By Global Standards, Australia Has Amazing Credit Card Offers

In Australia, we’re extremely fortunate to get access to some of the best credit card sign-up bonus point offers in the world. This makes it relatively easy to earn lots of frequent flyer points, which can be redeemed for travel, without spending a lot.

I’m reminded of this whenever friends who live overseas ask me for advice on getting cheap flights. I personally use frequent flyer points to book a lot of my travel, of which a large proportion come from credit cards.

I’d dearly love to help my international friends use the same tricks that I do. Unfortunately, the same opportunities to earn lots of points from credit card offers simply don’t exist in a lot of other countries.

At the time of writing, there are 16 Australian credit cards offering 100,000 or more frequent flyer points to new customers who sign up. Outside of North America, no other country has so many offers that are consistently this good. It’s not even close!

Australia’s credit card sign-up offers are very generous

One of the main reasons that Australians earn so many frequent flyer points is thanks to our robust and competitive credit card market. Even if you don’t spend millions of dollars a year with credit cards – as most people don’t – you can still earn lots of points from sign-up offers.

These offers are typically available to new customers who haven’t held a credit card with that bank for the past 12-24 months. To earn the bonus points, you would need to apply and be approved for the card, and usually spend a minimum amount within the first few months.

Most cards have an annual fee, although this is sometimes waived in the first year. And a small number of offers require you to keep the card open for at least a year to get the full suite of bonus points.

Of course, you shouldn’t apply for any credit card unless you plan to pay it off in full every month. Otherwise, the interest charges can really add up. It’s also not a good idea to apply for multiple cards at the same time, as this could affect your credit rating.

Current sign-up offers for Qantas Frequent Flyer points

Want to top up your Qantas Frequent Flyer points? There are currently many personal and Qantas business credit cards in Australia offering sign-up bonuses of at least 100,000 Qantas points!

You can see a list of the best current personal Qantas credit card offers in this article.

That’s more than enough points for a return Classic Reward flight in Qantas Economy Class from Melbourne or Sydney to Los Angeles (plus taxes & carrier charges).

Current sign-up offers for Velocity points

Right now, there are also several Australian credit cards offering sign-up bonuses of at least 100,000 Velocity Frequent Flyer points (or equivalent).

That’s more than enough points for a one-way Business Class ticket from Perth to Johannesburg, flying South African Airways.

Our list of the best current Velocity credit card offers has the details.

The sign-up bonus on the Amex Velocity Platinum card is particularly interesting because this card also comes with a complimentary annual return Virgin Australia flight.

Other current sign-up offers in Australia

There are many more sign-up bonus offers currently available on Australian credit cards where you can earn the equivalent of between 50,000-99,000 Qantas or Velocity Frequent Flyer points.

You could also sign up for the HSBC Star Alliance credit card and get a year’s worth of Star Alliance Gold status if you spend $4,000 on the card within 90 days. This card even has no annual fee in the first year (usually $499).

Credit card sign-up offers in the rest of the world

Outside of Australia, you can sometimes find even better credit card offers in the United States of America.

Indeed, some Australians are a bit jealous of the excellent US offers. This is evidenced by the more than 6,000 posts in AFF’s “how to get a US Amex card” thread. But compared to most of the rest of the world, the credit card offers available in Australia are still extremely good.

Outside of the USA and Australia, Canada sometimes has some good credit card sign-up offers as well. But even Canada doesn’t tend to have as many consistently generous sign-up bonuses as you would find in Australia.

Looking elsewhere, the top credit card sign-up bonuses available in the UK at the time of writing are for 25,000 British Airways Avios or 40,000 Amex Membership Rewards points.

The American Express Platinum card has among the highest-available sign-up bonus offers in most markets. In Switzerland, one of the wealthiest nations in Europe, the Amex Platinum sign-up bonus is currently 45,000 Membership Rewards points. Meanwhile, the Amex Platinum sign-up bonus in Germany is a €200 (~AU$331) credit.

In South Africa, new Amex Platinum cardholders can earn 30,000 Membership Rewards points. Saudi Arabia’s sign-up bonus is 25,000 points.

In the Netherlands, the Amex Platinum doesn’t even have a sign-up bonus points offer running at the moment. The Dutch American Express Flying Blue Platinum card, with a €660 (~AU$1,093) annual fee, has a sign-up bonus of just 10,000 Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles.

Some countries do have better everyday earn rates than Australia

Admittedly, the everyday earn rates on many of the credit cards available in other countries are higher than in Australia.

In Singapore, for example, the sign-up bonuses on most credit cards are typically lower than in Australia. However, cardholders earn more points for each dollar spent on their cards.

Since the Reserve Bank of Australia started regulating interchange fees in 2017, many Aussie banks have reduced the earn rates on their credit cards. Some Australian credit cards even now cap the number of points you can earn each month or year at the full rate. But the sign-up bonuses in Australia have only got better since then.

The unique credit card market in the Middle East

Of course, banks adapt their products to the local market. While the sign-up bonuses offered in places like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) aren’t typically as lucrative as here, the cards tend to offer a lot of other local benefits.

It’s not uncommon for people living in the UAE to have many different credit cards in their wallet. Many of these cards have no annual fee and earn few or no frequent flyer points. But they do offer some rather interesting and unique rewards such as:

• Free access to various beaches in Dubai
• Elite hotel status
• Airport lounge access
• 10% cashback on fuel
• 6% cashback at supermarkets
• 5% cashback at local online shopping retailers
• A free annual round of golf at an exclusive golf course
• Buy-one-get-one-free movie tickets on Sundays
• Gold class upgrades on the Dubai Metro

There are still some cards in the UAE market that offer bonus frequent flyer points or miles. Most of the bonus points offers are relatively low, but as an exception, there is one credit card with a current sign-up bonus of 200,000 Etihad Guest miles. That’s a great offer, although the annual fee on that particular card is also very high.