Yesterday Bankwest started notifying existing customers of the Bankwest Qantas World and Platinum cards that they will be cutting their points earn rates from June 20th.

Bankwest’ Qantas World MasterCard currently earns 1 point per $ – being cut to 0.66 Qantas Points per $, and the Bankwest Platinum MasterCard is currently 0.75 points per $, moving down to 0.5 Qantas Points per $.

Bankwest are the next bank to move with changes to their rewards cards – generally due to the RBA caps on interchange rates that are coming into force this year.

A decrease in points earned essentially reduces the cost to a bank of fulfilling the benefits of the card to customers, requiring fewer points purchased from the airline for the same amount of spend. In addition, the reduction of the interest free period from 55 days to 44 helps earn more revenue from card users who want to carry a balance from month to month.

We’ve added Bankwest to the list of rewards changes that have been made so far.

Here’s a quick shot of a statement supplied by a reader showing the official info –

Bankwest Qantas changes statement

Annoyingly, as an existing cardholder I am yet to receive a notification of the changes. My statement was generated around a week ago – hopefully those without statements from the last few days will get an official notification soon.

The Bankwest website is also not showing these changes to potential new applicants, both of which strike me as poor form from Bankwest, who are otherwise well respected for their generally good customer service.

This is a significant loss to affected Bankwest cardholders, who valued the Bankwest Qantas World and Platinum cards for their respectable Qantas Point earn rates alongside no foreign transaction fees, and were previously affected by a points earn devaluation as recently as June last year.

Bankwest have decided to keep the no FX fee feature (at least to our knowledge, there’s been no other changes to the products announced) – but especially for the usual $220 annual fee for the World MasterCard, this change will hurt points earning, and the appeal of, the World and Platinum Bankwest MasterCards significantly.

Bankwest to cut points earning and interest free period on Bankwest Qantas World and Qantas Platinum cards from June was last modified: December 21st, 2017 by Keith