Many lower-end spenders would be better off earning merchandise rewards while people spending more than $60,000 annually would benefit from merchandise, travel or cashback reward options depending on their preference.
Spending rewards hit the headlines this year when Air New Zealand announced it would replace BNZ with Westpac as its official Airpoints partner from May 1.
The news meant BNZ did not perform as well as it had previously in the flight reward section of the research but was still a strong contender for other types of rewards, Canstar research manager Mitchell Watson said.
"They are still a strong performer but the removal of Airpoints has had an impact on their performance for flight rewards.
"However they have said they are currently reviewing what options they are going to make available to that space so I see this more as a short-term element as opposed to a long-term position."
BNZ spokesman Craig Herbison said the majority of credit card flight rewards offered deals for just one airline but BNZ's new reward card, which was in the works, would offer a range of travel options.
"The way Canstar views these things and how customers do may be a little bit different. When we did the research with our customers 67 per cent said they would prefer a choice of airline partner. It's not really a comparison in that sense because we're looking to build a choice model."
Researchers compared people spending $12,000, $24,000 and $60,000 annually to find what was the best deal for rewards.
They found spenders would have to rack up an average of $5374 annually to break even on the top-rated reward card annual fees.
It was important to choose a card based on how much you spent and where you spent it, Mr Watson said.
"It's balancing out what you pay in the annual fee and what you get back in return. We've done all the leg work for them."
Research showed those spending less than $12,000 a year would reap the rewards of a cashback or merchandise reward programme, instead of an Airpoints card.
The ANZ cashback MasterCard and Visa and BNZ's Flybuys Classic and Gold Amex were top for people spending less than $24,000.
Frequent flyers who spent at least $24,000 should go for the American Express Air New Zealand Card or Platinum Edge Card or a Kiwibank or Westpac Airpoints Platinum Mastercard, the survey showed.
The best credit cards for people spending more than $60,000 a year were the BNZ Platinum Visa for merchandise rewards or Westpac's Platinum or World MasterCard for travel, merchandise, vouchers or cashback rewards.
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