Airpoints no more with Globalplus Credit Card

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#1263820 20-Mar-2015 08:37

sbiddle: This was big news when it was announced yesterday. Based on the many comments I saw yesterday there are a lot of unhappy BNZ customers out there.

The strange thing about so many people ranting about the issue though is how easy it is to simply change credit card providers. Based on some people's comments you'd think they were trapped as BNZ customers and had no other option..

When they announced it, they did say they would make the process simple to switch CC providers. What is interesting is BNZ announced they would pay out $1 for airpoint $1 parity. Not sure if it has to be used for flights though, they weren't very clear!

benmurphy66

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#1263827 20-Mar-2015 08:52

thecatsgoolies:
sbiddle: This was big news when it was announced yesterday. Based on the many comments I saw yesterday there are a lot of unhappy BNZ customers out there.

The strange thing about so many people ranting about the issue though is how easy it is to simply change credit card providers. Based on some people's comments you'd think they were trapped as BNZ customers and had no other option..

When they announced it, they did say they would make the process simple to switch CC providers. What is interesting is BNZ announced they would pay out $1 for airpoint $1 parity. Not sure if it has to be used for flights though, they weren't very clear!

You get cash instead of airpoints. (Well I assume it's a credit on your account)

jonathan18

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#1263828 20-Mar-2015 08:53

jnimmo: Pro tip if you or your partner is member of the PPTA you get half price Kiwibank credit cards

This also applies to PSA members, so I'd imagine it's a fairly common package they arrange with various unions and other organisations. I just found out about this last week, and it makes the Kiwibank/Air NZ card even better value - we're planning on shifting from our current ANZ 1% platinum cashback to this Kiwibank card, given the annual fees will be lower with the union discount plus the return is greater than 1% (though more limiting in that, for best value, it's limited to flights).

I recall there was a long thread on the best-value credit card, but was the general conclusion that the best 'return' on cards (assuming paid off in full each month, all spending put through the card...) are those cards providing airpoints?

There's used to be a government worker package offered by Westpac, though often those sorts of deals require all your business to be with them (eg mortgages) to get stuff like the free/reduced credit card (and/or it's a more basic card).

kingjj

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#1263836 20-Mar-2015 09:11

sbiddle:
kingjj: Seems to be no love for switching to ANZ CC's? Realise ANZ isn't always that popular on here but we managed to get an ANZ Platinum Airpoints Visa with no annual fee's without too much difficulty from ANZ. Always worth shopping around.

ANZ's offering is the worst out there in terms of points earn, and some catches in the travel insurance (if you're relying on that) such as their rental car clause.

I spoke to an ANZ card manager about this last year and had to give him a lot of credit for being completely honest and admitting they weren't likely to make any changes, were happy with their position as not having the most competitive offering, and that they really aren't that interested in high value customers who racked up large credit card expenditure and paid this off each money because customers like that aren't profitable.

I got my annual fee waived for a year, but will probably review my choice of card when I have to start paying again.

When we sat down and did the sums we looked at the complete picture (fee's, earning rate, extras, acceptability and support) and ANZ trumped it for us. Would it be the same for others? Possibly not. Will we continue to asses the pro's and con's as time passes? Absolutely. Could any other bank at the time match or better the offering we got from ANZ? No.

Everyone's situation is different and I would hate for someone to miss out on a good offer just because they didn't look at all the options and see what suits. As others have mentioned, membership of unions or combining services can lead to savings or offers not otherwise available publicly. While Kiwibank's offer is attractive, it's not nearly as attractive in our situation and may not be for others.

thecatsgoolies

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#1263838 20-Mar-2015 09:14

kingjj:
sbiddle:
kingjj: Seems to be no love for switching to ANZ CC's? Realise ANZ isn't always that popular on here but we managed to get an ANZ Platinum Airpoints Visa with no annual fee's without too much difficulty from ANZ. Always worth shopping around.

ANZ's offering is the worst out there in terms of points earn, and some catches in the travel insurance (if you're relying on that) such as their rental car clause.

I spoke to an ANZ card manager about this last year and had to give him a lot of credit for being completely honest and admitting they weren't likely to make any changes, were happy with their position as not having the most competitive offering, and that they really aren't that interested in high value customers who racked up large credit card expenditure and paid this off each money because customers like that aren't profitable.

I got my annual fee waived for a year, but will probably review my choice of card when I have to start paying again.

When we sat down and did the sums we looked at the complete picture (fee's, earning rate, extras, acceptability and support) and ANZ trumped it for us. Would it be the same for others? Possibly not. Will we continue to asses the pro's and con's as time passes? Absolutely. Could any other bank at the time match or better the offering we got from ANZ? No.

Everyone's situation is different and I would hate for someone to miss out on a good offer just because they didn't look at all the options and see what suits. As others have mentioned, membership of unions or combining services can lead to savings or offers not otherwise available publicly. While Kiwibank's offer is attractive, it's not nearly as attractive in our situation and may not be for others.

Ultimately most people have a credit card for totally different reasons, earning rewards is just the icing on the cake. The fact you have to spend dollars to earn rewards is irrelevant here. You are using the card anyway! However paying a higher fee for the privilege outweighs the purpose in my opinion.

Stu

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#1263851 20-Mar-2015 09:44

benmurphy66:
thecatsgoolies: When they announced it, they did say they would make the process simple to switch CC providers. What is interesting is BNZ announced they would pay out $1 for airpoint $1 parity. Not sure if it has to be used for flights though, they weren't very clear!

You get cash instead of airpoints. (Well I assume it's a credit on your account)

Yes, it will be a credit on the card account.

Same thing goes for home loans that earned airpoints. That will be credited to the home loan account.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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Oblivian

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#1263872 20-Mar-2015 10:23

I'm one of the dreaded freeloaders. Paid in full etc etc too.

Got a CC from ANZ for shipping off to overseas many years ago, and took up Airpoints at the same time. So jumped on GlobalPlus as soon as it eventuated which has lead to a trip to aussie each year more or less. And now this *sigh*

Being an ANZ punter for as long as I remember - that meant opening a standard savings acct when signing up with BNZ for some 'security' or other such claim. May not be the case now, but yes.. it is fairly easy and you can have CC with 1 bank and pay it with direct debit by another.

For us standard card users (not platinum etc) It does seem a bit of a weigh-up if you are tight on spend. You either have to join Westpac for more benefit ($20 less bonus earning per point and cheaper monthly) and go through the same hoops, or drop in and pretty much get approved with my home bank given the savings held there with less bonuses.

Decisions decisions

NonprayingMantis

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#1263879 20-Mar-2015 10:24

I see Westpac have now announced their new airpoints cards.
http://www.westpac.co.nz/credit-cards/airpoints/

Running the basic numbers:

With my current Westpac platinum, I get 2 hotpoints for every dollar I spend.
$100 worth of vouchers from Bunnings (or anywhere) is worth 18,000 points.

So, to earn $100 worth of hotpoints I need to spend roughly $9,000 on my card. (or to look at it another way, $10,000 worth of card spend is worth around $111)

with the new Airpoints platinum card, I earn 1APD for every $75 spent on the card.

So to earn 100APD I need to spend $7500 on my card. (or $10,000 worth of card spend is worth $133)

So it seems that APD is slightly better than hotpoints on a purely dollar value comparison, and you get status points as well (which may or may not be worth it depending on how much you spend and how much you already fly with ANZ - I'm already gold, and I definitely won't accrue enough to get to Gold Elite, so the extra status points my card grants are utterly worthless)

BUT there is a lot of flexibility in the way hotpoints work, which counts for a lot IMHO

With APD I can only use them in a quite restricted way - paying in full for Air NZ flights (and some really overpriced crud in the online store)
With Hotpoints, I can use them for virtually anything - travel vouchers, bunnings vouchers, Harvey norman, Resene in value as low as $20 per time.

so, for me, I think sticking with hotpoints is likely to be better, but that equation may not apply for some people.
what do you guys think?

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#1263881 20-Mar-2015 10:31

jnimmo: Pro tip if you or your partner is member of the PPTA you get half price Kiwibank credit cards

Likewise EPMU

sbiddle

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#1263889 20-Mar-2015 10:50

NonprayingMantis:
With APD I can only use them in a quite restricted way - paying in full for Air NZ flights (and some really overpriced crud in the online store)
With Hotpoints, I can use them for virtually anything - travel vouchers, bunnings vouchers, Harvey norman, Resene in value as low as $20 per time.

so, for me, I think sticking with hotpoints is likely to be better, but that equation may not apply for some people.
what do you guys think?

I see both sides as well.

In many ways the APD earn is more a nice to have. I've got a few thousand APD at present because I don't use them for actually booking flights, I use them primarily just for long haul upgrades. With APD being A$1 = NZ$1 they are effectively just cash, and if you book flights using APD you neither accrue APD or status points, hence me using them for upgrades, and flights each year if I know I'll reach my Airpoints Gold threshold

Unless you spend a lot each year on a credit card and/or travel a lot and want the benefits of travel insurance I don't see the point in most people even having a Platinum card. I'm sure there are lots of people out there who don't even enough points over the course of a year to even cancel out the higher yearly card fees. Many people just get sucked in thinking they're earning APD without really doing the math or knowing if they're actually getting value for money.

I also see Westpac are offering a higher APD earn rate on foreign transactions. I read somewhere yesterday that they charge 2.5% commission on all foreign transactions, vs most of the other banks that are all 2.25% so you're effectively paying for that extra earn.

kiwitrc

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#1263909 20-Mar-2015 11:09

I am moving to Kiwibank Platinum, best return on Status Points which helps keep me up the pointy end on flights.

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bazzer

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#1263915 20-Mar-2015 11:13

sbiddle: With APD being A$1 = NZ$1 they are effectively just cash...

For me, the fact that you are somewhat restricted in how you can use them makes them worth less than NZ$1 to me. I liked when my True Rewards card could be used at my supermarket because supermarket shopping is something we do regularly

, so that was effectively cash for me. Now, I have to go to the trouble of getting vouchers but at least I can get them for places that I go, so not bad. I feel like Airpoints are basically only good for flights and I don't always fly Air NZ.

ajobbins

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#1263919 20-Mar-2015 11:20

sbiddle: This was big news when it was announced yesterday. Based on the many comments I saw yesterday there are a lot of unhappy BNZ customers out there.

The strange thing about so many people ranting about the issue though is how easy it is to simply change credit card providers. Based on some people's comments you'd think they were trapped as BNZ customers and had no other option..

Yeah, not sure I agree with that. Recently my bank in Australia (CBA) upgraded my card out of the blue. While it was a welcome upgrade, I pay all my bills by automatic credit card payment, which meant changing over the credit card details with about 15 different providers. Most of them I could update online, but many I had to call and give new details to. It was quite a time consuming process. And of course I forgot one of them, which meant when my bill was due it declined and I got an angry email to fix it.

The other thing is that people often end up with large credit limits that they have accumulated over time with their existing provider based on account history. If you sign up for a new card with someone you don't have an existing banking relationship with, they may only be willing to give you a credit limit a fraction of what you have currently.

In my particularly case I have a BNZ GP Platinum card, which I have had for years. I kept it active when I left NZ and I do use it when I am back in the country (Cheaper to xfer a lump sum to my NZ accounts than to pay foreign CC fees on every transaction). Because I am not a resident currently, I don't think I am going to be able to change cards.

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jonathan18

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#1263948 20-Mar-2015 11:35

bazzer:
sbiddle: With APD being A$1 = NZ$1 they are effectively just cash...

For me, the fact that you are somewhat restricted in how you can use them makes them worth less than NZ$1 to me. I liked when my True Rewards card could be used at my supermarket because supermarket shopping is something we do regularly , so that was effectively cash for me. Now, I have to go to the trouble of getting vouchers but at least I can get them for places that I go, so not bad. I feel like Airpoints are basically only good for flights and I don't always fly Air NZ.

This is also the reason we've stuck with National Bank (now ANZ) cashback credit cards, as while the return isn't the highest on offer (1%), at least it's processed as a credit on the card, so can therefore be spent on anything one likes. Other options can be a bit like Fly Buys, where the products are essentially valued at their full price, whereas one can make the most of discounts if purchasing the same items with cash.

That said, the considerably higher level of return from the Kiwibank/Air Points platinum card and the half-price fees through my union's deal with the bank means that, despite its limited spending options, we think it's worth the shift. This card offers one Airpoint per $75 spend, but as pointed out above your spend on the card has to be high enough to cancel out the high costs ($180 a year for two cards, but only $90 with that union discount, thank god).

NonprayingMantis

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#1263950 20-Mar-2015 11:38

sbiddle:
NonprayingMantis:
With APD I can only use them in a quite restricted way - paying in full for Air NZ flights (and some really overpriced crud in the online store)
With Hotpoints, I can use them for virtually anything - travel vouchers, bunnings vouchers, Harvey norman, Resene in value as low as $20 per time.

so, for me, I think sticking with hotpoints is likely to be better, but that equation may not apply for some people.
what do you guys think?

I see both sides as well.

In many ways the APD earn is more a nice to have. I've got a few thousand APD at present because I don't use them for actually booking flights, I use them primarily just for long haul upgrades. With APD being A$1 = NZ$1 they are effectively just cash, and if you book flights using APD you neither accrue APD or status points, hence me using them for upgrades, and flights each year if I know I'll reach my Airpoints Gold threshold

Unless you spend a lot each year on a credit card and/or travel a lot and want the benefits of travel insurance I don't see the point in most people even having a Platinum card. I'm sure there are lots of people out there who don't even enough points over the course of a year to even cancel out the higher yearly card fees. Many people just get sucked in thinking they're earning APD without really doing the math or knowing if they're actually getting value for money.

I also see Westpac are offering a higher APD earn rate on foreign transactions. I read somewhere yesterday that they charge 2.5% commission on all foreign transactions, vs most of the other banks that are all 2.25% so you're effectively paying for that extra earn.

probably true for a lot of people, although (at least with westpac) if you have enough other business with the bank (mortgage etc) then you don't pay any annual credit card fees at all, so I might as well have the best earning CC I can get, since it doesn't cost me any more to have it.

(the travel insurance is also an excellent benefit to have - saves me hundreds of dollars per year since it also covers family)

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