Virgin Australia, American Express launch '$0 annual fee' card

Virgin Australia and American Express are rolling out a frequent flyer rewards credit card with no annual fee.

The new American Express Velocity Escape Card earns one Velocity point for every dollar spent and two points for every dollar spent with Virgin Australia.

Both of those earning rates are uncapped, so there's no limit to how many points you can chalk up.

Applicants also score 7,500 free Velocity points when they sign up and drop a meagre $300 on their card within the first 3 months, which equals a one-way flight from Melbourne to Sydney.

Of course, your Velocity points can also be funnelled towards flights with Virgin Australia partners such as Etihad Airways, Delta Air Lines, Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand.

"Rewards cards have generally been associated with annual fees, which can be significant depending on the type of card and the range of benefits and for some, this is a barrier to getting one" observes Jeremy Cabral from CreditCardFinder.com.au.

Cabral says the $0 annual fee credit card is "the type of card you can have in your wallet and use throughout the year, to find that at the end of it, you’ve got a nice sum of points to help pay for your trip or even an upgrade to business class.”

The American Express Velocity Escape Card is the fourth card in the American Express Velocity series. It joins the American Express Velocity Platinum Card, the American Express Velocity Gold Card and the American Express Velocity Business Card.

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.