The St George Amplify credit card punches above its weight. It has a generous 150k Amplify point sign on bonus, good Krisflyer accrual rate at .75 points per dollar spend, two free Priority Pass lounge access visits and travel insurance (including Covid),
Having closed down some credit cards recently I was in the market for a new credit card. I was looking for a card with bonus points I could use with Krisflyer and the St George Amplify Credit Card fitted the bill perfectly.
In this post:
Pros of the St George Amplify Credit Card
- Sign on bonus of 150,000 points which equates 75k Krisflyer points,
- Free Priority Pass membership including two free lounge visits. The normal annual fee for the Priority Pass is USD99 and the lounge visits are valued at USD35 per visit,
- 10% Bonus Birthday points from previous years spend (excludes sign on bonus),
- Krisflyer points converted at .75 per dollar spent,
- Uncapped points,
- Travel insurance (subject to a $500 minimum spend) which includes Covid and is issued by Allianz,
- You only need to wait 12 months after closing your card to apply for a new card and receiving the sign on bonus again, and
- Simple Credit Card Application with lots of Autofill to make it easy.
Cons of the St George Amplify Credit Card
- 3% fee on overseas transactions,
- Annual fee of $279 (reduced to $199 in the first year), and
- Clunky website
Amplify Points: Qantas vs Singapore Airlines
St George also has an Amplify card that accrues Qantas points. At the moment Qantas points are difficult to redeem on international flights out of Australia. My preference is to accrue Amplify points and then transfer them to Krisflyer. With four flights a day out of Sydney and Melbourne, Singapore Airlines and Krisflyer provides much better redemption options out of Australia.
St George Amplify vs CommBank Ultimate Awards Credit Card
The Commbank Ultimate Awards Mastercard has fee free international transactions unlike St George which has a 3% fee. Commbank converts International transactions at one point per dollar spent. However points on domestic transactions are capped and are a measly .33 points per dollar spend. While St George is better for domestic spend CommBank is better for international spend.
| Points Accrued Per Dollar Spend | Krisflyer Conversion Rate | Krisflyer Points Per Dollar Spend | Cost Per Point (cents) | |
| St George Amplify | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.75 | 1.3 |
| CommBank Ultimate Awards | 1 | 0.333 | 0.33 | 3 |
What Can I Do With The Sign On Bonus?
The great thing about Ampliify is you can convert your points to Singapore airlines at a rate of 2:1. The sign up bonus alone gives you enough points for a return economy flight from either Sydney or Melbourne to Singapore or one way business class to Singapore.
Should I keep the St George Amplify Credit Card?
While St George Amplify is a great credit card I already have an American Express Explorer for domestic points accrual and the CommBank World Credit Card for those ever diminishing places that don’t take Amex (or Sniip) and international transactions. As a result I plan to close the card down once I get my birthday bonus and enjoy the visit to the Priority Pass lounge. Sorry St George.
