Commonwealth Bank Low Fee Gold Credit Card

Would you like a low fee credit card that can fairly easily be a ‘no fee’ credit card, and still enjoy complimentary overseas travel insurance and other complimentary policies, plus the benefits of a long 0% interest introductory period on purchases and a short-term low-interest balance transfer? All of those desirable features and more are combined in the Commonwealth Bank Low Fee Gold Credit Card.

It’s a low fee card, regardless of how much you spend, and it’s free in the first year

The ongoing fee for this card is $89. But in the first year, you’ll pay no fee at all. You could apply and just try it for size, maybe for the sake of the introductory offer on purchases, or the free overseas travel insurance – both would cost you nothing.

But if you manage to reach a spending target of $10,000 with the card, in the second year, and in each subsequent year after you reach the target, there will continue to be no annual fee. At an average spend of $833 per month, it’s quite achievable for most cardholders who channel all their everyday spending through a credit card. If you do it year after year the result is a free credit card with continuing benefits.

There’s no charge for additional cardholders on the account. And if you miss the spending target in any year, $89 is not too much of a shock.

Complimentary overseas travel insurance, every year

CommBank’s overseas travel insurance is not your average credit card product. It differs in several ways – mostly good – and we advise you to read the insurance terms and conditions document very carefully if you’re going to apply for this card.

First of all, there’s no card spending requirement in order to activate overseas travel insurance. Most credit cards demand that you either purchase airfares or spend a specified amount on prepaid trip expenses using the card, for each traveller requiring cover (e.g. $500 per person). But this CommBank card delivers overseas medical expenses and liability cover automatically to the cardholder and accompanying spouse and dependent children.

Secondly, if you want to take advantage of the policy’s other types of overseas travel cover – the cover for baggage, travel delays and rental vehicle insurance excess, for example – you need to activate your cover for each specific journey by contacting CommBank online or by phone.

Finally, the free overseas travel policy does not cover existing medical conditions, or travellers aged 80 or over, or cruise holidays, or adventurous sports (skiing, bungy jumping, scuba diving, white water rafting, &c). These are fairly standard exclusions which are common to the vast majority of credit card travel policies. But CommBank differs yet again in a good way by offering optional policy extensions to remove these exclusions. There’s a premium payable for this, but your cost is likely to be much lower than if you had to start from scratch by purchasing the type of travel policy that covered one or more of these special conditions.

Extended warranty insurance

The manufacturer’s Australian warranty on both personal and business items purchased with the card is automatically doubled, up to a maximum of 12 additional months. Shop with your card and enjoy extra peace of mind.

Purchase security insurance

Although it’s not usually on a credit card applicant’s wishlist, purchase security insurance can provide very useful fallback cover if you are aware of the benefits and remember to use them. Goods purchased with the card are covered for 90 days after purchase against loss, theft or accidental damage, subject to claims value limitations on jewellery, watches and fine arts.

0% p.a. on purchases for a long 15 months

Although this benefit appears well down the list, it could turn out to be one of the most valuable if you are planning major purchases such as home appliances, technology or a holiday. You can use your card for purchases for 15 months and make no repayments (other than the 2% minimum monthly repayments) for 15 months without incurring any interest.

Just make sure you keep an eye on your mounting card balance though, because the total could be quite high after 15 months. You need to be confident that you will be able to repay the total in full at the end of 15 months, to avoid the nasty 19.74% p.a. revert interest rate.

A low interest balance transfer if you need it

You can even have a low interest balance transfer if you need it because you have existing credit card debt subject to a much higher interest rate than the 5.99% p.a. available for five months with this card.

It’s not a great offer when compared with the 26 months at 0% occasionally offered by competing cards, but at least there’s no upfront transfer fee to pay, and it does mean that you might be able to start using your new CommBank card immediately instead of waiting until you’ve paid off your existing debt.

But once again, beware the revert interest rate – in this case 21.24% p.a. – which comes into play if you can’t repay your balance in full at the end of five months.

No overseas transaction fees – great for travellers and online shoppers

Online shoppers and overseas travellers will be glad they chose this card since they can avoid the 2-3% surcharge levied by many cards, on top of the purchase price, for processing overseas transactions. Overseas transactions are defined as transactions where the merchant’s processing takes place outside Australia, even if you’ve paid in Australian dollars, so it’s easy to get caught out. But there’s no need to worry when you use this card.

Lots of built-in tech features

You’ll expect Tap & Go PIN-free transactions under $100, and you’ll get this feature with Mastercard PayPass.

You’ll be able to rely on CommBank’s award-winning internet banking and mobile apps for their functionality, reliability and convenience.

You’ll even be able to pay with your phone or wearable device via Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay, since all three are available with this card.

Unpleasant ongoing interest rates

Once the introductory offers on purchases and balance transfers have expired, you’ll want to avoid the card’s unattractive interest rates on purchases (19.74% p.a.) and cash advances (21.24% p.a.).

But why would you want to spoil what can be a free card, with lots of free benefits, by paying interest on overdue balances or cash advances? Find a better way to access cash, extract great value from the up to 55 interest-free days always granted on purchases, aim to pay off your balance in full every month once the introductory offers expire, and you’ll never pay a cent in interest charges.

Take a look at competing cards

Would you like to compare this card’s travel insurance cover with that available on other cards? Check out our ‘Free travel insurance’ page by clicking on the Features drop-down list at the top of this page.

Or maybe you’re more interested in cards that have no annual fee, or the potential for no annual fee like this one? In that case, you need to visit our ‘No annual fee’ page.

Or check out our ‘No foreign transaction fee’ card page if that’s what you find most attractive.

Almost everything you could ask for

Just about the only common benefit missing from this card is rewards points. It has introductory interest rate offers, free travel and other insurance, no foreign transaction fees, no annual fee in the first year and the potential for no annual fee every year. That’s a pretty compelling basket of benefits, so if you can do without rewards points and definitely don’t want to pay for them via a high annual fee, you may find that this credit card is just what you are looking for.

You can't balance transfer to the Commonwealth Bank Low Fee Gold Credit Card at the promotional balance transfer rate from:

• Aussie
• Commonwealth Bank