New Altitude Black has landed...

[Bofter]

Haven't been offered to change my included home loan card to Altitude Black but am currently attempting to do it anyway. Hit some unspecified hurdles on the attempt and am now waiting for the card services group to call me at a time of their convenience.

 

[Bofter]

Switch completed after some hassles.

1) Whilst at a branch asked about changing over, was advised to make an appointment with a personal banker, so did
2) Attended appointment (next day) with personal banker, who entered details into a webform, only info asked for was driver's licence, she had some difficulties, promised card services would call
3) Received an email from card services - declined, but with no reason given (emotional response: not overwhelming feelings of goodwill to Westpac)
4) Call card services, select least inappropriate menu option, advised declined due to current credit limit too low (because I keep them low) - great communication here between the parts of the bank and having the customer have to chase you around
5) Transfer to someone else at card services who could do the credit limit increase and process the product change - she was pretty good about the process

Westpac - in the unlikely event that you read this, there are some obvious opportunities to improve customer service and save yourself cost through multiple handling at the same time.

 

[N860CR]

Sounds spot on like my experience swapping an Earth for Altitude.

 

[Bofter]

I am not sure if this conflicts with what others have been told, but I was advised that:
- the minimum credit limit for the application for an Altitude Black is $15k
- if you have a package with a home loan this can then be reduced to $12k, but you must have first satisfied the application at the higher level

 

[DaveB]

Interesting experience finally obtaining the Altitude Black today.
Inititially received approval for an on line application with a reasonable limit considering haven't held any Westpac accounts for 5 years. Sent in the bank statements for the past two months for the business and personal together with my personal tax return. Resulted in the on line approval being overturned, despite the bank accounts totaling 15x my annual income declared. Phoned up and was confirmed my income details supplied were the issue which again resulted in a further refusal.
Seeing this as the last chance of picking up the card with the CC limit reporting from March 2014, went into the local branch. Saw a low level personal banker who after making one call and copying my tax return and trust fund return as previously supplied, 20 minutes later received approval on the spot together with a higher limit to that originally granted with the online application.
The officer didn't need to see any bank statements and advised the cards will be at the branch in 5-6 days time. I asked why such a turn around and was advised their computer system does not handle self employed well.
Suggest any self employed seeking the card, particularly those being paid in dividends, trusts and making super payments, to not bother online and just go into the branch.
Surprised at no stage did Westpac want to understand the business, at least in terms of scale and businesses tax returns.

 

[zoom&boom]

Can someone please point in the right direction to check at what rate Black Altitude points translate into the various airline programmes? It seems that you have to have the card to find this out. Much appreciated.

 

[prozac]

Can someone please point in the right direction to check at what rate Black Altitude points translate into the various airline programmes? It seems that you have to have the card to find this out. Much appreciated.

Typically 2:1, so at half the rate of an Amex amex.

 

[fiBer]

Base earn is 3 altitude points per $.

This translates to:
160pts = 1 Air NZ airpoints $
or 1.5 MH/CX/SQ/VA per $.

 

[zoom&boom]

Thanks for that. So this appears to be a better card to warehouse points for use with SQ/AM/MH/VA than AMEX. My understanding is that AMEX are 1:1 vs 1:1.5 on the Black. Am I missing something in the big picture?

 

[fiBer]

Unless you use Amex Platinum Edge for 3 points/$ supermarket, 2 points/$ petrol purchases.

Amex Plat charge card is 3:2:1 but not the same as Plat Edge. 3 for restaurants, 2 for travel etc and 1:1 for everything else (Utilities 0.5:1).

 

[jlien]

Thanks for that. So this appears to be a better card to warehouse points for use with SQ/AM/MH/VA than AMEX. My understanding is that AMEX are 1:1 vs 1:1.5 on the Black. Am I missing something in the big picture?

Generally speaking the black is the best for general all round spending on an amex.

Amex issued amexes only pay out 1 point per $, with exemptions for supermarkets*, petrol*, restaurants** and travel**

* If you have a platinum edge
* if you have a platinum reserve or charge

Haven't been offered to change my included home loan card to Altitude Black but am currently attempting to do it anyway. Hit some unspecified hurdles on the attempt and am now waiting for the card services group to call me at a time of their convenience.

The missus upgraded her platinum to the black as part of her home loan package. Though we were in the midst of financing a new loan and had a good relationship with the branch & loan manager.

 

[Jack_OC]

Generally speaking the black is the best for general all round spending on an amex.

Amex issued amexes only pay out 1 point per $, with exemptions for supermarkets*, petrol*, restaurants** and travel**

* If you have a platinum edge
* if you have a platinum reserve or charge

IMHO anyone in this game should have an Amex Plat Edge in addition to at least one other card.

The free rtn dom flight that comes with Plat Edge each year more than negates the annual fee, and almost everyone spends a fair bit at supermarkets, so why would you not use the Plat Edge to earn 3 pts per $? It also has some good bonus point offers.

For everything else where Amex is accepted (within Oz), Altitude Black Amex is my go to card, for 1.5 pts per $. Where Amex is not accepted, I use Citi Signature for 1 pt per $, and similarly I use Citi Signature overseas (2.67 pts per $).

 

[Beta4Me]

IMHO anyone in this game should have an Amex Plat Edge in addition to at least one other card.

The free rtn dom flight that comes with Plat Edge each year more than negates the annual fee, and almost everyone spends a fair bit at supermarkets, so why would you not use the Plat Edge to earn 3 pts per $? It also has some good bonus point offers.

For everything else where Amex is accepted (within Oz), Altitude Black Amex is my go to card, for 1.5 pts per $. Where Amex is not accepted, I use Citi Signature for 1 pt per $, and similarly I use Citi Signature overseas (2.67 pts per $).

My exact combination as well, plus an ANZ QF Platinum and Woolworth EDR Qantas.

 

[zoom&boom]

Citibank Select gives a better earn than Citibank Sig especially OS. More expensive I know and can only credit to VA/SQ/CX. Any thoughts.
Thanks Brains Trust.


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[Cruiser Elite]

If you can justify the Select ann fee then YES it is head and shoulders above any other Visa or MC in terms of earning capacity.

Pts transferrable to:

 

[burmans]

If you can justify the Select ann fee then YES it is head and shoulders above any other Visa or MC in terms of earning capacity.

Pts transferrable to:

View attachment 27580

The problem here is that it needs to be justifiable on your Visa earn only (and ignoring ATO) given most have an Amex as well. Haven't run the numbers but my estimate would be that you'd need to be running 100's of K through your card for Select to be more valuable over a Citibank Sig you can get fee free.

Personally my main cards are
Westpac SQ Amex (I'm happy sending to SQ and annual fee much less that the Altitude Black)
Citi Signature
Amex Plat Edge for exactly the reasons Jack3193 suggests (plus they do have some very lucrative bonus offers from time to time)

 

[Cruiser Elite]

The problem here is that it needs to be justifiable on your Visa earn only (and ignoring ATO) given most have an Amex as well. Haven't run the numbers but my estimate would be that you'd need to be running 100's of K through your card for Select to be more valuable over a Citibank Sig you can get fee free.

100% correct - we are all different and all have differing spend / pts earn patterns - personally Select is a no-brainer for me.

 

[zoom&boom]

My figures for my spend/earn rate for Citi Select ($700) and Citi Sig ($300 I think) show that the extra card costs means that I am getting the extra miles/points at about 1c each. Is this a reasonable earn rate?


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[Cruiser Elite]

My figures for my spend/earn rate for Citi Select ($700) and Citi Sig ($300 I think) show that the extra card costs means that I am getting the extra miles/points at about 1c each. Is this a reasonable earn rate?

Reasonable to some / Unreasonable to others - what do you think? Are you happy if Citi Rewards pts cost you $0.01 ea?

 

[zoom&boom]

New to the game so was just wondering. My initial impression was it was probably OK. Is there a number that I should be aiming to achieve? Perhaps always wanting never getting.


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