ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[serfty]

Sniip is increasing the surcharge for Amex payments to ATO and superannuation from 1.5% to 2%, from 1 March.

Late last year they increased payments using "Business Amex" cards. Here's those:

American Express Business payments
Transaction amount Processing fee
$0 – $99,999 2.19% (1.99% + GST)
$100,000 – $299,999 2.15% (1.95% + GST)
$300,000 – $499,999 2.09% (1.90% + GST)
$500,000 – $999,999 2.04% (1.85% + GST)+
$1,000,000 1.93% (1.75% + GST)

View attachment 302931

 

[am0985]

My usual annual points strategy is 4 x Qantas CCs churned a year and Tax/super paid through Amex/Sniip.

4 x Qantas CCs got me Points Club Plus per year which is quite a handy extra.

I think now it'll be 3 x Qantas CCs churned, tax/super through a low % Qantas Visa/MC platform (would clear PC+ threshold) and 1 x Velocity CC just to diversify points (good Etihad/Qatar availability and some SQ availability on Velocity)

 

[prozac]

...
Only program where it might still be worth it via Amex is Asia Miles as they still only charge 85k points with Cathay and 90k with other programs one way to/from Europe. With Amex Platinum this would be $1,520 in card fees - wouldn't be surprised to see this get devalued though.
...

I have 350k AM points with CX from a cancelled 2020 booking and having difficulty booking 2 Euro J returns. PM me if you have some great ideas on how to rebook to anywhere in western Europe.

 

[am0985]

Yeah, not worth it at 2%, I think.

Actually I'd forgotten how cheap Singapore's carrier charges were. $99 for MEL - LHR and $480 for LHR - MEL, largely because of UK's departure tax.

Given the good availability on KrisFlyer and potential for other programs on Amex I still think it's a decent shout - $5kish return business to London is still quite good!

 

[daft009]

pay extra before 28 feb to get 1.5% still!

 

[Cynicor]

Depending on interest/offset might not be worth it

 

[bullerdude]

pay extra before 28 feb to get 1.5% still!

If bpay bills, use payment logic that is currently charging 1.3% for Amex.

 

[daft009]

If bpay bills, use payment logic that is currently charging 1.3% for Amex.

They don't allow ATO

 

[DeKa]

Disaster about Sniip increasing the Amex charge.

There's no other option now is there? And even with Amex Platinum @ 1.125 airline points per dollar, 2% isn't really worth the points is it?

For those of us with Citi Premier with Diners, that gets close.
1.5% fee with Sniip for Diners
2 Citi points per dollar
1 KF point per dollar (not Citi point sorry typo)

 

[Cynicor]

1kf per $ or per citi point. I thought the conversion was closer to even 2:1 last time I checked.

 

[cove]

With both Qantas and Virgin gouging us on the points to redeem flights it isn’t currently worth it for us to run up points with either of them. Living in Perth makes it one of the more difficult cities to get a fair value deal.
We are currently able to use AA Miles on Qantas for flights to the east coast cheaper than going ATO way. We bought our last AA Miles during their Thanksgiving promo that lasted a few days at 50% rate.
Am about to pay several large tax bills by bank transfer which is sad.

 

[Cynicor]

With both Qantas and Virgin gouging us on the points to redeem flights it isn’t currently worth it for us to run up points with either of them. Living in Perth makes it one of the more difficult cities to get a fair value deal.
We are currently able to use AA Miles on Qantas for flights to the east coast cheaper than going ATO way. We bought our last AA Miles during their Thanksgiving promo that lasted a few days at 50% rate.
Am about to pay several large tax bills by bank transfer which is sad.

No SQ miles on Amex, Cove?

 

[ChrisFlyer]

For those of us with Citi Premier with Diners, that gets close.
1.5% fee with Sniip for Diners
2 Citi points per dollar
1 KF point per dollar (not Citi point sorry typo)

I thought the Citi:SQ conversion rate was 2.5:1 for Premier and Prestige (2:1 only for Citi:Velocity)?

On the basic Citi Rewards, Citi:SQ is 3:1 and Citi:VA is 2.5:1. Premier and Prestige have better conversion rates, but I don't think SQ is 2:1.

 

[Cynicor]

I thought the Citi:SQ conversion rate was 2.5:1 for Premier and Prestige (2:1 only for Citi:Velocity)?

On the basic Citi Rewards, Citi:SQ is 3:1 and Citi:VA is 2.5:1. Premier and Prestige have better conversion rates, but I don't think SQ is 2:1.

That's closer to my recollection

 

[ChrisFlyer]

That's closer to my recollection

If it's 2.5:1, it'd mean Diners is earning 0.8 SQ miles per $1 spent.

Of course, you could convert from Citi to Velocity at 2:1 (1 Velocity Point per $1 on Diners), and then from Velocity to SQ, but given the VA:SQ 1.55:1 rate, you'd end up with only 0.645 SQ miles per $1 spent (so better to convert direct to SQ).

 

[cove]

@Cynicor we still have plenty of St George Amplify points warehoused so we are both ok.
Mrscove likes both Qatar and Singapore Airlines.
With Qantas having dropped the ball we don’t use them for international.
I paid all of those fiscal fiend bills by funds transfer this morning.

 

[DeKa]

I thought the Citi:SQ conversion rate was 2.5:1 for Premier and Prestige (2:1 only for Citi:Velocity)?

On the basic Citi Rewards, Citi:SQ is 3:1 and Citi:VA is 2.5:1. Premier and Prestige have better conversion rates, but I don't think SQ is 2:1.

You’re right - so it’s 0.8 of a KF point per dollar not 1… of which likely isn’t worth it for KF. Might be for Velocity though.

 

[turnipapple]

Getting an error with using Beem and my NAB card today. Slide to pay --> verify your payment --> internal server error.

Edit: Tried again with $2000 and got the same error. Tried with $1,900 and it went through without the verify your payment button pop up.

 

[Franko Costa]

You’re right - so it’s 0.8 of a KF point per dollar not 1… of which likely isn’t worth it for KF. Might be for Velocity though.

Only other way to make it work with Amex is to transfer to points to US Amex card (but I assume that is for a select few here)

 

[suo03]

If I had $1M in taxes owing to the ATO, is there a logical best method for paying them with a credit card and earning points? I have a few different US Amex cards, and a CBA Ultimate Mastercard - but obviously happy to get other cards.