NAB Rewards Signature Credit Card

Signature. It’s the new black.

When your black, or platinum or premium card no longer gives you the rewards and privileges you’ve come to expect, it’s time to take a serious look at the NAB Rewards Signature Card. A Visa Signature card is the new benchmark for top-of-the-range cards in the real world – that is, outside the narrow market for 'invitation only' cards, or those with a stratospheric annual fee. A Signature card says you’ve made your mark and expect to reap the rewards, and the NAB Rewards Signature Card’s long list of benefits will not disappoint.

160,000 bonus NAB Rewards Points almost guarantees an early redemption

This is a rewards credit card, offering both regular and bonus points in the NAB Rewards loyalty program. It’s a relatively new program, so the chances are that new cardholders won’t already have any points.

You get 120,000 bonus points when you spend $3,000 on everyday purchases within the first 60 days of account opening and another 40,000 bonus points for retaining your card beyond the first year.

Here are some examples of how you could redeem those points when your card is still shiny and new:

• $450 worth of retail gift cards, with 3,460 points left over
• Almost enough for $500 to spend at Webjet (96,150 points)
• Convert to 45,000 Velocity points, or 30,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles, or 30,000 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, or 450 Air New Zealand Airpoints Dollars
• A PlayStation VR headset
• 10 Village/Event Gold Class movie tickets

Ongoing points can be doubled and even tripled

The tiered points earning rate is a little complex, but in a good way, because it means you can earn more points by directing your spending (or just make your everyday purchases and still watch the points roll in). The details are:

• 1.25 points per dollar for everyday spending
• 2.5 points per dollar for spending in major department and hardware stores (i.e. Myer, David Jones, Bunnings, Mitre 10 and more)
• 3.75 points per dollar for spending with Webjet
• 3.75 points per dollar* for spending when overseas
• 3.75 points per dollar* for spending with overseas-based websites (even if the charge is in Australian dollars)

The triple points on overseas transactions goes some way towards compensating for the 3% fee levied on these transactions. Most cards charge a fee of 2-3% for overseas transactions, but very few offer extra points for overseas purchases.

There’s no cap on how many points you can earn in a month or a year, which is great news compared to the points caps and thresholds NAB has placed on its Qantas and Velocity rewards cards.

Points expire within three years of being earned if not redeemed, so don’t hang on to them for too long.

Lots of great ways to spend your points

The wide range of ways to redeem your points has already been mentioned, but here’s a comprehensive list:

• Retail gift cards
• Movie tickets and other entertainment experiences
• Conversion to frequent flyer points with Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific
• Travel with Webjet
• Merchandise from an online catalogue: technology, homewares, fashion, toys, sporting goods, and more
• Accor Plus hotel membership, including one complimentary night’s stay per year
• Cashback into your NAB bank account or credit card account
• Charity donations

Most redemptions have a ‘Points + Pay’ option, where you can choose to pay the balance in cash if you don’t have quite enough points.

Complimentary insurance policies to protect your purchases and lifestyle

You’ll want to use your NAB card whenever you pay for travel, accommodation and any major items for yourself or your home, because this extensive suite of complimentary insurance policies will then protect your purchases and travel:

• International travel insurance. Annual multi-trip family cover for trips of up to six months long.
• Interstate flight inconvenience insurance. Family cover for delay, cancellation, luggage, and rental vehicle excess waiver, for trips up to 14 days in length.
• Extended warranty insurance. Manufacturer's Australian warranty on personal and household appliances is doubled in length, up to a maximum of 12 extra months.
• Rental vehicle excess insurance. Within Australia.
• Purchase protection insurance. Three months cover against theft, loss or accidental damage for new personal items.
• Extended warranty insurance.

Zero-interest balance transfer if you can use it

This isn’t a battler’s card, so the standard interest rates are as high as you would expect: 20.99% p.a. for purchases and 21.74% p.a. for cash advances. Most rewards card users will already be aware that these cards are only cost effective if all interest charges are avoided by making prompt and full repayments and avoiding cash advances.

But you might just want to transfer your balance from your old card if you’ve recently made a major purchase on it, because you’ll pay no interest for six months on the transferred balance. You could save heaps in interest cost, even though the savings will be slightly reduced by the 3% upfront balance transfer fee.

Remember, that you’ll lose the normal interest-free days on purchases while you have an unpaid balance transfer. This means that you’ll have to pay interest from the transaction date on those purchases you need to make in order to score the bonus points. So think hard about whether you really need that balance transfer.

Interest-free days a little disappointing

You’ll get up to 44 days interest free each month with this card (postponed for six months if you have a balance transfer), which isn’t as generous as the many cards which have up to 55 days. But this shorter period applies to the vast majority of NAB cards. What it means is that your repayment cash will spend 132 fewer days each year working for you in your savings or mortgage offset account, when compared with a 55-day card. On an average $4,000 monthly balance, that could cost you $43 a year in savings interest or $57 in mortgage interest.

Goodbye queues, hello premium service

A premium card like this one comes with a premium concierge service as a matter of course. Whether you’re at home or away, you can let someone else plan and book your trips, dining and entertainment, 24/7. In emergencies, your concierge can even arrange an interpreter and medical or legal services.

You’ll also benefit from Visa Premium Access – a step up from plain old Visa Entertainment – to get your hands on the hottest tickets before the general public gets a look-in, and enjoy other privileges and discounts.

Digital account control and enhanced security

Boost your card’s security and functionality with the NAB Mobile Banking app, and, if you have an Android phone, NAB Pay for Android. You’re already automatically protected against fraudulent transactions by NAB Defence, and for online transactions by Verified by Visa’s additional identity confirmation system. But if you download the apps you can also:

• Pay with your phone and leave your card at home (or pay with your phone even before your new plastic card arrives)
• Log into your account with fingerprint One Touch ID
• Block and unblock your card temporarily if you lose it, or immediately if it’s stolen
• Block and unblock features like payWave, online transactions and overseas transactions

It all comes down to the cost

It’s pretty clear that this is an attractive package with many appealing features, so the cost will be the decider. The annual fee is $295 – quite a big commitment, even though the bonus points more than cover it in the first year. However, it's worth noting that the first-year annual fee is reduced to $145. But the insurance policies alone could be worth around $1,370 per year. Annual card spending of $45,400 would offset the annual fee completely with points earned, even if you only achieve a rate of 1.25 points per dollar (and it’s likely to be more) and redeem your points for retail gift cards (which don’t always deliver the best return).

A top-tier card for the financially astute

The cost commitment for a Signature card ensures it isn’t for the average cardholder. It’s for the financially-astute bigger spender, probably a regular overseas traveller who doesn’t want to be limited to a single airline’s loyalty program. For this person, the NAB Rewards Signature Card provides a very worthwhile points earning rate, redemption flexibility and a suite of benefits providing measurable value.