Is the 1.5% surcharge worth the points you get?

I’m hoping to pay my rent using my credit card. They accept DEFT payments but when using a credit card it incurs a 1.5% surcharge.
My rent is $3020 and I have the ANZ black qantas frequent flyer card so I earn 1 point per dollar spent but I would end up paying an extra $45.30. Just wondering if it is worth paying the extra to get the points. Cheers

Hi Raph,

It’s hard to say whether it’s worth it, as that very much depends on your intended usage for your points. Different usages for your points present better or worse value for money, so it’s hard to say without knowing.

Essentially you’re looking at earning 3020 points, and paying $45.30 more for the privilege, which means each point is costing you approximately 1.5c to earn. Say you’re going for a Sydney - Brisbane; give or take $100 the going rate for the cash fare 1-way. In points it costs 8000 plus $39 worth of taxes, which means for this award you’re paying 8000 points for $61 worth of value (61/8000) = 0.7c per point. So if this was your goal it’s absolutely not worth it, however there are many premium cabin awards on longer haul flights that represent significantly higher value per point.

If you’re stockpiling points for an award seat on a business class long-haul I would say that’s reasonable, but again without knowing what you’re aiming for it’s hard to say.

So short answer yes possibly, but you need to establish the value for your points on the award which you are likely to use them for, and then equate this to the costs you are incurring to earn these points and then you’ll see if it’s worth it to you.

Hope that helps!

Yeah ok thanks, I’m not too sure what I will use my points for yet, just earning them at the moment.

If I was earning them at 1.5c a point then it’s still a good deal doing Sydney to Brisbane at 7c per point because I’m more than quadrupling the point value but I see that there are better ways to use them.

Hi Raph.

If You have got “AMEX explorer”- that will earn 2ppd and that would be better than ur current situation. Not sure whether they accept payment via AMEX or not. If not and you still want points 4 that- the other option is rewardpay- which charges-2.64% extra- but with explorer card- its definitely worth it- cz my calculation comes at 1.32 c per point for “ascent” points- and point hacks values “ascent” points at 2c per point.

You can email me "hassantahir9033@hotmail.com"- if u want to know the nitty gritty…

Cheers.

Hassan.