Best Point-Earning Credit Cards for Overseas Purchases

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If you regularly travel overseas or shop online, you’re probably after a credit card that allows you to earn points on your overseas purchases. The trouble is, most Australian point-earning credit cards charge international transaction fees – typically around 3% – when you use the card overseas.

Thankfully, there are a few Australian credit cards that award points for overseas transactions but don’t charge any Forex fees. If earning points is important to you, here are the best Australian credit cards for overseas purchases:

1. Coles Rewards MasterCard

The Coles Rewards MasterCard is a surprising favourite among AFF members. Its annual fee is $99 per year. There are no international transaction fees, and you’ll earn 2 Flybuys points per dollar spent within Australia or overseas. These can be converted to Velocity points at a rate of 1:0.435 (up to 138,000 Flybuys points per year), meaning you effectively earn 0.87 Velocity points per $1 spent. And that’s without accounting for the regular bonuses on transfers from Flybuys to Velocity!

2. Bankwest Qantas Platinum & World

The Bankwest Qantas Platinum and Bankwest Qantas World cards are both useful credit cards for overseas purchases. Neither card has international transaction fees. The Platinum and World cards earn 0.5 and 0.66 Qantas points per dollar spent, and have annual fees of $160 and $270, respectively.

3. ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures

This card has a slightly higher annual fee of $225 but is packed with benefits. Once again, there are no international purchase fees. You’ll earn ANZ Rewards points at an equivalent rate of 0.75 Velocity points per dollar. You can also choose to transfer to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer or Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, giving an effective earning rate with these airlines of 0.5 miles per dollar. This card also comes with a free return Virgin Australia flight and two Virgin Australia lounge passes every year.

4. CommBank Diamond Amex

The CommBank Diamond Amex card offers relatively poor value, but it is useful for one thing. This card has no foreign transaction fees and earns 1.2 Qantas points per dollar spent overseas. However, the earn rates on domestic purchases are very poor and there’s a high annual fee of $379 (including a $30 fee to opt-in to Qantas rewards).

If you don’t mind paying international transaction fees, there are a range of other cards that earn high rates of points on overseas purchases. But these fees often outweigh the benefit of the extra points.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Best points earning card for international spend

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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