My NEW Credit Card Strategy For 2025

[@TK-vy4oi]

If you’re Platinum with Qantas you can call them and they’ll open up a Classic Reward seat for you.

[@WillPanzer]

the Ultimate Awards credit card from cba gives you 3 points per $ spend overseas, and if its free if you have a home loan wealth package with cba, so its the best card for existing cba home loan customers.

[@Iru007ful]

Love this strategy and love your vids man. Keen to know how abouts you went booking/searching for those Qsuite flights using points as well.

[@raymondla]

Hey mate thanks for that! I've actually made a video here talking about it before - kzbin.info/www/bejne/iHKwZneJnrx1lZo

[@MKgitara1]

Amazing strategy and I love how you plan out your next steps and progression and let us know about it too! Good luck with building the house (you won't need luck though it always helps). The hotel stays will be awesome for you two and silly me forget that credit cards have that feature too! Gift cards genius move too! Lots of love to you from Brissy!

[@raymondla]

Appreciate the support all the way from Brisbane!

[@PWBERRETT]

Your 2025 strategy should be to get 318k Qantas points, redeem it for a 35k miles Oneworld award, start your trip to Europe offshore (say Bali) with a cheap positioning flight to get to Bali, go to europe business class, back to your Australian home city in business class where you stopover for 9 months then use up the remainder of the 35k miles with a trip to Japan and back (again business class) to a nearby Australian City then a short positioning flight back to your home city. 2 holidays for the price of 1 plus a couple of cheap, short flghts!

[@raymondla]

Haha I have my partner that I’d need to account for… so I’d more like 350k 😅 I’ll hopefully be able to do the Oneworld redemption award one day

[@PWBERRETT]

@@raymondla I've done it (35k used to go rtw) in economy and am looking to do it in business class later this year followed by Japan early next year on the same ticket. By the way don't forget that Expo 2025 is on in Osaka this year.

[@tp2931hk]

Hi Raymond I thought giftcards are not elligble for points? They are treated as cash advances? Thank you

[@raymondla]

You definitely do earn points via gift cards, I’ve been doing this for a while now

[@YVESGENTILLE]

Man thanks for such useful information

[@RcottR]

I agree that hoarding points is not good practice. Im married, mortgage with kids and certainly do not travel as much. I mostly use my points to gift flights to family and friends.

[@jasonbig1353]

1:16 that's the Taroko Gorge National Park in Taiwan.

[@raymondla]

Yep! We were luckily there a few weeks before the earthquakes that happened

[@WillPanzer]

have u ever managed to redeem a first class reward flight?

[@gmiha]

What do u mean u can use your Woolies rewards and convert them to velocity ? Since when is this an option ?

[@raymondla]

You can convert flybuys to Velocity and woolies to Qantas

[@gmiha]

@ ahhh Woolies to Qantas. Yep I did know about that. I thought u meant Woolies to velocity 😂 thanks for clarifying 🙏🙏

[@wackychicken]

Feels like the end of a era

[@raymondla]

😔 wish it wasn't tbh haha

[@mangoinvests]

Im gunna start paying the ATO with this gift card strategy haha, thats genious.. Which one did you buy?

[@raymondla]

Either Coles or woolies whenever they have a promotion. Btw Coles has the promotion on next week 👀

[@jaydeguzman3633]

Can u elaborate on this strategy abit more?

[@Carlos_COL]

Thanks for this! How can we monitor when Qantas release more seats eligible to be bought with points?

[@samwee6]

Hi Raymond. I wish I knew your ideas before! We done lot of travels but never though about points!. If I were to start now, what's the best card to get for travel and maybe hotels? I have a small business. So maybe I can use that.

[@yiannimav]

Which gift cards are you buying to pay off ATO? Does that work with paying bills and such too?

[@raymondla]

@@yiannimav we buy the Cole’s/woolies visa debit cards when they are running promotions. And yes you can pay your normal bills with it as well, it just acts like a debit card

[@yiannimav]

@@raymondlaawesome thanks! What kind of promotions do they run / how often? And do you have to pay a fee (like when you buy a gift card online)?

[@daft009]

The game changes entirely once you're looking for reward seats for a family of 3 or 4 in J. Under 2yo is still ok a they are on your lap

[@RinoMarc37]

Hey Raymond, I want to start churning but don't have any major expenses, is it possible to pay off HECS debt with credit cards?

[@raymondla]

You can use the similar concept of buying gift cards and then using that to pay off your HECs debt. But you wouldn't be able to directly use your cc to pay off the HECs debt

[@RinoMarc37]

@ thank you

[@JamPackedJack]

For the same cards e.g. St George - can you do both Qantas and St George in the same period?

[@raymondla]

For St George you can't as all Platinum and Signature cards are treated the same regardless of any frequent flyer affiliation. You can however do this with NAB's cards, as the Qantas card is treated separately.

[@skywu1202]

How long does it take both of you to stack up that much points?

[@raymondla]

@@skywu1202 AMEX has been accumulated over a number of years. But our Qantas and Velocity fluctuates all the time as we continually use it. Last year we earnt close to 400k velocity for reference tho

[@aryal-uk6fw]

Hey I've got a question. Will only paying the minimum amount affect your credit score?

[@raymondla]

No it won't - however it's less than ideal to not pay your balance off in full every month. As you'll begin accruing interest and won't receive any additional interest free days on any new purchases

[@MrDarknessBrothers]

Love your content Raymond! Curious why you decided to get rid of the Amex Platinum?

[@raymondla]

Hey mate, I've actually never held the Platinum before. I thought about cancelling my Platinum Edge and sign up for the Platinum after waiting 18 months, but American Express have been declining a lot of people who have a history of churning cards

[@MrDarknessBrothers]

@@raymondla Appreciate the reply! No problem, for some reason thought you always had the Platinum! I currently hold it, would you say its worth changing to one of their other cards in stead?

[@raymondla]

@@MrDarknessBrothers I think it depends on what value you're getting out of the Platinum card. If you're using all of the benefits and find enough value from the card, you could continue using it!

[@MrDarknessBrothers]

@@raymondla Awesome, thanks again! keep up the great content

[@Isaac8243]

Mate, you forgot to travel to the Philippines when going through south east Asia.

[@raymondla]

I've actually never been to the Phillipines, perhaps one day in the future !

[@gwyngodfrey6925]

Using gift cards to pay the ato?

[@raymondla]

Yep haha! No more fees as well with debit payments to the ATO, so another win!

[@jamestaylor3097]

I did this with MasterCard gift cards from Cole’s this year. Works a treat 👍

[@Rohan-d6o9v]

Did you have to buy multiple cards ? Does ATO allow gift cards ?

[@raymondla]

@@Rohan-d6o9v yes I would buy multiple gift cards. And the gift card is equivalent to a debit card, which the ATO does accept

[@gwyngodfrey6925]

Which gift cards can you use?​@@raymondla

[@isabelenau3934]

Applying to a lot of credit cards has a negative effect on your credit score?

[@raymondla]

Nope. My equifax score is 994 and Experian is 833

[@dennis0825]

​@@raymondlaclosing credit cards brought down my credit score significantly though for some reason

[@raisaga9273]

If you've already got a mortgage I don't think it would really matter

[@Matt1986H]

Hey Raymond. I would highly advise getting a good broker when you go to buy your first property. Depending on how much you want to borrow, you may find that you will have to close most, if not all of your cards. This happened to us with our last home purchase. A good broker will be across all of this though :)

[@raymondla]

Thanks for this advice! Definitely do plan on working with a broker through the process

[@ChrisandCaroline]

When’s the new Amex Qantas points offer coming out do you think? Current one for 50K expires Jan 14 by the look of it

[@raymondla]

Not sure, AMEX had quite a few upsized offers at the beginning of last year so hopefully soon

[@Bulleyes22]

Happy New Year Raymond. Could you please explain how to close your credit card account or reduce borrowing when you are planning to apply for home loan? How it can improve your credit score and borrowing capacity?

[@raymondla]

Happy new year mate, you do this directly with your credit provider. You can typically do this within the mobile app, or call up if you're having any issues.