Any tips on maximising point earn from ATO payment?

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Hi,
I have an ATO payment due soon of approx $50k. As much as it always hurts to part with it, it needs to be done. I was hoping I could at least get creative to try to benefit in some way from the transaction.

I currently have the Westpac Altitude Black cards (amex & mc) and according to the Point Hacks card table ATO earn for that card is only “0.5x on Amex only”.

On top of that the ATO card payment fee is 1.45%.

This ultimately only gets me Altitude points which when converted to Velocity gets me 1.25pts / $ (on amex).

My unconfident calculation is:
$50,000 * 1.25 velocity points * 0.5 reduced ATO earn = 31,250 velocity points
$50,000 * 1.45% ATO card fee = $725

ie. paying an extra $725 on top of the $50k for 31,250 velocity points.

I realise the glory days of ATO earn might be over, are there any other recommended approaches? Other cards? Other non points related benefits from a $50k transaction?

Appreciate any tips and advice.

Thanks,
Daniel

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Hi Daniel.

Unfortunately, this site doesn’t allow credit card recommendations.

But if you want you can email me at "hassantahir9033@hotmail.com"- there is a lot more points u can earn and much less fess compared to what you have quoted.

Cheers.

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I also have a very similar question. I have a $25K ATO bill I was considering paying with my AMEX Qantas Ultimate, which would get me 12,500 Qantas points for a $362.50 surcharge. Is this good value? My dodgy maths calculates that as costing 2.9 cents per point… have I done that right? According to Keith’s points value calculations, I think that represents poor value. But i’d appreciate some confirmation i’ve done it correctly.

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Hi Daniel,

This solution is incredibly impractical, but here it is.

  1. Using an AMEX Platinum Edge Credit Card, purchase $52,975 worth of Woolworth eGift cards online at 5% discount for $50326.25. You can set up an account with  CashRewards.com.au to achieve this. This will net you ~150,000 Amex points (3x points at supermarkets & this does qualify)
  2. Use your $52,975 of Woolworths eGift cards to purchase 500 x $100 MC Gift Cards in store @ $105.95 each. (Note: Only do it $500 at a time as the POS system has a melt down if you go over this amount)
  3. Use Gift cards to pay your $50k debt $100 at a time. There will be a 0.15%/0.4% surcharge on MC depending on if it's treated as a debit or credit card, meaning you will need to pay up to $50,200 in worst case scenario
This will net you ~150,000 points for ~$526 = ~0.35c per point

Good luck with the ATO audit that will almost certainly follow :slight_smile:

 

 

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