2017 is continuing to see large-scale adjustment of bank rewards programs and credit card points earn rates, thanks to the changes announced by the RBA last year.
NAB have indicated that they will be removing American Express companion cards from their Qantas and Velocity Rewards cards range effective 13th November 2017, making their entire rewards cards line up Visa only.
In summary, NAB have:
- Removed the companion American Express from all accounts effective 13th November 2017
- Increased earn rates on their Qantas and Velocity Rewards cards range (except NAB Qantas Rewards Signature), up to a points cap ($3,000/month)
- Lowered initial points cap for both Qantas and Velocity Premium cards ($3,000 from $5,000 per statement period), but slightly increased the hard cap to $6,000 per statement period
Existing cardholders will still be able to use their American Express accounts until 21st February 2018. Learn more about the details of the upcoming changes here.
Round-up of changes announced so far
We’ve tried to round up a list of all the banks that have made changes this year – and then incorporated those changes into our Cards Table, which shows all of the earn rates for rewards cards on the market in Australia going forward. The Cards Table is now showing future points earn rates, rather than current earn rates, for cards that are changing, along with identifying the date that any changes are occurring.
This guide should hopefully also become a watchlist for cards or rewards programs which haven’t yet made any changes but might do so in future.
Here is a summary of the changes made so far:
| Card Issuer / Rewards Program | Change Announced? | Date proposed changes will apply | Commentary |
|---|---|---|---|
| ANZ Rewards cards | Yes | For cardholders prior to March 1, August 5th for removal of Amex / changes in earn rates. | Removal of American Express account, increased earn rates on the Visa and addition of points cap. (Read more) |
| ANZ Qantas cards | Yes | ||
| Citi Rewards Cards | Yes | June 15th | Change earn rates on each card and transfer rates to partners. (Read more) |
| CBA Personal Awards cards | Yes | July 1st | Reduce earn rates on Amex companion cards. (Read more) |
| CBA Business Awards cards | Yes | July 1st | |
| NAB Velocity & Qantas Rewards cards | Yes | November 13th | Removal of American Express account, slightly increased earn rates on the Visa but lower points cap. (Read more) |
| NAB Qantas Business Cards | Yes | July 1st | Reduce earn rates on Amex companion cards and points cap. (Read more) |
| Westpac Altitude Cards | Yes | July 1st | Reduce earn rates on Altitude Black companion Amex card and overseas spend on Mastercard. (Read More) |
| Virgin Money | Yes | June 15th | Virgin Australia spend bonus points removed, slight points cap reduction on High Flyer |
| Amplify Rewards | Yes | July 1st | Reduced earn rates on overseas spend. (Read More) |
| Bank Australia | Yes | October 1st | Reduced earn rates on regular spend |
| Coles Rewards | Yes - no changes | Coles confirmed no planned changes in a statement to us in May | |
| American Express & Membership Rewards | Minor | Adjustments to earn rates on Qantas card range. | |
| Bankwest (Qantas) | No | No changes announced to date. | |
| Macquarie Bank | No | No changes announced to date. | |
| Jetstar Mastercards | No | No changes announced to date. | |
| HSBC Qantas | No | No changes announced to date. | |
| Woolworths Qantas Mastercard | No | No changes announced to date. | |
| Latitude Finance (28 Degrees) | No | No changes announced to date. | |
| Qudos Bank and other specialists | No | No changes announced to date. |
The changes as a result of the new legislation coming though are complicated, and extensive. The Reserve Bank’s regulatory changes on interchange fees could affect many Australian credit cards, however cards issued directly by American Express will not be impacted by the legislation.
As a result it is likely that cards issued directly by American Express will offer a stronger rewards offering than competitors in the future – or at least maintain their existing set of benefits relative to other banks.
We’ll continue to update this summary over time as new changes are announced.
Hi Keith the cards points table seems to reflect current position not after proposed changes. For example on 16 June the effective earn rate of Krisflyer points for Citi Prestige will be .4. The table still reflect .5
In your post above it says proposed changes are incorporated-is that correct?
Thanks for flagging Mark. We’ve updated the table.
Love this post! So sad all these changes! :/ 🙁
Thank you so much for doing this for us Keith! You are a super legend!
Hi
Can anybody help me with this inquiry? I’m building a house and will need to pay about $400K to the builder in stages and if I pay with my Visa it will cost me 1.5% extra which is a lot of money if I want to collect points. I was wondering if there is some way that I can get out of the 1.5% surcharge by buying a Visa prepaid and then using that as a balance transfer or some other message that someone knows of? Any ideas would be really welcomed. Luciana
There’s no way to really reduce this surcharge using a prepaid Visa as they mostly have an accompanying load fee, and then they will charge you 1.5% for accepting that anyway. You could give them the prepaid Visas as payment but I doubt they would like that 🙂
When it comes to earning points out of these transactions, a 1.5% surcharge really limits your options. You could try and negotiate on the surcharge, and/or just ensure you are using the highest points earning Visa / MasterCard as possible to make the surcharge work (check out the cards table for our list of earn rates) – however I can’t think of one off the top of my head that I’d be willing to pay 1.5% on that has no points cap. Or you could work with them to try and take American Express, or consider using RewardPay to pay them using Amex – at a higher surcharge, but with more points earned to offset it.
Diners Club also affected:
http://www.dinersclub.com.au/individuals.htm
Diners Club Branded Card for spend on Eligible Transactions will decrease from 1.5 Frequent Flyer Diners Club Points per Australian dollar to 1.25 Frequent Flyer Diners Club Points per Australian dollar
World Mastercard® Card for spend on Eligible Transactions will decrease from 1 Frequent Flyer Diners Club Point per Australian dollar to 0.5 Frequent Flyer Diners Club Points per Australian dollar
Getting so hard to compare:
Westpac SQ Platinum vs Westpac Black vs AMEX Edge vs Citibank Signature
for the best value for KrisFlyer and/or Velocity?
Qudos have amended – with them and got the letter for a higher annual fee and a capped earn rate.
Wonderful. Thanks!
You failed to mention why Amex cards are not affected by changes?
Thanks for that – I have added a link to our Q&A with Amex on the RBA changes from last year, which you can find here.