St.George Vertigo Platinum Credit Card

Anyone with a hefty credit card debt they are temporarily struggling to repay should give the St. George Vertigo Platinum Credit Card some serious consideration. For many users the main initial appeal of this card will be the very long 26 months interest-free period on balance transfers and the low interest rate on purchases, but there are other attractive features like extensive complimentary insurance and a concierge service.

Low end purchase interest rate and reasonable annual fee, free first year

Although the cash advance interest rate of 19.49 percent is near the top end of the scale, the ongoing purchase interest rate is only 12.74 percent, an appealingly low rate in the credit card world. It’s the same story with the annual fee, at $99 not by any means the lowest, but very reasonable for the benefits that come with a platinum level card.

As an added sweetener, St. George has waived the annual fee for this card for the first year. The first 12 months of your 26-month 0 percent p.a. balance transfer comes absolutely free!

Crunching the numbers

There’s a maximum credit limit of $80,000 on the card, and technically this means that, if you could qualify for the full limit, you could potentially transfer a whopping $64,000 balance (80% of your credit limit) and pay no interest for 26 months. You’d need to pay a 2% transfer fee upfront and make minimum monthly repayments of 2% of the transferred amount, but the net interest cost saving would still add up to more than $25,000 if you were currently paying 20% p.a.

The saving is proportional, so a $10,000 transfer, for example, would save you over $3,900.

Avoiding the balance transfer trap

But there are a few snags to watch out for. Balance transfers only work well if you are temporarily struggling to repay your debt. Although 26 months may seem like a long time, any transferred balance remaining when the interest-free period has expired will attract interest at the cash advance rate of 19.49 percent. Ouch!

You also need to be aware of the order in which any repayments you make will be applied to your card debt (the “payment hierarchy”). If you use the card to make purchases during the balance transfer period, any repayments you think you are making to clear those purchases will actually be applied to the 2 percent minimum repayment on the transferred balance first. Tip: Don’t use your balance transfer card for purchases until you’ve paid off the balance in full.

Points collectors look elsewhere

With no frequent flyer or other rewards scheme points on offer with this card, it’s not one that will interest committed points collectors, except as an ancillary card for the sake of the balance transfer deal only.

Insurance package

A number of valuable insurance benefits are built into the card.

• Comprehensive overseas travel insurance: Medical expenses, property cover, trip cancellation, transit accident, rental vehicle excess, worth more than $750 a year for a similar family policy in the retail market. Just make sure you activate the cover by paying for at least $500 of each trip’s expenses using your St. George Vertigo Platinum Card.
• Domestic flight inconvenience, luggage and rental car excess cover: for shorter interstate trips within Australia.
• Shopper’s insurance cover: When you make purchases with the card, you also get extended warranty insurance (doubles the manufacturer’s warranty with a maximum of 12 months’ additional cover), price guarantee cover (price difference refunded if you find it cheaper elsewhere within 21 days) and four months’ cover against theft, loss or accidental damage of the item.

Premium concierge service

The Visa Platinum Concierge Service (Visa Premium) provided with the card appears to offer much the same benefits (travel bookings, show tickets, restaurant reservations) as the Visa Signature Concierge Service accompanying Visa Signature cards, even though the websites and contact phone numbers are different. It’s handy if you need this kind of service, a negligible benefit if you don’t.

Before you decide

Take a glance at what the competition is offering before you make your mind up. You should be able to find other long-term balance transfer offers on the ‘Balance transfer’ page in our ‘Features’ section.

The ideal card for . . .

The St. George Vertigo Platinum card will suit anyone who needs to make a balance transfer in order to obtain breathing space to sort out their card repayments and probably has another card on which to make purchases and collect rewards points. Just don’t forget to use your St. George card for overseas and interstate travel expenses if you want to rely on the travel insurance.

You can't balance transfer to the St.George Vertigo Platinum Credit Card at the promotional balance transfer rate from:

• Bank of Melbourne
• Bank SA
• St.George