Qantas Travel Money changing to Qantas Pay - May 2024

[oz_mark]

My guess-

1. Physical QFF cards are on the way out
2. The issuer of Qantas Pay will be on the hook for sending the Qantas Pay cards out

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Probably less.
If the RBA tightens the visa and mastercard debit cards more, it might indeed be the end of the debit side QFF points earn.
Heritage and Peoples Choice, didnt want to upgrade their systems for this, so they gave up, and EML at a lower cost base, took over.
Years ago, visa and mastercard debit cards didn't have to have the words debit on it, but now, the RBA had decided that debit cards with visa and mastercard, must have the words debit on it.
They might also bring in a lower earn rate on higher spends, ie, 1 QFF point per $5 spent above $2500 a month...
But still 1 QFF point per $4 under $2500 spent a month.
---
Lower cost base, how you ask?
Well, if you go to the QTMC app, or Qantas Money app, and type in your 4 digit pin, on a smartphone, it just shows the red circle "of death" and nothing happens.
Possible someone somewhere didnt pay their dues to the provider.
In the past, when Hertiage ran it, I never had the whirling red circle so long, few secs and the balance of/on the account would come up, ...
Now, I waited 5 mins, nothing, it just keeps circling.
On the laptop, if you go to the Qantas money website, and type in your QFF #, surname and pin, (not the same as the app pin), and it then sends you the 6 digit 2fa, yes, you can get into Qantas Money that way.
One iteration, I saw, on the Qantas Pay card, that I saw, probably a proforma, had the words Prepaid on it, but now, on the Qantas Money website, the card shown as what it would look, didnt have the Prepaid word on the front.
The card numbers too, are on the rear of the card, by the looks of it, so non visible to the sales person, maybe a bit easier as an anti scam system, ie, no sees the card # unless the owner upends the card.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Well, if you go to the QTMC app, or Qantas Money app, and type in your 4 digit pin, on a smartphone, it just shows the red circle "of death"

Mine is all good @AustraliaPoochie on the app - did you pay your dues??

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Heh, maybe its my google phone.
Will try again.
In the past few days, the only way to stop the red circle, in my case was to uninstall the app, and then reinsall it.
But so far, the website has kept track of my balance.
Its the 2fa that takes time each to log in.
---
Still circling, from my try a few hours ago.

 

[bertair]

I called up QF Money and asked could this new card be placed into my Apple Pay App. The current one can't. The short answer was NO.
I had intended to load $US to my new QF Money card or whatever name is going to be used
I am hoping that by loading the new card with $US and paying with $A for it will work.
I am now so used to using my iPhone to pay using TAP & Go, I rarely take my cards out of my wallet.
The US is probably leading the way to a cashless society so I've been told. But I will carry $US for tips and wherever I can't use my AMEX or QF Cards.
I am not chasing points, just the convenience and a good exchange rate.

 

[SYD]

The US is probably leading the way to a cashless society so I've been told.

It‘s not. It’s getting better but those restaurant style chits that you manually enter a tip and sign in bars drives me batty. It’s easier to use cash. Some bars are still cash only.

But I will carry $US for tips and wherever I can't use my AMEX or QF Cards.

Yes, a fist full of one dollar bills is still handy.

I am not chasing points, just the convenience and a good exchange rate.

You won’t get a good exchange rate with QF money (or any “Travel Card”). Your AMEX and probably your other cards will charge 3% on top of a figure near the spot rate. The QF Money card will most likely work out at 3% and then some more during the lock-in (conversion process).

If you want the best spot rate a free 28° MC (or Coles MC) don’t charge the 3% (something in the order of 0.3 to 0.5%). There’s plenty of international transaction fee free debit cards as well, UBank, ING, BW. Most won’t charge their own fee to use an ATM overseas. U fortunately, most (if not all) US ATMs will slug US$3 to US$7 ATM fee.

 

[bertair]

It‘s not. It’s getting better but those restaurant style chits that you manually enter a tip and sign in bars drives me batty. It’s easier to use cash. Some bars are still cash only.

Yes, a fist full of one dollar bills is still handy.

You won’t get a good exchange rate with QF money (or any “Travel Card”). Your AMEX and probably your other cards will charge 3% on top of a figure near the spot rate. The QF Money card will most likely work out at 3% and then some more during the lock-in (conversion process).

If you want the best spot rate a free 28° MC (or Coles MC) don’t charge the 3% (something in the order of 0.3 to 0.5%). There’s plenty of international transaction fee free debit cards as well, UBank, ING, BW. Most won’t charge their own fee to use an ATM overseas. U fortunately, most (if not all) US ATMs will slug US$3 to US$7 ATM fee.

Thank you for your advice. Since I will only be in the US for a week, I am thinking of taking only cash & using Amex just for hotels and where I can't use cash. . Although as far as security goes, that is going to be a worry carrying cash I suppose. Not sure what you mean by 28 MC or Coles MC ? Do you mean that there is no surcharge or a low surcharge for foreign transactions ? Sounds interesting though .

 

[SYD]

Thank you for your advice. Since I will only be in the US for a week, I am thinking of taking only cash & using Amex just for hotels and where I can't use cash. . Although as far as security goes, that is going to be a worry carrying cash I suppose. Not sure what you mean by 28 MC or Coles MC ? Do you mean that there is no surcharge or a low surcharge for foreign transactions ? Sounds interesting though .

Yes, those and handful of others don’t charge the usual 3% international transaction fees. 28° Mastercard (from Latitude) has no annual fee either but it’s not points earning although there are random cash back offers.

 

[TheInsider]

The US is probably leading the way to a cashless society so I've been told. But I will carry $US for tips and wherever I can't use my AMEX or QF Cards.
I am not chasing points, just the convenience and a good exchange rate.

The US is probably one of the last countries around the world to have a working card system. Many, many places over there still require a swipe of your card and a signature!

 

[RichardMEL]

The US is probably one of the last countries around the world to have a working card system. Many, many places over there still require a swipe of your card and a signature!

Agree though my last couple of years of visits I've seen much more tap & go terminals.

The problem though is you can tap, but the go part is harder when you get a prompt for a tip or something (but that's a whole other thing of course).

I do agree that, bar the time honoured cash tipping expectation, the US has become way more cashless in general since the pandemic.

One could easily visit most places with minimal cash (for tips etc) and function just fine - a far far cry from even ten years ago imo.

 

[clara w]

It looks like most are planning not to use the new card. Just wanted to share my experience to underscore what a dud this product is. It worked fine for me until I somehow had a series of fraudulent transactions that they were slow to pick up.Eventually, I thought that was sorted, until they demanded I rectify a "negative balance". After some to and fro trying to find out why, the call centre operator told me he would escalate to the "negative balance team" who would reply within 48 hours. That was in March 2022....

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Never put too much $ into this account, just using it to peter/pether QFF points, and not let the QFF account points die due to no activity.
I used to have quarterly bills taken from this account, but now seeing that no Aus company runs it, have changed to other providers.
Only now use it for topping up my public transport fare card.
On other websites, it rates EML services as poor, but that more so their EU side, seems the scams have now become part of QTMC/QP too, ...

 

[gilldo]

The US is probably leading the way to a cashless society so I've been told. But I will carry $US for tips and wherever I can't use my AMEX or QF Cards.

In some ways they're quite a bit ahead, and in other ways they're way behind. PayWave for example was almost non-existent when I was there in 2022.

Post automatically merged: May 6, 2024

I called up QF Money and asked could this new card be placed into my Apple Pay App. The current one can't. The short answer was NO.

Suppose this means that any chance of Google Pay or Samsung Pay is also shot to bits.

The one major shortfall of this card (other than the cough exchange rates).

 

[gilldo]

Agree though my last couple of years of visits I've seen much more tap & go terminals.

The problem though is you can tap, but the go part is harder when you get a prompt for a tip or something (but that's a whole other thing of course).

I do agree that, bar the time honoured cash tipping expectation, the US has become way more cashless in general since the pandemic.

One could easily visit most places with minimal cash (for tips etc) and function just fine - a far far cry from even ten years ago imo.

You can certainly pay by card and include a tip in the US, but it's very much swipe and PIN/sign.

PayWave very low takeup, although Subway seemed to reliably have it. Places like Walmart etc just didn't get it. They insist on a PIN or signature in all their payment models.

 

[SYD]

You can certainly pay by card and include a tip in the US, but it's very much swipe and PIN/sign.

PayWave very low takeup, although Subway seemed to reliably have it. Places like Walmart etc just didn't get it. They insist on a PIN or signature in all their payment models.

There’s a whole new generation of tap terminals exploding across the US, particularly in coffee shops and grab ‘n go sort of places. They have screens with the amount to pay and array of “tipping” options - these are places you wouldn’t have tipped at precovid… The “No tip” option might be small or nearly hidden…

 

[Franky]

There’s a whole new generation of tap terminals exploding across the US, particularly in coffee shops and grab ‘n go sort of places. They have screens with the amount to pay and array of “tipping” options - these are places you wouldn’t have tipped at precovid… The “No tip” option might be small or nearly hidden…

It surely is, it starts at the top @ 23%, then down to 19, 17, 15, and 10 from memory….

 

[RichardMEL]

Yup new terminals everywhere I have been travelling from HNL to ATL and even some more regional areas. Not all for sure but many coffee shops, fast food specially, but other places are definitely upgrading in my experience

 

[Franky]

Yup new terminals everywhere I have been travelling from HNL to ATL and even some more regional areas. Not all for sure but many coffee shops, fast food specially, but other places are definitely upgrading in ky experience

And on that trip I did in 2022, there were some items that I bought where the server just picked up a packet from a shelf just behind her, and the same options were presented on the card machine...

 

[RichardMEL]

And on that trip I did in 2022, there were some items that I bought where the server just picked up a packet from a shelf just behind her, and the same options were presented on the card machine...

Yup. I ignore the tips for counter service, fast food etc. That's always what I was taught in 3 decades of US visits, so not going to change for this.

I even feel a bit iffy about putting a tip on a CC slip for say a sit down meal. Prefer a cash tip to the server. Who knows how a CC tip is allocated by the owners? How does it even work for them? If Franky waits my table and I leave a $20 cash, you generally assume they take it(I know some places have pooled tips which is another thing). How does Franky get their 20 if I include it in the CC payment for the entire meal. You assume some honest accounting and recording in the back office of the business. Sure, as a customer I have no control over that, but since the original intent is both to reward good service and/or suppliment low wages for the specific server.. well I prefer the cash option.

A very USA-centric situation of course.

 

[gilldo]

There’s a whole new generation of tap terminals exploding across the US, particularly in coffee shops and grab ‘n go sort of places. They have screens with the amount to pay and array of “tipping” options - these are places you wouldn’t have tipped at precovid… The “No tip” option might be small or nearly hidden…

Yes we did see many of these. I just love it when they list 15/20/25 as the default percentages for tipping. You do have to navigate the terminal to find the 'No tip' or 'Custom tip' options, making it even more difficult to avoid tipping.

Lots of places creating the expectation of tipping that would not have done so previously. Very disconcerting!