Review: St.George Amplify Signature Visa
Take home up to 150,000 bonus Amplify Points when you apply, are approved and meet the spending criteria.
By Staff Writers, June 17 2022
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.
FF Program
Amplify Rewards
Sign Up Bonus
90,000 bonus Qantas Points. Or, up to 150,000 bonus Amplify Points (= 100,000 Velocity Points).
Annual Fee
$139 fist year ($279 ongoing)
Interest Rate
19.49% p.a. on purchases
21.49% p.a. on cash
Notes
The Good
- Uncapped points on Amplify option
- Earn up to 0.825 Qantas Points per dollar spent
- Two airport lounge visits each year, travel insurance
The Bad
- No more bonus points on international spend
Added Value
- 10% 'birthday bonus' on points
Introduction
Bridging the gap between the 'Big Four Banks' and everybody else, the St.George Amplify Signature Visa is your ticket to earning up to 0.825 Qantas, Virgin Australia, or Singapore Airlines frequent flyer points per dollar spent – depending on which kind of card you choose – and with the backing of Westpac behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly.
Selecting the Amplify Signature Visa with Amplify Points card allows you to utilise the bank's Amplify Rewards program, from which points can be converted to other partner airline frequent flyer schemes.
What's more, eligible new customers can earn up to 150,000 bonus Amplify Points when you apply for the Amplify Signature Visa with Amplify Points and spend $12,000 on eligible purchases in the first year.
Alternatively, choose the Amplify Signature Visa with Qantas Points card to earn 90,000 bonus Qantas Points when you apply and spend $6,000+ on eligible purchases in the first 90 days from new card approval.
St.George Amplify Signature card: fast facts
- Grade/tier: Black
- Card type: Visa Signature
- Loyalty variants: Amplify Points (Amplify Rewards), or Qantas Points (Qantas Frequent Flyer)
- Amplify Points earned per A$1 spent (Amplify Rewards): 1.5 (1.65 with 'birthday bonus') on eligible purchases.
- 1.65 Amplify Points = 0.825 Velocity Points, 0.825 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles.
- Or, Qantas Points earned per A$1 spent (Qantas Frequent Flyer): 0.75 (0.825 including a 10% 'birthday bonus') on eligible purchases.
- Points capping/tiering: From 1 January 2022, earn 0.75 Qantas Points per $1 up to a maximum of $250,000 spent on eligible purchases annually. Bonus Qantas Points not included in the cap.
Bank disclaimer: Eligible purchases do not include interest, fees and charges, cash or ATM cash advances, cash equivalent transactions, gambling transactions, a purchase from or payment to a local, state or federal government or government related agency, BPAY or similar transactions (such as Post Billpay), refunds and balance transfers debited to the card account.
Amplify Signature: fees, charges and interest
- Annual fee: $139 first year ($279 card fee ongoing)
- Additional/supplementary cardholder fee: $0
- Interest rate on purchases: 19.49% p.a.
- Interest-free days on purchases^: Up to 55
- Interest rate on cash advances: 21.49% p.a.
- International transaction fee: 3.0%
- Minimum income requirement: No defined minimum
- Minimum credit limit: $15,000
Earning points for free flights:
St.George's Amplify Signature cards with Amplify points come with no points capping or tiering: so regardless of how much you spend each month or year, you'll keep earning the same number of points on every dollar charged to the card. On the Signature card with Qantas Points, from 1 January 2022, you'll be able to earn 0.75 Qantas Points per $1 up to a maximum of $250,000 spent on eligible purchases annually. Bonus Qantas Points not included in the cap.
On both the Qantas Points and Amplify Points cards, there's also a nifty 10% 'birthday bonus' each year which looks at your spending for the past 12 months (or part-year for new applicants) and awards a boost of 10% more points as you celebrate your special day.
Choosing Amplify Points gives you more flexibility than opting for Qantas Points, as you can convert your rewards across to the program's various frequent flyer partners as you desire.
For instance, when planning one trip, converting Amplify Points to Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer program could bring great value, or Virgin Australia's Velocity Frequent Flyer could also prove fruitful, depending on where you aim to travel.
If you'd prefer to earn points in Australia's largest frequent flyer program, than the Qantas Points card could instead suit your needs and add to your already-growing balance of points.
Airport lounge access:
Cardholders receive two free airport lounge visits each year, tailored to type of card they hold.
Amplify Rewards cardholders net a free Priority Pass membership with two lounge visits included, after which they can continue using their Priority Pass card to access participating lounges at a cost of US$32 per visit.
Alternatively, Amplify Qantas members receive two complimentary Qantas Club passes after registering via the St.George website, valid in domestic Qantas Clubs and most Qantas-operated international business class lounges when flying Qantas or Jetstar.
Free insurance coverage:
As with most above-Platinum credit cards international travel insurance comes as part of the parcel. This may be activated on a per-trip basis by charging at least $500 worth of travel costs to the card before leaving Australia and when holding a return ticket for trips of six months or less.
Those travel costs could be your return airfare, airport/departure taxes, pre-paid hotel stays during the trip or pre-paid 'overseas itinerary items'.
Essentially, this may give you the flexibility to book international flights using frequent flyer points rather than cash, provided you still charge >A$500 worth of eligible costs to the Amplify Signature card before jetting off: although read the policy documents carefully to determine whether this cover is right for you and whether it meets your personal needs.
Restrictions to this cover may apply during the COVID-19 pandemic. For further information or to confirm whether your intended journey is covered by this policy, speak directly with the card issuer or insurance underwriter.
Also thrown in is extended warranty cover, purchase and price guarantees on eligible purchases, interstate flight inconvenience insurance, transit accident insurance and rental vehicle excess insurance in Australia.
St.George Amplify Signature: how it compares
If frequent flyer points are your goal, the St.George Amplify Signature card with Amplify Points is one of the few Visa/Mastercard products to remain uncapped and un-tiered following the RBA's cuts to credit card 'interchange fees'. Although you'll be capped after a $250,000 annual spend on the Qantas option, this is still more than most people spend.
With an earn rate of up to 0.825 airline frequent flyer points wherever Visa is accepted for purchases, that keeps the card competitive with other Australian products in the current climate: and even makes it the highest-earning 'non-AMEX' card for KrisFlyer miles in Australia.
What's more, with up to 150,000 Amplify Points or 90,000 bonus Qantas Points on the table simply by applying and meeting the spend criteria, you'll be well-placed to book your next business class flight using points.
Bank disclaimer: ^If your account has an interest free period for purchases, to be entitled to that interest free period, you need to pay off the “monthly payment balance” listed on your statement of account (not the full closing balance) by the relevant payment due date.
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.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
27 Nov 2017
Total posts 19
Can Government charges (ATO, Council Rates, Land Tax) still earn points on this card?
04 May 2015
Total posts 271
Yep. So much better than Citibank cards which don't give you points on half the things you spend on! Nice earn rate for Krisflyer too if that's your thing.
03 Apr 2018
Total posts 6
Hi Chris
24 Apr 2012
Total posts 2534
You'll find contact information for St. George on the St. George website (or the back of your card).
03 Apr 2018
Total posts 6
For anyone reading this thread the contact number for Amplify rewards is 1300 489 586. There is an option to select Qantas Amplify rewards. It doesn't matter if you have BOM, St George or Bank SA branded card. This number will do the trick.
13 Dec 2017
Total posts 3
I hit $5k spend on 5/12/17, 90k points credited on 23/3/18 so they take 3-4 weeks longer than their 12 week claim.
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