whats the best qantas credit card for single self employed worker?

[broombroom]

hey Affers, i have been learning and observing the knowledge in these forums in terms of lounge benefits, travel booking, and now my attention has swung onto the credit card section. I've never had one, having a travel money card and a bankwest debit card for all my transactions, but the temptation of earning points for transactions that i would make anyway is sorely tempting.


i would ideally like a low/no fees account with a decent points/spend ratio, and i would like to clarify what transactions count towards points-

do paying bills online count? or using a credit card linked to paypal? or if i buy something off jb hifi online using a credit card does that earn points?


i don't think i would spend a heap of money on the card- is the everyday rewards CC my best bet? is there any others i should consider?

any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

 

[horseman]

I've been looking into the same thing, similar situation. I'm looking at the qantas Amex discovery card or the woolworths card depends on the features etc you want

 

[kevrosmith]

If you are self employed you can probably still get a personal credit card, though some institutions may monitor and get a bit precious about business expenditure on a personal credit card... I've only got personal cards, and so far so good. If you're up for GST every quarter, you can pay on credit card and earn lots of points! The credit card fee may even become a tax-deductible business expense! (Search forum for "ATO credit card" for details...). Which card? It depends if you have an airline preference... I'm currently banking on Qantas, so I primarily use my Westpac Earth Platinum combo. With QF dropping QF SYD-CNS evening service, I may switch my primary card to Velocity soon.

I did a bit of a comparison back in December, and based on my spend ratio, NAB Qantas and ANZ Frequent Flyer came out top for Qantas earn. Westpac was in top 4 for me, and being existing customer made it easy to stay there. Don't be afraid to pay a higher fee for a credit card.. if you're spend is greater than $3K per month, you'll make that back easily in value of points earned etc. Eventually, you may find yourself signing up for credit cards just to earn the bonus sign-up points and know that the ($100/$250) sign-up fee which earned you (15K/30K points) was well worth the month spent!

I've got the Velocity AMEX and it has a good Velocity earn-rate, and the bonus 200 SCs were great value.

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

For simplicity and good points earn you cant beat the Citibank Gold Citibusiness at $149 a year annual fee. Up to 4 sup cards for free

Earn 1.25 points per $ with 250K limit each year.

I will admit the CB call center is annoying at times, but I've not really had much problems so never really needed to call them.

While it doesn't show you can transfer points to QFF on the web site, if you call the rewards center you can transfer in blocks of 10K points.

The downside is transfer to other programs is generally at a 3 reward points : 2 FF points.

You also get reasonable travel insurance with them - I made a claim for being stuck in BKK a couple of yrs back when the volcano erupted in Iceland and they were pretty prompt with the the claim. They are also 1 of the few cards to offer the insurance if u use FF points - on the proviso you earned at least 15K of them in the last 12 months, do the transfer and make the booking within 30 days. The transfer to QFF have usually been the next day if I call up early, or the day after.

 

[spentan]

For simplicity and good points earn you cant beat the Citibank Gold Citibusiness at $149 a year annual fee. Up to 4 sup cards for free

Earn 1.25 points per $ with 250K limit each year.

+1 for citibusiness gold! Best card ever, (srs)

1 year on, I advised that I was looking at other cards, and got a bonus offer activated, 2 bonus points per $, taking total up to 3.25pts per $

 

[JetLagged]

Has anyone looked at the Visa Platinum card offered through membership of the Qantas Credit UNion as a comparison?

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

the QF CU card is prob better for the first year with the fee free and bonus points, but it's $50 a year more than the citibank card. You also get a better earn rate with the Citibusiness card - unless you spend a lot of money with QF.

The insurance with the QF CU card is a bit better.

 

[TheFergus]

Spentan - do you mean they upped your future earn rate to 3.25pts/$ flat or did they bonused that month's spend at the higher rate? That's a mighty rate isn't it?

 

[spentan]

Spentan - do you mean they upped your future earn rate to 3.25pts/$ flat or did they bonused that month's spend at the higher rate? That's a mighty rate isn't it?

Its insane, they've upped it to 3.25 pts per $ until Dec 31st 2012. (My Points cap will reset sometime in Aug, but the 2 bonus points don't count towards that points cap).

I've been spending like crazy, and been making 100s of thousands of points haha, i've redeemed about 400,000 points from my CB Gold so far, and counting

I'm considering moving up to the Citi Select once the bonus 2pts offer is over (in December), but until then, we'll just have to make do. (I don't meet the income requirement either, being 23yrs old, I haven't made it just yet (was able to snag ~95k last FY, hopeful for more this FY, but I didn't have as many shares/penny stocks, as I bought a house late last year).

But yeah, all for the CB gold, and now apparently it has paywave as well, so have ordered replacement cards