With the introduction of the debit MasterCard in Australia just a few years ago (2005), there are only three credit card providers in Australia that offer a debit card through MasterCard’s credit facilities. Westpac just happens to be one of them.

For a standard debit card, the Westpac Debit MasterCard has a trifecta of security measures in place in order to protect its cardholder’s from credit fraud and theft. For starters, when you use your debit card you’ll have the option of signing the receipt or using a PIN for your purchase.

Secondly, Westpac uses the Falcon system which detects unusual purchase activity on your card. So if you’ve made some purchases outside of the usual purchases you make, you’ll get a call from Westpac just to check that it’s you using your card and not someone who shouldn’t be.

Last but not least, the Westpac debit card is covered by MasterCard’s Zero Liability policy. So if someone has been racking up purchases on your debit card, you won’t be liable for them.

There are 7 different everyday banking accounts and six different loan accounts that you can link a Westpac debit card to, and your monthly fee will only be that of the account that you choose to link it to. With so many account options with a variety of features available, Westpac has most definitely catered for the needs of a wide range of people.

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It has to be said…

This card is a VAST improvement on the standard Westpac 55 Day credit card. That’s all there is to it.

As a premium credit card, the Westpac 55 Day Gold credit card has the obvious benefits that are just not included on the standard 55 day card.

This includes a variety of insurances, such as purchase protection (3 months), extended warranty on purchases (up to one year), transport accident insurance (up to $250,000) and international travel insurance with cover for unlimited medical expenses, rental car damage ($5,000), lost items ($15,000), and $2.5 million in personal liability cover.

With a purchase rate p.a. (the same as the standard 55 Day credit card), the Gold card’s interest rate is third equal in terms of interest (with two other Westpac cards) of all the Gold credit card’s we’ve covered. It also has an annual fee which we are pleased to say is pretty low for a credit card with these kind of benefits.

This fee is waived in the first year, and every year after in which you spend over $15,000 on your credit card. Balance transfers accrue interest p.a. for the first six months which then increases to the cash advance interest rate p.a., and of course, it comes with 55 days interest free.

Another added bonus is that the credit limit that you’ll receive on this card will be higher than standard Visa or MasterCard credit cards. After seeing the standard 55 Day credit fall so far short of even an ok credit card, it was good to see that the Westpac 55 Day Gold credit card has picked up the slack with a good interest rate, excellent features and benefits and all for a reasonable annual fee.

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A lot of platinum credit cards tend to fall short when it comes to their price increases being proportionate to their increases in value.

So when it came to reviewing the Westpac 55 Day Platinum credit card, we had to ask ourselves ‘is this interest free credit card going to be any different?’

And what’s our verdict? Well, it’s a mixed bag.

On one hand you have the annual fee. It’s at the cheaper end of the scale for all the platinum cards we have reviewed. This fee is waived in the first year and each year after if you spend more than $20,000. Then on the other hand the only additional benefits to this card and the 55 Day Gold credit card are the addition of a concierge service and rental vehicle excess insurance.

As with any platinum card the insurance values increase, but like we said, that’s a given. Travel insurance cover is increased to 6 months in length and up to $20,000 per person. Rental car excess insurance is added in at up to $5,500 if you pay for comprehensive insurance cover and use your 55 Day Platinum credit card.

Transport Accident Insurance is available up to $500,000 if you or one of you family members is seriously injured or killed while traveling. Purchase Protection also increases to four months and extended warranty doubles to 2 years.

As a platinum card, you will be able to access a Platinum Priority Service phone line which is open 24 hours a day. The thing is, how this phone line differs from the Priority Service phone line available for Gold cards is unclear.

On the whole the Westpac 55 Day Platinum credit card is ok, but it has potential to lose out to the Gold card because of its annual fee. If you are planning on spending a lot of money with this credit card (over $20,000) then it could be a good investment, but if not, then it would pay to shop around.

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