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- Always negotiate on interest
rate and fees (application fees,
monthly fees) and rates. If you have (or plan to have) all
your business with the one Bank
ask for no fees on personal accounts and no annual fee on
credit cards.
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- Make extra repayments as
frequently as possible – make
sure there is a redraw facility available incase you need to
access your funds.
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- Know your refinancing
costs. i.e. how much it will cost
to close the loan early and establish a new loan.
Before switching lenders tell your
current lender - they may match the new lenders offer
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- If you think you may change your
loan type with the same
lender know what charges are involved. e.g. Variable to
Fixed, Fixed to Variable, Fixed to
Split, change in % split etc..
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- Be aware of other costs such as
Stamp Duty. See FAQ's
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- Know that if you are borrowing
more than 80% of the value you
will probably be required to take out mortgage guarantee
insurance. This is a one off
payment to protect the lender in case repayments cannot be
made.
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- If you completely pay
off your credit card every
month it is usually better to choose a Credit Card with
interest free days:
- look for the card with the lowest annual fee.
- review our Loyalty
page to see what
added benefits loyalty cardholders are entitled to.
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- If you have a Credit Card with
interest free days and forget
to make a payment and/or do not pay off the balance in full
by the date date, most
providers will backdate interest to the date of purchase and
charge interest on all
purchases until the balance is paid in full.
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If you are
planning to purchase a new
Mitsubishi, Mercedes, Holden, Nissan, Subaru or Volvo,
consider applying for the
appropriate loyalty
card. When you have enough
points, negotiate your best deal for the car, then claim
your rebate on top of this to
maximise your saving.
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When making a
large purchase consider the
following tactics:
- Negotiate your best price using a credit card
- Negotiate a further discount by offering to pay cash (the
merchant will avoid the
merchant fee saving from 2% to 10%)
- Use BankSmart's loyalty card page to estimate the value of
the points compared to the
discount on offer (for example, as a rough guide Amex points
are worth about 3% for
airline travel, so make sure your cash discount is at least
3%, otherwise consider taking
the miles)
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- Consider enrolling additional
card holders, that way you can
combine all your points and earn rewards sooner.
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- If you have a Diners Club card
and travel overseas
frequently, consider applying for the Westpac Global Rewards
Gold Card. This way
you can combine all your points within the Ansett frequent
flyer program and also get free
comprehensive travel insurance.
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- If you charge electrical goods
to your American Express card
you are entitled to a one year extended warranty. If the
product is Australian made the
extended warranty is two years. Don't forget to register by
picking up the form at point
of purchase.
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| Loyalty
Cards and Frequent Flyers |
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- Make sure you are paying off
your full balance every month
as loyalty card interest rates are often higher.
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- If you do carry an outstanding
balance:
- think about applying for a standard credit
card with the
lowest interest rate.
- investigate paying out your credit card balance using a
low interest rate personal loan.
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- Claim your reward quickly. The
best loyalty rewards are
often available in limited numbers so review your rewards
catalogue as soon as it arrives.
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- When choosing a loyalty card,
look at the range of rewards
and the time cap. American Express, AMP and Citibank loyalty
cards have no time cap.
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- If you are not a frequent
flyer member of any airline you
can still claim flights as rewards if you have the Qantas
Telstra Visa, Telstra Visa or
Citibank cards. You will need to redeem more points to take
advantage of this.
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- Claiming a flight rewards
gives you more in terms of dollar
to point ratio than car hire or accommodation.
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- Consider upgrading your flight
to business class. A
business class ticket usually costs over three times the
cost of an economy ticket. When
using frequent flyer points the point difference is only a
fraction of this.
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- If you are concerned about
your points expiring, you can add
more years if you transfer points to Qantas at the last
minute. For example, Qantas
Telstra Visa, at the end of three years transfer to Qantas
for an extra 5 years.
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- You may be better-off
redeeming points annually for domestic
flights for the highest return per dollar benefit, rather
than saving-up. For example,
domestic flights cover a shorter distance and are relatively
expensive compared to
international flights.
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- Get BankWest's Extra program
loyalty card and receive free
Air New Zealand frequent flyer membership (worth $50). Air
New Zealand points can be
redeemed on Ansett flights.
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- If you are travelling overseas
using points, think about
getting the ANZ Premier Gold Visa card. ANZ Premier Gold
Visa Card holders receive free
comprehensive travel insurance.
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- Many loyalty card providers
offer bonus points at a large
range of outlets. Changing your shopping behaviour may
generate a significant increase in
your reward points. However, ensure that you are not paying
more than the value of the bonus
points.
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- Before selecting a card, check
with your paymaster, social
club or union to see if they have negotiated a discount
affinity program with financial
product providers.
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- American Express are set to
launch over 50 affinity cards in
Australia this year.
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- The ANZ Premier Gold Visa
Card, Citibank Gold Cards,
Commonwealth Bank True Awards Gold Cards and Westpac Gold
Cards offer their cardholders
free comprehensive travel insurance.
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- The ANZ Premier Gold Visa Card
is the only card to give you
this comprehensie travel insurance without requiring you to
pay for your trip with the
card. This is good if you are travelling overseas
using your frequent flyer points.
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- Retailers who accept EFTPOS
transactions can offer you extra
cash on top of what you have already purchased. This is not
only a convenient way of
accessing your money but it also reduces your total number
of monthly transactions which
may save you bank charges (depending on the account).
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- You can do all your banking
with the one card if you choose
to have everything with the one bank. For example, you can
link your credit card to your
accounts, use it as a debit card, access and transfer money
at the ATM.
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