Strategy to obtain US Amex

[http_x92]

Aspire $50 airline credit DP. It is actually active now. Didn't plan to book any flight this quarter so spent it on Club Jetstar. Counted as an airline credit and got the cashback within 3 days.

Does bode well for Qantas Wine so I will try that next.

 

[Finale]

I got $50 aspire flight credit from paying Qantas award taxes. The transactions were showing flight details.

 

[pyusha]

Not sure if here or the ATO thread is most appropriate, but I'll start here.

Has anyone paid the ATO with a US Amex card? Did you get the points okay? Were you charged 1.45% as the ATO website suggests?

Full points on ATO and other government spends, council, water and such. Both Amex and Chase cards

 

[Sora]

Disclaimer: I'm not an accountant and the info was from my previous research so I cannot guarantee it is 100% correct.

You can get ITIN by going to IRS taxpayer assistance center in person for free. However, you cannot use the bank bonus you earned this year as it's for next year's filing. If you want to apply now, you have 2 choices. 1. You apply for ITIN without filing tax return but you need to meet an exception ie expecting to have some royalty income, interest, devidends etc which you will need extra docs from those banks or companies. You can check exception table on page 11 https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw7.pdf. This will be difficult to obtain especially from the banks as they are not familiar with it. 2. You file tax now for last year's income and you might have to pay a bit of penalty as it was already past the due date. You can make up your income.

Thank you.

Yes, I thought about taking this approach whilst I am here to see if I can apply for one or fork out the $500 approx to have it all done for me. I did email a tax place today and will see if they respond tomorrow, I will take your information as well and have a review and see if it is simply worth forking out the dollars it will take to get me there.

I know you can do an advance filing after some reading, but it did require additional documents outside the standard requirement of a passport only if you're filing a tax return now.

Not sure how I could file one for last year, but as you said, you can make the sum amount up, but I am also on the Visa Waiver, so I don't live here, not sure if that would impact me immigration wise.

 

[scibo10]

In regards to transferring MR (AU) Points over to MR (US) Points, there seem to be conflicting posts on what rate your MR (AU) Points get transferred at. Some posts suggest it is close to the AUD/USD spot rate, whereas others suggest it is well below the spot rate (c. 20% below) because a transfer fee is built into the exchange rate.

Has anyone recently done a transfer and can provide an updated DP? Thanks!

 

[albyd]

When I did mine a couple of months ago, it was reasonably close to the exchange rate.

I just redeemed some US MR to airlines on Sunday AEST - the quoted time by Amex was 48 hours:

• CX arrived instantly
• SQ - still waiting for them to show (Wednesday morning AEST) - ended up topping up the points I needed from AMEX AU at 3:1 - thankfully was 30K KF points short and they arrived instantly.

Expecting the 48 hours to be business hours.

 

[Franko Costa]

In regards to transferring MR (AU) Points over to MR (US) Points, there seem to be conflicting posts on what rate your MR (AU) Points get transferred at. Some posts suggest it is close to the AUD/USD spot rate, whereas others suggest it is well below the spot rate (c. 20% below) because a transfer fee is built into the exchange rate.

Has anyone recently done a transfer and can provide an updated DP? Thanks!

Mine that was earlier this year was at roughly spot

 

[blacksultan]

Mine that was earlier this year was at roughly spot

Roughly same as forex rate .

 

[maverick1]

Not sure if here or the ATO thread is most appropriate, but I'll start here.

Has anyone paid the ATO with a US Amex card? Did you get the points okay? Were you charged 1.45% as the ATO website suggests?

Yep. I've done that too..Better than AU amex wrt to the fees charged. Points come along at the usual card earn rate...

 

[maverick1]

Not sure if here or the ATO thread is most appropriate, but I'll start here.

Has anyone paid the ATO with a US Amex card? Did you get the points okay? Were you charged 1.45% as the ATO website suggests?

If you want a lower fee of about 0.4% then you can look to buy Coles prepaid MC using your Amex and paying ATO via the prepaid cards...do note there is a limit in terms of number of payment you can make in a day.
There is currently no activation fee on these cards so its $ for $...I think you may already know but Coles have had upto 10% discount on these cards....

https://www.giftcards.com.au/ShoppingCart/ProductDetail/CG_card_Mastercard%20Digital_%24250

 

[maverick1]

So I logged into my amex account today and they presented an upgrade offer to the Platinum Charge card. I currently have the Amex Green and Hilton Aspire Card.

Any thoughts? 100,000 SUB, for $695 fee was thinking maybe I would upgrade take the bonus points then downgrade back to Gold or Green? The Platinum benefits are not great for non-US Cardholders.

The CC Pro's of the US market suggest to only accept an upgrade offer if you have earned a SUB on that card previously by directly applying for it...upgrade offers usually come with no lifetime language which means you can double dip/triple dip etc...have a read about this topic and then decide.....

 

[maverick1]

I'm thinking - it works out at approx. $A,1000 = 1c/point. Nothing amazing though should be able to squeeze better value from US MR if used well. YMMV.

I applied for the Bonvoy Business and got pop up jail for that too. I have the basic Bonvoy - the "old" SPG card. I asked about it on Amex chat and they said because I've received SUBs before even if not for this card product (which my reading of the T&C is that I should receive SUB), that the system is refusing to give me the SUB. I thought pop-up Jail was all about putting through too little spend on cards - I still put the lion's share of spend on my AU card - that might be why I'm guessing.

I've been in the pop jail for past 2-3 months. I've been approved for 3Amex's in past 6-7 months and been trying to get a 4th one...
I tried using different browsers, incognito mode but nothing worked so finally what worked was to use someone's referral link logged in via Miami IP address (VPN) as I live in the posh Sarasota ...voila the app went through...
However, It is still pending approval they asked for ID proof etc which I've supplied but they haven't approved, its usually instantaneous but been more than 48hrs in my case...YMMV...

 

[leyy]

The CC Pro's of the US market suggest to only accept an upgrade offer if you have earned a SUB on that card previously by directly applying for it...upgrade offers usually come with no lifetime language which means you can double dip/triple dip etc...have a read about this topic and then decide.....

Amazing thanks Maverick, saved me!

Amex Plat currently has a SUB of 150,000 points so will apply direct and try get the upgraded offer of 100,000 in the future.

 

[pyusha]

In regards to transferring MR (AU) Points over to MR (US) Points, there seem to be conflicting posts on what rate your MR (AU) Points get transferred at. Some posts suggest it is close to the AUD/USD spot rate, whereas others suggest it is well below the spot rate (c. 20% below) because a transfer fee is built into the exchange rate.

Has anyone recently done a transfer and can provide an updated DP? Thanks!

I transferred last month, and got pretty much the same rate what Google was showing.

 

[albyd]

Thanks for the heads up. I think I'll go look in the referral thread. I'll b applying from

I've been in the pop jail for past 2-3 months. I've been approved for 3Amex's in past 6-7 months and been trying to get a 4th one...
I tried using different browsers, incognito mode but nothing worked so finally what worked was to use someone's referral link logged in via Miami IP address (VPN) as I live in the posh Sarasota ...voila the app went through...
However, It is still pending approval they asked for ID proof etc which I've supplied but they haven't approved, its usually instantaneous but been more than 48hrs in my case...YMMV...

Thanks for the heads up - I think I'll need to look in the referral thread and I've been applying from downtown Sarasota so looks like Ill continue doing that.

 

[nthd_nthd]

Thank you.

Yes, I thought about taking this approach whilst I am here to see if I can apply for one or fork out the $500 approx to have it all done for me. I did email a tax place today and will see if they respond tomorrow, I will take your information as well and have a review and see if it is simply worth forking out the dollars it will take to get me there.

I know you can do an advance filing after some reading, but it did require additional documents outside the standard requirement of a passport only if you're filing a tax return now.

Not sure how I could file one for last year, but as you said, you can make the sum amount up, but I am also on the Visa Waiver, so I don't live here, not sure if that would impact me immigration wise.

I was hoping for a cheaper way to get my ITIN but in the end I just used 1 of the referral link and get 10% off feverr for my application to get done, as of just today, the application got sent to IRS with tracking number. The process seems simple and straightforward, Oh well, worth the investment I guess.

 

[Franko Costa]

Just confirmation of my $250 from amex in my checking account. I used revolut to transfer the funds

 

[levelnine]

Just realised the Biz Gold flexible credit can be used to buy electronic AirBNB gift cards at staples.com. And very easy to use USD-loaded AirBNB credit anywhere in the world — converts automatically. Well worth looking into a Biz Gold 150K SUB before AF goes up in February.

 

[blacksultan]

Which service provider did you use ? How much did it cost ? How long did it take ?

 

[Franko Costa]

Just realised the Biz Gold flexible credit can be used to buy electronic AirBNB gift cards at staples.com. And very easy to use USD-loaded AirBNB credit anywhere in the world — converts automatically. Well worth looking into a Biz Gold 150K SUB before AF goes up in February.

The Biz Gold doesn't get a bonus from staples though does it? I assume this is only good for the SUB