Credit Cards helped us get First Class tickets - A big thank you

[JohnK]

Congrats Lawrage, we are all nuts aren't we...... :mrgreen:

In different ways.

 

[Scash]

Well done Lawrage. We recently did EK F SIN BNE. Short flight but what an experience. Mrs was a bit the same saying why waste the points on one flight but now that she’s done it…. Looking to accumulate more cards/points for a Europe trip 2018.

 

[tizey]

Congrats mate - and dont worry about being the butt of family jokes... eventually they cotton on and ask 'so how exactly did you manage this? Is this something I could do?' Mine did - first it was mum (Business to Europe, First on way home for cost of economy ticket she was going to buy anyway), and brother & sister in law Business to Vietnam, First on way home for less than economy was going to cost). Dad & inlaws are next. Harder to do with retirees is the problem... still learning and reading how to make this all work.

I'm relatively new to this caper also - kicking off in July this year. 11 cards in total for the two of us so far (1 more in pipeline when we return in January), and we'll have mustered up enough points for the both of us for the next 3-4 years of trips to be able to slow the credit card churn rate down to a more sustainable 'going to apply for a second home loan in a few years so dont completely destroy the credit rating' type rate. First trip (SQ J, return in SQ F) departs next week..... excited is an understatement!

The challenge I set myself is to off-set the annual fees with Amex Promos/Credits/Balance Transfers/Flight Credits - Across those 11 cards the annual fees total approx $4,400, to which I'm currently out of pocket only $1,450. If I can fully offset the cost of the cards, I dont really care about paying higher taxes/YQ as I'm still flying cheaper than I otherwise would have been buying Y seats!

 

[Jack_OC]

For me the debate is still out on this one but so far it doesn't seem that Veda scores are as big of a deal as some people make them out to be. I will say that we have no plans to apply for any home or car loans in the near future so am not worried where my score is at the moment but lets just say its pretty damn low

Awesome work Lawrage - hope you enjoy the rewards now!

Just one comment on the point above. You say you have no plans to apply for a home/car loan in the near future, but you also mentioned that you have an existing home loan. A low credit score could essentially lock you in to that loan - that's fine if it has a market leading rate & fees, and if it stays that way in the future, and if you don't want to or need to refinance for some other reason (e.g. move house due to unexpected change in circumstances). I'm not trying to pry into your own personal circumstances here, I'm just raising this as something for people in general to consider, as getting stuck with an uncompetitive home loan could cost a very serious amount of money over the years. And being unable to move home if you need to could be an even bigger issue. That said, lots of people have low credit scores and never got First Class flights to Europe out of it!

As a matter of interest, are you able to share any details on the effect that this has had on your Veda score? I'm not necessarily asking you to tell us what your score is (or was), but could you give an indication of how much it has fallen by per month (and/or per new card)? I'm just trying to gauge how far down this path I can go without causing too much damage to my score!

On a related note, the AFF summary of this thread states "One recommendation is to set a credit limit when applying for a new card. This limits the impact on your credit rating", but that doesn't seem to quite match up with what you said. You just said the higher credit limit was an issue when applying for more cards as you felt you had to declare those limits to other banks. Anyway, could you clarify if higher limits actually had a bigger impact on your Veda score? My impression was that doesn't make a difference, but I could be wrong.

 

[pugwombat]

Oooooh. Flights right up the front of the plane. I'm sold. I've just signed up for 100k points with Amex. Now I'll cancel some non performing cards and transfer some Acquire points and get a Woolies card and ... maybe wait and hope. Maybe get some more cards too.. now which were the good ones to get? Nothing compared to 100k starter points.

 

[cgichard]

Harder to do with retirees is the problem...

Yes, there is no way I can satisfy the income requirement now for any new card I look at. Must just ensure that I retain my ANZ Amex/Visa Platinum combo and be grateful for the travel insurance cover.

 

[mickjoebill]

What evidence is required for proof of income?

Mickjoebill

 

[Jack_OC]

What evidence is required for proof of income?

Mickjoebill

It depends. Sometimes none, sometimes payslips/tax returns, and/or a phone call to your employer. In most cases you won't know until after you apply, but some card issuers seem to be more likely to ask for evidence than others. Citibank (who also issue some cards under different brands) are in my experience very strict on this.

 

[Lawrage]

What evidence is required for proof of income?

Mickjoebill

There isnt one real answer on this but having 2 pay slips will please most.

For us, some have asked for no proof of income, some just needed 2 payslips and one wanted to call our employer.

 

[mickjoebill]

I would hope that as significant spending power moves into retirement pensions that the balance of a pension pot will be relevant to those applying who are retired.

Mickjoebill

 

[unfunkable]

Ain't nothing wrong with being a points hound!

 

[serfty]

Well done!

Now you need to learn to work with drip feed points - Signup bonuses can't keep going for ever ...

TIP: Every opportunity you see to add to you reward pool(s) for no (or little¹) additional expenditure then do it.

½K here, 1K there, 2K over there - it all adds up.

¹

My basic rule is if < 1¢ per point then go for it (no-brainer), < 1½¢ per point then think about it (what the heck!), < 2½¢ per point then think about it carefully (can I use them?) and over that then REALLY think about it. (With that last one, perhaps a $50 expenditure for, say 1500 points might get you over the line for an an award you are targeting AND there is no other way imminent, then it can make sense, otherwise no.)

 

[Lawrage]

Awesome work Lawrage - hope you enjoy the rewards now!

Just one comment on the point above. You say you have no plans to apply for a home/car loan in the near future, but you also mentioned that you have an existing home loan. A low credit score could essentially lock you in to that loan - that's fine if it has a market leading rate & fees, and if it stays that way in the future, and if you don't want to or need to refinance for some other reason (e.g. move house due to unexpected change in circumstances). I'm not trying to pry into your own personal circumstances here, I'm just raising this as something for people in general to consider, as getting stuck with an uncompetitive home loan could cost a very serious amount of money over the years. And being unable to move home if you need to could be an even bigger issue. That said, lots of people have low credit scores and never got First Class flights to Europe out of it!

As a matter of interest, are you able to share any details on the effect that this has had on your Veda score? I'm not necessarily asking you to tell us what your score is (or was), but could you give an indication of how much it has fallen by per month (and/or per new card)? I'm just trying to gauge how far down this path I can go without causing too much damage to my score!

On a related note, the AFF summary of this thread states "One recommendation is to set a credit limit when applying for a new card. This limits the impact on your credit rating", but that doesn't seem to quite match up with what you said. You just said the higher credit limit was an issue when applying for more cards as you felt you had to declare those limits to other banks. Anyway, could you clarify if higher limits actually had a bigger impact on your Veda score? My impression was that doesn't make a difference, but I could be wrong.

Thanks Jack3193.

This is just from what has happened to us, am sure everyone will have a slightly different experience.

On the Veda score part, I am only not concerned at this stage as like I mentioned we have no plans on getting a new home loan in the next 1-2 years and as we both have cars that we wont be replacing in the next 2 years either. If either of these weren't the case I would have possibly been a bit more cautious (possibly).

Our home loan is with one of the big 4 and we have no plans on changing, we have on numerous occasions over the years got our broker to get the rate reduced as interest rates were falling, every time they obliged and reduced it for us without issue. I signed up for the 100k black card with the same bank last month and they approved me no problem with a score of < 500.

I don't really know what my score was back in August as I was new to the whole CC churning world but from a car loan a few years back it was sitting at ~800 back then and with no CC applications since I can only imagine it was higher. I do know that a month in is was in the high 600's and has since dropped further.

My score in November was 480, it jumped back up to 506 as at 1 December however I just applied for the ANZ Travel card 2 days ago and saw a hit on my account last night so assume they are processing that now and when the next statement comes through it will be back in the high 400's.

Something I found interesting was that not all my card applications show up on my Veda file and the ones that do don't always match the credit given to me. Citi for example hit my score with a credit limit of some 5k more than what they actually gave me.

Not sure if this helps or not but I applied for the Amex Plat Charge last month, even with my score at < 500, approved on the spot, no issues, no proof of income. Compare that to the first card I applied for back in August asked for income proof, Tax statement and scanned copy of my Drivers.

I'm sure I will get a rejection one of these days, until then i'm going to keep at it.

We really need a clearer picture of how Veda is used as it seems its just a guessing game at the moment. Or its just that the banks value income / ability to repay more.

The higher limits thing was more to do with the applications rather than Veda. Say bank A gives me a 40k limit and bank B gives 60k. When I apply to bank C I need to declare that I have 100k in CC debt in the "Do you have other credit cards and what are their limits" questions, they will take this total amount and work out what is costs to service that loan. With enough potential CC debt you will have a harder time getting future applications approved. Id rather put down the minimum say 9k instead of 100k.

 

[Lawrage]

Well done!

Now you need to learn to work with drip feed points - Signup bonuses can't keep going for ever ...

TIP: Every opportunity you see to add to you reward pool(s) for no (or little¹) additional expenditure then do it.

½K here, 1K there, 2K over there - it all adds up.

¹

My basic rule is if < 1¢ per point then go for it (no-brainer), < 1½¢ per point then think about it (what the heck), < 2½¢ per point then think about it carefully (can I use them) and over that then REALLY think about it. (With that last one, perhaps a $50 expenditure for, say 1500 points might get you over the line for an an award you are targeting AND there is no other way imminent, then it can make sense, otherwise no.)

Couldn't agree with this more.

One thing I didn't know until recently is simple things like eBay as we buy quite a few things from them is if you login via the Qantas site you get 1ppt for $ spent. So buying on eBay this way and paying with the Amex you get 1 Qantas point and 2 Amex points for every $ we spend there.

There are so many little things that make a big difference over time.

 

[Jack_OC]

Thanks Lawrage, very useful. I agree that the whole use of Credit Scores is still generally a mystery.

Our home loan is with one of the big 4 and we have no plans on changing, we have on numerous occasions over the years got our broker to get the rate reduced as interest rates were falling, every time they obliged and reduced it for us without issue.

I wonder though, did they check your credit score before reducing your rate? Because if I was them, and you had a low credit score, which meant you were going to have a hard time getting a loan anywhere else, then I would not be particularly likely to reduce your rate! Also - off topic but just in case it's of interest - by moving away from the Big 4 a few years ago, we reduced our rate by about 0.6% compared to the rate that our bank was willing to offer after we threatened to move, which in itself was well below their best advertised discounted rate. The new loan was also fee free. That has saved us several thousand $ a year since, although I gather the Big 4 offer different deals depending on the customer, so you might have a much better deal than we were offered.

Something I found interesting was that not all my card applications show up on my Veda file and the ones that do don't always match the credit given to me. Citi for example hit my score with a credit limit of some 5k more than what they actually gave me.

Yeah I've seen that too. My most recent card is from ANZ - they did an enquiry for a limit of $50k, which I certainly didn't request, and it's also way higher than the limit they granted me. I assume they just have a fixed amount that they enquire on for each product.

The higher limits thing was more to do with the applications rather than Veda. Say bank A gives me a 40k limit and bank B gives 60k. When I apply to bank C I need to declare that I have 100k in CC debt in the "Do you have other credit cards and what are their limits" questions, they will take this total amount and work out what is costs to service that loan. With enough potential CC debt you will have a harder time getting future applications approved. Id rather put down the minimum say 9k instead of 100k.

Yeah that's what I thought. Just FYI, to the best of my knowledge, credit card providers have no way of knowing what limits you have on cards from other providers (if you don't tell them ).

 

[Buzzard]

Congratulations and well done Lawrage. The time you must have taken with your post is much appreciated.
I'm yet to do an F but have a couple booked for next year so I share your excitement.

 

[Bindibuys]

Well done. Unfortunately there is a down side.

The missus may not want to go business again, and as for economy ... fergetaboudit! :shock:

Back on the points earning hamster wheel for you

Oh, ABSOLUTELY!!! treated my husband to 3 first class flights and 8 in business on this years holiday. (850,000 points) he just glares at me if if even mention "Y".
Back on the earning hamster wheel for me.

 

[Bindibuys]

The Veda score is interesting. Both mine and hubbys are just shy of 1000. We get a report every month from them. Getting more cards would not go down well with his "accountants hat" on, but if it keeps working for you - go for it.

 

[Dr Ralph]

The Veda score is interesting. Both mine and hubbys are just shy of 1000. We get a report every month from them. Getting more cards would not go down well with his "accountants hat" on, but if it keeps working for you - go for it.

Mine is a LOT lower than 1000 and I've not yet been refused a card. I'd average 12 card applications a year.

 

[Lawrage]

I wonder though, did they check your credit score before reducing your rate? Because if I was them, and you had a low credit score, which meant you were going to have a hard time getting a loan anywhere else, then I would not be particularly likely to reduce your rate! Also - off topic but just in case it's of interest - by moving away from the Big 4 a few years ago, we reduced our rate by about 0.6% compared to the rate that our bank was willing to offer after we threatened to move, which in itself was well below their best advertised discounted rate. The new loan was also fee free. That has saved us several thousand $ a year since, although I gather the Big 4 offer different deals depending on the customer, so you might have a much better deal than we were offered.

Just had a look through my Veda report and there is no hits on there for the interest fee reductions, there are some on there for a lot of other things they have done for us.

I've often been tempted to move away but am pretty loyal with my banking, not sure why.

Yeah I've seen that too. My most recent card is from ANZ - they did an enquiry for a limit of $50k, which I certainly didn't request, and it's also way higher than the limit they granted me. I assume they just have a fixed amount that they enquire on for each product.

Looks like it was ANZ who did the 50k for us as well even though I specified the minimum for the card, every other bank was either the limit applied for or $0. Consistency.