The revamped CommBank Yello program is making one thing obvious: the more you use CommBank, the more opportunities you have to earn rewards. You can also earn more points when you shop with everyday brands, plus earn through offers with partners like Origin Energy and More Telecom.
From 1 October 2026, CommBank Yello moved from a program built largely around cashback offers to a single points currency. That means eligible customers will be able to earn CommBank Yello points across a much broader range of products, including credit cards, home loans, insurance, investing and selected personal loans, while still having access to a range of discounts and perks.
For some customers, that could add up to a surprisingly large annual points haul. Of course, this doesn’t mean everyone will be better off. Some cashback benefits are disappearing, and your earn rate (particularly on credit cards) won’t be very high if you don’t have many other products. But here’s an overall look at what a highly engaged customer’s earn could look like when the new changes start.
Case study: a customer with a home loan, insurance and credit card with CommBank
Imagine a CommBank customer who has:
- A packaged CommBank home loan (with a settled amount of over $1M)
- CommBank home insurance
- A CommBank Ultimate credit card
- A CommSec investment account
- CommBank Yello Diamond tier
CommBank Yello Diamond tier is earned by:
- Make 15+ eligible transactions from an eligible account, AND
- Having a CommBank combined funded home loan of over $1M, OR
- Keep an eligible balance of $250K for 15 days or more (per month)
Under the new program, those products can all contribute to the customer’s rewards balance.
The mortgage could earn 20,000 CommBank Yello points a year for a Diamond customer with an eligible packaged home loan. They might also be able to have the fees waived on the Ultimate card as one of the ongoing package benefits.
With an eligible CommBank home insurance policy, that’s another 500 Yello Points per month, or 6,000 Yello Points per year, for the Diamond customer. And if the customer makes at least one eligible CommSec trade worth more than $1,000 in a month, they can earn another 2,200 Yello Points that month.
All up, that’s 52,400 CommBank Yello points a year ongoing before putting any spend on the credit card.
Add an Ultimate credit card to the mix
Now take that same customer and add regular credit card spending. The Ultimate card earns CommBank Yello points on eligible spending, with the rate increasing according to the customer’s CommBank Yello tier. Diamond customers can earn 1.5 points per $1 on eligible domestic spending.
If our hypothetical Diamond customer puts $6,000 a month of eligible everyday spending on the card, that’s $72,000 a year. At 1.5 points per dollar, that would be another 108,000 Yello Points.
Let’s say they also go overseas a few times a year for work and leisure, spending a combined $16,000 a year in foreign currency. The Ultimate card earns 2 points per $1 overseas, with no international transaction fees. That’s 32,000 Yello Points from their globe-hopping spend.
Add the home loan, insurance and CommSec example above and the customer is now sitting at roughly 192,400 CommBank Yello points a year, before any special shopping offers, new product bonuses or other promotional opportunities.
Travel Booking provided by Hopper offers the highest individual earn rate in CommBank Yello
For someone who already uses CommBank’s Travel Booking platform, the new system adds another way to build the balance. From 1 October, all CommBank Yello customers can earn 5 points per $1 on hotels and car hire, or 2 points per $1 on flights, when booking through Travel Booking.
But until 30 September 2027, that’s boosted to a massive 20 Yello Points per dollar on hotels and car bookings, and 10 Yello Points per dollar on flights.
For example, imagine if a Diamond customer books a $3,000 hotel stay through Travel Booking with $4,000 in flights. That’s usually 15,000 Yello Points from the hotel, 8,000 Yello Points from the flights, and 10,500 Points from putting that spend on the Ultimate card – a total of 33,500 Yello Points.
(Under the promo rates valid until 30 September 2027, that would be 60,000 Yello Points from the hotel and 40,000 Yello Points from the flights, for a total of 100,000 Yello Points!) But we’ll use the standard earn rate in the example below.
Adding up all the points
Using all the examples above, this hypothetical Diamond-tier customer could earn:
| Source | Annual CommBank Yello points |
|---|---|
| Home loan (Diamond customers) | 20,000 |
| Home insurance (Diamond customers) | 6,000 |
| Ongoing CommSec activity | 26,400 |
| $72,000 eligible Ultimate card spend (local) | 108,000 |
| $16,000 eligible Ultimate card spend (overseas) | 32,000 |
| $7,000 combined Travel Booking spend (standard rate) | 33,500 |
| Total | 225,900 |
That’s 225,900 CommBank Yello points from a combination of banking products and spending that the customer may already have. And there’s another part of the equation: the Ultimate card’s credits.
From October 2026, the card includes a $25 monthly Travel Booking credit and a $10 monthly dining credit, which are all cumulative. That’s up to $420 in credits a year.
While we won’t include a specific example here to keep it simple, you can also earn CommBank Yello points on offers and shopping at select retailers, such as DoorDash. That’s potentially thousands more Yello Points on top of what you’re earning on the big-ticket items.
What can 225,000 CommBank Yello points actually do?
CommBank’s current examples put 2,860 Yello Points worth $10 cash. This is the absolute baseline (i.e. lowest value) redemption you can do, which values 225,000 Points at a minimum of $780 cash. But you can also get much more out of your CommBank Yello points.
For example, 225,000 Yello Points also convert to 90,000 Velocity Frequent Flyer Points ($99 annual fee required, but this is waived in the first year + a 20% bonus up to 20K points, if you sign up in the first six months) or 90,000 Qatar Airways Avios (no fee applies).
The absolute best-value redemption we can think of is Qatar Airways Business Class from Australia to Europe for exactly 90,000 Avios + fees and taxes, one-way. That’s easily worth a few thousand dollars.
Or for something in between, you could also fly two people in Business Class from Bali to Australia, enjoying lie-flat comfort on Garuda (booking via 40,000 Qatar Airways Avios per person + fees and taxes).
You could also get around $1,300 off any flight, hotel or car purchase by redeeming your points through Travel Booking (at a rate of 16,667 points = $100 off).
Summing up
The new CommBank Yello is less about finding one magical way to earn points, and more about stacking rewards across your banking. Of course, the example above is on one extreme of the spectrum, with someone who is highly engaged with CommBank. It’s worth noting those points could be earned annually – none of them are one-off sign-up bonuses.
For a customer who only has a card, the changes are not particularly transformative. If you take out the credit card and engage just enough with CommBank to maintain the CommBank Yello Plus tier, you’re only earning around 0.75 Yello Points (equivalent to 0.3 Velocity Points or Avios) per dollar. It’s not going to be the best way to direct your spend.
But if you’re already using CommBank for your mortgage, insurance, investments, credit card and/or travel, the new program could give the right customer tens of thousands of additional points per year,
Disclaimer: This guide is brought to you in collaboration with Commonwealth Bank.
Points examples are illustrative only and correct as at 01/10/2026. Points required, redemption values, availability, participating brands, and eligibility criteria may change. Travel examples based on prices available through Travel Booking where applicable. Terms and Conditions apply.
