through at 3:1. They did before, but no longer for me.

 

[Saltywings]

I've been buying my local targets out of Vanillla $250s on a Plat Edge - effectively buying points for $0.0102 ea. I can't seem to get local champ no matter how many purchases I make, it never pops up as an option. Having to travel further and further each time is getting a bit annoying, my other option is a 1ppd card (ie coles premium) and using b2bpay - this gets me points at $0.0132 (or $0.0084 with a tax deduction)

I notice the dragon gets a few mentions on here, but when i have looked at this, it only pays 0.75ppd (or 0.825 w/ BBonus) - if the charge is 0.78% i calculate a cost PP of $0.0095. Is my maths right or am I missing something?

I suppose the cost per point is good, but the earn rate isn't great. - for a $5,000 spend I can net 15,000 points under my current method, but only 4,125 with a dragon. Please let me know if I am missing something here!

Yes, your calculations are correct and have been repeated before in this thread, ditto for the value proposition, to which the simple answer is 'it depends'. A summary of what I've said previously in this thread is: if your points burn is covered by your points earn (with a margin of comfort/futureproofing as can only be decided by you), then why overpay just to get more points?

Also, how much time are you using up by cleaning out stores of their Visas? I imagine given median stock levels, it would take you quite some time to build a significant points balance. Time spent earning points by paying the ATO with a Dragon does not increase proportionally with value (a $100 or $1m payment will take the same time), whereas every additional batch of points will cost you additional time you'll never get back using your supermarket clear-out method.

I'm not a great believer in keeping 8-figure points balances (I might as well hoard monopoly money at that point), and as such the Dragon suits my travel & spend patterns.

All up, horses for courses

 

[tristanium]

Thanks for the confirmation - My ATO spend is not large comparated to what I read on here - I didn't factor time into my calcs, this does add another factor in. Personally my bills are small enough that I was happy to use the Only1 method before that was pulled - the $250 cards make quick work of what used to be a pretty tedious process.

Unfortunately I am not sitting on an eight figure balance and collecting for the sake of it - my earn rate does not meet my travel needs, so i travel with a mix of cash fares and redemptions - therefore point earn for spend is a factor for me.

Tuan-nobel: I still get 3:1 strangely enough from target - i have been watching it though! Have you managed to score local champ at your target?

 

[tuan_nobel]

when it dropped off the 3:1 list, I've stopped using the PE at my Target so no local champ for me.

 

[wohoo]

I was doing the target method too. When did they become 1ppd?

 

[tuan_nobel]

I was doing the target method too. When did they become 1ppd?

it really depends on the store as some is still 3:1 as mentioned above. Mine one (Perth CBD) had become 1:1 for at least 3 months

 

[DeKa]

Is there any way to join RewardPay/B2BPay/similar without an ABN?
I’d love to pay a tax bill on Amex Explorer for 2 ppd but I can’t find any way to sign up for these services (as not an ABN holder).

I might end up paying in bits and pieces on ING Orange One and getting a 1% cash back (so pay 0.58% then get a 1% cash back so end up 0.4258% ahead) ... but max $3k a month using that option.

Slightly ahead sounds better than paying 2.9c/point on Amex Explorer when used direct to ATO.

 

[albyd]

This is a non Amex option. If you have a points paying MC/Visa then can join EasyBillPay without an ABN and link your credit card to it to initiate payments to anyone including ATO funded from your credit card. 0.8% processing fee (1st $1000/month is fee free last time I checked).

Won’t earn any Amex points but an ABN free alternative. Not as lucrative as the Amex options points wise but substantially less expensive.

 

[aspro2]

Won’t earn any Amex points but an ABN free alternative. Not as lucrative as the Amex options points wise but substantially less expensive.

Yes, but at $24.95 per month after the free trial, PLUS the 0.8% surcharge, it still has to be considered as a fairly expensive way to earn points (so it depends on the questioner's priorities!). On a monthly spend of $3000 through EBP, that's an effective surcharge of 1.37%. And if you're using cards that aren't earning at least 1 airline point per dollar, then this becomes a more costly acquisition method.

 

[cove]

I have started loading two Visa credit cards with funds as it can take two days for the funds to arrive. With Dragon there is a $100,000 limit per card. No limit applies on the World CC but Qantas points are much harder to use for international flights.

 

[Saltywings]

Yes, but at $24.95 per month after the free trial, PLUS the 0.8% surcharge, it still has to be considered as a fairly expensive way to earn points (so it depends on the questioner's priorities!). On a monthly spend of $3000 through EBP, that's an effective surcharge of 1.37%. And if you're using cards that aren't earning at least 1 airline point per dollar, then this becomes a more costly acquisition method.

Bold emphasis mine. I have it on good authority - from EBP support themselves - that they've scrapped the $24.95/month fee. Below is a screengrab of the very ticket I submitted showing this:

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Yes I am yet to be charged and I was due to have been.

 

[andye]

same here

 

[aspro2]

Bold emphasis mine. I have it on good authority - from EBP support themselves - that they've scrapped the $24.95/month fee. Below is a screengrab of the very ticket I submitted showing this:

View attachment 143280

Fascinating! I think they're a bunch of incompetents - poor documentation, poor support system, unreliable funding routines for manually added bills, missing links between desktop and mobile view... Today (6 Nov) their site still shows the fee.

But it's certainly becoming more attractive, based on your screenshot!

 

[coles525]

Don't forget that it's still a brand new business open less then a year.

Also, discussions like this don't really need to be discussed in the open

 

[Saltywings]

Fascinating! I think they're a bunch of incompetents - poor documentation, poor support system, unreliable funding routines for manually added bills, missing links between desktop and mobile view... Today (6 Nov) their site still shows the fee.

But it's certainly becoming more attractive, based on your screenshot!

I know where you're coming from. I didn't show it, but I did reply to their response suggesting that they remove the reference to the $25 monthly fee from every section of the site, so as not to confuse end users.

Now that tax time is coming up, milk milk!

 

[Penny]

I just received SMS notification from Easy Bill Pay that my scheduled ATO payment has failed (via ANZ visa card) and to log in to check details. No further explanation given. Log into account. No explanation given for failed scheduled payment, and no solution offered.
My manually inserted payment instructions were correct - plus my current account balance is more than sufficient to pay the amount owing to the ATO.
I'm really unhappy with this.
(Another scheduled payment today via Easy Bill Pay also failed - this one to an account I paid last month without drama using the same payment instructions).
The quality of service from Easy Bill Pay about failed payments is appalling. These sorts of failures just shouldn't happen. Even if they do, there should be some support about ways to rectify.
Fun fact - Easy Bill Pay are charging $24.95 per month for this non-service.