Virgin Australia, American Express launch '$0 annual fee' card
By David Flynn, November 19 2012
Disclaimer
Executive Traveller may receive a commission when you apply for these credit cards via our links.
The information provided on this page is purely factual and general in nature. You should seek independent advice and consider your own personal circumstances before applying for any financial product.
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.
Disclaimer
Executive Traveller may receive a commission when you apply for these credit cards via our links.
The information provided on this page is purely factual and general in nature. You should seek independent advice and consider your own personal circumstances before applying for any financial product.
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.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2011
Total posts 732
That is an easy 7500 points if you ask me! Even the earn rate for a free car is not bad at all.
22 Mar 2012
Total posts 200
Oh great- don't pay an annual fee, and save a few hundred dollars, but instead pay a whopping 20.74% p.a interest rate... great.
This is why the best rewards travel card is the Jetstar Mastercard with QFF rewards- only 13.99% p.a!
03 Jan 2011
Total posts 665
If you're actually carrying a balance on any frequent flyer credit card, you're doing it wrong. Just about any other financial instrument offers better interest rates.
Edit: apologies, rereading that it sounds quite harsh! What I mean to say is: a better plan is treat your frequent flyer credit card like a charge card and pay it off in full every month, carrying any balance on a bank overdraft.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 Jan 2013
Total posts 240
Does anyone know what the earn rate on government purchases is? I just paid my council rates and my NAB Velocity Platinum didn't offer me any points.
If it turns out this would give me the one point per dollar ratio, I might get it just for those transactions. (Either that or it's QF equivilent).
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