Qantas Cash - combined frequent flyer and travel money card

[samh004]

In the Qantas 2012/13 Half-Year Results - Investor Presentation it mentions pre-registrations open in May

This also reveals that Platinum One will now be a white card...

 

[LR09WA]

Is PNG kina on the list ??

Currencies are specific but we have chosen them based on what people use most.

 

[samh004]

Is PNG kina on the list ??

I think you're going to have to wait for more details to be announced, though maybe they'll reveal a little more at the Rockpool lunch in March.

 

[DeKa]

Heritage Bank Limited will be the issuer of the prepaid offering (page 25 of the investor presentation).

I've never heard of them, but they are based in Toowoomba and was formerly the Heritage Building Society, which was created out of an amalgamation of Toowoomba Permanent Building Society and Darling Downs Building Society. Turns out Australia Post Load and Go is a Heritage product too... FAQs (Load&Go) - Australia Post

 

[FrankC]

Heritage Bank Limited will be the issuer of the prepaid offering (page 25 of the investor presentation).

I've never heard of them, but they are based in Toowoomba and was formerly the Heritage Building Society, which was created out of an amalgamation of Toowoomba Permanent Building Society and Darling Downs Building Society. Turns out Australia Post Load and Go is a Heritage product too... FAQs (Load&Go) - Australia Post

Hope the new cards charge no more than the L&G cards

 

[samh004]

Heritage Bank Limited will be the issuer of the prepaid offering (page 25 of the investor presentation).

I've never heard of them, but they are based in Toowoomba and was formerly the Heritage Building Society, which was created out of an amalgamation of Toowoomba Permanent Building Society and Darling Downs Building Society. Turns out Australia Post Load and Go is a Heritage product too... FAQs (Load&Go) - Australia Post

Their fee of 9¢ a Tx, up to 99¢ for a month isn't too bad when you think about spending $12 a year, so long as it's then got good points earning.

Just an idea here.. with epiQure, if you're a member you also earn an additional point when dining at a QFF partner (from 3 to 4), so perhaps linking it across would be a good way to increase point earn on the card. I'd certainly keep another valuable membership if it meant a higher earning potential.

 

[anat0l]

Not to sound pessimistic from the outset, but I don't see this card being groundbreaking compared to, say, 28 Degrees or the Citibank card. (Notwithstanding that the 28 Degrees earns no points).

I'm only hoping that the exchange rate and fees will be slightly better than Travelex, which is the standard international cash card out there, which we know has exchange rates which makes coal scrips look legal and moral (at least in Australia, anyway).

It will definitely have a convenience factor to it, but that's all about it.

If you have to opt into the card, then I don't see what's the point of having the Mastercard and all on it if you don't opt in. Also interesting that the credit card details are all on the back, though the chip is on the front. This is probably going to be interesting when you present the card to merchants.

Interesting that the Platinum Ones will get a white card. I would've had a dark slate grey for Platinum members, and a black card with highlights for Platinum One.

The samples don't look all that exciting. At least the present cards have a bit of design merit about them. I hope the sample pictures are just that - samples - because a plain card with a kangaroo in the middle doesn't look all that appealing.

 

[Berlin]

It will all depend on the fees, currency conversation rates and points earned. It has to either give more points or cost you less than paying with an existing QF-linked or AMEX credit card to make the need to pre-pay worthwhile. Something tells me, it won't be but we will see!

 

[samh004]

Interesting that the Platinum Ones will get a white card. I would've had a dark slate grey for Platinum members, and a black card with highlights for Platinum One.

The samples don't look all that exciting. At least the present cards have a bit of design merit about them. I hope the sample pictures are just that - samples - because a plain card with a kangaroo in the middle doesn't look all that appealing.

As I type this, I figure CL's probably don't need one of these cards... but would assume they'll get them anyway, and they'll have the "BLACK" cards, so that colour is already taken

Just had a look through all the OneWorld Airlines cards on the OneWorld website, and other than programs where the top tier is Gold, they're all dark cards for their most elite levels, other than Cathay Pacific, which has Diamond and "WHITE" at the top. Even BA Premier and AA CK are black... thus Qantas gives their top tier (in terms of flying) a colour that pretty much no one else uses, it differentiates them and makes people stop and take note of why the card isn't dark or gold

At least that's how I imagined they went with the selection process.

 

[Flying Fox]

Wonder what happens to the money on your current card card if you drop down a level ??? (ie. I charge up my Gold card and then drop to Silver and get a new card issued).

 

[samh004]

Wonder what happens to the money on your current card card if you drop down a level ??? (ie. I charge up my Gold card and then drop to Silver and get a new card issued).

Someone said the numbers stay the same I think.

 

[Robert K]

reserve judgement for when you get it. they're very nice looking

 

[travelislife]

there have been some questions wondering if there will be fees or charges, or what the exchange rate will be like.... first and foremost this is a money making venture for QF, so of course there will be fees and charges. Pre-paid cards rarely match something like 28 degrees (and the one by Citbank or whatever the other one is).

on average i withdraw around $20k a year in cash on my 28 degrees card. Saving me around 3-4% in fees and charges over other cards, and even more compared to currency cards. I paid around $30 in billed finance charges for those cash withdrawals. So I save around $600, less finance charges = around $570 saving... cash in hand. Even if i got 1 point per $ spent on the card, I'd be lucky to break even for 20K points vs $570 in my hand.

Totally agree here, it is very hard to make anything stack up against the no fee cards for international transactions.

 

[Mrmaxwell]

Totally agree here, it is very hard to make anything stack up against the no fee cards for international transactions.

Agreed....but nothing wrong with having a backup prepaid Mastercard attched to your FF account.

Unless the forex rate and fees are through the roof I'll opt in. It will look nice next to my Citibank Visa.

 

[anat0l]

Bad news boding people... just saw the Qantas Cash promotion on their website:

Frequent Flyer - Program - Qantas Frequent Flyer Membership Card

And near the bottom is the URL to the proposed provider:

Cash Passport, the convenient, secure way to carry and access foreign currency overseas. | Cash Passport, the convenient, secure way to carry and access foreign currency overseas.

If the loading rates and fees are charged by Travelex then there is near no way this card will be a success amongst this cohort.

The "nine currencies at once" for the card are nominally fixed as: AU$, EU€, GB£, NZ$, US$, SG$, HK$, CA$, JPY. This is from the Cash Passport website.

Yes, everything is in proposal stage at the moment, so things may change, but I don't have high hopes on it.

 

[oz_mark]

Bad news boding people... just saw the Qantas Cash promotion on their website:

Frequent Flyer - Program - Qantas Frequent Flyer Membership Card

And near the bottom is the URL to the proposed provider:

The proposed issuer is Heritage Bank Limited (as per yesterdays announcements). They may or may not end up with the Travelex fee structure....

 

[anat0l]

The proposed issuer is Heritage Bank Limited (as per yesterdays announcements). They may or may not end up with the Travelex fee structure....

Which I read to be much the same as getting your Travelex Cash Passport from any other bank, as is quite common to be offered these days. Suffice to say many of them don't offer rewards points of sort, but irrespective...

Most of those banks pass on the same fees but at the minimum they use the Travelex exchange rates when loading the card, which are not very good (even compared to decent money changers which make about 4% against the mid-market on average).

 

[extracta]

Agreed....but nothing wrong with having a backup prepaid Mastercard attched to your FF account.

Unless the forex rate and fees are through the roof I'll opt in. It will look nice next to my Citibank Visa.

I think that you can just about guarantee that the foreign exchange rates will be a disgrace and it will not come close to being able to compete with the 28 degree mastercard for withdrawing money overseas.

The one use that I would find for it would be to have $0 on it and use it when asked to give a credit card number when doing a booking of a hotel overseas. At the moment I use an Aust Post debit card that has a 0 balance

 

[samh004]

I think that you can just about guarantee that the foreign exchange rates will be a disgrace and it will not come close to being able to compete with the 28 degree mastercard for withdrawing money overseas.

The one use that I would find for it would be to have $0 on it and use it when asked to give a credit card number when doing a booking of a hotel overseas. At the moment I use an Aust Post debit card that has a 0 balance

I'm mainly looking for good rates for local transactions, and if it covers that nicely, then I'll finally be earning points at Woolworths

 

[extracta]

I'm mainly looking for good rates for local transactions, and if it covers that nicely, then I'll finally be earning points at Woolworths

There will be potential to use the card in Aus depending on how many points you get for an elligible spend. I think using it to load foreign currency will be like throwing money out of the window as you drive down the freeway (or using travelex at an Australian airport)