20,000 Qantas or Velocity Points with BOQ Specialist's Signature card aimed at medical, dental and vet professionals

The BOQ Specialist credit cards are niche credit card offerings exclusively available to doctors, dentists and vets.

The BOQ Specialist cards come in both a Signature and Platinum variety. This guide looks exclusively at the Signature offering, with a separate guide available for the Platinum card.

The Signature card comes with additional perks such as complimentary insurances and lounge access.

Cardholders can choose between two reward programs, earning a choice of either Qantas Points or Velocity Points.

Current bonus offer available to new BOQ Specialist Signature Cardholders

BOQ Specialist are offering 20,000 Qantas or Velocity Point bonus for new applicants of the BOQ Specialist Signature card when they apply and use the card at least ten times within the first two months of approval.

BOQ Specialist Signature Card – earning and redeeming points

Earning rates are based on whether your transactions are domestic or international, and there is no difference in earn rates between the Qantas- or Velocity-earning cards.

The earn rates are:

• 1 Qantas or Velocity Point for every $1 spent on eligible purchases in Australia up to $10,000 per month, 0.5 points per $1 thereafter
• 1.5 Qantas or Velocity Points for every $1 spent on eligible international purchases
• 1 Qantas or Velocity Point for every $1 spent on eligible BOQ Specialist finance contracts plus make the repayments on your BOQ Specialist card and earn 1 Qantas or Velocity Point per $1 on the repayments

For those who opt to earn Qantas Frequent Flyer Points, the following also applies:

• 1 additional Qantas Point for every $1 spent on selected Qantas products and services

Selected Qantas products and services include Qantas flights (with a QF flight number) along with Qantas Frequent Flyer and Qantas Club joining and annual fees. It does not extend to Jetstar flights, Qantas Holidays, Qantas branded non-airfare product, or any product or service not purchased directly from Qantas.

The options available to redeem your points are aligned with your frequent flyer program of choice. In other words, anything that is available to be redeemed in the Qantas or Velocity Frequent Flyer programs is available for redemption, as you will be using Qantas or Velocity points to make the redemption. This includes redeeming for flights, entertainment or merchandise.

Digging into the details

Card Details

For an annual fee of $400 per year, the Signature card comes with a Standard membership to the Priority Pass lounge network, with four complimentary visits for you and a guest into the network’s 1,200+ lounges. This represents great value, given that an identical membership with Priority Pass retails at US$399 if purchased directly from them.

This allocation is slightly better than many premium credit cards that offer complimentary Priority Pass membership, which generally come with only two complimentary entries per year.

You also receive exclusive benefits to the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection, such as automatic room upgrades, food and beverage credits and late check-out.

Cardholders also receive a 15% discount to the Visa Airport Speedpass service, which provides a meet & assist service to over 500 worldwide airports. Marketed as a bespoke and personal in-airport service, it advertises the ability to beat queues, avoid inconveniences and be treated as a VIP passenger. Costs start from $100 USD.

BOQ Specialist’s Asset Finance On Card (AFOC) Facility

BOQ Specialist’s “Asset Finance on Card,” or AFOC facility allows you to buy big ticket items for your practice using your BOQ Specialist credit card while earning Qantas or Velocity points.
Simply use your BOQ Specialist Signature card to purchase the latest equipment, a new car or fit-out and you can earn 1 point per $1 spent on your eligible purchase (a 1.5% processing fee applies). Conveniently roll the expense into a fixed term contract with BOQ Specialist and make your repayments on your card to earn even more points on the repayments.

An example:

• A BOQ Specialist client finances $100,000 in equipment, transacts using the card (with the processing fee), and earns 100,000 Qantas or Velocity Points
• The client is also able to earn points by making repayment through their BOQ Specialist Signature card – so if the monthly repayments were set at $1,000, an additional 1,000 points would be earned each month. The monthly processing fee for the card payment is also charged on repayments.
• All points earned on finance and repayments to that finance sit outside the 10,000 point cap each month, leaving that open for earning points on regular transactions.

Note that BOQ Specialist’s AFOC facility has a separate approval process from their range of BOQ Specialist credit cards, and you’ll need to get your own professional advice on it’s suitability for your needs. For more information visit the BOQ Specialist website.

Included insurances

The BOQ Signature card also comes with a selection of complimentary insurances, which includes the following:

• Overseas Travel Insurance
• Purchase Security Insurance
• Extended Warranty Insurance
• Transport Accident Insurance
• Best Price Guarantee
• Golfer’s Insurance
• Global Car Hire Excess Waiver
• Domestic Flight Inconvenience Insurance

Further information regarding these insurances available to BOQ Specialist cardholders can be found here.

This guide references some of the benefits of insurance policies provided with this card. You should read the PDS and obtain independent professional advice before obtaining this product.

Notes on applying for a BOQ Specialist card

To apply for a BOQ Specialist card, you’ll need to confirm you are a medical, dental or veterinary professional.

You’ll also need to be over 18 and an Australian resident, and agree to BOQ Specialist capturing and storing your personal information, which may be provided to third parties as required and outlined in their Privacy Policy, and understand the terms outlined in the BOQ Specialist Credit Card Key Fact Sheet.

Apple Pay, Google Pay & Samsung Pay Support

BOQ Specialist cards support Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, meaning you can use this card on your smartphone for easier payments.

Read the Point Hacks guide to using Apple Pay or for using Google Pay and Samsung Pay, including instructions on how to add your card to those services.

With this feature set up, it means you could still use your NFC-enabled phone to make purchases with your BOQ Specialist card, even if your physical card is lost or stolen and pending replacement.

Summing up

While the earn rates for the BOQ Specialist Signature card are definitely competitive for a Visa card, one of the biggest advantages of the BOQ Specialist Signature card is the fact that points earned through their Asset Finance On Card (AFOC) Facility are excluded from the monthly 10,000-point cap.

The inclusion of Priority Pass lounges is a great inclusion and quite competitive among many of its direct competitors.

The card’s complimentary insurances are comprehensive, with this offering possibly also placing BOQ Specialist ahead of its competitors for cardholders who would value these policies. There are some unique policies such as golfers insurance and a global car hire excess waiver.

If you are a professional working in one of these fields and are likely to make use of many of the travel-friendly benefits and the unique equipment finance feature included as part of the card, then this card should be attractive to you. And for those who do less travel, the decent earn rate for a Visa card alone may well make it worth considering.