Another day, another frustrating Suncorp credit card. The Suncorp Clear Options Platinum suffers the same faults as
its sibling cards: a very nice, well laid out website which carefully hides some of the important terms and conditions and blatantly omits the rest.
I’d like to tell you more about this ‘personalised rewards’ service they mention so often. It sounds good. Intuitively, I’d imagine it means you can come to some arrangement with Suncorp regarding the redemption of your reward points on non-standard items. But unfortunately, we’re limited to ‘imagining’ because Suncorp don’t give any more details.
It’s the same with the included insurance products. The card comes with complementary international travel insurance for you and your family, but instead of providing a detailed product disclosure statement, they just direct you to www.citibank.com.au (we were unable to locate any Suncorp-specific information on the Citibank site).
I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised anymore, it’s just that it makes our jobs difficult. On the face of it, the Suncorp Clear Options Platinum is an OK card, but we can’t give an authoritative opinion without knowing all the details.
We do know the interest rate is 19.99% (for both purchases and cash) and the annual fee is $205, plus $15 per additional card (you’re allowed up to four). The interest free period is 55 days (as long as you repay your balance in full each month) and there is a balance transfer offer of 3.9% for the life of balances transferred.
The selection of included insurance products is quite good, although in the absence of detailed product disclosure statements, this is just an overview. The card comes with the aforementioned international travel insurance, plus extended warranty protection and purchase security (the standard premium card insurance trifecta). The card also comes with transit accident insurance.
There is a rewards program (which apparently can be ‘personalised’) and like the other Clear Options cards, the standard Suncorp Rewards isn’t very good (you can see our
reward program comparison table here). Fortunately, you can opt (for an additional $19 per year) to earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points instead, at the rate of one point per dollar spent.
If you choose to stick with the standard Suncorp rewards, you can redeem your points on merchandise, gift cards, school fees etc. There is also the Suncorp Take Flight program which enables you to redeem Rewards points for cash back or travel vouchers, but only where you’ve made a travel purchase (which must include an airline ticket) on your card and you must redeem a minimum of 3,000 points.
How does it stack up against the Clear Options Gold? The purchase rate is slightly higher (up from 18.75%) and the annual fee is more than double ($99 on the Gold), however you do get a much better Qantas Frequent Flyer earn rate (on the Gold, you earn 2 points per $3 spent), a personal concierge service and extended warranty protection.
The verdict: while the core features are comparable with other premium cards, the rewards program just doesn’t stack up, even with the optional Qantas Frequent Flyer points. The range of included insurance seems quite good, but we can’t judge them without knowing the excess and level of coverage offered. If you’re planning on getting this card, scrutinize Suncorp about those policies and be sure you understand what the included insurance features actually offer.
