should i accept the VISA select or move over to Westpac Altitude?

[carls888]

Hi
what do you think?
I run our business through the card and we spend around 350k-500k pa. Paid in full, no interest.
we currently run a plat VISA through Citibank and when the points run out, which they have capped me on 120k this year but haven't on other years, we go over to Macquarie VISA.
I am sick of Macquarie as they wont put my limit up in large amounts, $1000 here and there, i need bigger limits so as not to tax my cashflow.
Anyway, i have just been on the phone with westpac and they have offered me a start up limit of a third of what i have with citibank to be reviewed in 6 months...this is a larger amount than Macquarie have given me in 3 years .
So, should i stay with Citibank and spend $700pa to have unlimited caps or move over to Altitude. I am not overly wanting QFF points but to be able to use the points where i want to.
thanks
C

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Hi
what do you think?
I run our business through the card and we spend around 350k-500k pa. Paid in full, no interest.
we currently run a plat VISA through Citibank and when the points run out, which they have capped me on 120k this year but haven't on other years, we go over to Macquarie VISA.
I am sick of Macquarie as they wont put my limit up in large amounts, $1000 here and there, i need bigger limits so as not to tax my cashflow.
Anyway, i have just been on the phone with westpac and they have offered me a start up limit of a third of what i have with citibank to be reviewed in 6 months...this is a larger amount than Macquarie have given me in 3 years .
So, should i stay with Citibank and spend $700pa to have unlimited caps or move over to Altitude. I am not overly wanting QFF points but to be able to use the points where i want to.
thanks
C

Tough one. In my experience citibank give the highest credit limits, so the only way to get decent credit with other banks is to send them all your financials and have them approve up to a specific limit.

If you can put some of these transx on amex I would be going down that road - good for points collecting too.

I'm putting similar amounts through citibank and did the sums that it wouldn't be worthwhile going to the Visa Select til around 500k/year. Even then, I'd be looking at trying to put more on amex...

 

[YQY]

Carl - welcome to AFF.

I have been with WBC for the last 4-5 years. I had the Altitude Gold Visa/Amex combo but moved to Earth Platinum (MC/Amex combo) when QF introduced direct earn. I have paid the amount due in full evey month. My credit limit during the period increased from $9K to over $30K.

Due to my fairly large spend on the cards last year - WBC waived my annual fees.

I would highly reccomend the MC/Amex Combo (Earth Platinum).

 

[cove]

Yes the $749 fee with Citi Select to get a $30,000 starting limit to run up a point a dollar means you have to run the card with a lot of your own money if you have.a big monthly spend.
With the Westpac GM Holden card finishing early next month I plan to move the credit limit across to our Westpac Platinum Kris Flyer cards.This will make these cards easier to use on bigger payments.

 

[carls888]

Hi thanks for replying.
We have a 60k limit with citibank so that works out great and i have no worries about using up cash flow by trying to glean maximum points.
Most of our supplier do not accept Amex and if they do there is a hefty surcharge, even our US suppliers prefer VISA.
Westpac offered 17k, which just wouldn't cut it for us.
It's tricky but i think i am leaning towards citibank as the fees are tax deductible i suppose...
The offer of 2 citi points for every dollar spent makes it seem ok. It's just that huge fee!
But then again I pay $350 and $200 pa so it's only $150 more pa for the limitless points.
WDYT?
We are expanding our company into the retail sector as well so these figures will be increasing too (I hope.)
Is the offered priority immigration check actually real, or is it "subject to availability" in certain airports?
thanks again
Carla

 

[crowman28]

Carl - welcome to AFF.

I have been with WBC for the last 4-5 years. I had the Altitude Gold Visa/Amex combo but moved to Earth Platinum (MC/Amex combo) when QF introduced direct earn. I have paid the amount due in full evey month. My credit limit during the period increased from $9K to over $30K.

Due to my fairly large spend on the cards last year - WBC waived my annual fees.

I would highly reccomend the MC/Amex Combo (Earth Platinum).

Thats very interesting YQY, do you have a home loan with Westpac as well, in order to waive your annual card fee?

I also run my Westpac credit card for business purposes and could end up with $30k spend per month, but I got no home loan with them.

So may be they will waive my annual fee next year, and increase my credit limit substantially after 6 months? My current limit is a shocking $10k.

Cheers

 

[YQY]

Thats very interesting YQY, do you have a home loan with Westpac as well, in order to waive your annual card fee?

Cheers

I don't have a home loan with WBC. Check out the following thread - a few AFF's have had our fee waived or reduced. You will need to ring WBC Card Services. http://www.australianfrequentflyer....rth/earth-platinum-card-annual-fee-16357.html

 

[Peter2]

Hi All,
I was wishing to get some advice on a similar issue. Our firm pays about $10K per day single invoice. This invoice can now be paid my MC or Visa (no amex ). They have offered me the opportunity to push it through a CC so I can get the points (they would transfer the funds to cover the CC charged amount daily).
I have frantically launched into an investigation of CC cards. Most seem to exempt points on "business purposes". However I note from my reading here and otherwise that this doesnt seem to be enforced? Anyway, what do people recommend? I am interested in maxing the points value (not necessarily just for FF points)

Peter

 

[trippin_the_rift]

10k a day is a nice little earner! You should most certainly do it, but never put your Citibank account into credit or you won't get points for the credit portion.

Business transactions and personal transactions are the same thing basically and I wouldn't be worried about that.

 

[Peter2]

10k a day is a nice little earner! You should most certainly do it, but never put your Citibank account into credit or you won't get points for the credit portion.

Business transactions and personal transactions are the same thing basically and I wouldn't be worried about that.

Thanks for the prompt reply. So you are suggesting Citibank Select (?) is the best card to sign up for (with the $750 fee)?

I am keen to set up the whole transaction so it is done by the firm with daily matching payments. I assume this will even itself out over time. I just want to extract the points value from the arrangement with minimal hassle .

Peter

 

[cove]

You can use the $700 Citi Select Visa for points other than QF.
Mrscove has the $749 uncapped QF and I have the $700 Kris Flyer Visa uncapped for SQ flights.
For 500k to the Tax Office will cost you $3250 plus the card annual fee to get you 2 J tickets to pretty much anywhere on the globe.

 

[Peter2]

Thanks Cove for the great info (and your other great contributions to the site which I have been digesting recently). Have applied for an initial Citi Select card for the Visa payments. Interested in your attempts to easily preload this card.

This site also has alerted me to ATO Amex and my firm pays about $5m provisionally a year. Now I just have to figure how to get everyone on board for paying by 1.5 point Amex. Looks like the KRIS flyer amex application will be next.....

Peter

 

[Peter2]

10k a day is a nice little earner! You should most certainly do it, but never put your Citibank account into credit or you won't get points for the credit portion.

Business transactions and personal transactions are the same thing basically and I wouldn't be worried about that.

So I assume you are saying you cant preload your Citibank Select card? Thats going to cause some difficulties with the big payments....

 

[cove]

Peter,
If you read my ramblings on the blog "Frequent Flyer Fiend " you will get the drift of where I am up to with making points in both SQ and QF.
My business partners are pretty excited and they are using it to the max.
With Citi I am counting the days on the cheque I air bagged them Tuesday night as 6 days to clear to the card is a joke thru Australia Post for a 300K cheque.
By the way all the points were given so there is no reduction for a credit balance on Citi Select.

 

[Peter2]

Thanks Cove for the update. I am very interested in how to most efficiently preload the Citi Select card for ATO payments. (as per your Re: ATO (tax office) payments by credit card thread which I am monitoring with interest). If a solution cant be found than shall start a westpac amex investigation, but think maybe another Citibank banking account may be the way to go.
Given our firm can access $X mill of ATO payments in addition to the $X mil of other payments, this represents stage 2 of my points collection proposal. I need to minimize the pain of our finance department to load up Citi Select cards to get the partnership on board to my proposal.... I also note the payments probably are tax deductable.

The only other concern is the general "business purpose" exemption all these cards seem to have, but given the consensus here that it is not enforced, it looks like the points flood will be coming our way

 

[cove]

If the big source is the business BAS you might just get AMEX Ultimate for QF and Westpac Kris Flyer Amex and pay 0.833 cents a point.These are both 1.5 points per dollar cards.
My second Citi re-load attempt detail is on Frequent Flyer Fiend blog and it is a work in progress.
I love cashing a cheque at Westpac and using the money to pay the BAS 5 minutes later and if Citi loses your money for 3 to 6 days the Amex idea is actually better from a work/business perspective.

 

[Peter2]

No, the big source is another AU Govt institution that doesn't accept Amex. but who we pay >$10K a day to (ie MC/Visa), but who don't surcharge. Hence I am stuck with uncapped Citi Select or need to investigate Westpac Kris Visa (i thought they only gave 2/3 per point?). I am also keen to ease transaction headaches so am watching your airbag & other solutions with interest....

ATO is additional cream discovered from finally getting off my but & reading your & other members useful posts on this site. ATO surcharge issue is going to be interesting but firm at the moment must lash out >$300K on OS business class flights per year. I am assuming singapore has good flight availability as Qantas Overseas FF appears to be a joke (QF JASA may be the way to go at the numbers and costings given here even at the rort rates that JASA appear to be).

The firm also has some flex on using the points for personal use...(at the moment total personal use allowed but these are early days and if the firm pays the ATO surcharge I assume the firm will want the benefits- this would also help with any explanation to the tax man as well - we used the points for the business).

Peter

 

[cove]

Westpac now do not have a point a dollar Visa card since 15/3/2011.