Being the most basic of its kind, it’s great to see that the Westpac Altitude rewards credit card has such a great range of rewards options.

When approved for the Westpac Altitude credit card you’ll receive both an Altitude American Express and your choice of either an Altitude Visa or Altitude MasterCard. Both cards will earn you Altitude points, the American express at the rate of two points per dollar spent, and the Visa and MasterCard at one point per dollar spent.

You can also earn as much as three bonus points for every dollar spent on your Altitude cards at bonus partners of the Altitude program, including the Altitude personalized travel service. An important point to remember is that if you have an outstanding balance for two statement cycles in a row you won’t receive any points on purchases made until it’s all paid (or be able to take advantage of up to 45 days interest free for that matter!)

The minimum points value for a rewards redemption is 3000, but thanks to a little generosity from Westpac, this won’t be a problem. If you haven’t applied for your Altitude credit card through a Westpac package, or transferred from another Westpac credit card, then Westpac will kick start your points total with 5,000 Altitude points when you first use either card for a purchase.

And to top it all off (literally), you can top up your Altitude points using with cash using the Altitude Points Plus Payment system so you have enough points to get the reward that you want! However this doesn’t apply to frequent flyer points. And the cherry on the top? As long as you have and Altitude credit card account your points will never expire.

The annual fee for this credit card, with p.a. on purchases and p.a. on cash advances. The only real downfall of this rewards credit card is that it doesn’t have international travel insurance benefits, however this is to be expected on standard rewards credit cards. If this is an important feature for you, then perhaps the Altitude Gold card could be a better option.

But overall, as a standard credit card, the Westpac Altitude has an excellent rewards program and competitive rates so it does very well in holding its own with all the competition out there.

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