Bankwest has recently rejigged in Qantas Mastercard offerings. This has seen that previously invitation only World Mastercard enter the standard lineup, and the Gold Mastercard exit from the on sale offering.
Bankwest is running promotion on the newly introduced World Mastercard. They are offering a signup bonus of 50,000 bonus Qantas Points to new cardholders. The criteria of the offer are:
- apply for a Bankwest Qantas World MasterCard credit card between November 26, 2016 and January 31, 2017,
- be approved and
- spend at least $2,500 on eligible purchases within 3 months from account opening
Once you are over the hurdle of getting the card approved, the minimum spend requirement should be reasonably acheivable.
The earnings rate of the card is 0.66 Qantas Points per dollar spent, and has no earning cap. Not the highest earn rate around, but the lack of a cap on points earn may be useful for some.
The Bankwest Qantas Mastercard range
Bankwest offer a range of cards under the Bankwest Qantas Mastercard label, all offering the opportuinty to earn Qantas Points on everyday spend.
There are the Classic, Platinum and World levels, all with their own feature set that would be expected of cards at the given levels.
The Classic and Platinum cards have an annual points earning cap. It should be noted that any bonus points that are paid by the card are included in this cap. This includes the sign-up bonus. For a Platinum with a 50,000 Qantas Points, that will leave you with 150,000 points available in the first year.
On the plus side, the World card has no earning cap, and earns at a slightly higher rate tham the Classic and Platinum cards.
| Classic | Platinum | World | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Fee | $100 | $160 | $270 |
| Bonus | 50,000 | ||
| Points Cap (per annum) | 50,000 | 200,000 | N/A |
| Point earn (per $) | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.66 |
| Benefits | Foreign Exchange Fee waiver | Foreign Exchange Fee waiver |
Foreign Transaction Waiver — Platinum and World
The cards offer the normal benefits that would be associated with the cards at each level. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Platinum and World cards is that they offer a foreign transaction fee waiver on international spend. The fee that is charged for foreign currency transactions can be 3% or more on other credit cards, so there is a potential for savings on international transactions.
While some Qantas cobranded cards offer a bonus point on the purchase of selected Qantas services, the Bankwest cards do not make this offer. In addition, there is no bonus on international spend (although the waiver on international fees on the Pletinum and World cards is probably overall a better offer).
As is usual for high end cards, the Bankwest Platinum and World cards comes with a range of bundled insurances. This includes travel insurance and car hire insurance excess. Details of the included insurances is available here.
World Mastercard Features
Being targetted toward travellers, the World Mastercard offers a set of features that the other cards do not. These include
- 10% off participating Hertz car rental (until December 31. 2016)
- Fast track to Starwood Preferred Guest Gold status (currently on offer until July 14, 2017)
With an annual fee of $270, it is an expensive card just for the 50,000 points. Howver, the card does offer a few nice features, such as the foreign fee waiver and the opportunity to earn Starwood Gold.
