Exchange student looking for best frequent flyer card

[kgoode]

Hello all,

I'm a 22 year old American exchange student here indefinitely.. i'm currently going for permanent residency, but won't have it for the next year or two. As an international I obviously have lots of flights, and do move around quite a bit, including moving from Melbourne to Townsville, QLD in the next year. I'm looking for a credit card that will accumulate frequent flyer points for me without completely cleaning out my bank account with fees. I've got great credit, and never buy anything that I don't immediately pay back, but a low apr (ideally less than 15%) would be ideal. However since I'm an american I'm not sure if my credit history at home is valid here, or if I would need to start out with something as if i had none at all.

Any ideas? The best cards I've found here on Oz mostly require me to be an Australian citizen or permanent resident. If that's the case and I can't find anything relatively user friendly, I'm not sure if it would be best to get an American card, being that I have no intention of living there anytime in at least the next 5-10 years. Help! I'm an amateur, any advice would be helpful!

Cheers!
Kirsty

 

[Mwenenzi]

Kirsty Welcome to forum

Are you a member of any US of A airline freq flyer program ?

A similar question here from another student
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....eginner-question-how-start-earning-42086.html

 

[drewbles]

Welcome to AFF and indeed, Australia!

It's going to be difficult to get anything straight up, especially as a student. If you had a full-time job you'd be in a better position for sure but you're still going to need to look at 6-12 months employment first.

Getting things like a Mobile Phone contract helps as well, but once again, 6+ months of employment is typically required by carriers to give you a contract.

Having a landline telephone is a good start too, but that's not really an option for a lot of people (especially as you say, you will be moving around a lot).

In recent times, credit providers have had to start adhering to pretty strict laws and rules regarding the provision of credit to people, so it's not as easy anymore.

Establishing a relationship with a bank will help. Once you have decided where you want to direct your spend airline wise, find a bank with a Visa/MasterCard debit option. Ensure all your salary goes into that account, and after 6-12 months, perhaps try and apply for one of the basic credit cards (even a non-rewards one).

Typically, most rewards cards are 18-20%+. The "Low Rate" cards vary typically 9-13%.

 

[kgoode]

Welcome to AFF and indeed, Australia!

It's going to be difficult to get anything straight up, especially as a student. If you had a full-time job you'd be in a better position for sure but you're still going to need to look at 6-12 months employment first.

Getting things like a Mobile Phone contract helps as well, but once again, 6+ months of employment is typically required by carriers to give you a contract.

Having a landline telephone is a good start too, but that's not really an option for a lot of people (especially as you say, you will be moving around a lot).

In recent times, credit providers have had to start adhering to pretty strict laws and rules regarding the provision of credit to people, so it's not as easy anymore.

Establishing a relationship with a bank will help. Once you have decided where you want to direct your spend airline wise, find a bank with a Visa/MasterCard debit option. Ensure all your salary goes into that account, and after 6-12 months, perhaps try and apply for one of the basic credit cards (even a non-rewards one).

Typically, most rewards cards are 18-20%+. The "Low Rate" cards vary typically 9-13%.

thanks for the info!

as it happens, I've been here since July 2011 and have held a steady part time job here in Australia since then, have gotten a phone plan through optus (just recently though, they're pretty rigorous about their visa status requirements for contracts), and have filed taxes this year as well as keep a bank account with ANZ that has a debit and separate long term savings account. I've also rented an appt here in Australia and know that I have somewhat of a footing here, and a life

All i have left to do is become a permanent resident or have a full time job. Barring these things, is it probably my best option to get something super basic with a higher interest rate? I'm not part of a FF program with any airlines yet, just wanted to ask some experienced folks what they thought of my situation.

 

[kgoode]

also, thanks for the welcome!

 

[drewbles]

thanks for the info!

as it happens, I've been here since July 2011 and have held a steady part time job here in Australia since then, have gotten a phone plan through optus (just recently though, they're pretty rigorous about their visa status requirements for contracts), and have filed taxes this year as well as keep a bank account with ANZ that has a debit and separate long term savings account. I've also rented an appt here in Australia and know that I have somewhat of a footing here, and a life

All i have left to do is become a permanent resident or have a full time job. Barring these things, is it probably my best option to get something super basic with a higher interest rate? I'm not part of a FF program with any airlines yet, just wanted to ask some experienced folks what they thought of my situation.

also, thanks for the welcome!

Most Welcome

Sounds like you're definitely on the right track then. I'd probably suggest trying a proper card with ANZ (even if you don't like them) and work up some credit history with them for 6 months or so (you shouldn't have an issue getting a card if you have a savings account etc with them).

Then, once you've got that, you can look at decent FF credit cards (that's where it gets really subjective ).

 

[moa999]

Agreed.
Would try with ANZ.
Alternatively if you are an exchange student at a uni - do they have a branch on campus -- they often run special student deals (the banks like getting people hooked on credit young!)

Get a Woolworths card and use that to apply for a Qantas card... assuming you ship (and you can start earning some points).

 

[drewbles]

Agreed.
Would try with ANZ.
Alternatively if you are an exchange student at a uni - do they have a branch on campus -- they often run special student deals (the banks like getting people hooked on credit young!)

Get a Woolworths card and use that to apply for a Qantas card... assuming you ship (and you can start earning some points).

The WOW QF MC is a platinum card, so has a fairly high income requirement unfortunately, which may not be suitable for the OP until they're earning a few bucks after study

 

[moa999]

Sorry meant the Woolworths shopping card, then Qantas FF card (OP said they had no existing memberships) - for $30+ spends you earn Qantas FF points.
Agree the everydaymoney card likely to be out of reach, despite imho it not being a true Plat card

 

[oz_mark]

The WOW QF MC is a platinum card, so has a fairly high income requirement unfortunately, which may not be suitable for the OP until they're earning a few bucks after study

The minimum income requirement is 50K.

 

[kamchatsky]

Are you are member of any professional association? If so, you may be qualified to have fee free Amex card with Amex Ascent or Qantas Direct. For example:

APESMA Student Amex:
Affinity

APESMA Membership for students is $5 per month:
https://www.apesma.com.au/join/

But for whatever reason it does ask whether you earn $30000 per year though ..... But you can ring Amex to confirm this.

 

[kgoode]

thanks everyone for the suggestions

i've taken the first step of getting a qantas frequent flyer membership (free since I'm american.. woo!) and linking it with my woolys card and my optus account.

I've also had a look at the ANZ cards that they offer, and tbh it really looks like a drain to my bank account to pay the interest rate (about 19.6%) and annual fee of $95 for the card i'd be eligible for based on my income. If I weigh my spending habits with the money lost on those sorts of things just to get 1 point per dollar only on eligible transactions, it seems i'd be losing money overall. Being a uni student, I really only spend what I have to, and the rest goes to school or bills.

Most Welcome

Sounds like you're definitely on the right track then. I'd probably suggest trying a proper card with ANZ (even if you don't like them) and work up some credit history with them for 6 months or so (you shouldn't have an issue getting a card if you have a savings account etc with them).

Then, once you've got that, you can look at decent FF credit cards (that's where it gets really subjective ).

Agreed.
Would try with ANZ.
Alternatively if you are an exchange student at a uni - do they have a branch on campus -- they often run special student deals (the banks like getting people hooked on credit young!)

Get a Woolworths card and use that to apply for a Qantas card... assuming you ship (and you can start earning some points).

I'll take your guys' advice-- even though I'll be making trips in the near future and would like to have something of a frequent flyer setup by then, I'll probably be better off at the moment just going with what I've got so far and maybe getting a smaller sort of introductory credit card with ANZ just to work on a bit more of a credit history here in Australia.

 

[kgoode]

Are you are member of any professional association? If so, you may be qualified to have fee free Amex card with Amex Ascent or Qantas Direct. For example:

APESMA Student Amex:
APESMA Membership for students is $5 per month:

But for whatever reason it does ask whether you earn $30000 per year though ..... But you can ring Amex to confirm this.

Thanks for the idea. I'm not currently a member of something like this, but I've given it a bit of a browse and I think I may try to email a rep from there about my situation and see what they think. It's the income requirement that always gets me.

 

[juddles]

Just an observation, forgive me if it irritates anyone, but I think anyone has to look at the true benefits of cards, etc. The <Op works part time. A week´s work doing almost any job will give you the $ value of a stack of actual flying. It is far easier and quicker to earn a $1000 even doing menial work than it is to get that true value through FF cards,etc.