ANZ Launches AMEX/VISA Qantas Card - Changes to points earn on VISA

[Keith009]

I going with the NAB gold visa which earns 0.66 points per dollar. So I have not trouble with cancelling the ANZ card when the intro 2.25 points per dollar on the AMEX ends on 28 March

Hmm good point. I've overlooked the NAB Gold option. However the annual fee is a wee bit higher than the basic ANZ FF card I'm currently using. Worth it for the higher earn rate I suppose? I don't anticipate to put more than $3000 to the card each month.

 

[AviationNZ]

Hmm good point. I've overlooked the NAB Gold option. However the annual fee is a wee bit higher than the basic ANZ FF card I'm currently using. Worth it for the higher earn rate I suppose? I don't anticipate to put more than $3000 to the card each month.

I'm sure if you went to NAB and told them you were thinking of changing, they'd be willing to overlook the annual fee for the first year to get you onboard.

 

[MAX_1]

I don't anticipate to put more than $3000 to the card each month.

I would consider a CitiBusiness Gold Card as an option.
$130 a year. 1.25 per $1 earn

CitiBusiness Gold - Citibank Australia

Capped at 60,000 points = $48,000 = av spend $4000 a month
I have been told that the cap is 80,000 points but have not had this confirmed.
Read the fine print T&C and see that there is a 5000 bonus point for the first spend and also how points are sent to Qantas. Travel Insurance covered but to what extent not sure.

 

[Keith009]

I would consider a CitiBusiness Gold Card as an option.
$130 a year. 1.25 per $1 earn

CitiBusiness Gold - Citibank Australia

Capped at 60,000 points = $48,000 = av spend $4000 a month
I have been told that the cap is 80,000 points but have not had this confirmed.
Read the fine print T&C and see that there is a 5000 bonus point for the first spend and also how points are sent to Qantas. Travel Insurance covered but to what extent not sure.

Would they care whether I actually own a business?

The other reason why I'm so hesitant is because ANZ provides the best service out of the major banks I've been with. NAB in comparison (I have Gold Banking and Ubank with them) is dire, and Citibank is the same from what I've heard (boyf used to have a credit card account with them).

 

[hedge]

Nope, they dont care if you own a business or not. I use the citibusiness card currently. It's quite good except my CFD provider doesn't accept it

 

[medhead]

Hmm good point. I've overlooked the NAB Gold option. However the annual fee is a wee bit higher than the basic ANZ FF card I'm currently using. Worth it for the higher earn rate I suppose? I don't anticipate to put more than $3000 to the card each month.

Ahh sorry i should have mentioned that I owe NAB lots of money so i get the gold visa fee free*. I also fine the service to be ok, maybe because I own them and they look after me. Usually just ring my banker and tell them what I want and they do it. But the service was terrible when I was wageing my one man war against the IVR.

You have gold banking, can you free gold visa debit card be a qantas one?


*if you don't count the package fee and $20k+ that I pay in interest a year.

 

[DontGetMeStarted]

I just asked ANZ if I could link my American Express Card to my internet banking so that I could pay my monthly bills (use the plat visa at the moment) as the Visa card earn will drop to .5 points from March 1st and AE will be 1 (currently getting 2) and the answer was no..I was a bit taken a back but apparantly the Visa is the primary card and no way will they list the American Express card for easier use..anyone else experienced this.

 

[greenfrog86]

I just asked ANZ if I could link my American Express Card to my internet banking so that I could pay my monthly bills (use the plat visa at the moment) as the Visa card earn will drop to .5 points from March 1st and AE will be 1 (currently getting 2) and the answer was no..I was a bit taken a back but apparantly the Visa is the primary card and no way will they list the American Express card for easier use..anyone else experienced this.

This is common amongst many of the banks with quite old core banking systems that were never designed for Amex, let alone to manage two cards on the one account.
Most banks have run major projects to introduce such products, and have to work within their system limitations.

Westpac also uses the MC as the primary card without showing details of the Amex.

There is nothing stopping you from using your Amex to pay bills however...just a q though - how are you paying your bills through IB on your card? If its BPay, wouldn't they be cash advances?

 

[DontGetMeStarted]

I try to avoid BillPay because of the charges but places like Optus etc I have set up and pay each month, your right though I can just call them and pay over the phone it was more for the convenience and as this crd is virtually pushed on to you I think the banks could be a bit more accommodating, maybe when its renewal time I will have a look round for something more user friendly but we use the travel insurance on the platinum card so I guess we are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 

[greenfrog86]

I try to avoid BillPay because of the charges but places like Optus etc I have set up and pay each month, your right though I can just call them and pay over the phone it was more for the convenience and as this crd is virtually pushed on to you I think the banks could be a bit more accommodating, maybe when its renewal time I will have a look round for something more user friendly but we use the travel insurance on the platinum card so I guess we are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

A few points to consider

• you didn't need to accept the Amex card
• I'm not sure what you consider 'user' friendly - the new Amex cards operate in the same way...you just can't see the account number in internet banking
• I still don't understand how you were paying bill before - with bills, you just request the merchant to charge your card when your bill is due. Just give them the Amex no instead of the Visa no
• You will find that if you want Qantas points and Plat level travel insurance, Citibank Visa Plat is prob the only card left in the market that you could swap to

• The banks physically cannot do anything about the Amex card issue you are talking about - if you want to use it, you need to deal with the system limitations that exist...

 

[medhead]

A few points to consider

• you didn't need to accept the Amex card

That's right we didn't have to accept the AMEX but what would be the point of not accepting it. The point earn on the visa was cut if you accepted the AMEX or not. Despite what some CSR from ANZ tried to tell me. They also pushed the AMEX strongly onto me with an offer of a bonus points. So now with the AMEX I'm earning 2.25 points per dollar until the end of March.

By not accepting the AMEX what would I have gained. Nothing I would actually loss bonus points.

 

[chrisb]

The point earn on the visa was cut if you accepted the AMEX or not. Despite what some CSR from ANZ tried to tell me.

Mine wasn't - I'm still on 1:1 on the Qantas Gold Card after rejecting their Amex offer and complaining about it.

 

[medhead]

Mine wasn't - I'm still on 1:1 on the Qantas Gold Card after rejecting their Amex offer and complaining about it.

And you have a loan with ANZ?

Because I tried that and they weren't interested and I don't have a loan. I even offered to more a coupel of my mortgages to ANZ, they weren't interested. Also if you go back in the thread there are others who have a loan and their earng rate didn't change. I

 

[chrisb]

And you have a loan with ANZ?

Ahh yeah I do.

 

[Harpoon]

I didn't realise but I was eligible for a Gold Amex card with no harm to my Gold Visa card.

Same rewards earn rate on Visa 1:1 up to $2500.
Same yearly fee
Just an additional Amex with 1:1 for unlimited purchases instead of capped at $2500

So I'm happy.... UNTIL I ring all of my utilities etc to get direct debit changed over to the amex while I have bonus points (might as well) but only 1 of them (Telstra) out of prolly half a dozen take amex.

Sigh.

Amex is bloody annoying. More places need to accept it.

 

[markis10]

Amex is bloody annoying. More places need to accept it.

More places don't accept it because of the higher fees charged, which in turn pay for those extra FF points.

 

[Emkay]

I knocked back the original ANZ offer to add an ANZ FF Gold AMEX card to my existing ANZ FF Visa Gold last September, even though they were offering no change to my current 1 pt/$ (up to $2500/mth, dropping to 0.5 pts/$ above $2500), on the Visa, and 1.25 pts/$ uncapped on the Amex.

As I am a 'Breakfree' ANZ customer, I would have been able to avoid the cut to 0.5 pts/$ on all the Visa spend that people without a loan had to cop if they accepted the deal. Under Breakfree, I get my Line of Credit (investment loan) account, my credit card and my Access Advantage 'fee-free' transaction account for a single annual fee of $340 - going up to $375/yr soon. Was $295/yr when I first joined up for Breakfree about 8 years ago.

Last week ANZ upped the ante, when I received an offer to upgrade to an ANZ FF Platinum Amex+Visa a/c at no additional cost to my annual Breakfree fee. The ANZ FF Plat Amex earns 1.5 pts/$ uncapped and the ANZ FF Visa Plat earns 1pt/$ up to $2500/mth and 0.5 pts/$ beyond that, same as my current Visa Gold. No bonus points offered on the first x months Amex spend, this time around.

I am somewhat inclined to accept this time.

For the past few years I have run up about $2500/mth on the ANZ FF Visa Gold, on transactions that I can't use an Amex card on (or where the vendor will slug me too much extra to use Amex). I have put all possible transactions (averaging a few more $000/month) on a real Amex Qantas FF Ultimate card, earning 1.5 pts/$ uncapped, for which I pay $395/yr (except on occasional years when I suggest I might cancel it).

So, do I have a real opportunity to save myself $395/yr with the latest ANZ offer?

What would I lose by cancelling the real Amex and accepting the ANZ Amex + Visa bundle?

1) I never trust the 'free' travel insurance offered with the real Amex, nor would I rely on the policy provided with the new ANZ bundle, so I buy an annual travel ins policy each year from TID at $354, which also covers my wife when she travels with me.

2) I would definitely lose my free annual return flight from Brisbane to Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide, worth probably about $250 or so.

3) From other posts, I gather I would lose the ability to track online my purchases on the ANZ Amex card - is this so?

Any other traps for the unwary, you wary, wiley ole FFers?

Regards, Emkay

 

[medhead]

Thanks for sharing you situation. I'd suggest that as the card was part of the package all along that there wasn't much reason for you not to accept. But it does sound loke they have offerred to put you on the deal that a new card customer would get. But then as it is part of the package that is what they whould have offerred you to start with.

I'm on the same type of package with NAB. So not a lot of reason for me to keep the ANZ card under the new arrangement. NAB gold earns 0.66 points per $ not 0.5.

As I am a 'Breakfree' ANZ customer, I would have been able to avoid the cut to 0.5 pts/$ on all the Visa spend that people without a loan had to cop if they accepted the deal.

One little correction here, this person without a loan was getting cut to 0.5 points per $ regardless of whether I accepted the AMEX or not. It would have been stupid for me not to take the bonus points bribe, especially as I'd just paid my annual fee.

 

[Jacques Vert]

I would consider a CitiBusiness Gold Card as an option.
$130 a year. 1.25 per $1 earn

CitiBusiness Gold - Citibank Australia

Capped at 60,000 points = $48,000 = av spend $4000 a month
I have been told that the cap is 80,000 points but have not had this confirmed.
Read the fine print T&C and see that there is a 5000 bonus point for the first spend and also how points are sent to Qantas. Travel Insurance covered but to what extent not sure.

Does anyone know if you can you change from a Citi Platinum Visa to Citibusiness and take your existing rewards points with you ? I have been told that I can't transfer my existing points to QFF; only those earned after I pay an extra fee of $49.

JV

 

[Dalescott]

Ditched it for the Citi Emirates Mastercard, better point.