Velocity Credit Cards

Best Velocity credit card offers for January 2024

There isn't one best Velocity credit card for everyone, so we've looked at different cards on the market to pick out 3 popular offers with everything from bonus points to $0 annual fees.

How do I earn points with a Velocity credit card?

The first step is to add your Velocity Frequent Flyer membership details to the credit card account. Then, you'll earn points per $1 spent when you use the Velocity credit card to pay for groceries, food delivery, a new outfit or any other eligible transaction.

If your new card also offers bonus points, you'll usually need to meet a spending requirement to get them. For example, a card could offer 60,000 bonus Velocity Points when you spend $3,000 on eligible purchases in the first 3 months.

Types of credit cards that earn Velocity Points

1. Credit cards that earn Velocity Points directly

These cards earn Velocity Points per $1 spent, which are added to your frequent flyer account. Currently, American Express, BOQ Specialist, Virgin Money and Westpac offer these "direct earn" Velocity Frequent Flyer credit cards.

• Pro: It's easy to see how many Velocity Points you earn for your credit card spending.

• Con: You're limited to only earning Velocity Points.

2. Reward cards that offer Velocity Points transfers

With these cards, you can transfer points from a credit card rewards program into your Velocity Frequent Flyer account. Some even offer an auto-transfer option.

• Pro: Sometimes you'll get point transfer bonuses with these cards. For example, 15% more Velocity Points than usual when you transfer points during the promotional period.

• Con: The point transfer rate varies but usually you'll end up with fewer Velocity Points than what you had in reward points. A typical transfer rate is 2 reward points to 1 Velocity Point.

How to find the best credit card for earning Velocity Frequent Flyer Points

Apart from the annual fee and interest rate, which are important when comparing any credit card, these are the things to look for:

Bonus points and sign-up offers

You can get a lot of value from Velocity credit card introductory offers, with some cards offering up to 100,000 bonus Velocity Points. That's enough for a return business class reward flight from Brisbane to Queenstown with Virgin Australia (71,000 points plus fees and taxes).

Points per $1 spent

Generally, 1 Velocity Point per $1 is competitive for a direct earn card. For point transfers, an equivalent of 0.5 Velocity Points per $1 is competitive. Make sure you also check for any points caps or spend thresholds in your comparison.

Travel perks

You can get valuable extras on platinum and higher-tier cards, and even some Virgin Australia-branded cards, including: Airport lounge access, Complimentary travel insurance, Concierge services, Flight or travel credit, Bonus Status Credits or other exclusive offers.

What Virgin Australia perks will I get?

If you're interested in benefits specifically for travel with Virgin Australia, the 2 main ones are:

Flights

The Virgin Australia Velocity Flyer and High Flyer credit cards both offer a $129 Virgin Australia gift voucher each year you have the card. And the American Express Velocity Platinum Card offers a domestic return flight with Virgin Australia each year.

Virgin Australia Lounge access

The Virgin Australia High Flyer and the American Express Velocity Platinum both offer 2 complimentary single-entry lounge passes for Virgin Australia lounges per year.

Example: How many points can I earn with a Velocity Frequent Flyer credit card?

The number of Velocity Points you'll earn with a credit card depends on the card's bonus points offer, earn rate and how much you spend. To give you an idea of how it works, here's an example that looks at the yearly potential points based on earn rates for 2 different Velocity credit cards.

In this example, spending with the American Express card would offer more value over the course of one year than the Virgin Money card. However, it does not factor in the value of any insurance covers, lounge passes or other perks.

How many Velocity Points do I need for a flight?

You can get Virgin Australia Reward Seat flights from 6,200 Velocity Points, not including carrier charges that are billed separately. For example, this is enough for a one-way Tier 1 economy reward flight from Sydney to Melbourne.

Here are some other examples to give you an idea of the points you'd need for a return flight:

• Sydney to Melbourne in business class: 31,000 points
• Brisbane to Perth in economy (Tier 2 reward): 35,600 points
• Sydney to Queenstown (NZ) in business class: 71,000 points

This means a competitive credit card bonus points offer will give you enough points for a reward flight (or flights).

Calculate how much your Velocity Points are worth

Choose Velocity Frequent Flyer as the program and put the number of points into this calculator to get a dollar value for them.

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Frequently Asked Questions

• How long does it take to get Velocity Points from a credit card?

  The Velocity points you earn on your credit card for regular spending are typically added to your frequent flyer account once a month, after your card's statement is issued.

  Point transfers usually take between 1-14 days to show up in your Velocity account, but it varies. For example, the terms and conditions for NAB Rewards transfers to Velocity state that it can take up to 10 business days.

  Bonus point offers may take a little longer between the spend criteria being met and the points landing in your account. For example, American Express indicates this process will take 8-10 weeks.

• What is an eligible transaction on a Velocity frequent flyer credit card?

  You can earn Velocity Points on most everyday spending, including food and drinks, travel bookings and even medical appointments. While it varies between cards, transactions that don't usually earn points include cash advances, balance transfers, gambling transactions and BPAY payments.

• If I want to book travel with a Velocity credit card, do I have to fly with Virgin?

  No, you can use your credit card for flights with any airline or travel booking service that accepts credit card payments.

  You'll still earn Velocity Points per $1 on eligible spending. But you'd miss out on any additional points and status you'd get if you travelled with Virgin Australia.

  If you want to use your Velocity Points to make the booking, you can travel with Virgin or any of their partner airlines, including: Air Canada, Delta, Singapore Airlines and Etihad.

• Can I cancel the card after getting bonus Velocity Points?

  Technically, yes. This process of applying for a card, getting the bonus points and then cancelling the card is called "churning". If you're going to do this, make sure the points have landed in your account and you've paid the balance in full before trying to cancel.

  But keep in mind that regularly applying for cards then cancelling them can lower your credit score and reduce your chance of approval. So it's a good idea to keep track of your credit score and limit applications within a 12-18 month period.

• Can a Velocity credit card help me earn more Status Credits?

  Status Credits help you reach higher Velocity membership tiers. Silver, Gold or Platinum status means you can get benefits like Virgin Australia airport lounge access, additional baggage and priority boarding.

  Flying is the main way to earn Status Credits but there are a couple of other ways – including credit cards that offer bonus Status Credits. For example, a card might offer 100 Velocity Status Credit when you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months – but this is a rare feature.

  According to Finder's credit card database, the American Express Velocity Platinum is the only credit card that currently offers status credits. With this card, you'll get 100 Velocity Frequent Flyer Status Credits when you spend at least $50,000 on eligible purchases within your membership year.

• Are Velocity or Qantas Points better?

  There's no single answer to this question, so let's look at a few scenarios:

  • If you want to fly overseas, Qantas Points offer access to reward flights with 29 partner airlines, including oneworld alliance members. Velocity Points offer access to reward flights with 9 partner airlines.
  • If you want to fly in Australia or New Zealand, both Qantas and Velocity Points give you plenty of options for economy, premium economy and business class reward flights.
  • If you want reward flights only a few months before a trip, we found better availability with Velocity when researching this article. Specifically, in August 2023 we looked at a 7-day return trip from Sydney to Queenstown in November. Velocity had both economy and business class reward seats available for return bookings, while Qantas only had return economy reward seats and a one-way business class reward seat. Both offered points plus pay, but that is typically less value per point.
  • If you already fly with one airline more than the other (e.g. Virgin Australia), focusing on earning points with the linked frequent flyer program can help you redeem reward flights faster.

  You can weigh up more details in Finder's guide to Qantas vs. Velocity Frequent Flyer.

Finder Award winner and finalists for 2023

Discover which brands ranked highly at the Finder Awards for velocity credit cards.

The American Express Velocity Platinum Credit Card won this years award again, after taking top spot in 2022. It had strong scores for both points per $1 spent and bonus point offers – with the highest Velocity Points earn rate in Australia at 1.25 points per $1 spent. The card also offers a complimentary annual domestic flight, complimentary insurance and airport lounge passes.

The Westpac Altitude Velocity Black had a big bonus point offer during the 12-month period we analysed. Its other frequent flyer-related features include 0.75 Velocity Points per $1 uncapped, complimentary travel insurance, Virgin Australia lounge passes and Economy X seat upgrades.

The Virgin Australia Velocity High Flyer Card scored well across bonus points, points per $1 spent and lounge passes. It also offers a yearly Virgin Australia flight voucher and complimentary international travel insurance.

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Each year the Finder Credit Card Awards recognises Australia's top credit cards, with expert analysis of rates, fees and offers based on 12 months' worth of data. These cards might not currently have the most competitive deals for earning velocity points but you can use them as a benchmark against the latest offers.