It seems that most banks offer a default range of credit cards. Like a bad sitcom with the slightly-nerdy-but-heart-of-gold protagonist, token friend-who-comes-over-uninvited and hot-girl-next-door, major banks all offer a low-annual-fee, low-rate, 55-days-interest-free and a platinum/rewards card.
This strategy offers something for everyone across each of the four core features of a credit card - rate, annual fee, interest free period and rewards. Unfortunately, they also typically counterbalance the other features - for example, a card with a low rate will have a high annual fee and/or a poor interest free period.
Westpac takes the standard pack of cards and elevates it to the next level: by offering standard, gold and platinum options.
Admittedly, we were sceptical about this strategy. The concept of a 55 day card itself seems a bit thin, let alone an entire family of them and Westpac did a less-than-stellar job of the
standard 55 Day which priced itself right out of the market with a disproportionately high purchase rate.
We expected the 55 Day Gold would be much the same, perhaps with a few superfluous insurance products slapped on and a new coat of paint.
We were wrong.
The Westpac 55 Day Gold is a great card. The purchase rate is 17.74% (the same as the standard card), which is on-par with other gold cards. The annual fee is $90, waived for the first year and ongoing when you make purchases of at least $15,000 p.a. (around $288 per week). That might seem about average for a mid-range card, but it's very low for the included features.
The card comes with overseas travel insurance which will cover you and your immediate family for trips up to three months, where the travel was purchased with your card. You'll be covered for unlimited medical expenses, $15,000 for lost luggage, personal effects and travel documents, $2.5m for personal liability and $5,000 for rental vehicle collision damage and theft excess cover.
There is also transport accident insurance, which covers you for death or defined injury while travelling on public transport (planes, boats, ferries, buses, trains etc) up to $250,000.
The card also comes with included purchase security which covers your newly purchased items for theft, loss, breakage and fire for up to 90 days, and extended warranty protection which extends the manufacturer's warranty by one year on goods purchased with your card.
As you'd expect, the interest free period is 55 days, but it's only applicable when your closing balance is paid in full by the due date each month.
The verdict: a great mid-range card with a surprising set of features. You'd be hard-pressed to buy travel and transit accident insurance for $90.
The only criticism: where does the 55 Day range go from here? All too often the step-up from standard-to-gold yeilds a huge increment in value, while gold-to-platinum offers very little. Has the Westpac 55 Day Gold peaked too early?
