Worth my while to upgrade to ANZ Rewards Platinum?

[cgichard]

In addition to the 20% bonus offer on KrisFlyer miles redemptions (see other thread on this), I've received another offer from ANZ today: to upgrade my existing plain ANZ Rewards Visa & Amex cards to their Platinum equivalents and receive 10,000 bonus rewards points for doing so, for the cost of an extra $26 annual fee.

Sounds good, yet I'm hesitating and would welcome AFF opinions.

It seems to offer 3 reward points per $1 spent using Visa (up from 1 per $1) while leaving Amex unchanged at 1.5 per $1. (At present, I use Amex for preference where I can, so this would seem to make it worthwhile to change my usage pattern.)

The extended warranty and best price guarantee don't interest me much as I have all the high value items I need for the foreseeable future. I know the travel insurance is well regarded but, looking at the QBE PDS, I see that being over $70 I'd have to complete the medical part of the application form AND have a doctor's certificate for every trip. Not something I have to go through for policies underwritten by Allianz (plenty of alternatives there).

Maybe I'm just lazy, but the thought of all the changing of details for direct debits, including annual ones that I hardly give a thought to, plus the nuisance of a new PIN (even though I can change it), new ANZ phone/internet registration etc., all put me off.

Presumably this type of offer has been around for a while. Have others here found it worth it?

 

[AdMEL]

One key thing - in my experience, when ANZ offer those sort of cheap upgrades, which they do constantly, they always lower the point earn. Also, the points earn is always lower on Visa than Amex, not higher. As such, I think you've got your points per $1 figures back to front! I think it should be spend $3 for 1 reward point on Visa and $1.50 for 1 point on Amex.

All your other points about chnaging card numbers with ANZ being a pain are correct.

One thing of mention - Credit Card insurance underwritten by Zurich (numerous, including Westpac, CBA and others) provides automatic cover up to 80 years of age.

 

[cgichard]

Thanks, AdMEL. I did get it the wrong way round in so far as 1.5 reward points per $1 are for Visa, and 3 reward points per $1 for Amex. But in both cases the offer definitely says "per $1 spent on eligible purchases"; there's no definition of what is an eligible purchase.

If I do decide to go for it, I need to get to the point in the month when I can maximize points for transfer to KrisFlyer on the existing account and get that done before taking up this offer, in time to get the new card(s) & make a purchase on one of them before 10 December to qualify for the bonus points offer. 10,000 points for $26 is 0.26c per point = 0.866 KrisFlyer miles. Is that a good deal?

And thanks for the tip about Zurich-underwritten insurance. I already have taken out cover for my next trip but I'll bear that in mind next time.

 

[crowman28]

cgichard, the 20% bonus offer on Kris Flyer isn't a good deal at all if you are starting a new platinum credit card account. It is only a good deal if I already got reward points sitting in my ANZ Rewards account, waiting to be converted.

As you know, other credit cards like Citi Select does offer much higher conversion rate for Kris Flyer. I think (from memory) for each $1, and you get 1.33 Kris points.

So the bonus deal for the Kris Flyer on ANZ is only good for those who got large amount of points sitting there, and not sure how to use them.

 

[cgichard]

It is only a good deal if I already got reward points sitting in my ANZ Rewards account, waiting to be converted.

That is precisely my situation, and why I want the points conversion to go through before I upgrade to Platinum. (Not that I didn't know what to do with them.)

As you know, other credit cards like Citi Select does offer much higher conversion rate for Kris Flyer. I think (from memory) for each $1, and you get 1.33 Kris points.

That is true but I doubt whether my SMSF pension income would meet CitiSelect's criteria, so I'm sticking with my long-held ANZ rewards card, and consider myself fortunate to be offered an upgrade without the hassle of providing income information.

 

[AdMEL]

I know the travel insurance is well regarded but, looking at the QBE PDS, I see that being over $70 I'd have to complete the medical part of the application form AND have a doctor's certificate for every trip. Not something I have to go through for policies underwritten by Allianz (plenty of alternatives there).

Are you sure this is correct? Just had a look at the PDS and it seems that it covers you up to 80 years of age and I can't see where you have to complete 'the medical part' or provide a doctor's certificate. Are you referring to an existing condition which is excluded? If you are, depending on what it is, it's quite likely that it would be similar no matter which card/underwriter.

 

[cgichard]

Are you sure this is correct?

No, I'm not sure. I may have been recollecting the general QBE travel insurance application form, rather than the PDS that applies automatically to ANZ Rewards Platinum Card holders. I've already just paid for next year's travel and travel insurance using my current ANZ (non-Platinum) cards before I received this invitation to upgrade, and I looked at many travel insurance options then, so I'm very likely misremembering. But I'll be glad of this automatic coverage for travel paid for by the card in future years after my cards have been upgraded to platinum.