Pay the ATO for zero fees with points earning Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards

Paying the ATO with a points earning Visa, Mastercard or American Express card usually isn’t worth it due to the surcharges involved. Even the fees on third-party payment processors can be high enough to negate the value of the points you receive.

However, thanks to a current promotion on Coles Mastercard digital gift cards, you can now pay the ATO for zero fees or surcharges using a points earning credit card.

The way it works is that you use your points earning card to buy the Coles Mastercard gift cards and then you use the gift cards to pay the ATO over the phone (they don’t work on the ATO or Government EasyPay websites).

The ATO treat these Coles Mastercard gift cards as domestic debit cards which, unlike credit cards, no longer incur a surcharge as of 1 Jan 2025.

To perform a phone payment with the ATO, you’ll first need to locate your payment reference number. This can be found by logging into the ATO website and navigating to Tax > Accounts > Summary.

You can manually enter your details each time you call or, alternatively, modify a dial string like this to automate the process:

1300898089,,0,,,PRN#,,,,,,,AMOUNT#,,,CARDNUMBER#,,CVV#,,,EXPIRY#,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,1

• PRN: Your payment reference number
• AMOUNT: The amount you want to pay to two decimal places but without a decimal point (e.g. to pay $250.00 you would enter 25000)
• CARDNUMBER: The sixteen digit gift card number beginning with 51
• CVV: The three digit security code
• EXPIRY: The gift card expiry date in MMYY format (e.g. 1030)

Copy and paste the string into your notes, change the placeholders to your own details, paste the completed string into your phone app and then dial. Your phone will automatically input the numbers you’ve provided at each step of the call.

Whilst this dial string still works at the time of writing, it may stop functioning properly if the ATO make further changes to their phone menu options. Listen carefully as your PRN is read back to you and record the receipt number in case of any issues.

It’s also important to remember that whilst these gift cards currently support ATO payments, it’s not inconceivable that either the ATO or the gift card company could suddenly put an end to it.

These gift cards may also work for other bills and taxes that can be paid online but there are no guarantees. If you’re unsure, only buy a small number of gift cards at a time before going back for more.

One last thing to keep in mind is that these digital Mastercard gift cards can only be spent online as they don’t support mobile wallets (e.g. Apple Pay). This makes them very annoying to use outside of paying bills.

Terms and conditions

Terms and Conditions apply. No purchase Fee on $100 and $250 digital Coles Mastercard’s. Excludes $50 Coles Mastercard. Offer available from 9/9/2026 9am AEST. Offer ends 15/9/2026 5pm. Offer only available from giftcards.com.au. Maximum order value $2,500. One order per customer per day. Can only be used for Online purchases only. Cards may take up to 24 hours to activate. Purchase fee will be deducted from total invoice cost. The Coles Mastercard® Digital Account is issued by Heritage and People’s Choice Limited trading as Heritage Bank ABN 11 087 651 125, AFSL/ACL No. 244310 pursuant to licence by Mastercard International Incorporated. Card usage is subject to the Terms and Conditions available at www.mybalancenow.com/#/cardholderAgreement. Card is not redeemable for cash. Card cannot be replaced if lost or stolen and funds remaining on card at expiry will not be refunded. No order refunds provided. Refer to the ordering gift card T&C’s. Refer to individual gift cards for T&C’s We reserve the right to cancel any or all promotions at any time if we suspect error, fraud or any other abuse of the promotion is occurring.