yosithezet

Actually Israeli AMEX was one of the cards I put in the first post.

Now that I realise that my current card is really bad I'm wondering which card I should get. The current card I have gives me current+30 days (shotef plus 30) before it takes the money from my account. This gives me time to settle expenses with my company before the money is taken from my account.

Are there cards in Israel that will give me this and give me much better earning for LY Matmid points?

Though I have no problem providing a US credit card company and address I have no idea how I'd pay off a US-based credit card since I have no income in the US.

apirchik

The new cards (Multi, More etc) are "American style" that do not charge automatically off your account but give you extra 15 days of credit and you decide when and how much to pay. I'm not sure if you get better transfer rate to LY points from them.

EugeneV

If you can get a US credit card, see my thread here. Diners is best with $50:1 point ratio, while AMEX MR is $70:1 point, both cards have annual fee. Free AMEX with MR Options will give you $140:1 ratio. However, I just came across a no fee Visa Platinum card with $60:1, which IMHO is pretty good.

haniboo

[QUOTE=EugeneV]If you can get a US credit card, see my thread here.

has anyone figured out if it makes sense to make israeli purchases with a US card for the benefit of getting matmid points? i mean, if we go to "the super" and charge 4600 nis on a US card, then have to pay 2% currency conversion, have we benefited?

not a mathematican....let's see--1000 usd plus 2% conversion= 1020 usd= (depending on the US card) ~ 15-20 matmid points.

using an israeli card, would be worth (at 1400 nis =point)~3.2 points; at 700nis=point rate, 4600 nis~6.5 points.

but what about the 20$ conversion cost... is the 20$ worth 10-15 points?

clubman

Reading through the posts here, seems like its just not worth while even trying to work out the conversion ratios from Israeli CC to Matmid points as they are just c**p

Are there any proper ELAL Credit cards that offer you something better?
Like BA's Amex or BMI's MasterCard card's here in the UK, which are so much better and more rewarding.

EugeneV

No, it's not worth it. But you could use it to book tickets online in USD from US-based airlines and agents (and for USD purchases in general). Best deal is probably Capital One card which earns "GoMiles" AND pays the currency conversion fee for you. Unfortunately, these offers are targetted. Alternatively, there is Pentagon Federal FCU with 1% conversion fee and 1.25% cash back. Are there any Israeli-issued CCs with no annual fee and more than 0.25% rewards?

yosithezet

The AMEX Gold information I posted above is from the AMEX offer I took from El Al. First year is no fee and I have a $50 coupon to use towards an El Al ticket by the end of June. The card gives nothing else El Al related. I've been yoing with the idea of getting a US-based CitiBank AAdvantage Master Card which would give 1 mile per USD.

cafri

With Leumi Card, both VISA PLATINUM and MASTERCARD PLATINUM offer a conversion rate of 28 credit card points = 1 Matmid point.

Since you get 1 credit card point for every 25 NIS spend, that is a Matmid point for 700 NIS (28 CC points * 25 NIS/CC point).

I currently hold 4 different credit cards, and personally, that above deal is the one I prefer (and use).

My reasons:
1. I hate the fact that Isracard gives no points in their MasterCard and AMEX cards for the first 200 NIS every month.
2. I am not going to pay over $300 a year for AMEX Platinum.
3. As for Diners, I found our that more and more businesses stop accepting it, and because of that I don't want it to be my primary card.

yosithezet

That sounds like a much better deal that the others. The only reason I have to stay with Isracard Mastercard is this deal where they are giving me current + 30 days for charges outside of Israel. I called Isracard to see if they had a card with better conversion but still giving me this current + 30 and they said that this card gives me this because of my employer so would not be available on their other cards.

cafri

I don't know who your employer is, but my employer has this current+30 deal with both VISA CAL and LEUMI CARD VISA.
So I actually have the points conversion I wrote above & the current+30 deal.

clubman

That's just so bad! in other words you need to spend 630,000 Shekels to get enough points for a return to Europe.

I need to spend around Ł16,000 which is roughly 130,000 Shekels (or much less then that, if some of the spend is on BA bookings) with my BA Amex to get a TLV-LHR-TLV (or the other way round) return with BA.

yosithezet

So either I need to get a new employer or I need to get my employer to tak to the other CC companies. Which do you think is likely to be easier?

haniboo

I'm still over here doing the math... can anyone tell me if i got it right?

using an american (delta-amex skymiles maybe?) vs. israeli card with LY tie-in.

delta card needs 70,000pts for free ticket. that costs 70,000$ worth of purchases.

israeli card with 700nis equalling 1 LY mile, so that is 700*1400 LY points for a free ticket= 980,000 nis (217,777$)!!!!!!!

is this right? how can this be right?

when factoring in the 2% conversion rate of using an american card in israel, that 70,000$ *2% = 1400$--MORE THAN the cost of a ticket!!

this says to me that i can either spend an extra 1400$ in currency exchange rates to get a free ticket on a US carrier, or spend 217,777$ in nis on an israeli card to get a free ticket on LY. guess there is no such thing as a "free" ticket.

haniboo

any mathemeticians out there who can check my math?

any American CC tie-in that doesn't charge 2% currency fee?

jonnye

I wouldn't be surprised! years ago in the UK the gas stations used to have offers such as collect x amount of coupons from filling up with gas and get a crystal decanter and two glasses for free. Once the math was done it worked out you had to spend $7,600 on gas for what you could buy at Argos (retail outlet) for $39.99!!