At some point in August ATO rolled out some new surcharge fees for payments using different credit or debit cards, with a reduction in fees for some card types.
Among the winners are MasterCard credit and debit card holders, who see fees drop from 0.54% to 0.4% and 0.15% respectively, while Visa debit also reduces to 0.15%.
The Visa credit card surcharge increases a little to 0.58%, and new overseas card surcharges of 2.7% for international Visa and MasterCard payments now apply. American Express fees stay the same at 1.45%.
Many of the cards left that earn points on transactions made at the ATO are MasterCards, so holders of the Bankwest Qantas or Coles flybuys with tax bills will be left a little better off when it comes to paying a surcharge in order to earn points on the card. For the full breakdown of how each card washes out, read on.
Earning points for ATO transactions when using your credit or debit card
One of the questions often considered by anyone who has to pay tax bills to the ATO is ‘how do I earn the most points on this transaction?’
The answer is a moveable feast – cards keep changing, so we’ve attempted to bring our list of cards that allow points to be earned when paying your tax bill.
Many banks explicitly prohibit earning points on these types of transactions, with a common theme of more banks explicitly removing ATO payments as being eligible for points earn.
There are a few cards on the market that do still offer the ability to earn points for ATO transactions, and in this guide we’ll cover off the current list of cards, their notable terms and restrictions, and a small number of points-earning alternative payment options.
Navigating this guide
This a complex topic that requires explanation. There’s no single best answer for everyone – it will depend on the cards you may already hold and the rate at which you are prepared to fund a surcharge in order to use your credit card.
As a result this guide is split into several sections:
- Caveats and disclaimers ↓
- Cards that earn points at the ATO ↓
- Considerations when using points-earning credit cards to make tax office payments ↓
- How to make a payment to the ATO using a credit card ↓
- A detailed look at the PDS/Terms & Conditions for the cards referenced ↓
- Other options for paying the ATO and earning points ↓
If you’re planning on making a payment to the ATO using a credit card, you should absolutely read this guide in its entirety – there’s a lot of important and useful info in here! Set aside some time to read and understand it in full.
Please note – caveats and disclaimers!
This list comes with some caveats. Please read and understand these before making any decision around which credit cards to use for ATO Payments.
- Do your own research by reading the Credit Card and Rewards Program PDS documents, asking the relevant bank, and your own research from other online sources.
- We have tried to make this list as complete and as accurate as possible, but it’s possible we could have missed a card, have an error in our calculations, or didn’t complete quite enough research. Please let us know in the comments of this article if you find anything wrong.
- There are legitimate reasons for having to pay the ATO as either a personal entity, or as a business entity. Many banks prohibit unreasonable amounts of business transactions on personal cards. We have tried to note the relevant terms and conditions of different bank rewards programs below. Our recommendation: if using a card extensively for business purposes, consider a specific business credit card that explicitly permits points earn at the ATO.
- Any advice in this guide is general advice only and does not consider any of your personal circumstances and existing banking relationships / products.
- Things can change. This list was last published / updated on the date shown at the top of this guide. We will try and keep it updated, but it may not be absolutely current.
Frequent Flyer / Rewards Credit Cards that earn points at the Australian Tax Office (ATO)
| Credit Card | Effective cost per frequent flyer point earned when paying ATO surcharge | Points earned @ ATO | Comments / Notes | Points Caps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Bank Business Awards Platinum Notes ↓ | Guide → | 0.80c per Velocity Point or 1c per Qantas Point (0.40c per Commonwealth Awards point) | 1 Awards points per $ spent on MasterCard = 0.5 Velocity Points per $ 0.4 Qantas Points per $ | CBA Awards Terms explicitly permit points earned at the ATO and for Business Transactions up to the points cap - see notes below Points calculations made assuming transactions on the MasterCard, which for changes effective July 1 offers better value/return for ATO spend than the American Express | 300,000 CBA Awards points per year = 150,000 Velocity Points per year 120,000 Qantas Points per year |
| Bankwest Qantas World MasterCard Notes ↓ | Guide → | 0.61c per Qantas Point | 0.66 Qantas Points per $ | Bankwest Qantas Rewards terms exclude points earn on, amongst other things, "government charges" and "business related expenses"- see notes below Bankwest Qantas World is invite only so Platinum included as additional reference point. No changes to Bankwest cards announced yet in 2017. | Uncapped |
| Bankwest Qantas Platinum MasterCard Notes ↓ | Guide → | 0.80c per Qantas Point | 0.5 Qantas Points per $ | 200,000 Qantas Points per year | |
| Coles Rewards MasterCard (flybuys) Notes ↓ | Guide → | 0.46c per Velocity Point 0.50c per Etihad Guest mile (0.20c per flybuys point) | 2 flybuys points per $ = 0.87 Velocity Points per $ or 0.8 Etihad Guest miles per $ | flybuys MasterCard terms & conditions prohibit points earning for business transactions - see notes below | Uncapped flybuys earn; maximum transfer of 128,000 flybuys points to Velocity each year; no cap on transfers to Etihad Guest |
| Most other American Express-issued Cards e.g. Platinum Edge, Platinum Charge, Business Accelerator | 2.90c per point (various rewards programs) | 0.5 points per $ spent | Check the individual guides for each card in our cards table | |
| Non Credit Card Options | ||||
| Qantas Cash Notes ↓ | Guide → | 0.60c per Qantas Point | 0.25 Qantas Points per $ | Business and government transactions not mentioned as disallowed in terms - see notes below Ability to pay ATO and earn points is anecdotally possible. Untested by Point Hacks however. | Effective maximum of $100,000 loaded per 12 month period = 50,000 points earned See notes on load and balance caps |
About this table
- There is no ranking or endorsement of a specific credit card implied in the above table.
- We have included the highest points earner in each bank’s card range, regardless of annual fee, to keep things as simple as possible.
The following cards/banks do not earn points for ATO transactions: ANZ Rewards & Frequent Flyer, CBA (personal cards), Citi (and managed cards, including Virgin Money, CUA and Diners), NAB, HSBC, Qudos Bank, Macquarie Platinum / Hilton, Jetstar MasterCard, Woolworths Money, and as of July 1st, those linked to Westpac Altitude and St. George Amplify programs – and most others.
Considerations when using a points-earning credit card to make a tax office payment
There are a handful of different ways to make a payment to the ATO, and this guide is focused on the ability to make a payment that earns rewards points.
When paying the ATO directly using a credit card, you’ll incur a surcharge on the payment.
Current credit card surcharges for payments to the ATO
| Payment Method | Surcharge Imposed by ATO |
|---|---|
| American Express | 1.45% |
| MasterCard | 0.40% |
| Visa | 0.58% |
| Visa/MasterCard Debit | 0.15% |
| Visa/MasterCard International payments | 2.70% |
The surcharge amount is often a tax deductable expense for a business – but double check with your accountant or tax advisor for your own circumstances if planning to claim this expense as a tax deduction, or if this is important to you.
Your personal circumstances might dictate that a payment via Bank Transfer or BPAY makes more sense than incurring a surcharge, so bear that in mind. Any advice on this guide is general only and does not take into account your personal circumstances.
How to work out whether the ATO credit card surcharge is worth paying
This is a key part of figuring out whether to use a points-earning credit card for ATO payments.
The first thing to consider is the value you place on your points. You can check out my list of rewards points values here, which might help you.
Once you have a handle on how much you value a point, you can then place a value on the total number of points earned by paying the ATO with a credit card surcharge.
Here’s a simplified example.
Say you have a 1 point per dollar earn on a MasterCard or Visa, and you value the points earned at 1.5c per point. If the tax bill you have to pay is $2,000, then you’ll earn 2,000 points, which have a value to you of $30.00.
With the ATO’s surcharge of 0.40% on MasterCard payments, you are paying $8 to earn the 2,000 points, or 0.40c per point. The $8 paid is less than the $30.00 you value the points earned, so in this case you may consider paying using this credit card.
As an alternative example, let’s consider an example with an American Express, with a 0.5 point per $ earn rate. The surcharge of 1.45% means that you are paying 2.9c per point, which is higher than the 1.5c per point value you place on the points earned, so in this case you most likely wouldn’t consider paying using this credit card.
So three things you need to consider before you decide whether a surcharge is worth paying:
- The value you place on points you earn with your credit card
- How many points the credit card you are planning to use earns per $ spent at the ATO
- The surcharge incurred for using your chosen payment method by the ATO.
Important! This analysis does not take into account:
- Any tax-deductability of the ATO payment fee
- The cost of ownership of the credit card, such as it’s annual fee
- The cost of any interest incurred for balances you are carrying on the card – the assumption in this guide is that no interest will be paid for your ATO payment. If you are planning on carrying the ATO balance on a card and incurring interest on this balance, then the interest incurred will likely be far higher in cost than the value of the points earned.
How to make a payment by credit card directly to the Australian Tax Office
The primary way to make a payment to the ATO by credit card is to head to the ATO EasyPay Portal and input the reference number given to you by your accountant or the ATO for your payment.
A detailed look at the PDS/Terms & Conditions for the cards referenced in the table
Let’s get stuck into some details of some of the cards in the table and their related terms and conditions.
Some unrelated terms between section headings and conditions have been removed for readability – these are marked with a ‘…’.
Commonwealth Bank Business Awards Platinum American Express & MasterCard
There’s a $300 annual fee with this card, and business transactions along with points earn at the ATO are expressly permitted. The PDS for the CBA Business Platinum account is here.
This states:
Platinum Business Awards and Platinum Business Awards with Qantas Frequent Flyer Direct
Platinum Business Awards Members may earn a maximum of 300,000 Awards points per year…
- Earn 3 Awards point per $1 spent overseas (including purchases made online at overseas websites) or at Higher Points Merchants in Australia and earn 0.5 Award point per $1 everywhere else when using the linked American Express Card
- Earn 1 Awards point per $1 spent using MasterCard
Section 18
The following transactions are excluded from earning points: BPAY transactions, payments to the Australian Taxation Office unless made using a Business Awards card…
- …transactions deemed by the Bank to be for business purposes (excluding transactions on Business Awards, Business Gold Awards and Business Platinum Awards cards)
To then calculate how many CBA Awards points are needed to transfer to frequent flyer programs, reference the Awards Program terms here.
This states:
- 1 Qantas Frequent Flyer point = 2.5 Awards for Platinum
- 1 Velocity Frequent Flyer point = 2 CommBank Awards points for Platinum
And thus we get to the earn costs and rates shown in the table at the start of this guide.
Bankwest Qantas World and Platinum MasterCards
The Bankwest Qantas PDS can be found here.
This states:
Qantas Points are earned on all purchases made using the Card Account except:
- … Government charges (other than GST payable in connection with the purchase of goods or services on which you earn Qantas Points)
- Business Related Expenses; and
- any other transactions which from time to time may be excluded by us.
There is no definition of ‘Government charges’ in the document so it’s unclear if Bankwest do consider a personal transaction to the ATO as a Government charge. It is clear the card shouldn’t be used for business related expenses, and that the bank can also decide that any transaction they feel like can be excluded from point earning.
Coles Rewards MasterCard
Coles do not specify that the Coles Rewards MasterCard forbids points being earned for government or ATO charges. The PDS for this card is here.
However, transactions for business purposes are defined as an ineligible transaction for earning points:
Excluded Transactions means:
(7) transactions Wesfarmers Finance decides are wholly or partly for business purposes
In addition, Wesfarmers, the owner of Coles and Coles Finance products, sold the Coles credit card business to Citi in February 2017. This could mean that at some point the cards are moved over to being issued and managed by Citi, who don’t permit earning points at the ATO for any of their cards, including those from Virgin Money who they also issue credit cards for.
Points-earning non-Credit Card Options for ATO Payments
There are a small number of payment options outside using the EasyPay portal with a credit card for paying the ATO – primarily Visa or MasterCard debit cards, which is the case for Qantas Cash. Unfortunately, Velocity Global Wallet announced some changes in September effectively removing the possibility of earning points at the ATO.
As a general note, the primary difference between using a prepaid card option vs a credit card is that you’ll need to fund the account before making a payment. You’ll need to bear that in mind from a cashflow perspective.
Qantas Cash
The PDS for Qantas Cash is here.
This states, that for earning points:
Eligible purchases include all purchases of goods and services made using Qantas Cash, but excludes money orders, traveller’s cheques, gambling chips or purchasing foreign currencies in cash.
Given this is not a credit card, there are other restrictions and considerations in how it can be used. These are the key things to be aware of for this use case. The PDS states:
- Maximum individual amount you can load on Qantas Cash in any 24-hour period: AUD $20,000
- Maximum value of point of sale (POS) transactions performed in any 24-hour period: AUD $15,000 or equivalent
- Maximum balance allowed at any one time across all Currencies: AUD 100,000 or equivalent
- Maximum amount you can load across all Currencies during a 12-month period: AUD 100,000 or equivalent
If you can’t load money onto the card, you can’t use it to pay for anything, so there is a rolling 12 month points cap of 50,000 Qantas Points that can be earned on Qantas Cash across all transactions.
It doesn’t appear that there is a 12 month cap like Qantas Cash, but if using the card for larger payments you will need to bear that load limit in mind.
Another option could be BPAY from a credit card – but I haven’t researched or included those in the list.
Other options for paying the ATO and earning points
Another option for making payments to the ATO is to jump on prepaid debit MasterCard or Visa deals that can initially be purchased using a points-earning credit card.
Usually the cost of acquisition of these cards is too high, but there can be short-term offers for which you need to keep an eye out for, and then apply the same maths as above to figure out cost of payment method vs points earned.
There are also other hazards in using prepaid cards to pay the ATO – depending on the amount of money that can be loaded onto the card at point of purchase, you could be running many cards through the ATO payment portal, and each payment and its surcharge would need to be accounted for independently if it’s being made on behalf of a business.
Summing Up
There’s no ‘best option’ amongst this list, as the permitted transactions, points earned with each card, and associated cost (and return in points) of payment to the ATO varies greatly from card to card.
We also can’t recommend specific cards to use for your circumstances – so dig through the table and the list of considerations above and try and find an option that works for your own valuation of points and whether it is worth paying the ATO surcharge to earn them.
Their fees could change, of course, but I would consider that unlikely. American Express-issued cards such as the Business Accelerator or American Express Explorer would be cards to target to earn the most points when using their service.
Earning points from transactions to the ATO – once you have a card that offers this option – can be a very simple way to build your points balances from payments you had to make anyway.
It could also be a costly mistake if you over-value the points earned or pay using a card that you thought earned points with ATO transactions, but didn’t.
There’s no doubt this is a complex and ever-changing landscape. You can keep up to date on changes being made by banks this year in our RBA changes round up.
To sum up: there are still a number of points-earning credit cards for spend with the ATO, and our general advice is to try to read and understand the terms of each card as much as possible and try and find the right fit for your own circumstances and preferences.
Thank you for the information. It is really a bad news as I have been using my overseas mastercard to pay ATO for long time. Since the rate for AMEX is 1.45%, I guess it will be cheaper if I pay with overseas AMEX card than overseas Mastercard/VISA, right?
Hi Keith.
Thanks for the article. its an excellent summary of all the cards.
I justed wanted to ask 2 Qs:
1. What is the card payment fees for Qantas cash ? is it like a once- off fees?
– lat34 & Samantha- ur help will be appreciated – as u guys hv done it.
2. Is there a similar fees for Velocity Global Wallet card as well ?
Hope 2 c replies soon.
Cheers.
Hassan.
Hey Hassan, I’d suggest checking out the individual guides for Qantas Cash and Velocity Global Wallet for more info on their fees and there is a link to a useful comparison guide in both too.
Thanks Matt.
I’ll have a look and see if it answers my questions.
Cheers.
Hassan.
Coles Reward MC is capped I believe? FlyBuys is uncapped but transfer to Velocity is capped @ 60,030 p.a.
The earning of flybuys from the Coles Rewards Mastercard is uncapped, as you said. To clarify, you can transfer a maximum of 138,000 flybuys points to 60,030 Velocity points per household, per calendar year, however, there is no cap on flybuys transfers to Etihad Guest. I have added a note in the table accordingly. Thanks for ‘pointing’ out (get the pun?)!
I made a ATO Payment through the easy pay portal on a Business American Express Platinum Charge card that up until now was earning points. Seems its not anymore.
I don’t think this table is correct and I’m not sure why you’ve included certain cards on here (not offering ATO payments at all). I spoke with most of these providers today, as I have a $300,000 tax bill to settle and thought I could grab some quick ff’s, but the list of providers that offer points for ATO payments is now tiny. All I could get for QFF, was CBA Business platinum at 0.4 per dollar up to 120,000 per year or the AMEX explorer at 0.5 points, which was not worth the trouble at the surcharge required. C’mon Keith.
Thanks for the feedback. Can you be more specific about the cards on the table for banks that you’ve spoken to which don’t offer points? It’s hard to follow up and make sure we have our info right otherwise. Thanks…
ANZ Black Amex card still providing triple points for payments to ATO.
Very interesting to see their latest offers to convert ANZ Rewards points to Virgin (with bonus). I think their is more value redeeming ANZ Reward points directly for flights as opposed to redeeming for Virgin points and then booking same flights. Any comments on this?
Paid ATO using velocity global wallet late last year and had points successfully post; transactions from early this year didn’t. Followed up with their tech support and, after 2 weeks of waiting, received a response yesterday confirming that they will manually add the points. When I queried whether there was an issue with my account and whether this could happen again (i.e. flagging my waning interest in using the card if getting the points to post each time would be a hassle), I received the following response: “We can confirm there wasn’t any error on your account but we are no longer issuing points for ATO payments and this will be soon updated on our product disclosure statement.”
So, take that as either confirmation that you will get the points (albeit with some legwork) until the PDS is updated, or avoid at all costs……
Thanks Matt – great info, and I have noted this in the guide and table now.
Hi there,
If i have an amex explorer, do i have to use the amex payment platform you describe? Or can i just pay my ato bill directly and still earn points?
Thanks
You can pay your bill directly to the ATO with a 1.45% surcharge but Amex will only issue 0.5 Membership Rewards Gateway points per $ when doing so, or 0.33 frequent flyer points per $ equivalent. Otherwise you can earn 2 MR Gateway points per $ (1.5 frequent flyer points per $) when paying via RewardPay with a 2.4% plus GST surcharge. It’s up to you which route to take.
Perfect. Thanks so much
I used my new AMEX Explorer via RewardPay last week to pay the ATO and they only credited 0.5 MR Gateway points per dollar spent, making that a very costly exercise.
So I rang them to dispute this and was given the line about it being government spend, on the basis that it says REWARDPAY*ATO in the transaction details. I highlighted that my partner’s AMEX Explorer account has always earned the full 2 points on these transactions before, but so far they haven’t budged.
Wonder if it’s worth raising it with RewardPay at all, since their website does sort of imply that you’ll get the full amount of points with their service?
Thank you for such a detailed summary. I just wanted to check if there is there a mistake with the CBA platinum earn rate. I believe as CBA award point converts to 0.5 velocity points rather than 1.5?
Yes, well caught. Copy / paste problem there! Fixed in the table.
I have just successfully earned points on Qantas Cash card for my BAS/ATO payment. Happy! happy! You rock point hacks! Because of your website, in seven weeks time I’m travelling to Moscow Emirates Biz, and after the Trans Siberian rail journey enjoying Cathay Biz home. All by doing what I would do in my normal day to day business operations. Love your work! Thank you x
Thanks for the thanks!
Great article Keith, thank you.
Samantha, can you please advise how you used your Qantas Cash to pay tax? Mine is only allowing to convert currency to currency, card to another Qantas card, or transferring Qantas cash to another of my own bank account. Not any options allowing for tax payments?! Thanks!
Susan it’s not a transfer but a bpay. Have you tried that?
No Samantha as Qantas cash doesn’t have bpay options to transfer out funds (only allows bpay to transfer in funds)- I called them to check.
Please let me know if you have any other tricks, thanks.
Pay the ATO using Mastercard facility of Qantas Cash. This works (to date) for personal tax payments and earns 0.5 Qantas Points per $ (
the card payment fee).
Thanks for the guide Keith. Will have a go with it.
Excellent, thank you.
Hi,
FYI. I just got off the phone with AMEX
Can confirm David Jones AMEX and AMEX Platinum Edge do earn points for ATO payments (1 and 0.5 respectively).
Thanks for the article Keith 🙂
Hi Keith
I have just tried to pay my tax using my Qantas Cash card but it rejected because it isn’t a credit card. How do I go about paying using Qantas Cash?
That sounds like a new development – as far as we know it was possible a few months ago. Do you get a specific rejection message from the ATO you could share? Are you using the Easypay portal as well?
Keith, I have a $385,000 tax bill due mid May. How would you go about it ? Happy to deposit in advance the funds on a small capped card to receive points. Amex or a visa ?I have cards now that will not allow ATO payments.
We can’t give personal advice on which cards to use, but my general approach would be to assess the size of your bill, the cost of the surcharge, and look at how many points you might earn by picking up an ATO points-earning card. If the points earned are enough and outweigh the value of the surcharge of that card then it may make sense to try and go for it. Alternatively, consider the RewardPay route if you can.
Is it possible to use a foreign credit card? e.g. an american card with no forex?
I don’t have any personal experience of this. Best way to try is to test with a small amount and see how it gets processed.
Keith,
Curious as to what qualifies as a business transaction… My wife has AMEX Explorer and ANZ Black cards and is contracted/self-employed. We will need to pay her tax (she is the sole employee and has an ABN) and I’d like to use a card to do so. Does her paying tax for her own business count as a business transaction? Or is it simply just a tax payment by an individual?
Ah, well each bank is different and is not transparent about that definition. American Express don’t exclude business transactions so choose not to define them, but others who do mention a business transaction I think should be clear about that definition, but aren’t. Ultimately it would be up to the banks discretion to decide whether you are using the card for business purposes.
My take would be that if you are paying a personal tax bill, it’s personal, but a business tax bill e.g. for your BAS or IAS, would be a business transaction. That said, the ATO bills through the same portal in either case, so the bank would probably decide more generally whether they thought you were using the card for business or personal purposes. It’s all very grey!
Hi Keith,
Great article.
Considering ANZ’s recent announcement to withdraw all AMEX cards from the bank from August 2017 (others will follow soon), do you think it is wise to convert ANZ points (approaching $1m points) to one of their affiliated programs; ie Velocity?
As a business owner with a trust structure, most of my points are earned paying personal tax debts for myself and other beneficiaries through the ATO EasyPay system. Of course, 4 of these transactions per year relate to business GST (BAS).
I am beginning to get worried ANZ will catch on and relinquish points earned, perhaps only the BAS component.
It would be brilliant to see an article related to how to best convert your points (or just redeem) considering these recent changes.
Thanks in advance.
I think it’s unlikely will devalue the transfer rates of ANZ Rewards over to their partners, although you never know, so the points you hold with them should retain their value. However you are right to be concerned about your use of the card for business transactions as they could just wipe out your balance if they decide you have been using the card against their terms. In which case, Velocity during a 15% bonus promo period (there could be one in May) would what I would look at if I were in your shoes. You can always move them over to KrisFlyer at a later date if your plans dictated that was a better option.
I can confirm recent (23 Nov 2016) personal tax payment to the ATO using Qantas Cash earned 0.5 Qantas Points per $ (including card payment fee).
I paid my quarterly BAS on Coles MC on October 25 and got all my points, so I have no idea why this amazing card is not on the list.
Er… I forgot to update when I said I would. I’ll get it done!
Also worth nothing that paying your BAS is a business expense, which the Coles card states aren’t allowed to points earn on the card. Just saying. Worth being aware of, everyone can make their own decisions on how to use their cards – we just aim to inform!
I can also confirm that Coles MC earn flybuys points on ATO payments.
I called Coles MasterCard and they said I would still earn points as long as it was not a boat transaction.
What’s a boat transaction?
Keith, I think you set this all down very clearly. Thanks for your research.
I want to offer another perspective. I have a couple of cards that won’t earn anything for ATO spend. My Amex-issued cards will, and my ATO payments for my quarterly BAS are processed with no quibble.
Whether I use a card that earns points or not, I still have to make that quarterly payment. So for me, I immediately consider can I get something more for it? Let’s face it, the ability to earn a couple of, or even many, thousand lazy points every three months is nothing to be sneezed at.
I could apply for another card, generally at a membership cost of a couple of hundred dollars, in order to save a couple of hundred dollars. But I need to factor in the cost of owning that card for just ATO spend, unless it also provides a very good general points return. And, the effect on my credit rating if I’m applying for yet another premium credit card.
These are all qualitative rather than quantitative concerns, and don’t detract from the very valid points you raise about the cost of earning these points. For me, I find it’s a justifiable expense to spend a little more and get the bonus points, and “save” some time and dollars getting another card that is otherwise not really needed, and leaving my credit rating strong for any particularly compelling deals I see (such as when Amex Velocity Platinum offered a 100,000 point sign-up bonus).
Hi Keith, this month I received an offer of 10,000 bonus altitude points if I used my Westpac Altitude Black American express card to pay the ATO. This is the second time I received such a letter in the mail. It is obviously a targetted offer but if people are considering this card, it is good to know
Wow! Some banks give while others take away. Great to see Westpac understanding this is a benefit to their cards.
there were rumors about the Bank Australia card as well Keith.
Do you know anyone who tested that one?
I have seen the card but haven’t dug into the terms yet. On the list.
What about the Coles MC?
I was under the impression that this had just recently stopped ATO transactions. Looking into it more now though.
Thanks for this guide! What about the Amex qantas ultimate card?
Amex Qantas Ultimate falls into the ‘other Amexes’ line in the table, which earns at 0.5 Qantas Points per dollar spent, and therefore 2.9c per point.
great guide. shouldn’t it be for st george amplify visa, 0.72c/Qantas point. which is actually the best rate on offer. (and excludes birthday bonus)
Thanks Mike. Yes, I think you’re right. Corrected.
Great guide Keith, you’ve covered it well. You’ve missed Qudos, which used to be great, but I see now it will no longer pay on ATO spend from December.
One time it can be worth using a high cost-per-point card to pay the ATO is to meet bonus point minimum spends on a new card.
I thought HSBC platinum card still earns points…. is that wrong?
Unfortunately, yes. That changed earlier this year. According to their terms, ATO transactions are now ineligible for points earn.
Hi Keith
Thanks for the comprehensive article. Do you know if the Qudos bank CC still gives points for ATO payments？
They gave notice to existing cardholders that ATO earn ends from December 1st, and points caps are being applied. Guide/news on this coming tomorrow.