Best Frequent Flyer Credit Card

[cove]

Be very careful using that Kris flyer credit card on overseas bills as the charges are too high for the points you earn. To avoid this I use the Australian Expedia to book hotels as their bill is in $AUS. You miss out on loyalty points but don't get skinned for about 6 per cent.
I am still looking for an uncapped Visa/Mastercard that pays one point per dollar for Qantas points.

 

[medhead]

I am still looking for an uncapped Visa/Mastercard that pays one point per dollar for Qantas points.

Did you notice this earlier post below. I haven't checked it out but could be ok.

what do you guys think of the Suncorp Clear Options Platinum Visa? It is one of the few Visa cards to have a 1:1 redeem for QFF pts.

For AMEX, I use either CBA or ANZ Platinum cards.

 

[cove]

Ok I read the Suncorp Platinum details as 1 for 1 on QF.
Has anyone tried to stuff a six figure tax bill thru the card?
Are there limits as the page I read did not show a limit?
I will talk to them on my return from Los Angeles so if anyone is ahead of the game and has started using it can we get your comments please.
If this is possible then it becomes as exciting as Kris Visa for paying taxes at 0.65 cents cost per dollar.

 

[MRest]

Ok I read the Suncorp Platinum details as 1 for 1 on QF.
Has anyone tried to stuff a six figure tax bill thru the card?
Are there limits as the page I read did not show a limit?
I will talk to them on my return from Los Angeles so if anyone is ahead of the game and has started using it can we get your comments please.
If this is possible then it becomes as exciting as Kris Visa for paying taxes at 0.65 cents cost per dollar.

Cove, the credit limits for the Suncorp Clear Options Platinum are

Minimum Credit Limit: $5,000 Maximum Credit Limit: $30,000

 

[cove]

Typically credit limits do not stop you loading a credit card heavily into credit then paying the bills that need to be paid.
Only Amex Ultimate and other Amex direct cards will not allow you to get into credit so I reload the limit every 3 days by phone.
Co branded bank Amex cards can go into credit balance to pay a large bill.
I will talk with these folks when I get back to Oz.

 

[Amberlower]

Be very careful using that Kris flyer credit card on overseas bills as the charges are too high for the points you earn. To avoid this I use the Australian Expedia to book hotels as their bill is in $AUS. You miss out on loyalty points but don't get skinned for about 6 per cent.

Actually 3% Visa overseas - 3.5% Amex o/seas. Stick to Visa o/seas - no downside.

 

[cove]

Amberlower do you have a recent actual transaction because I really coughed about it around 8 months ago and they may have fixed it. They could not undo the BS charges but they refunded the annual fee for the Kris card.
I have used the Kris card heavily but only for $AUS and mainly the Visa to pay lots of taxes at 0.65 cents a point uncapped.

 

[Stephen65]

I am still looking for an uncapped Visa/Mastercard that pays one point per dollar for Qantas points.

Have you looked at the new Citi Signature Select Visa?

It's being discussed in a thread in the Citi forum (sorry but I don't have enough posts to be allowed to direct link).

The risk with using non-business Visa cards to pay business expenses is that technically the card rules usually say there are no FF points for business transactions. I've never heard of anyone actually being denied on this basis but if you put 100's of thousands of dollars through in ATO transactions there may be some risk.

I ended up concluding that the Amex Platinum charge was the best option for me to pay my tax bills on. It gives you 1.5 pts per dollar up to $300,000 spend ($200,000 on the charge card and then $100,000 on the associated credit card they will give you for free). This is enough for me to cover my tax BAS payments. After that its 1 point per dollar uncapped.

The advantages of the charge card are that there is no issue about business spend earning points and you don't have to work around some low credit limit.

 

[cove]

Hello Stephen65,I am using Amex Ultimate uncapped and fee is effectively zero as I live in Perth and so the free flight cuts out the $450 annual charge.
I have Suncorp and Citi to check when I return to Oz.
I also use Westpac Kris Platinum for that second chance to get to lots of other places when it is short notice because there is less competition for redemption flights.
Our monthly BAS is a corker.

 

[econgdon]

I use my NAB platinum Amex wherever I can then NAB plat Visa if Amex is not accepted. The AMex comes free with the visa. the annual limit is greater than my citibank platinum Visa which is 1 4 1 but I think 140,000 limit direct to Qantas , but here is a quirk, you can then change your preferences to get take flight points which are also 141 after the limit with direct credit to Qantas is reached, which gives you another 120,000 points at 141. By then next year revert to direct credit to Qantas. Buying flights with take flight is relatively expensive, but you get full ability to change. I just re scheduled a flight to Europe with 2 days notice for $15. I ised to use Diners as its points can be transfered to many airlines, but the 141 value is not in them. Diners should give 1.5 at least given their merchant fees and so I now do not use diners as they appear to be of low relative value. They once gave a premium level of rewards.

 

[cove]

Hello Amberlower,I checked a May $US payment of $6060 and the fee was $221 on Westpac Kris.
Now I would rather keep most of the $221 in my pocket so I have opened a fee free US cheque account that I can wire funds to for about $50 in fees a time total from both ends.
Paying 3% for a Frequent Flyer point is beyond my pain barrier.

 

[Amberlower]

Amberlower do you have a recent actual transaction because I really coughed about it around 8 months ago and they may have fixed it. They could not undo the BS charges but they refunded the annual fee for the Kris card.
I have used the Kris card heavily but only for $AUS and mainly the Visa to pay lots of taxes at 0.65 cents a point uncapped.

Not sure what your beef was with the card. I use it regularly overseas incuding just this month - it is as I said 3.5% + 3%. Confirmed it twith Westpac as well.

 

[Amberlower]

Hello Amberlower,I checked a May $US payment of $6060 and the fee was $221 on Westpac Kris.
Now I would rather keep most of the $221 in my pocket so I have opened a fee free US cheque account that I can wire funds to for about $50 in fees a time total from both ends.
Paying 3% for a Frequent Flyer point is beyond my pain barrier.

Frequent Flyers average at 5c/point making it around $400 for that transaction. If you collect a lot of points it is well worth it - particularly since most points cost you no more than what you spend. NOT collecting points is ignoring free money, I think.

 

[cove]

What happened was I paid a Hilton hotel account at about $100 US a night in advance to lock in a special price in around May 2009 and when combined with a lousy exchange rate the cost of using the Westpac Kris Platinum Visa worked out at over 6 %.They have now fixed it so I am happier.
My pain threshold for earning a point remains at around 1% because I do not need to buy points at expensive rates seeing I am loaded with millions of points already.
I do understand that you may feel the point can be worth about 5 cents retail but the real game in the land of plenty is to try to fly in the best available at the lowest cost including no cost points.
For travel this is the best game in town.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Actually 3% Visa overseas - 3.5% Amex o/seas. Stick to Visa o/seas - no downside

The other variables I take into account when choosing among cards are the exchange rates and (obviously) the points earn rates.

When comparing I use the net cost of a transaction in AUD to give an effective exchange rate net of charges. This allows for the exchange rate differences between cards to factor in as well as charges differences.

The variations also appear to differ across currencies. A couple of examples, the cards involved are a NAB Qantas Gold Visa (.667 points per $1), and An AMEX Qantas Ultimate (1.5 points per $1).

14/6/10 processing date, two transactions in EUR - AMEX 0.6782, Visa 0.6797 - marginal difference at best

22/6/10 processing date, two transactions in PGK - AMEX 2.2070, Visa 2.3703-
rather more substantial

Even with the bigger cost difference when buying PGK on AMEX, its still my card of choice because it seems a small price to pay for upgrading to those comfy seats up the front!!

Cheers skip

 

[Amberlower]

What happened was I paid a Hilton hotel account at about $100 US a night in advance to lock in a special price in around May 2009 and when combined with a lousy exchange rate the cost of using the Westpac Kris Platinum Visa worked out at over 6 %.They have now fixed it so I am happier.
My pain threshold for earning a point remains at around 1% because I do not need to buy points at expensive rates seeing I am loaded with millions of points already.
I do understand that you may feel the point can be worth about 5 cents retail but the real game in the land of plenty is to try to fly in the best available at the lowest cost including no cost points.
For travel this is the best game in town.

Interesting to see you mention Hilton. My preferred choice of hotel loyalty- programs.

 

[cove]

Hilton US is saying that they will price match any offer from the likes of Expedia,Travelocity and Hotels.com and you can get a refund plus loyalty and frequent flyer points. Now that is pretty good as we use Hilton Orange for the Angels baseball seeing you can walk over to the arena.
They take all credit cards but I use Amex as their exchange rates are good or my US debit card.
This year we will put several million dollars on Westpac Kris and Amex Ultimate so they are the best so far in uncapped rewards rates.
We are back in Oz this week but we stay in touch by playing ABC radio on our computer in USA.