which credit card has best points on offer

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › which credit card has best points on offer

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#1069197 19-Jun-2014 13:21

timmmay:
sbiddle: Depends entirely what you're after and what your spend is.

Canstar released their latest credit card report last week comparing the value of all cards, I'd look there for a start.

Information here. Honestly it's not very helpful.

Not helpful in what way?

If you look at the different spend bands it tells you pretty clearly who the best value for money cards are for both cashbacks and frequent flyer points.

ANZ have got nailed by the latest report - they've put a big advertising focus in the last year on having the most 5* rated cards out there but with many of the changes they made last year many of the cards now rank poorly.

khull

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#1069198 19-Jun-2014 13:21

Really depends on your need - if you are just up to 'win' against them, then ensure your 'burn' rate matches what you spend.

For us, we spend enough to get yearly Koru membership from ANZ. ASB didn't want our money for some reason so we left them.

PeterQ

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#1069199 19-Jun-2014 13:25

networkn:
Kopkiwi: I have a Kiwibank platinum. 1 airpoint per $90 spend. 2 free koru lounge passes per $10k spent on it. Free travel insurance when you buy either your flights or accommodation with it. Free concierge services.

NEver had a problem with KWB on the whole.

I wish they would change the reward for a spend. As a Koru Member they are pointless, we get a LOT of extra passes each year and they go in the bin!

I agree

timmmay

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#1069200 19-Jun-2014 13:26

sbiddle: Not helpful in what way?

If you look at the different spend bands it tells you pretty clearly who the best value for money cards are for both cashbacks and frequent flyer points.

ANZ have got nailed by the latest report - they've put a big advertising focus in the last year on having the most 5* rated cards out there but with many of the changes they made last year many of the cards now rank poorly.

It concentrates mostly on best card, giving rewards only a small weighting. That's useful generally, but not to evaluate which card's reward scheme suits an individual.

The ANZ platinum cashback and ASB platinum rewards have the same value, but ANZ is cashback and ASB limit what you can spend money on. So ANZ is clearly superior. Maybe I'll change, since it doesn't much matter which bank a credit card is with.

ovipop

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#1071032 20-Jun-2014 14:57

Kopkiwi: I have a Kiwibank platinum. 1 airpoint per $90 spend. 2 free koru lounge passes per $10k spent on it. Free travel insurance when you buy either your flights or accommodation with it. Free concierge services.

NEver had a problem with KWB on the whole.

You get A$1 for every $75 spend : http://www.kiwibank.co.nz/personal-banking/credit-cards/airpoints-credit-cards/platinum-mastercard/

wasabi2k

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#1071041 20-Jun-2014 15:18

We use ASB True Rewards - Cash you can use at a bunch of shops:

$1 per $100 spend.

https://www.asb.co.nz/story396.aspx

Thinking about it we must spend a ridiculous amount on our credit cards...

networkn

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#1071058 20-Jun-2014 15:37

wasabi2k: We use ASB True Rewards - Cash you can use at a bunch of shops:

$1 per $100 spend.

https://www.asb.co.nz/story396.aspx

Thinking about it we must spend a ridiculous amount on our credit cards...

I'd have to say, even if they had the best rewards program in the world, I wouldn't trust ASB ever again. The way they treated us over a number of years culminating nearly ruining a trip of a lifetime, ensured that.

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rayonline

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#1071154 20-Jun-2014 16:56

I am going to just speak my mind. It also depends what you are after. Assuming you are ok with points and airpoints.

The best rate is the Westpac World Card which is expensive at maybe $250 or $350 fees PA but if you are a big spender you can get half or all of it reversed. The benefit rate is something like 1.6%. You can also use the points for some airfares too, like you can get the cheap grabaseats pay with the card and then request for your points to be used on it.

I myself don't spend that much on my card. I find the bst is 1.5% for GlobalPlus Amex Gold. $66 you get $1APD. Fees $105 PA. This is a AirNZ card. I don't get status points but don't care cos I don't fly that often anyway and the AirNZ system is so hard anyway unless I travelled for business or fly like 4 or 6x overseas each year on economy class. True Amex isn't supported everywhere but for what I use it for the exceptions are minimal.

Then the next might be the Kiwibank Platinum AirNZ card which is 1.33%. Which is $75 for $1APD. $150 PA fees. You get status points too 1 at $200 spend. Think this is a Mastercard.

The next set might be the ANZ Platinum AirNZ card which is $1APD per $90 which is 1.11%, you get status points too at every $250 for one SP. $150 fees PA. The same 1.11% you can get the GlobalPlus Platinum Visa but I think the fee might be a bit higher on that card. $200 PA fees. Status point is $250 spend for one.

ANZ Cashback cards are 1% which is not bad if you want money back. That is the Gold card which is now been replaced by the Platinum. But you have to spend a min $5,000 per year to quality for the 1% if not you might only get 0.5%. Both my parents have this card.

There are free cards without loyality programmes - like the Kiwibank Zero Mastercard provided you use it at least once every 3 months. No travel insurance obviously.

I will note that with the platinum ANZ cards - over the counter in NZ you get can foreign cash without commission. But this does not include taking foreign cash out of a foreign ATM machine on location.

Re: the Flybuys BNZ card not that great. Eg .. 150 Flybuys = $25APD. Generally speaking you need to spend $25 at the affliated stors to get 1 Flybuy point. So $3750 = $25APD = 0.66% return rate. But if you have a BNZ Flybuys card you get bonus points. Each $50 you get 1Flybuys. So for the $3750 you get 75 Flybys which is an extra $12.50APD. So that rate becomes 1%. But this way you are really restrcted to the flybuy stores. Because if you went to Countdown or you paid for a hotel or went to a restaurant .. or Pak N Sav you don't get the flybuy points from stores just the amount via the credit card which is 0.33% or double that 0.66% if you had the Gold Flybys credit card.

Kraven

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#1071316 20-Jun-2014 21:47

We've been on what is now the ANZ Cashback card for years. The reward value is simply credited to your account so effectively you can spend it any way you want.

We're on the standard card, so our annual fee is $70 ($60 plus joint card at $10). The rewards cap out at $30k, so the most you can get back is $300 which is fine for us as we just fit within this limit.

Also the key for any rewards scheme is to pay off the card each month so that you don't accrue any interest. If you're going to be paying interest then you're best to shop around for a better interest rate, rather than a better rewards scheme.

MadEngineer

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#1071370 20-Jun-2014 23:23

We have westpac hot points which they are sadly removing Amex from as the Amex gives double the points over our Visa cards. I havnt done the math but we get $300 back a year in fuel vouchers or whatever.

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rugrat

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#1071393 21-Jun-2014 03:23

BNZ does American Express Classic, same fees as the visa ( $30 annual), but it gives you one fly buy point for every $25 spent, so twice as good as the visa.

For places that don't accept american express which isn't to many, I use kiwi bank master card zero. No rewards, but no fees as long used once every three months. Not much spending on that one so not worried about no rewards, and still find free credit more convienant then having money come out of account straight away.

jonathan18

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#1071439 21-Jun-2014 09:22

Kraven: We've been on what is now the ANZ Cashback card for years. The reward value is simply credited to your account so effectively you can spend it any way you want.

We're on the standard card, so our annual fee is $70 ($60 plus joint card at $10). The rewards cap out at $30k, so the most you can get back is $300 which is fine for us as we just fit within this limit.

Also the key for any rewards scheme is to pay off the card each month so that you don't accrue any interest. If you're going to be paying interest then you're best to shop around for a better interest rate, rather than a better rewards scheme.

We've been on this for over 10 years now too (National Bank previously, of course), and found that this would have been the second year we've exceeded the $30k max for the rewards. This year we decided not to miss out on this additional return, but were shocked that the fees were over twice the amount ($155 versus the $70 you mention), so one's annual spend has to be over $38,600 to just cover these additional fees. We decided to go for it as we were already at the $30k max with three months to go until the end of the year. They said we could switch over to the new Platinum card and transfer the current points over, but of course we'd have to wait a year until having these paid out. We elected to take a second card out, and will keep the other one open until it's anniversary date. (Splitting the existing credit limit meant we didn't even need to do a new application.)

We've stuck with this cash back system as, while it may not give the best immediate return (as shown by others above), there's nothing like cold cash at the end of the day. Schemes that require you to purchase from a set selection of goods at their set prices doesn't provide flexibility or good prices. As a comparison - it's like purchasing an appliance using Flybuys points, whereas the same or equivalent product can be bought directly from a store (if not NL itself) at a significant discount when on sale. Airpoints are valuable, but only if you fly... we have two kids so this is just something we can't afford to do anyway...

We use the cash back (after deducting the annual fees, of course!) as a chance to buy something we wouldn't normally purchase, eg a GPS unit (prior to this being on mobiles!), a decent learning remote etc.

rayonline

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#1071453 21-Jun-2014 09:44

My parents go overeas to visit family. I checked, didn't know the Cashback cards both the regular and Gold have the same benefit rates. The regular is just is just capped at the $30,000 spend but I gather most people out there are perfectly fine with that - $600/week. Parents likes the travel insurance part of it. Yep - for NL stuff, instead of Flybuys one could get them at sales times or different stores like Briscoes etc who are cheaper or Trademe, eBay etc. At least with grabaseats that the points can be used on and now you can transfer to a family member living at the same address but we pretty much just use them for the domestic fares to AKL connections b/c the AirNZ programme has become a lot harder to get real rewards.

My parents are more into free flights than a upgrade - like many normal people I suppose - it's always easier when overseas frequent flyer programmes need 6 or 8 returns to get one free flight while AirNZ needs 25 or 12.5 for a half price grabaseat if I can snatch it on the morning - hence they are just on the Cashback card. I myself just use the AirNZ CC for CC expenditure for the points to get that domestic flight but if I happen to purchase non-grabaseat flights (not frequently) I just use a overseas programme.

But these loyalty points in general. In all honesty IMO. If you are an average individual or family the benefits are just a sweetner. That is you are not self employed or a professional contractor etc. The regular (classic) Cashback card has $60 PA in fees. To get that back you need to spend $6,000. So let's say the individual puts $15,000 on the card. That's just $150 benefit per year minus the fees provides you $90. A couple might have 2 separate cards so that's $180 or $50 more under a joint card.

lyonrouge

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#1078074 1-Jul-2014 17:05

Amex Platinum Credit Card gives us two (2) return business class flights to Melbourne every two years. You have a choice of airlines with them, but for Melbourne it's always Emerits. It's hard to compare the points systems Air NZ has a dollar equivalent, but Amex has "funny money" (100K points or something like that).

kingjj

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#1079142 3-Jul-2014 09:37

Interesting offer advertised online today from Amex (noticed, not sure when it was launched, could have been a while ago...)

Amex AirNZ Card, no annual account fee, 55 days interest free, 19.95%, $1A per $100 spent (no expiry while active).

I have a bulk standard ANZ Visa (no rewards) which I use for small regular payments online at a cost of $35 per annum. Almost tempted to grab one of the above for the sites that accept it and link it to my current AirPoints account.

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