ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[Ibhayi]

Glad you said that as that's what my accountant told me. When I heard the other viewpoints here I thought I was missing out.

Mine phoned me last week and gave me a serve about it as well. I suppose I can't hit every ball out of the park.

 

[albyd]

I'd posted some time ago that I was in the process of getting a US credit card to (assuming I can manage the exchange rate risk) keep the dream alive now that our hobby is increasingly becoming a niche practice with Australian issued cards. I'v just received my Citi US Card - am quite pleased how relatively easy it was to get for a non-resident with an Australian billing address.

Just registered it for online banking & ready to go. Will do some tester payments to try to figure out the exchange rate. Not sure if I'm getting a bit too far OT here. Citi told me the relevant exchange rate is based on the rate on the day your charge posts to your account (generally a few days for the fiscal fiend) so that would leave you exposed for a few days. Is this the experience of others on this forum who have setup a US card? I don't have a US address, wan't able to add my card to my US iTunes account. Interested in any tips on how to handle these sorts of situations - again this may be OT so happy for a referral to the appropriate forum.

 

[hossein_au]

I'd posted some time ago that I was in the process of getting a US credit card to (assuming I can manage the exchange rate risk) keep the dream alive now that our hobby is increasingly becoming a niche practice with Australian issued cards. I'v just received my Citi US Card - am quite pleased how relatively easy it was to get for a non-resident with an Australian billing address.

Just registered it for online banking & ready to go. Will do some tester payments to try to figure out the exchange rate. Not sure if I'm getting a bit too far OT here. Citi told me the relevant exchange rate is based on the rate on the day your charge posts to your account (generally a few days for the fiscal fiend) so that would leave you exposed for a few days. Is this the experience of others on this forum who have setup a US card? I don't have a US address, wan't able to add my card to my US iTunes account. Interested in any tips on how to handle these sorts of situations - again this may be OT so happy for a referral to the appropriate forum.

Be mindful some Citi cards have 3% foreign transaction fee. Also, the available balance on the card is adjusted immediately (or very shortly) after a transaction. You can initiate an FX transfer from Aus to the US within an hour or so of paying ATO (to minimise your exposure to currency fluctuations).

 

[cove]

Our Citi US Visa cards have no foreign exchange fees at all. When I switch money to the US I get charged a fee by my receiving US Bank which you have to allow for as well as the cost of the money you use that is tied up in the process. I use either of Bell FX or Westpac FX dealing room to get super close to the market watch HiFx left hand side market figure on the US dollar.
Be aware that AA Miles are going to be devalued a bit in March so these miles may not be worth double a QF point going forward. Currently I am getting 0.717 AA Miles on my Land Tax bills so I am happy with that.
One family member is using his AA miles for Perth to Sydney or Melbourne in business class on Qantas so that works for him.

 

[albyd]

Be mindful some Citi cards have 3% foreign transaction fee. Also, the available balance on the card is adjusted immediately (or very shortly) after a transaction. You can initiate an FX transfer from Aus to the US within an hour or so of paying ATO (to minimise your exposure to currency fluctuations).

Thanks for the heads up hossein_au. I chose a Citi card that has no FX fees as i agree that would throw off the economics. So to ensure I've understood the process, Exchange Rate is determined when I make my transaction and won't be further adjusted on the "settlement" date when it posts to my account (generally with ATO been a few days later)? I have a Citi MasterCard - I've selected one of the ThankYou cards since that's their flexible rewards program. Not sure if it does things differently to Visa on the exchange rate front. Will do some small testers (just added ApplePay) before bringing it out for Prime Time.

Thanks for the heads up about Bell FX Cove, I'll give them a call - see if I can get a tighter spread now I can't use Interactive Brokers anymore (had 1 pip spread) but ASIC had to protect me from myself earlier this year so that's no longer available to Aussies.

 

[cove]

Last night I did get myself a new Visa card (subject to some paperwork) from an Australian bank. This one may prove to be a winner but it may take a couple of months to know if it is or not.
Let's think of this one as a work in progress.
Meanwhile I have zeroed most cards I use for ATO and land tax as December is a bit of a doozy.
When/if this all ends I will have to figure out what to do with all the spare time.

 

[hossein_au]

Thanks for the heads up hossein_au. I chose a Citi card that has no FX fees as i agree that would throw off the economics. So to ensure I've understood the process, Exchange Rate is determined when I make my transaction and won't be further adjusted on the "settlement" date when it posts to my account (generally with ATO been a few days later)? I have a Citi MasterCard - I've selected one of the ThankYou cards since that's their flexible rewards program. Not sure if it does things differently to Visa on the exchange rate front. Will do some small testers (just added ApplePay) before bringing it out for Prime Time.

Thanks for the heads up about Bell FX Cove, I'll give them a call - see if I can get a tighter spread now I can't use Interactive Brokers anymore (had 1 pip spread) but ASIC had to protect me from myself earlier this year so that's no longer available to Aussies.

Cove is the best person to answer your question regarding when transactions are considered settled for the purpose of FX calculations, as I do not have any recent first hand experience with this.

 

[cove]

Start with Bill Giffen in Bell FX. If you get him talk AFF talk as he travels to the US.
Citi use a fair exchange rate on the day of the transaction so if that is 0.7210 then say $30,000 ATO becomes 21630 on your Citi account plus the 0.42% fee. So less miles but worth about double QF points currently.
You then have time to beat that rate until the card payment is due or you could pay it fast to re-load within about 3 days.
Never put a US credit card into a large credit balance as that might trigger a banking review and that could be unhelpful if you are in Australia.

 

[albyd]

Hi Cove, thanks for the guidance - I'll get in touch with Bill to see how favourable a spread he can offer me. Sounds like mentioning AFF will be helpful in that conversation. Thanks also re the tip about putting my card well into credit. I'll just have to make smaller payments to my new facility until I earn a limit increase.

I'm assuming the new Visa you mentioned earlier might be a certain Bank's latest "Black" offering. Not sure I want to add QFF to my repertoire tho when booking an Asia Miles redemption last week, I did some dummy bookings on the QFF site - might be workable for a lowly "red" flyer like me. Beggars can't be choosers I guess.

 

[cove]

My Velocity red status has not been a problem when traveling in Australia on business class redemptions. Haven't got an ATO credit card for Velocity points but I can do lots of other payments to get points for flights with Virgin.

 

[simcat]

So to summarise what I think I have read over the last couple of pages about current available options (excluding fancy US based card approaches), it seems that BankWest and Qantas Credit Union are the main stayers for earning QFF points. Is anyone aware of any Velocity point earning options moving forward?

Cove, I presume you just referring to a high level of general expenditure above?

 

[cove]

The doozy number has some zeros in it simcat.
American Express Platinum Velocity is very expensive for ATO so I think of that one as being a dud.
NAB and Citi are out now for ATO.
Non ATO on some Citi credit cards will get you Velocity points.

 

[New Chump]

I am considering trading in my CBA Diamond card (had a great run, now RIP) for a CBA Business Platinum card.

$300 annual fee. $30 QF direct earn fee. It caps out at 300,000 CBA awards points per year, which is the killer. $1 spend on the CBA Plat Amex = 3 CBA awards points, which converts to 1.5 QF points, so it caps out at $100,000 maximum spend for 150,000 QF points each year.

Haven't decided if the cap is a deal breaker. Grateful for any views on this as an option, or the CBA Business Platinum card as a card.


NC

 

[ninja-tim]

Awww man, been away for AFF for a week or 2 and you miss out on so much news. Sad to see ANZ going Only had that for couple months and now hearing this news ain't cool. Was on CBA Plat previously and only had it for 6 months before it was enhanced. Not a good track record for me.

May have to ask CBA to swap my Plat to the Business Plat or get the Westpac Black for VA/KF. Is there anything else out there for VA/KF with reasonable points earn?

 

[RooFlyer]

So to summarise what I think I have read over the last couple of pages about current available options (excluding fancy US based card approaches), it seems that BankWest and Qantas Credit Union are the main stayers for earning QFF points. Is anyone aware of any Velocity point earning options moving forward?

Cove, I presume you just referring to a high level of general expenditure above?

I put my CBA Plat card earn to Velocity. The cap doesn't phase me, as I like to keep my tax paid to a minimum (and I'd like to thank all those high taxpayers who selflessly subsidise my lifestyle in Tasmania ). That said, I currently have more Velocity point's (and by extension, KrisFlyer points) than I know what to do with.

 

[Radio8tiv]

I noticed Macquarie has a black card, I have not seen that previously also the platinum still pays for ato from what I've read, the black card does not have the 200k limit the platinum does, this may be an option for those needing it moving forward, also see they have a 40k signup bonus.
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-promotions/macquarie-40k-for-99-a-72465.html

 

[cove]

That is a good pick up Radio8tiv. The game can continue.
At work we had a new banker appointed and the problem with business managers is they find the retail credit card side of their business to be hard work. One credit card limit came thru with a $6,000 increase after a 6 week wait and with a managers help.
The last 2 cards I have received sign on bonuses for have credit limits of $14,000 and $12,000 despite my partner having much higher limits with the same financials. Now my wife did message me with a ha ha when she realized she had a card with more than 5 times the credit limit. So it used to be the opposite where 5 years ago I would get the bigger limits.

 

[infinity]

I noticed Macquarie has a black card, I have not seen that previously also the platinum still pays for ato from what I've read, the black card does not have the 200k limit the platinum does, this may be an option for those needing it moving forward, also see they have a 40k signup bonus.
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-promotions/macquarie-40k-for-99-a-72465.html

Seems the Mac Rewards will only push to QF if you choose that format of the Black Card, Otherwise the standard Black card rewards don't allow a sweep to Velocity, Krysflyer etc

 

[james4321]

Noted this in T&C's:

Macquarie Reward Points are not earned in respect of the following amounts that may be charged to your Account: .........

Transactions made in operating a business or in connection with business expenditure

so this might limit the usefulness of these cards?

 

[infinity]

Noted this in T&C's:

Macquarie Reward Points are not earned in respect of the following amounts that may be charged to your Account: .........

Transactions made in operating a business or in connection with business expenditure



so this might limit the usefulness of these cards?

Do others have ATO experience with this card denying ATO spend points?