NAB Qantas Business Signature Credit Card

Business owners who are dedicated Qantas Frequent Flyers will likely already have a personal credit card earning valuable Qantas Points. So they will welcome the news that they can also have a card that earns QFF points on their considerable business expenditure. It’s called the NAB Qantas Business Signature Card, and it features a huge bonus points boost, a very reasonable ongoing points earning rate, and some extra benefits tailored for businesses.

150,000 bonus Qantas Point bonanza

Need to travel on business to Europe or the US in a hurry? These 150,000 bonus Qantas Points would get you a return fare in economy to Los Angeles (90,000 Qantas Points) and are more than enough for a return fare to Dallas Fort Worth or Chicago (110,000 Qantas Points) or London, Paris, or New York (120,000 Qantas Points). You'll even have points left over for upgrades or other perks.

Simply spend $4,000 with your card in the first 60 days, and these bonus points will be credited to your Qantas Frequent Flyer account.

Very reasonable ongoing points earning rate

Qantas business credit cards normally have a points earning rate roughly in line with the annual fee being charged. In this case, the fee is quite a lot less than that charged for the personal NAB Qantas Rewards Signature Card, so the points earning rate is inevitably lower, but still reasonable.

The rate is 1.0 Qantas Points per $1.50 spent on eligible business purchases (i.e. excluding payments to the ATO, card fees and interest charges, and cash equivalents). For comparison purposes, that works out to around 0.67 Qantas Points per dollar spent.

NAB will pay the Qantas Frequent Flyer program joining fee for new cardholders who are not already members.

Generous monthly points cap

Points are capped at $50,000 spending per card per statement period. This means there is the potential to earn 400,000 Qantas Points per card per year. The bonus points are not included in the cap.

Best ways to use the Qantas Points

Avoid trying to reduce your business costs – or reward staff and customers – by exchanging Qantas Points for retail gift cards or merchandise. You’ll get a return of 0.5 cents per Qantas Point or less, and you can do much better.

Using Qantas Points for short domestic economy flights may deliver only a slightly better result. Instead, save up the points for long-haul flights in Business or First Class, or for seat upgrades where you have purchased the original fare using the card (thus earning points from both Qantas and NAB). This type of points use can return between 1 and 4 cents of value for each Qantas Point.

More cards, more points

A sole trader may need only a single card, but a medium-sized business could make use of multiple cards on the same account, each card earning valuable Qantas Points and ensuring that the highest possible percentage of business expenses contributes to the overall pool.

Alternatively, Qantas Points can be directed to the personal account of each cardholder as an incentive for staff, or perhaps as a form of compensation if they need to do large amounts of business travel. You can have up to four additional cards on the account without paying extra annual fees.

Individual and summary monthly statements

You can set an individual credit limit for each cardholder, fitting within the overall facility credit limit. A detailed monthly statement is issued every month for each cardholder, plus you’ll receive a summary statement for the total account. This makes tracking and controlling expenses and transferring results into your accounting system easy.

Complimentary insurance

In addition to the individual credit limits, further protection against unauthorised use is provided by NAB Commercial Cards Unauthorised Transaction Insurance, a free policy that accompanies the card account.

Global concierge service

Visa’s worldwide concierge, provided with the card, could be a useful timesaver for time-poor business travellers — or business entertainers closer to home.

Visa business benefits

Further special advantages for business also come courtesy of Visa, in the form of car rental fee reductions or waivers, an accommodation booking service, duty-free shopping discounts and other travel-related benefits.

Don’t choose this card for the interest rates

It wouldn’t make sense to run a business using a credit card as a long-term finance facility, and this card’s interest rates — 18.50% p.a. for purchases and 21.74% p.a. for cash advances — are certainly not designed to encourage that. Talk to your bank about a loan or overdraft facility if you need continuing working capital, but you can feel a little more secure knowing that your credit card could be a short-term facility – admittedly an expensive one – if you need it.

Meanwhile, extract every possible advantage from up to 44 interest-free days on purchases. Time your major payments and purchases to occur near the beginning of your card’s billing cycle if possible (your creditors may be able to accommodate this), and pay your account balance in full when due to avoid interest charges.

Sizeable annual fee is tax deductible

At $295 p.a., the amount of the annual fee might make you pause for a moment. It’s less than the equivalent personal card – the NAB Qantas Rewards Signature Card – but its points earning rate is lower, and it lacks the complimentary travel insurance accompanying the personal card.

However, the personal card is not really suitable for a business. Its earning cap per statement period would be too restrictive, and it doesn’t have the business card’s unauthorised transaction insurance.

Having this separate business card will allow you to keep personal and business expenditures completely separate, and the annual fee and any other fees should be tax deductible.

Eligibility criteria

You can apply for this card if you are over 18, a citizen or permanent resident of Australia, have an ABN, are registered for GST, and can provide at least 12 months of financial history for your business.

The ideal card if your business involves travel

Any business owner using this card can cut travel costs by earning Qantas Points on most expenses except wages and tax. Qantas Points earned can be added to what's already acquired when booking cash tickets to fly with Qantas, and directed towards free flights or upgrades for travelling employees. This could go a long way towards improving the bottom line.