Earn points on Bank Transfers

[wensan]

Just got the Prestige for the 300k sign up bonus, but looking to get the Premier before October for the long-term Payalls as the annual fee is much less. Was wondering if anyone knows how to best 'downgrade' to Premier? Could I call them up and ask to downgrade my card from Prestige to Premier or would I have to close and reapply?

 

[Danger]

What's the point of the email and SMS alert from Citi saying 'Your card will be charged tonight'? At that point, the only thing you can do is cancel it. It's too late to ensure there are sufficient funds on the card.

Relatedly, why can't Citi send a seven-day alert that's actually seven days before charging, rather than four, given transactions are always processed three days early?

 

[Legoman]

What's the point of the email and SMS alert from Citi saying 'Your card will be charged tonight'? At that point, the only thing you can do is cancel it. It's too late to ensure there are sufficient funds on the card.

No point at all. That SMS is triggered not by the charge itself, but by the pre-charge authentication check they do which checks for sufficient funds being available before the actual charge which happens a few hours later. If you do not have sufficient funds available at that time you get the SMS, then the payment is rejected there and then and there's nothing you can do in the few hours remaining to save it. Hence, you're right, the SMS has no useful purpose whatsoever.

Relatedly, why can't Citi send a seven-day alert that's actually seven days before charging, rather than four, given transactions are always processed three days early?

That's really a question for Citibank, but the quick answer (and in truth the only one you'll get) is because they're Citibank and Citibank live and work by their own rules they made up themselves. Like a lot of things these days, it is utterly pointless arguing with Citibank using logic or reason or common sense.

I just tried for the 13th time to address something I want Citibank to fix on my bank accounts. Something that's been ongoing since 8 March. The reply all 13 times has been "we're looking into that for you", "our investigation team will get back to you with a solution ETA", "this has been escalated to a manager to look into" ad infinitum. I've decided to just give up. You'll never get anywhere arguing with Citibank.

 

[MELso]

After (finally) starting to get another credit card sorted for transactions (Commbank Ultimate), I'm belatedly getting on the Payall gravy train in earnest but have a question on the earn rate.

I have a FFFL Premier card but have never opted into the $49 Qantas points fee. When going to set up a Payall for $4k per week, the app says I can earn 4k Citi rewards points, Qantas points or Emirates Skywards points (obviously now discontinued). But 4K Qantas points is double the stated rate on the website/T&Cs (2K, at 0.5 pp$).

So does Payall earn at 1 QF point per dollar or 0.5 point ?

 

[Legoman]

I'm belatedly getting on the Payall gravy train

Wow, bit late there Greg. In the time you've been vacillating and fannying-about, I've booked 1.4mil Citibank points and redeemed another 600-700K. I never go to Coles without getting $10 off.

I have a FFFL Premier card

You have had a FFFL card all this time from presumably back in 2013-2015 and you're only just now looking into the PayAll gravy train?!?!? Stop, please stop Greg, you're gonna make me cry.

 

[Chicken]

So does Payall earn at 1 QF point per dollar or 0.5 point ?

I have never been able to reverse engineer the number of points I get versus the amount of money I spend, so I stopped checking like 15 years ago. I take what the finance manager at work said to me to my heart : if it's close enough and within budget, it's good enough. The amount of time you spend checking is worth more than the amount of money (or points) you questioning.

 

[There'sOnlyOneJimmy]

So does Payall earn at 1 QF point per dollar or 0.5 point ?

$1 PayAll = 0.5 QF Point

 

[MELso]

Wow, bit late there Greg. In the time you've been vacillating and fannying-about, I've booked 1.4mil Citibank points and redeemed another 600-700K. I never go to Coles without getting $10 off.

How nice for you.

(Mind you, rare has been the time when I've had to pay anything at all at Coles for the last couple of years as I've been using much of my limit for Quick Cash/Flexibill offers to get $100 and $200 Coles gift cards and interest free repayments on $2.5k or $5k (2x$5k) each month. This has been worth more to me than the points in the past, particularly when fees were zero, but the fees have been increasing and the gift card amounts dropping.)

 

[Legoman]

(Mind you, rare has been the time when I've had to pay anything at all at Coles for the last couple of years as I've been using much of my limit for Quick Cash/Flexibill offers to get $100 and $200 Coles gift cards and interest free repayments on $2.5k or $5k (2x$5k) each month. This has been worth more to me than the points in the past, particularly when fees were zero.)

Yeah the discount giftcards are a given. I just assume everyone does this, but ultimately you're still paying for the giftcards, so while it may feel like you're not paying anything at Coles, you are really since that's where the giftcards come from.

The thing with PayAll though is not the points, that's just the icing on top. The real worth is the interest free loan of $35,000 every month which earns at 5.65% deposit at call interest, $150 a month. Free $150 a month (+ some nebulus points for your trouble)? Yes please.

 

[MELso]

Yeah the discount giftcards are a given. I just assume everyone does this, but ultimately you're still paying for the giftcards, so while it may feel like you're not paying anything at Coles, you are really since that's where the giftcards come from.

The gift cards were free, and the fee for Quick Cash was effectively offset by the interest savings...

(In the last 12 months, I got $1.5k in Coles gift cards tying up $12k of my limit, for fees totalling ~$400 and offset by interest savings on my mortgage of ~$350)...

 

[Legoman]

'cept those free giftcard if you take out a payment plan offers haven't been coming out of Citibank for a long time now. They basically stopped when NAB took over.

 

[MELso]

'cept those free giftcard if you take out a payment plan offers haven't been coming out of Citibank for a long time now. They basically stopped when NAB took over.

Except the free gift cards are still available. You may not have received offers for them - I have been, and monthly too. And other punters on OzBargain are reporting $200 gift cards for 0.99% fees are still available.

Until I took out a $60k balance transfer on Ready Credit fixed at 2.9% for three years in September last year, I often got both Quick Cash and Flexibill offers with free gift cards each month (so $200 of gift cards for ~$50 in fees offset by ~$40 in interest savings), although for the last few months, I've only Flexibill offers with gift cards, and the fees are now $50 each time (so double, although my interest savings have also increased). Hence why I am now looking into Payall.

 

[Legoman]

Yeah trying to balance the fees against the gifts is hard work making sure you're staying ahead of the game. PayAll is much easier and less fraught when the fees are nil and the gifts are all nett of costs.

Edit: I was actually referring to the free ones. There were a couple of different offers they came up with. The only ones I ever bothered with were the genuinely free ones - no fees at all included (even if you could offset the fee with the giftcard value). The offers that come out now are only the ones with fees attached, which IMO are not worth the life admin bother.

 

[cathalm8]

I never go to Coles without getting $10 off.

Can I ask how you get $10 off at Coles every time?

 

[Legoman]

FlyBuys. Citi reward points convert 1:1 into FlyBuys. When you have a balance of 2,000pts, the checkout girl or the self-serve register will ask if you want $10 off. You say yes, job done. FlyBuys this way is the best value use of the Citi points if you're not flying all the time, and they don't expire.

 

[jasrulz63]

Looks like you can't set a start date more than 3 months in the future now.

 

[Duffa]

OK, I have 2x FFL accounts and a Prestige with about 100k limit and have never used Payall.
I am VERY late to the party.
Time to get cracking.

 

[Chicken]

Looks like you can't set a start date more than 3 months in the future now.

Why start more than 3 months into the future? $0 fee promotion ends October, so starting more than 3 months from now means you are going to have to pay fee.

On the otherhand, I have just managed to set up a new Payall arrangement, starting from this month, for 2 years all the way to 2025.

 

[jasrulz63]

Why start more than 3 months into the future? $0 fee promotion ends October, so starting more than 3 months from now means you are going to have to pay fee.

On the otherhand, I have just managed to set up a new Payall arrangement, starting from this month, for 2 years all the way to 2025.

The thinking is that any PayAlls set prior to the October date will remain fee free, therefore you can set one to start in 2025 after your current one expires.

Realistically given the changes with Citi and NAB, I personally don't think PayAll will last that long.

 

[Legoman]

OK, I have 2x FFL accounts and a Prestige with about 100k limit and have never used Payall.
I am VERY late to the party.

What a shame. With a 100K limit, if you'd got on to PayAll when it first came out on 1 April 2021, you'd have been able to fully automate it at 2 x 35K/month without ever needing to make top-up payments back to the card due to your sky high credit limit able to carry all the debt burden at all times.

If you'd done so, by now I reckon you'd be up somewhere north of 2 million combined points across your two FFFL accounts (worth $10,000 as Flybuys cash) and have earnt nearly a similar amount in bank interest on the money borrowed at 0%. Makes me wanna cry.

Sadly, there's little point in starting now. You've missed the boat big time I'm afraid. NAB will be shutting down PayAll and probably all the Citibank cards as well by around March next year anyway, so for you starting from scratch, it's a lot of learning to do for not much benefit that's not going to last very long.