Commonwealth Bank Platinum Awards Credit Card

Mozo snapshot:

The 2019 Mozo Experts Choice Award winning Platinum Awards Credit Card is a card that has a lot of rewards bling whether you want to cash in on instant rewards at Myer, redeem points for a holiday at Flight Centre or transfer them across to your preferred airline's frequent flyer program. If you're super savvy and pay your balance off in full each month and use all of the features and benefits attached to the card like 24/7 concierge, complimentary travel insurance, purchase security protection and extended warranty insurance you'll get top value out of this card.

Key features:

With the CommBank Platinum Awards Credit Card, you can bag 1 Award point per dollar spent. While points don’t expire, there is a yearly cap to consider of 150,000 Awards points, or 120,000 if you’ve opted to directly earn points into the Qantas Frequent Flyer Program.

And, when you apply for a new CommBank Platinum Awards credit card by 31 October 2019 and spend $4,000 on eligible purchases with your new card by 31 January 2020, you can also score a sweet 100,000 bonus points to plump up your stash!

You can choose to redeem your Award points through a range of airline programs or redeem points at Flight Centre, in-store at Myer, for gift cards, cash back or many other items from the Awards website, which according to Roy Morgan is the most extensive rewards program of any bank in Australia. And from January 1 2019, CommBank customers will also be able to make payments through the ease of Apple Pay. 

The Commonwealth Bank Platinum Awards credit card has a standard purchase rate of 20.24% so watch overspending as it’s not a card you want to have an ongoing balance on for a long time. If you have pre-existing debt on another card, the CommBank Platinum Awards Credit Card offers a balance transfer rate of 5.99% for five months. But if you haven't paid off the debt by the end of that period, your balance will roll over to the much less reasonable cash advance revert rate of 21.24%.

There is a sizable annual fee of $249, but don't forget the card comes with a 24/7 concierge service, complimentary international travel insurance (just be sure to activate it prior to leaving Australia), and, if you're a globetrotter MasterCards' exclusive Priceless Cities program which gives you access to a range of restaurants and entertainment options. Suddenly, the annual fee isn't looking too bad at all!

And don't forget the other complimentary insurances that could come in handy like purchase security protection, which if an item is lost, damaged or stolen within 90 days will get repaired or replaced by CommBank, and extended warranty insurance where you will get an extra 12 months warranty in addition to the standard Australian manufacturers warranty for the goods.

The Platinum Awards card comes with extra security via the lock, block and limit feature which enables you to change features of the card to suit your spending patterns. For instance you can block overseas transactions if you are not travelling, you can also give yourself a per transaction spending limit and block any ATM cash withdrawals. The feature is part of NetBank or the CommBank app, so if you change your mind you can easily unlock or clear it whenever you need.

Who it's good for:

The CommBank Platinum Awards Credit Card will work well for anyone looking to increase their points earning potential and is diligent about paying their balance in full each month.