Tesla Delivery Payment - Credit Card

[PJF000]

My 2c: best use of qff is business class to europe on points in classic seat bookings (256k points). After you pay the card's annual fee and airline taxes for the flight, you get between 1.5 to 2.5 cents per point value. On that basis it is not worth paying 3%. If you can buy things on Paypal and list your Amex card as the primary default, often you can get the points from the Amex card where normally a merchant won't accept it.
It used to be easy, but now you have to work hard if you want "free" points.

 

[cynix]

Double points promo doesn't mean 2ppd, each card is different, and Amex in particular has higher redemption values. Until recently a lot of Amex cards transferred to local airlines at 1.5ppd, which would have given you 3ppd, or about 3.3c/per dollar

Interesting, I was not aware of an Amex card that can transfer to QFF at 1:1.5 (or in fact any points-doubling promos in the first place).

 

[PJF000]

Interesting, I was not aware of an Amex card that can transfer to QFF at 1:1.5 (or in fact any points-doubling promos in the first place).

Latest list of qff points from credit cards. Spend limits and cost of card need to be taken into consideration when calculating your average monthly spend on the card.
Highest Qantas Point earning credit cards - Amex, Visa & MasterCard

 

[lonewolf313]

My only issue was i only had a 12k limit, so I had to pay 12k, pay it off in the app and do it a few more times.
The next day my card for declined for fraudulent activities as it could be construed as money laundering and they needed to advise the federal police, I just laughed, the next day it was working again and I've never heard from the cops.

When I hired a Tesla through Evee, they required a holding deposit of $5000. I only had a $5000 limit on my credit card so I deposited $7500 into my credit card so I had an extra $2500 min available for purchases during my 8 day hire. Of course, when I got back my holding deposit, I didn't need to make a credit card payment for at least two months afterwards.

The same can be applied to a car purchase. Just add your limit with additional funds to cover the transaction in one go. If you have a $12000 limit and the car costs $50000, just deposit more than that amount onto your card before you need to withdraw the purchase amount using that card

 

[natetm3]

Interesting, I was not aware of an Amex card that can transfer to QFF at 1:1.5 (or in fact any points-doubling promos in the first place).

The Amex Qantas Ultimate could until 14th of April, at which point it (and a whole lot of other Amex cards) had their transfer or earn rates cut. That said, it can still do 1.25 today and there are Amex offers all the time, plus the airlines regularly have transfer bonuses (VA Velocity is running one right now). At the moment I'm on a 6 month 8.99% APR rate with my Amex and just made 5K points yesterday for spending what they wanted me to spend on the card they wanted me to spend it on.

I'm not stupid, of course. I spent it on ebay gift cards at Woolworths which currently give 2K points (equiv of $10) per $100 gift card, meaning my $2K worth of ebay gift cards (3 years expiry) which will last me the next few months got me $200 free groceries plus at least 5K worth of QFF points, so at least $50 worth. $250 for spending nothing that I would not anyhow.

That said, you need to be particularly lucky to get a double points offer right before a near $100K purchase at 3% to make it worthwhile. But the problem with a lot of people's math is an expectation that $1 = 1 point (pretty rare really, it's almost always less than that for Visa/MC and more than that for Amex, and when a Visa/MC card do offer it, it's almost always capped at a low monthly cap and falls to half a point after that) and then carrying that across, again as mentioned before 3% on a 1.5 ppd card with a double points offer is a net gain and I'd take it in a heartbeat (especially because this 1c per point valuation is seriously low). I run a spreadsheet of my redemption values and the highest so far was a 6.37 cpp upgrade from Economy to Business (thats a 2 cabin class upgrade Y to Y+ to J) for 30K points from PER to SIN on QF. Others sit comfortably around the 4c mark. Don't go buying toasters and use it for classic award bookings and upgrades and you won't fall below 1c (I have not gone below 1.47c and that was my first ever redemption, a stupid one, MEL-SYD return in economy which knowing what I know now I wouldn't do again).

 

[cs_jacky]

3% credit card charge seems to be too high.

I checked the pricing information on Stripe which Tesla used their service to charge my deposit. The fee is just 1.75% + 30 cents for domestic cards (including Amex). (Stripe: Pricing & fees)

If the fee is just 1.75%, it is worth paying the delivery payment with an Amex card for the points.

It is not legal to over charge customers credit card processing fee in Australia.

Did Tesla changed their credit card fee recently?

 

[one4spl]

Can you part pay on credit card?

I'll have all but about $5k in the bank ready to go. And can pay off $5k fairly quickly so I don't think getting finance (particularly with Peppers exit fees) it is good value compared to sucking up the interest on my MasterCard for a couple of months.

 

[Icey]

Can you part pay on credit card?

Yes you can.

 

[LDCRS]

My 2c: best use of qff is business class to europe on points in classic seat bookings (256k points).

An even better use is the round the world business class award which you can get for 280K points.

 

[cs_jacky]

it is good value compared to sucking up the interest on my MasterCard for a couple of months.

It depends on the fees you need to pay on your MasterCard.

Without special promotions, all your outstanding and new card transactions will attach a ~20% p.a. interest.

However, if you bank offers something like SmartPlan from Westpac which don't charge interest on new purchases but only charges an upfront 5% establishment fee (i.e., $250) with 0% interest for up to 12 months, it can be a good deal.

 

[Techno-phile]

Or Qantas Amex card with 3.99%pa for 6months (and 60,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points if you use a referral to open an account)

 

[paulp]

Or Qantas Amex card with 3.99%pa for 6months (and 60,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points if you use a referral to open an account)

Amex qantas card has just offered 12 months interest free on large purchases with a 4% admin fee.....so thats 4% per annum on a credit card subject to approval). They also charge a $500 annual fee but give you a $500 qantas voucher....and yes lots of points.

 

[cs_jacky]

Just received a reply from Tesla Australia the credit card fee for the final payment is 2.5%.

You need to pay in person with the card.

 

[CAM3RON]

2.5% noice. I probably will do a cheeky 10k on credit card for some airpoints then

 

[RobDickinson]

Pay in person? It's 2019 and they are a silicon Valley company?

 

[paulp]

2.5% noice. I probably will do a cheeky 10k on credit card for some airpoints then

I must be missing something.....I dont know your card earn rate, but why would you pay $250 for around 10,000 points? 12000 points will save you the $210 cost (qantas, others are even less) for a flight sydney to adelaide. It seems buying points actually costs more?

 

[cs_jacky]

I must be missing something.....I dont know your card earn rate, but why would you pay $250 for around 10,000 points? 12000 points will save you the $210 cost (qantas, others are even less) for a flight sydney to adelaide. It seems buying points actually costs more?

It depends on your situation.

AMEX Platinum charge card gives 11250 equivalent Qantas for $10k.

I used 25000 qantas points to upgrade my flight from Premium Economy to Business class on a trip from Singapore to Melbourne. Each point worths about 6 cents in this case.

My final payment is $34k and I don't feel I want to pay $850 for the points.

 

[OzVic]

Considering Australian Law forbids charging more than the actual cost to them, what shitty bank would they be using that charges them 2.5% for Visa & MasterCard?

 

[raynewman]

Considering Australian Law forbids charging more than the actual cost to them, what shitty bank would they be using that charges them 2.5% for Visa & MasterCard?

Paypal

 

[PJF000]

Considering Australian Law forbids charging more than the actual cost to them, what shitty bank would they be using that charges them 2.5% for Visa & MasterCard?

There are a few. Tyro would come close.

Anyway, it is mostly false economy. Generally there is no guarantee of an upgrade even with high value Qantas status. The fare you upgrade from has to be full fare, classic seats incur taxes on overseas flights, a card that gives at least one point + per dollar on a big spend or unlimited limit is $400 pa and more, so when you add it all up a 2.5% fee usually negates the point benefit.