Best credit card with voucher rewards

Discussion in 'Money Management & Banking' started by sammmeee, 26th Aug, 2015.

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  1. sammmeee

    sammmeee Well-Known Member

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    Hi just seeing if anyone can recommend a credit card that is not a frequent flyer rewards based but offers vouchers.

    After finalising our tax I have realised we should be paying our investment bills using the card and paying off monthly. We shop at woollies and I just looked at the woolworths card...14000 points to earn $50 wheras hsbc has 10000 points to get $50 myer voucher.

    Any recommendations?
     
  2. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

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    We've got Westpac Black cards, one point per dollar Mastercard and three points per dollar Amex. I've got 450K points and have just been offered cash back of $1,550. This is less than if I take it as vouchers, so I have to think about whether I'm using points to buy something (or buy vouchers) that I don't need, or want to take the cash.

    We use the card for everything, pay it off every month so this is "free" money for us.

    Doesn't go anywhere near offsetting the interest we are paying to the bank though :(.
     
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  3. Bayview

    Bayview Well-Known Member

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    Gave up trying to use the CC for rewards stuff ages ago.

    Almost pointless, unless pretty much your whole life is on a CC..

    I saw a bloke on the teev some months ago who had done a study, and decided it was as above, pretty much.

    Basically, not worth the shopping around for new cards/close old ones etc for bugger-all benefit.

    But, I could be wrong?
     
  4. larrylarry

    larrylarry Well-Known Member

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    We have been using Westpac Black Mastercard and Amex as well. We just keep redeeming Bunnings vouchers. We are refinancing with St George now. Sigh.
     
  5. srirang

    srirang Well-Known Member

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    We've got ANZ cards as part of the breakfree package which gives you points. I've set it up so automatically redeems when it hits $50 and gets paid into the card. We use it for everything except groceries and fuel.

    For groceries and fuel, we use Coles No Annual Fee card that gives us flybuy points and gets redeemed at the stores when we use the card.

    Both cards paid off in full each month.
     
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  6. fullylucky

    fullylucky Well-Known Member

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    Master card or amex diamond card.

    master card gets you 2 points, amex gets you 3 pts per dollar spent, but not too many places accept amex without surchrage.

    Trade for 100$ fuel voucher is the best value for pts.

    Cash offer will almost always be the worst.

    You will find trading for charity gets higher yield $/pts but I think it's because they claim it off their tax as if they made the donation.
     
  7. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

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    I use my Amex a lot and most places I use it don't have a surcharge. If they do, I make a quick decision about whether I'm prepared to pay it, depending on the value of the purchase.
     
  8. fullylucky

    fullylucky Well-Known Member

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    almost all "investment bills" only accept savings transfers not cc payments.

    cc payments will attract surcharge or account processing fee which makes the pts not worth it.

    The only bill you can use is for water bill (for QLD not sure about other states).
     
  9. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

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    I've found that many places offering BPay will only accept payments from a savings account but if you go direct to the site itself, you can use credit.
     
  10. Andrew H

    Andrew H Well-Known Member

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    we use the commonwealth + commonwealth amex to build our points. I have done all the numbers and you have to be spending a bit to offset the annual premium (if you have one). Pay it off every month and its free money - minus the annual fee. We use the awards points mainly to pay for our holidays through the travel redeem option (flight centre).as its money we would spend anyway but is a good way of a forced saving without paying for it and rewarding ourselves at them same time. Personally if i was using it for vouchers i would probably not enjoy the use of it as much as holidays and the mrs loves the holidays! Free travel insurance comes with the Amex card. Also remember some things you buy on vouchers can be tax deductable anyway. Everyone is different, but money can be saved in all sorts of redeem awards options ONLY if you were going to spend it anyway and NEVER buy things just to "build points" you'll be ripping yoursef off hugely.
     
  11. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

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    I cannot imagine that anybody would buy things in order to build points :eek:

    That makes me think of one of the Kath & Kim episodes :p
     
  12. ADLInvestor

    ADLInvestor Well-Known Member

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    Use the Commbank Platinum Rewards card, as it's free on the wealth package and we pay the card off in full every month. So far paid for 2 return trips to Melbourne with points, and some fuel for the car.

    Not much, but considering it's basically 'free' then why not.
     
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  13. Tattler

    Tattler Well-Known Member

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    I have combination of Citibank Reward Signature Visa (got it for annual fee free for life offer) + Amex Platinum Edge Card. They both earn points which can be converted to vouchers.

    Personally though I always use credit card points for free international flights (for leisure only) for me and family. I get most value out of those points by using them for flights.

    I also have other cards that collects Qantas or Virgin Australia points.
     
  14. AaronR

    AaronR Well-Known Member

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    @kamchatsky has one of the best card combos in AUS, I would recommend that.

    If you're not interested in flying then you could consider "selling" flights to family or friends. You can use your points to book for other people. As an example, a business class flight to LA from Bris would be around 100k points. That flight in real money would be around $7k... so when you compare the redemption value to something like gift cards it's a no brainer.
     
  15. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    When I signed up for a new Amex merchant facility for PropertyChat, the discounted merchant fee I got was conditional on not charging a differentiated surcharge for Amex vs other cards (I can still charge a surcharge if I want - but I have to charge the same for all types of card if I want the discounted rate).

    I get the impression from some of the marketing material I've seen from Amex recently that they are pushing merchants to standardise their surcharges.
     
  16. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    If you are really into maximising your reward points - whether for flights or otherwise, check out The Australian Frequent Flyer Online Community - lots of good information there on credit card programs in addition to airline FF programs.
     
  17. Tattler

    Tattler Well-Known Member

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    Suncorp currently has an excellent offer for their Suncorp Clear Options Platinum Visa:

    http://www.suncorpbank.com.au/credit-cards/family-and-friends

    - Annual Fee Free for LIFE
    - Earn points for spending (can convert to voucher or airline points)
    - International Travel Insurance
    - 0% transfer offer

    The good thing is that it has low minimum credit limit ($6000) and the income qualification is low ($35000 per year).

    It is a rebadged Citibank Rewards Platinum Card.

    It is not as good as the Citibank Signature card no annual fee offer but that offer was last year. So this is probably the best one I have seen recently for permanent no annual fee offer card.