BankSA is offering up to 200,000 Amplify Rewards Points plus a reduced annual card fee of $139 for the first year for new cardholders of the Amplify Signature Visa – Amplify Rewards variant until 2 June 2020.
The bonus points is spread over 2 years with 130,000 Amplify points to be credited after spending a minimum of $12,000 for the first year and another 70,000 Amplify points on the second year, again after spending an additional $12,000. This is equivalent to spending just $1,000 per month for 2 years. An advantage of having a lengthy eligibility period is that a yearly cycle should encompass larger bills that mightn’t need to be paid in shorter eligibility time periods, such as 3 or 4 months.
There’s also 80,000 Qantas Points plus a reduced first year annual card fee for new cardholders of the BankSA Amplify Signature Visa – Qantas Rewards variant.
The Amplify family includes cards offered by St.George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA and they continue to offer decent points earn rates from your day-to-day spend. This guide covers the different earn rates, caps and benefits of the BankSA Amplify Signature Visa – Amplify Rewards.
Amplify Signature cards – Up to 200,000 Amplify Rewards Points
- St.George Amplify Signature – Amplify Rewards
- BankSA Amplify Signature – Amplify Rewards
- Bank of Melbourne Amplify Signature – Amplify Rewards
- St.George Amplify Signature – Qantas Rewards
- BankSA Amplify Signature – Qantas Rewards
- Bank of Melbourne Amplify Signature – Qantas Rewards
Since Amplify Rewards points are transferable to Velocity Frequent Flyer, KrisFlyer and Malaysia Airlines Enrich on a 2:1 basis. This means that the current bonus of up to 200,000 Amplify points is equivalent to 100,000 points when transferred to the aforementioned programs.
Digging into the details of the BankSA Amplify Signature Visa – Amplify Rewards
The BankSA Amplify Signature Visa – Amplify Rewards offers 1.5 Amplify Rewards Points (which is equal to 0.75 Velocity Points, KrisFlyer or Enrich Miles) per dollar spent with no points cap.
The card is worth considering for the relatively high flexible points program earn rate outside of American Express.
The additional benefits of the Amplify Signature credit card include a 10% points ‘birthday bonus’ on your spend for the previous year, which effectively increases your points earn rate on all your spend if you keep the card active. The Amplify Rewards variant also two single entry Priority Pass lounge passes, insurances and access to Visa Luxury Hotels booking service.
Card Details
| Card | BankSA Amplify Signature Visa - Amplify Rewards |
| Loyalty program | Amplify Rewards |
| Points earned from spend | 1.5 Amplify points per $ spend Plus 10% points bonus for your birthday |
| Points cap | None |
| Travel benefits | 2 x Priority Pass invitations Access to the Visa Luxury Hotels program |
| Included insurances | Amplify Signature Travel Service, international travel insurance, purchase security insurance, extended warranty cover plus more (PDS) |
| Overseas transaction fee | 3% of the converted amount |
| Annual fee | $139 for the first year, $279 p.a. ongoing |
Effective Frequent Flyer Program Point Earn Rates
| Frequent Flyer Program | Effective earn rate |
|---|---|
| Velocity Points | 0.75 point / $ |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles | 0.75 mile / $ |
| Malaysia Airlines Enrich Miles | 0.75 mile / $ |
| * Qantas Points are only earned if selected upon receiving the card | |
Amplify Rewards vs Qantas Points
The BankSA Amplify Signature Visa also has a Qantas Rewards variant that earns 0.75 Qantas Points per $ on spend. Otherwise, earn rate is 1.5 Amplify Rewards Points per dollar on eligible purchases on the Amplify Rewards variant.
We cover the details of the Amplify Rewards and its frequent flyer transfer partners in a separate guide.
The Birthday Bonus
Both variants of the Amplify Signature Visa comes with a unique benefit of a 10% bonus on all points earned from spend over the previous 12 months (excluding any bonus points) on your birthday each year.
Lounge access
You’re also offered two complimentary single-entry lounge passes each year and for the Amplify Rewards variant, you’ll receive a taste of Priority Pass membership.
Other benefits
The Amplify Signature Visa comes with access to the Visa Luxury Hotels program, which offers:
- Best available rate guarantee
- Automatic room upgrade upon arrival (when available)
- 3pm check-out (when available) at over 900 luxury hotels
- Free in-room Internet
- Complimentary continental breakfast
- VIP Guest status
- US$25 food or beverage voucher
You can check out the available deals at participating hotels at visaluxuryhotels.com—the program may be of use to you, or it may not, depending on the hotel you’re looking into.
You’ll also get access to the Amplify Signature Travel Service, which is a dedicated phone service with Travel consultants available to cardholders, with access to some specific packages. Worth looking it if you’re likely to use it.
And finally, there’s also a range of included insurances:
- Complimentary Overseas Travel insurance for up to six months
- Complimentary Purchase Cover for up to four months
- Extended Warranty Cover for up to twelve months
- Transit Accident insurance
- Certain medical and hospital expenses overseas—unlimited cover (except emergency dental and bed care patient allowance)
- Unexpected cancellation of your travel arrangements and associated expenses—unlimited cover (maximum of AUD $10,000 for a family)
- Up to $500 per person for travel delays
- Up to $550 per person for loss or damage to travel documents
- Up to $20,000 per person for accidental loss or damage to eligible personal property
- Up to $5,500 of excess cover for loss or damage of a rental vehicle
As I always say with credit card insurances, only you can decide if they offer value for your circumstances, so make sure you read the PDS for them to decide if they meet your needs. Read the full PDS here for BankSA
This guide references some of the benefits of insurance policies provided with this card. You should read the PDS and obtain independent professional advice before obtaining this product.
Summing up
This BankSA card, along with the other cards in the Amplify Rewards family could be useful for those who are looking for a non-Amex card with decent points earn and flexibility in how you use them.
Bonus offers on this card can be hit and miss but when they are good, the card is well worth considering, and the travel and lounge access perks are handy extra benefits.
Feedback regarding this offer as I had a bad experience recently. Very quickly, I am an Aussie citizen living and earning my salary in Germany, but still with strong family and financial ties/responsibilities in Australia. Looking to swap from my Westpac Black due to various reasons. I applied for this card BoM Signature after researching all the offers on this site – was the best fit in terms of cost, bonus points etc… Provisionally approved on the numbers I input online – then had to submit docs to verify income etc… That’s where I ran into trouble. Nowhere during the info finding/application process did it say “foreign income” not allowed… Which is what St.George group used as the reason to deny me the card. No consideration of individual circumstances (which I outlined in detail after the problems began), lengthy delay in processing, all ending in a “sorry for the inconvenience, but tough luck”. Very disappointing outcome, and I will now see if one of the other bigger banks will give me a similar problem, but just wanted to let you guys know of this issue. I realise that the majority of people on this site will be earning their income in AUD, but may be just worth annotating this on the guide to save the few like myself the wasted time and effort.
Cheers.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Each bank has differing criteria in terms of their credit check, and for many, foreign income is not considered for credit card applications. It would be preferred if banks can make this clearer in their application process, and I encourage you to pass on this feedback to them if you haven’t already done so.
Yes I did pass this on and was told this would be made clear on their application process in the future, but as I won’t be making another application with them, I won’t be able to check! Perhaps others can do this in future…