Best Qantas CC for an overseas Aussie who is returning home temporarily?

[Katalyze]

I'm returning to Australia temporarily and but haven't lived in Australia for almost two years but grew up in Melbourne (citizen).
I'll be doing a lot of travelling, restaurants, shopping etc so will spend a decent amount of the money I have in my Australian bank accounts. I was hoping to find a CC that will give Qantas rewards, or some sort of benefit. But since I don't earn an income in Australia I'm confident I'll get rejected by any of the platinum/black rewards cards due to the income requirement. What would people reckon would be the best option? Or should I just get an UP card?

 

[lilkid28]

Or get a CC overseas where you are now, which has reward points and no Intl forex fee

 

[Katalyze]

Or get a CC overseas where you are now, which has reward points and no Intl forex fee

I need to use the money in my Australian bank account

 

[blacksultan]

I need to use the money in my Australian bank account

Transfer to the US by using wise etc

 

[Zero]

I am in a similar situation (will be moving back to Aus permanently later this year, but a few extended visits first, to look for property etc)

I've gone for the HSBC debit card which gives 2% cashback on contactless transactions under $100. They will open the account from overseas and deliver the card to you, or you can walk into a branch (of which there aren't that many) and they can send the card to your accommodation in 2 business days, they don't ask for proof of address or anything, just passport/DL.

Basically all restaurants are now adding card surcharges which (despite the law) are often not advertised in advance - POS terminals which calculate and tell you the fee only after you tap a card are becoming dominant.

Using a foreign card is not the answer, yesterday I saw a foreign card getting charged 4.8% !!!

So unless not using cash is a badge of honour for you, you need to be careful with rewards credit cards to make sure the points you earn are worth paying the card fee, at least at food places - fees are still rare at other shops.

Meanwhile, 2% cashback more than cancels out card fees on local cards so I don't need to think about it. The only annoying thing is hotels, of which many don't take cash so I've been making them split my payments into lots of $99 and letting me tap, and often they get surprised that the system waives their card surcharge this way rather than using the card-not-present charging.