FEATURES SUMMARY

• Annual fee: $195
• Purchase rate: 18.99% p.a.
• Cash Advance rate: 20.24% p.a.
• Balance Transfer rate: 2.99% first 6 months (18.74%)
• Interest-free days: Up to 55 days
  • Extras:
    • Apply online

• Phone/Internet banking
• Purchase Security Insurance
• Commission-free travellers cheques
• Worldwide emergency credit card replacement
• American Express/Visa Entertainment benefits

Like the standard ANZ Frequent Flyer card, the ANZ Frequent Flyer Gold credit card gives you two choices of cards to use when making purchases, and therefore more opportunities to build up your Qantas frequent flyer points.

The majority of the features of this card are the same as the standard ANZ Frequent Flyer credit card, such as the interest rate and interest free days. But according to the ANZ website you ‘go further with the Frequent Flyer Gold’ card.

What exactly does this mean?

Well it starts with paying a bit more in your annual fee – $195 as opposed to $95 on the standard frequent flyer card. After reading the fine print, it was found that the fee for joining the Qantas Frequent Flyer program is not actually included in the card’s annual fee.

So in order to take advantage of this card’s benefits, you would have to join the program yourself and pay the $82.50 program fee on top of your card’s annual fee. This would bring your fee for the first year to a grand total of $277.50. The good news is that this Qantas fee is a once off payment rather than an annual fee.

Another shortcoming of this travel credit is the difference in points-earning potential between the standard and gold frequent flyer credit cards is marginal. The gold credit card offers just 1.25 points for every dollar spent on the American Express card, and is the same as the standard card’s points rate on the Visa ($2 = 1 point)*.

These points are capped at 10,000 points per month which is 5,000 more than the standard card, so it is quite obvious that this card is aimed at those who will be spending quite a bit more than those with the standard card and will of course be able to reap the benefits.

This credit card takes out the #2 spot in the Frequent Flyer credit cards category, so if you’re already a member of the Qantas Frequent Flyers program or plan on doing a fair bit of travelling over the next few years, then this card will be highly beneficial for you. Otherwise, it would be wise to cover all your bases to make sure you’re getting the best airline rewards credit card on offer.

See all our top credit card picks in the Editor’s Choice category