Credit card rewards from cards in other countries

[dcw]

Why is it that credit cards in other countries (e.g. United States) seem to have vastly better offers/rewards compared to Australia, both in terms of sign-up bonuses and ongoing rewards?
On the other hand, it seems the UK generally has slightly worse offers/rewards compared to Australia.

Is it a function of the level of merchant fees? Is banking competition tougher?

Grateful for everyones thoughts.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Bigger population base is a factor.

 

[cove]

Our merchant fee in Australia for Visa or MasterCard is a little over 1.0% but in the US it would be over 2.0% for the same sized business.

 

[Mark3000]

How about Amex?
We tried to buy a treadmill on Amex and the store owner said Amex charges him 4% is it really that much? What would Amex charge in the U.S.?

 

[Mal]

Completely different markets. The range of the cards in the UK is much better, but you do tend to get 1/£ (as an example) rather than 1/$

There are EU rules being brought in which is slowly destroying the benefits of visa and mastercard due to caps on interchange fees.

But, overall sign-up bonuses are good and many premium cards are free.

 

[marki]

Once had an Amex Centurion in Germany, it was underwhelming for it's offerings. Not many places accepted the card either where everything likes cash.

 

[Isochronous]

HK has very few sign up bonuses which is disappointing. Not sure about Singapore.

 

[dajop]

HK has very few sign up bonuses which is disappointing. Not sure about Singapore.

Singapore is not big on sign up bonuses either, sometimes a modest 10k with a certain spend in first few months. They do have gimmicks though, with giveaways ranging from suitcases, to shopping vouchers to bags of rice!

However there are lots of ongoing bonuses and no significant disadvantage for Visa. On my card I get 1.2 miles per SGD (which is at the moment more or less 1 AUD) on local spend and 2 miles per $ on foreign spend. Also getting 3 miles per $ on foreign spend during long weekends with min of $1k during the long weekend (great time to pay ATO, councils rates and water bills in Australia) and 6 mile per $ for spend through Expedia. And other cards have different bonuses or other perks. We have an ANZ card that gives free limo vouchers to or from airport as well, for min spend in a month.

So what you miss out on in sign up bonuses you get on ongoing spend. Certainly more encouraging of loyalty than churn.