Credit card sign-up bonuses are one of the easiest ways to accumulate frequent flyer points quickly and relatively cheaply! By applying for a credit card and paying the annual fee, you can earn tens of thousands of frequent flyer points towards your next trip.
There are several new Australian credit card sign-up deals available during September 2019, including from American Express, Virgin Money and Citibank.
If you’re thinking about applying for a new credit card, why not take advantage of these great sign-up deals and top up your frequent flyer points? To help you out, here is a selection of our picks for the top 5 Australian credit card sign-up deals for September 2019:
1. Citi Signature Qantas – 150,000 Qantas points
Citibank is offering 150,000 bonus Qantas Frequent Flyer points with its Citi Signature Qantas credit card. That’s more than enough Qantas points to fly around the world in Economy class, plus taxes & carrier charges. You’ll earn 100,000 Qantas points if you spend at least $5,000 on the card within 90 days of approval, and another 50,000 Qantas points after paying the annual fee in the second year of holding the card.
This credit card has an annual fee of $395 (reduced to $199 in the first year), plus a $49/year Qantas Rewards fee. The offer expires on 31 January 2020.
2. Amex Westpac Altitude Black bundle (Altitude Velocity) – 120,000 Velocity points + 75 status credits
Westpac is still offering a generous 120,000 Velocity Frequent Flyer points and 75 Velocity status credits if you take out a new Altitude Black MasterCard & Amex bundle and opt-in to Altitude Velocity rewards. Altitude Velocity is a new rewards program for Westpac that costs $50 per year, and comes with two Virgin Australia Economy X upgrades and Virgin lounge passes each year.
To receive the full bonus points, you would need to spend at least $4,000 on the MasterCard and $3,000 on the Amex card within 90 days of approval. To receive the full amount of bonus status credits, you would also need to spend an additional $6,000 on your MasterCard within the first year. This offer expires on 15 October 2019.
Right now, you can also earn 120,000 bonus Qantas points with this card by instead opting into Altitude Qantas rewards. But you won’t get any status credits with the Qantas offer.
3. Qantas American Express Ultimate – 100,000 Qantas points
You can earn 100,000 bonus Qantas sign-up points during September 2019 with the Qantas Amex Ultimate card. This card has a $450 annual fee, but you’ll get this back in the form of a $450 annual Qantas travel credit. To receive the bonus points, you would need to spend at least $3,000 on the card within the first 3 months. This offer expires on 9 October 2019.
You can estimate the number of points you can earn with this, and other frequent flyer credit cards, based on your monthly spend using our credit card comparison tool.
4. St George Amplify Signature – 200,000 Amplify points
St George is offering 200,000 bonus Amplify rewards points with the St George Amplify Signature card. 200,000 Amplify points are worth 100,000 Virgin Australia Velocity points, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles or Malaysia Airlines Enrich miles. In our opinion, the KrisFlyer miles are the most valuable of those options! 100,000 KrisFlyer miles is enough to fly one-way from anywhere in Australia or New Zealand to Istanbul in Business class, or for four round-trip Economy tickets from Australia to Tahiti!
You’ll receive 100,000 Amplify points if you spend at least $12,000 in total on eligible purchases in the first year of holding the card, and a further 100,000 points if you do the same in the second year. This credit card has a $279 annual fee which is currently being reduced to $179. These offers expire on 2 October 2019. This offer is also available for the equivalent cards through Bank of Melbourne and Bank SA.
5. Virgin Money Velocity High Flyer – 100,000 Velocity points
Virgin Money has released a new credit card sign-up bonus offer this month which is running until 2 December 2019. You can earn 25,000 Velocity points for each month that you spend at least $3,000 on the Velocity High Flyer card during the first 3 months, and another 25,000 bonus points when renewing the card for a second year – up to a total of 100,000 bonus Velocity points. This card has an annual fee of $289 .
That’s our pick for the best Australian credit card sign-up deals for September 2019. An honourable mention also goes to the Qantas Premier Titanium and Qantas Premier Platinum sign-up offers, which were featured in August and are still available.
Beware that most banks have credit card exclusion periods whereby bonus points are not awarded to customers that have previously held a card with that bank in the past 12-18 months.
Most current credit card sign-up deals are discussed on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Current Credit Card Promotions
Note: This article is not financial advice. Be sure to seek professional advice before applying for credit cards, or any kind of credit for that matter.
