After 14 months of “points” I have accumulated 270,000 velocity points and become a full convert.
Few updates just before Coles annual fee was due I cancelled my Coles MasterCard, anz low rate, and got two different rewards cards, an Amex velocity personal card and ANZ rewards visa card, still have my GE mastercard, but has zero balance and no annual fee.
In brief... (all points are after converting to Velocity miles) why velocity because I had 50,000 points from work related flying over the years.
The tally last year and three months
150,000 points from one years of worth of Coles MasterCard turnover and flybuys bonus on Coles shopping
100,000 sign up velocity bonus points from Amex in Jan 2018 which gives me 1.5 points per dollar.
14,000 sign up velocity (converted) bonus from ANZ Rewards which gives me 1 point per dollar.
So far 282,000 points get me (Inc Amex spend)
One and half return business class tickets to LA (100,000 points each way)
Or
Three return economy class tickets to LA
Total cost $nil fees ie all first year annual fees are waived, and Coles card I cancelled before renewal.
Note: I carry a zero balance
Each month i turnover about $4000 to $8000 combination work expenses and day to day living meaning I accumulate 6000 to 12,000 extra velocity points direct from Amex and when I shop at Coles I still use flybuys for extra points.
So if one is disciplined with finances I totally encourage looking into it. For me it is like $3000 worth of value per annum and I haven’t changed my spending habits. Thinking back I prided in using saving and cash, that was silly.
Note I did take radio8tiv advice and stopped converting points for gift cards. Spending some time calculating the conversion value, it is so much better to leave it in velocity till required and velocity points are forever.
Note two, I always thought there was a big fee for using Amex or visa but it turns out now very few places I shop at charges a fee at all. The very few places that do charge a 2% fee or don’t accept Amex, I use Anz visa rewards or cash. But as it turns out it’s so few places (unless it’s bullion dealers lol) its not mentioning.
Considering next year I’ll need to pay $500 annual fee for Amex, I am looking at what other high sign up bonus card to change it to next year, might look into a hotel connected card. I seen Hilton cards that offer 2 or 3 nights free as sign up bonus with nil first year annual fee promos.
But I do stress to anyone looking into it, I’m still learning, but the number 1rule is all the turnover on the card should be your normal spend, that you would have spent regardless.
Spending extra because you got a new card is false economy.
