ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[cove]

I thought that I should give a US American Express card a shot just to see if it works out ok. Sure I have my doubts so I did a simple $10,000 Aussie to see. Amex US say that they have removed foreign exchange fees so I thought it was time to do a little tester.
Two US Visa cards were used within minutes of using that American Express card so the test being run is quite comparable. Now I booked US dollars to do the transfer of funds at 0.7121 using Westpac's dealing room seeing our homeland currency which is commodity based has been struggling. Pretty much all of the metals that Australia mine and export seem to have gone down.

 

[scheps]

How did it compare? Would have been interesting if a master was involved in that head to head as well

 

[cove]

I don't have a US MasterCard but in Australia I have been sharing it up. This month the ATO is large so I am using my brother and a son plus my wife and my own cards to get it all done. Of course this might be thought of as first world problems.
The other issue is this tax is due on 21st and my US Visa cards get auto paid on 22nd which is 23rd in Australia. I may try to bring the clearing date forward by a week so I can double dip in each month.
lt is time for a flight so I can use some of those points/ miles.

 

[Isochronous]

I have a US SSN from when I went there as part of an exchange/internship programme several years back. Wonder if I can leverage that to get a US CC

 

[legroom]

I have a US SSN from when I went there as part of an exchange/internship programme several years back. Wonder if I can leverage that to get a US CC

Need a credit history too brother

 

[burnt]

Just logged on to pay ATO and have just reviewed previous post re "lowering " of CC limit to $20K, but I have just counted the number of zero's ( on the Optus Smart pay web site and mine says the new limit is $20,000,000

Just need to get my limit increased?

 

[legroom]

Got my ANZ Black recently and started to say to myself ".. This is a reserve as the Westpac SQ card has better rate ..."

How wrong I was !

Both works out at 1:1 for KF (AMEX).

Bummer, no longer a reserve. Now it's in the first grade team.

 

[Eggsbenedict]

ANZ Black is 1.11 KF if you go though VA first

 

[docjames]

<redacted - worked out answer myself>

No earn on CBA card.

0.5ppd on Amex edge

 

[legroom]

Can't edit my post on iPhone anymore

I was incorrect about the Westpac transfer rate.

My card is a Platinum which give an 'enhanced' rate of 1.25 - previously 1.5

The choice is 1:1 (or 1.11 via VA) with ANZ warehouse or 1.25 direct sweep with Westpac with 3-yr clock.

Decisions

Decisions

 

[cove]

Ok the US Amex cost more both in processing fees and exchange rate (same day processing as two US Visa cards) so I won't bother doing that going forward. The Citi US Visa is a winner for us. I wonder if I can get my sons a card each?

 

[pgsdiver]

Cove, Even if we can't come close to matching your shenanigans, your card juggling is both legendary and very entertaining to hear about.
Rgds,
Peter

 

[legroom]

Ok the US Amex cost more both in processing fees and exchange rate (same day processing as two US Visa cards) so I won't bother doing that going forward. The Citi US Visa is a winner for us. I wonder if I can get my sons a card each?

I'm here in the USA visiting my relatives and one of the tasks I achieved was to sign them up for the Citi AA Privilege Visa cards.

Upon opening their AA accounts, there is an automatic link to the said card. Clicking that would fill the application with all details you just entered for the AA accounts. Quite neat !

Man, $95 annual fee (waived for the first year) with 50,000 bonus sign up !

 

[BillytheFIsh]

Can't edit my post on iPhone anymore

I was incorrect about the Westpac transfer rate.

My card is a Platinum which give an 'enhanced' rate of 1.25 - previously 1.5

The choice is 1:1 (or 1.11 via VA) with ANZ warehouse or 1.25 direct sweep with Westpac with 3-yr clock.

Decisions

Decisions

The ANZ should be starting this month with the 15% VA bonus even if you drop it to the bench next month.

3 ANZ pt/$ = 1.725 VA/$ and warehouse there

Transfer over to SQ when needed = ~1.28 SQ/$ with no expiry (subject to having some VA activity and the VA/SQ deal holding strong).

 

[BillytheFIsh]

Personally, I've been making maximum use of the 15% bonus this month to collect 1.15 VA pts/$ through ANZ Black Visa at the tidy rate of ~0.37 c/pt. [I did pretty well out of the recent VA Amex promo, so cheap points, rather than max points are my favourite at the moment.]

I did put a bit through my WOW MC and JQ MC last month to top up some QF points that I used recently as well.

 

[cove]

Very good legroom this is a winner. Are you bringing one back to use?
I know someone who has done this to get family AA miles.

 

[hossein_au]

Very good legroom this is a winner. Are you bringing one back to use?
I know someone who has done this to get family AA miles.

I had one. Good card but first anniversary was coming up so I cancelled it 2-3 weeks ago. I had not used it at all here as I do not have any PAYG I can pay myself :-(

Edit: Do you guys know how long I have to wait before I am eligible for the bonus again?

 

[cove]

Billy that works well getting a 15% uplift.
Don't know on cancelling US cards to get a second bonus. Your new application may get coated in unobtainium.
The cost of running up AA miles using Citi is quite modest so I am not contemplating any change.
A new Bankwest World card may be winging it's way to our mailbox....they said 5 days. This card needs an invitation.

 

[hossein_au]

Billy that works well getting a 15% uplift.
Don't know on cancelling US cards to get a second bonus. Your new application may get coated in unobtainium.
The cost of running up AA miles using Citi is quite modest so I am not contemplating any change.
A new Bankwest World card may be winging it's way to our mailbox....they said 5 days. This card needs an invitation.

I still have an old US Airways (Barclays) card which now earns AA points. I figured I can always reapply for the Citi, but Barclays card is closed to new applications.

 

[cove]

I had the application forms for those US Airways credit cards sitting on my desk for about a year and I didn't fill them out due to the merger proposal getting announced between US Air and American Airlines.
The best things about the US Citi card is the exchange rate and the miles earn rate on a Visa. Then I can tell you the Citi phone in help desk was wonderful as I had to increase my credit limit and that proved to be easy.
My US FICO score has soared as I have all my US credit cards on Auto Pay to avoid any issues of missing something.
I cleared the balances on 3 Australian credit cards as I still have some ATO to go this month.