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?
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.
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.
This solution is incredibly impractical, but here it is.
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)
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)
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