RewardPay experiences?

[albyd]

I've just used rewardpay for the first time this week to pay childcare fees. 2.6% (they quoted me 4% for Amex going direct) is pretty steep but made payment on my explorer at 2ppd so average price of 1.3c/point is acceptable. I wouldn't have done it with a card with a lower earn rate.

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

At 1.3c do you then use qantas to redeem points or velocity or something else?

 

[albyd]

I'd be looking to redeem for SQ or CX J or F flights as this would be the best redemption value. Otherwise, not worth paying for points.
If redeeming for VA or QFF points, this should also be the case as long as you're booking in premium cabins.
YMMV.

 

[Doctore1003]

We're fortunate to have suppliers who agreed to accept Amex payments from us via Stripe. The fee is 1.75% - so much better.

 

[albyd]

Agreed. Also signed up my wife's landlord to square at 1.9% so on Explorer after tax effective rate 0.5c/point.
May these Hacks be allowed to continue

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

With the explorer card, is it staying the same - no changes in the points structure ?

 

[Doctore1003]

With the explorer card, is it staying the same - no changes in the points structure ?

Yes that's correct. Do you have it yet or are you looking around?

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

I don't have the card and looking to apply for one.
So thinking should I wait until July or just apply now.

 

[blueythecat]

I don't have the card and looking to apply for one.
So thinking should I wait until July or just apply now.

The changes don't effect directly issued AMEX cards - so if you are after a direct issued AMEX (and why wouldn't you be ) - you should be safe to go ahead and apply now.

If you haven't held a directly issued AMEX card in the last 18 months, you will be eligible for their signon bonus's - which are usually bigger if you apply through a referral link. Given AMEX has massively tightened up on existing card holders getting signon bonuses for different products, it is well worth sussing out the best value signon bonus before applying. It is probably even worth applying for the card with the best value signon bonus and then doing a product switch to the card you actually want (if they aren't the same) once the bonus points have come through.

If you want a Visa / MC then most of the changes have already flowed through the system, but is probably worth waiting for tomorrow product launch of the new QF MC.

Good luck!

 

[daft009]

Been using them for the last 4 months and been really happy. Had suited our model perfectly.
With 2ppt/$1 uncapped I use them for any invoice over 1k

 

[Oxy]

I have used them on my Business Accelerator when I'm running behind with hitting the 100k annual spend. Not worth the hit for 1p/pd after hitting that spending threshold. Setting up a payee is a bit fiddly, but most of my suppliers are repeat so not a huge deal over time.

 

[daft009]

There are ways to get 2ppt/$1 uncapped if you look at the amex explorer thread and do the linking

 

[albyd]

I've made a few non time critical payments recently and worked well. I've got a big payment for nearly 3x my explorer' limit.
Amex has let me take it $10k into credit by direct debuting my account over the phone instantly adding available credit to my account without waiting for it to clear. I'm planning to max it out tomorrow then reload.l in the same manner.
Has anyone had any problems doing this with rewardpay? I'd hate to get my card frozen especially when doing such a large time critical payment.
It's a tax deductible expense so I'm prepared to wear the fee as after tax gets me enough points for a J return to the northern hemisphere for a fraction of the cost. Otherwise, 2.6% is just too expensive.

 

[daft009]

I do split payments regularly, it's fine

 

[kyanar]

You can potentially save a few dollars by signing up to Amex FX International Payments, and choosing the Domestic and "Settle to Card" options when signing up. Business use only, but the acceptance charge is less at about 2.4% or so (because it's Amex direct) and settles practically overnight to your supplier's account. And to top it off, it's a guaranteed 1 PPD.

I've used it once or twice and it's a pretty good service (but Amex don't like it if you use it to pay someone who has Amex direct acceptance - unless your reason is that they use Stripe/Square/PayPal).

 

[daft009]

off topic but I would be interested in doing an exchange rate comparision between some other companies and the amex alternative.
The one I use now charge minimal fees and I pay them via Rewardpay, so 2ppd

 

[LittleFokker]

I thought I”d crosspost my negative experience with paying my SMSF with RewardPay and Amex card. (Hint: bad)

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ewards/warning-don-t-use-rewardpay-84014.html

TL;DR Don’t do it !

 

[KLN]

so now with the demise of the WBC Black am looking at new ways to pay BAS and PAYG. i have a direct Amex also but only at half points (better than nothing).
so Q.1 does Reward Pay accept the Bank branded MC/Amex or does it only accept direct Amex.
Q.2 if it shows up on your statement as "Reward Pay", could you still get away with paying ATO with WBC Amex ???
is there a brains trust out there who knows..........please

 

[KLN]

so have now started using Reward Pay, and it's been very successfull. all payees have been paid within 24 hours, and the whole process of setting it up is painless. back to paying the ATO on my WBC Black Amex, and now getting 2.5 X for ATO spend. happy days.................

 

[ninja-tim]

I've made a few non time critical payments recently and worked well. I've got a big payment for nearly 3x my explorer' limit.
Amex has let me take it $10k into credit by direct debuting my account over the phone instantly adding available credit to my account without waiting for it to clear. I'm planning to max it out tomorrow then reload.l in the same manner.
Has anyone had any problems doing this with rewardpay? I'd hate to get my card frozen especially when doing such a large time critical payment.
It's a tax deductible expense so I'm prepared to wear the fee as after tax gets me enough points for a J return to the northern hemisphere for a fraction of the cost. Otherwise, 2.6% is just too expensive.

I had my explorer card put on hold the first couple times of using it on reward pay and it was placed into credit as well. Nearly a year later (on both using the explorer and rewardpay) no frozen accounts.

Gotta be careful though. The old website showed the Rewardpay fee as 2.64% (2.4% + 0.24% gst). Now the figure under rewardpay fee only calculated the 2.4% surcharge ext gst. But total amount includes the GST on the surcharge.