Comparing ANZ Rewards Black vs Rewards Platinum: Which is more rewarding?

For earning flexible rewards on everyday purchases, ANZ offers two tiers of points-earning plastic. There’s the ANZ Rewards Black Visa credit card, as well as the ANZ Rewards Platinum Visa. Both cards earn points – but they accrue at differing rates. In turn, the two cards come with two distinctly different annual fees.

Here’s a look at earning points across the two ANZ credit cards, along with the ways that points could be used for travel.

ANZ Rewards Black vs Rewards Platinum: earning points

If you’re earning points through either the ANZ Rewards Black or ANZ Rewards Platinum credit card, you’ll find them in ANZ Rewards.

Eligible spends on the ANZ Rewards Black card deliver two ANZ Reward Points per $1 spent up to $5,000 per monthly statement period. Further spends in the same statement period accrue one ANZ Reward Points per $1 spent until the next statement period begins.

Using the ANZ Rewards Platinum card instead offers 1.5 ANZ Reward Points per $1 up to $2,000 of eligible purchases per statement period. After that, earning continues at 0.5 ANZ Reward Points per $1 spent until the next statement period begins.

Here’s how that translates into total ANZ Reward Points earned based on example monthly spending volumes.

Monthly spend vs rewards earned	ANZ Rewards Platinum	ANZ Rewards Black
$1,500	2,250 ANZ Reward Points	3,000 ANZ Reward Points
$2,500	3,250 ANZ Reward Points	5,000 ANZ Reward Points
$5,000	4,500 ANZ Reward Points	10,000 ANZ Reward Points
$7,500	5,750 ANZ Reward Points	12,500 ANZ Reward Points
$10,000	7,000 ANZ Reward Points	15,000 ANZ Reward Points
$15,000	9,500 ANZ Reward Points	20,000 ANZ Reward Points
$20,000	12,000 ANZ Reward Points	25,000 ANZ Reward Points

As the numbers show, making the same purchases on an ANZ Rewards Black card offers the greatest number of points per dollar spent. That’s through both a higher base earn rate, and a higher monthly threshold at which the number of points provided per dollar changes.

Even with a modest monthly spend of $1,500, the ANZ Rewards Black card is over 33% more rewarding than its Platinum counterpart. Those spending more could see ANZ Rewards Black being more than twice as rewarding.

ANZ Rewards points transfer options

Once you’ve earned points with ANZ Rewards via the bank’s Platinum or Black credit card, there are some great options when it comes to redeeming them. For those interested in travel, the bank’s multiple points transfer partnerships provide flexibility when searching for reward seats.

That’s a key difference of earning points in a program like ANZ Rewards, rather than many ‘direct earn’ cards which are linked to one specific airline. The flexible approach of ANZ Rewards allows spenders to earn points now, while deciding what to do with those points later. That’s handy when your travels vary from trip to trip, or when you hunt for the best points deal every time you fly.

Here are those points conversion options from ANZ Rewards.

• Air New Zealand Airpoints – 2:1c ($0.01)
• Cathay (Asia Miles) – 3:1
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer – 3:1
• Velocity Frequent Flyer – 2:1

These choices provide two Star Alliance carriers, a oneworld Alliance airline, as well as Virgin Australia. From the programs above, you could ultimately book reward flights with a sizeable number of airlines. For instance, you could book Qatar Airways via Cathay or Velocity. Want to fly with Air Canada? Transfer to Airpoints, KrisFlyer or Velocity. How about Turkish Airlines? Easy – transfer to KrisFlyer or Airpoints. Heading to South America? Book Qantas or LATAM through Cathay. The list goes on. Perhaps now, you see what we mean about flexibility.

Separately, keep your eyes peeled for transfer bonus offers, which may pop up throughout the year. This can increase the value of the points you’ve already earned, when you strategically convert these into frequent flyer points at a more attractive rate than usual.

Frequent flyer points per dollar spent on ANZ Rewards Platinum and Black

Wanting to crunch the numbers a little further when comparing points on the ANZ Rewards Black and Platinum credit cards? Because we have the earning rates in ANZ Rewards, as well as the conversion rates to the various airline partners, it’s easy to calculate how many equivalent frequent flyer points can be earned per dollar spent. In some circles, this can be referred to as the ‘effective earn rate’.

Here’s how that looks across the ANZ Rewards Platinum and ANZ Rewards Black credit cards.

Effective earning rate	ANZ Rewards Platinum	ANZ Rewards Black
Air New Zealand Airpoints	$0.0075 in Airpoints Dollars per $1 up to $2,000 per statement period, then $0.0025 Airpoints Dollars per $1 thereafter.	$0.01 in Airpoints Dollars per $1 up to $5,000 per statement period, then $0.005 Airpoints Dollars per $1 thereafter.
Cathay (Asia Miles)	0.5 Asia Miles per $1 up to $2,000 per statement period, then 0.166 Asia Miles per $1 thereafter.	0.66 Asia Miles per $1 up to $5,000 per statement period, then 0.33 Asia Miles per $1 thereafter.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer	0.5 KrisFlyer miles per $1 up to $2,000 per statement period, then 0.166 KrisFlyer miles per $1 thereafter.	0.66 KrisFlyer miles per $1 up to $5,000 per statement period, then 0.33 KrisFlyer miles per $1 thereafter.
Velocity Frequent Flyer	0.75 Velocity Points per $1 up to $2,000 per statement period, then 0.25 Velocity Points per $1 thereafter.	1 Velocity Point per $1 up to $5,000 per statement period, then 0.5 Velocity Points per $1 thereafter.

Overall, the strongest earning rates are seen when converting points to Velocity Frequent Flyer. That said, Cathay and KrisFlyer remain great alternatives when searching for reward seats. In some instances, comparable flights could cost fewer miles to book via Cathay or KrisFlyer compared the number of Velocity Points needed for an itinerary to book flights between two cities. With that in mind, don’t overlook these great alternatives purely because the conversion rate differs – there can still be lots of value to be had.

Annual fees

With higher points come higher fees – and that’s to be expected. Some points earners ‘justify’ these fees by considering the value of the rewards being sought. For instance, the value of a Business Class ticket which could be booked using points earned. Everybody’s different, though, and with differing appetites for fees.

On the fee front, the ANZ Rewards Platinum card is the most affordable with a total annual fee of $149. On the ANZ Rewards Black card, the total annual fee is $375. Broadly, this reflects the higher points earning rates of the ANZ Rewards Black card compared to Rewards Platinum, as above.

Speaking of points, cardholders may be able to boost these further by issuing additional cards under the same account. For instance, for a partner or trusted family member. ANZ allows up to nine additional cards to be issued per card account, at $65 per additional cardholder, per year. Spends across all cards – including additional cardholders – pool to the primary cardholder’s ANZ Rewards account.

ANZ credit cards support Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. They also support Garmin Pay for wearable devices, making it easier to earn points in more places. As to whether an ANZ credit card is right for you – or if so, which ANZ credit card could be a better fit as the best ANZ rewards credit card – that’s entirely your call.

Featured image courtesy of Rupixen/Pexels.

More about the topics covered in this article:

• ANZ Rewards: The Ultimate Guide
• Your guide to Cathay (formerly Asia Miles)
• The Ultimate Guide to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• Velocity Frequent Flyer 101

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