If BPAY is 'not an eligible purchase' to earn points, how do you pay your bills? Bankwest World & Amplify

[JennyMG]

Checking the fineprint of the St. George Amplify Visa, and the BankWest World Mastercard, both state that BPay payments are not 'eligible purchases', to go towards the Qantas points. So how to pay bills and still have it eligible, to go toward the $6000 for Bankwest World or $4000 for Visa Amplify to ensure you get the QFF bonus point offer?

In BankWest's Overview of Bankwest Qantas Rewards, they state: "Qantas points are earned on all purchases made using the Card account except: (and one of the exceptions is) BPAY payments; ie bill payments and other payments made through the BPAY Electronic Payments Scheme, ..."

In St. George's fineprint they are even more damning: " Eligible purchases do not include BPAY. BPAY equivalent transactions, fees, cash, c....etc...."

So my question is: Can bills be paid, and be eligible to go towards the $ value of the initial (whatever) $6000 in the first 3 months, towards the bonus points offer. If they can, how? Is it ONLY BPAY? Can you ring up, say, Electricity, and pay over the phone and still be an 'eligible purchase? since you didn't use BPay?

And what does St. George's T& C mean "and BPAY equivalent transactions..." what are those?

I'd love someone to sort this out for me. I've tried hard to read all the terms and conditions, I'll be annoyed if I don't get my bonus points because I can't pay my household bills.
How do you pay your bills with these types of cards, and have the $$ go towards the bonus point total spend?

 

[piratematerial]

Pay directly by credit card online (or I guess over the phone, anything where you put in the 15 or 16 digit card number) or set up a direct debit from the card and it counts towards the spend and rewards points. Any bill payment I've seen gives a non-BPay credit card option.

 

[JennyMG]

Pay directly by credit card online (or I guess over the phone, anything where you put in the 15 or 16 digit card number) or set up a direct debit from the card and it counts towards the spend and rewards points. Any bill payment I've seen gives a non-BPay credit card option.

Do you get points from your bill spends this normal way?

 

[piratematerial]

Do you get points from your bill spends this normal way?

Yes.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Can you pay your council rates at the local library with either of the cards?
That would not be bpay, but more so would be a purchase.
Edit: umm, hmm, maybe it would be still counted as bpay.
If you own your own place, and have the rates in your name that is.

 

[33kft]

Can you ring up, say, Electricity, and pay over the phone and still be an 'eligible purchase? since you didn't use BPay?

Yes. The only transaction that is ever counted as bpay is a transaction where you take a BPay biller ID and a BPay transaction ID and you pay it from the internet, phone or mobile banking functions of your card to that biller ID with that biller code.

If you are using your card number, expiry date etc to pay a bill, you aren't paying via bpay.

 

[33kft]

In terms of BPay equivalent transactions, the only one I can think of is postbillpay, and it seems ozbargain agrees with me here:

What Is The Definition of a "Bpay Equivalent Transaction"

www.ozbargain.com.au

It's a catch all term to mean paying via BPay or using some other way to pay via BPay, but ultimately if you aren't paying via BPay (ie not using those 2 details printed on the bill, the BPay biller ID and the BPay transaction ID) then you should have nothing to worry about. Any more than that is overthinking the T&Cs.

 

[tdimdad]

Funny how it goes as I hadn't even thought of using a CC for BPay payments. You always learn...
BPays (the odd ones once every few years) go directly from the bank account. The invoices I tend to pay online (or phone) using the card number, recurring ones with direct debit against the CC.

 

[Croupier]

I pay my council rates online via Auspost Bill Pay then use the PayPal function and select whatever points card I want including Amex.

 

[JennyMG]

I pay my council rates online via Auspost Bill Pay then use the PayPal function and select whatever points card I want including Amex.

so you're saying you actually are using Paypal not BillPay?"

 

[burmans]

so you're saying you actually are using Paypal not BillPay?"

WIthin Billpay you get options to pay by CC or pay by Paypal, he is selecting the later.

 

[cqtiger]

On achieving the spend amount for the cc bonus points many cards state Govt bills( rego rates etc are excluded) so read the fine print.
You can always pay forward recurring bills like phone etc or buy gift vouchers

 

[anglais]

If BPAY is not considered an eligible purchase, how/why do they still earn points on normal spend? Loophole?

 

[Kangol]

If BPAY is not considered an eligible purchase, how/why do they still earn points on normal spend? Loophole?

BPay transactions do not earn points.

This is what a BPay transaction is:

Yes. The only transaction that is ever counted as bpay is a transaction where you take a BPay biller ID and a BPay transaction ID and you pay it from the internet, phone or mobile banking functions of your card to that biller ID with that biller code.

If you are using your card number, expiry date etc to pay a bill, you aren't paying via bpay.

 

[Mogul]

BPay transactions do not earn points.

This is what a BPay transaction is:

Yes they do.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Yes they do.

Never earned points for me. So definitely not universal.

 

[Lynda2475]

I pay bill directly using credit card where available, or via paypal. My council rates and 2 of 3 utlities can be paid by Paypal at no extra charge, which allows me to use amex that gives the most points.

 

[sumthinfornuthin]

I pay my council rates online via Auspost Bill Pay then use the PayPal function and select whatever points card I want including Amex.

Are you sure you are getting points with Amex through Australia post billpay using Amex linked to your PayPal account
I thought that had been knocked on the head ??

Post automatically merged: Jan 27, 2020

I pay bill directly using credit card where available, or via paypal. My council rates and 2 of 3 utlities can be paid by Paypal at no extra charge, which allows me to use amex that gives the most points.

Are you sure you are getting those points ??

 

[33kft]

postbillpay and bpay are different things. Also, postbillpay allows selection of which cards will be accepted per merchant (I suspect accepting all is more expensive with auspost taking a larger commission). You may be able to pay some with paypal / AMEX, but others may not allow it.

Post automatically merged: Jan 27, 2020

Are you sure you are getting those points ??

There's no issue if you pay your council directly, as long as your card issuer doesn't count it as government spend. I pay mine with MC (they don't accept paypal/AMEX) and get points for each transaction, but not all councils will work out that way with some cards/councils treated as govt spend and excluded.

 

[Lynda2475]

[/QUOTE]

Are you sure you are getting those points ??

Yep - the below is cut and paste from viewing my points earn ont he Amex site. Only earnt 0.5 point / $ on the council rates (paid direct not via paypal), but 1.25 points (for some bizarre reason) on the Gas bill paid via paypal (the AGL site didnt accept amex).

Date	Description	Amount spent​	Points Earned​	Bonus Points​	Total Points​
10/11/2019	PAYPAL *AGLENERGY	$159.02​	199​	0​	199​
04/11/2019	INNER WEST COUNCIL	$339.85​	170​	0​	170​

Paypal allows me to avoid any amex surcharge whilst still earning points.