NAB’s loyalty program has added Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer as a transfer partner, opening up redemptions on Singapore Airlines and partners like Air Canada, ANA and United to NAB customers.
The NAB Rewards credit card points program is a flexible card points program, which includes the NAB Rewards, NAB Rewards Platinum, NAB Rewards Signature and NAB Rewards Business Platinum Visa cards.
Launched at the start of 2017, NAB Rewards offers points transfers to Velocity, Asia Miles, KrisFlyer and Air New Zealand Airpoints, as well as a range of other unique redemption options. In this guide, we’ll get into the details of the program and how to best use those points for value.
Digging into the details of NAB Rewards
As a flexible points program, NAB Rewards allows you to earn points into NAB Rewards balance, and these points can then be transferred to NAB Rewards’ frequent flyer program partners, redeemed for gift vouchers or other merchandise and experiences offered by the program.
Flexible programs like this are a good choice for anyone looking to get the most value from a rewards program, as they allow you to earn points into a central points currency now and choose how you redeem them later.
NAB Rewards points can be converted into KrisFlyer miles for Singapore Airlines Business Class redemptions
NAB Rewards points do not transfer to their frequent flyer program partners on a 1:1 ratio—instead, you’ll need to factor in the following transfer ratios to calculate how many points can be transferred to each program:
- 1 NAB Rewards point = 0.5 Velocity points, with a minimum transfer of 3,000 NAB Rewards points = 1,500 Velocity Points
- 1 NAB Rewards point = 0.33 Asia Miles/KrisFlyer miles, with a minimum transfer of 3,000 NAB Rewards points = 1,000 Asia Miles/KrisFlyer miles
- 3,000 NAB Rewards point = 15 Air New Zealand Airpoints Dollars
In the guides below, you can see why we prefer Velocity, Asia Miles and KrisFlyer miles over transfers to Air NZ.
Why you should transfer to Velocity first and then KrisFlyer
If you want to convert your NAB Rewards points into KrisFlyer miles, you have two options:
- transfer directly to KrisFlyer
- transfer to Velocity first and then to KrisFlyer using their special relationship
For example, using the first route, you can convert 3,000 NAB Rewards points into 1,000 KrisFlyer miles.
Conversely, if you transfer your 3,000 NAB points into 1,500 Velocity points first, you can then convert those Velocity points into ~1,111 KrisFlyer miles, giving you over 11% more value.
NAB Rewards points expire
One of the downsides to NAB’s rewards program is the points expiry policy. This is outlined in the NAB Rewards PDS and states: Points in your points balance must be used to claim a reward within 36 months from the date the transaction which earned those points was processed to your rewards card account. Points that remain unused in your points balance after that period will be forfeited.
The points you earned into your NAB Rewards account first will be used first at the time of redemption, so you have three years from the date of earning the points to when they must be used.
This is a downside to the program for anyone who wants to earn large numbers of points and hold them for an extended period of time.
The NAB Rewards card range
NAB Rewards offers three cards:
- NAB Rewards Visa: an entry-level, low-fee card;
- NAB Rewards Platinum Visa: a higher fee, higher points-earning card
- NAB Rewards Signature Visa: the highest points-earning card in the line up; and
- NAB Rewards Business Platinum Visa: a business-focused card
Card Details
| Card | NAB Rewards Signature Card |
| Loyalty Program | NAB Rewards |
| Points earned from spend | 1.25 Rewards points per $1 on everyday spend 2.5 Rewards points per $1 in major department stores and hardware stores 3.75 Rewards points per $1 on overseas spend |
| Points cap | uncapped |
| Earns points at ATO | No |
| Insurance included | 7 complimentary insurances including overseas travel (PDS) |
| Overseas transaction fee | 3% of the converted amount |
| Annual fee | $295 |
Card Details
| Card | NAB Rewards Platinum Visa |
| Loyalty program | NAB Rewards |
| Points earned from spend | 1 Rewards point per $1 on everyday spend 2 Rewards points per $1 spend in major department and hardware stores 3 Rewards points per $1 on overseas spend |
| Points Cap | No points cap |
| Included insurances | 7 complimentary insurances including overseas travel (PDS) |
| Overseas transaction fee | 3% of the converted amount |
| Annual fee | $195 |
Card Details
| Card | NAB Rewards Classic |
| Loyalty program | NAB Rewards |
| Points earned from spend | 0.75 NAB Rewards point per $1 on everyday spend 1.5 NAB Rewards points per $1 spend in major department and hardware stores 2.25 NAB Rewards points per $1 spend overseas |
| Points Cap | No points cap |
| Included insurances | Complimentary Purchase Protection Insurance (PDS) |
| Overseas transaction fees | 3% of the converted amount |
| Annual fee | $95 |
Bonus points partners
NAB Rewards offers a ‘Points Booster’, allowing triple points for spending at Webjet (except Jetstar, Scoot and AirAsia flights) and overseas purchases, and double points for spending at ‘major department and hardware stores’.
Other redemption options
Outside of NAB Rewards’ frequent flyer program partners, NAB Rewards offers redemptions for gift cards, a range of products, charity donations, a 10% discount on AFL travel and a range of exclusive AFL redemptions thanks to NAB’s commercial relationship with the AFL.
Webjet
NAB Rewards has partnered with Webjet to offer immediate redemption of your NAB Rewards points for any travel booking offered from Webjet. Once you’ve logged in to the NAB Rewards as a cardholder, you then click out to Webjet and you’ll be shown how many points you can redeem and the value of those points in Webjet credit.
In this example, we have 83,639 NAB Rewards on offer, equating to $418.19 in Webjet credit. This offers a redemption value of 0.5c per NAB Rewards point.
Gift cards
Gift cards are available for Myer, JB Hi-Fi, Myer, BP, Coles, Coles Express, Bunnings and many more. The current redemption rate for a $100 gift card is 19,230 points, offering a value of 0.52c per NAB Rewards point.
AFL
AFL redemption options through NAB Rewards include:
- Silver AFL Memberships at most major AFL clubs for 125,000 points
- Signed jerseys, lithographs and other merchandise
Silver AFL membership currently costs $600, so the 125,000-point redemption offers a value of 0.48c per NAB Rewards point.
Products
A range of technology, lifestyle, and other product category redemption options are available through the NAB Rewards website too. Given prices of these products change frequently, we won’t run a comparison of the value on offer here but these are usually not the best value use of your points.
Other information, offers & benefits
You can access the NAB Rewards website here but you will need to be an account holder to get any real detail about points transfer rates or redemptions.
NAB Rewards is relatively simple and fast to navigate to find the redemption option you are looking for but it works best if you are an existing cardholder to find that information, which makes it harder for prospective cardholders to assess the value of the program.
Given the program is new, we would hope that redemption options will expand as NAB continues to invest and grow its cardholder base—but for now, the value on offer hinges on a small set of frequent flyer partners, plus a decent range of product and gift card redemptions.
Summing up
With Visa cards in the range only, acceptance of the cards should not be an issue but the points earn rates on them are low compared to competing products.
For now, though, with a few key frequent flyer programs plus a set of gift cards and product redemptions, this is an appealing program but with no standout features.
What will make NAB Rewards a really appealing program is if they continue to invest in exclusive redemption options such as through relationships with the AFL.
I’m still on Visa Velocity with NAB and that pays .66 VFF/$ so thats still better than their new product, I will stick with this one until they retire it.
I am just about to come into 350,000 NAB rewards points as I am moving a home loan to them. I also have an AmEx Explorer card that I was fortunate to get the 100,000 sign up points to back in Nov 16 and my current AmEx balance sits at 151,000 points. I don’t plan on spending the AmEx points anytime soon as I was hoping to utilise them in some way as a part payment to a family holiday next year.
My query is what exactly to do with these NAB points. I could go the gift card option and get around $1750 worth which isn’t bad for free or would I be better to potentially transfer to Asia Miles and then do the same with my AmEx points at the appropriate time and then use Asia Miles to fund an overseas trip (2 adults, 2 kids under 10).
Cheers
“You can earn double points at the following major department stores:
Myer
David Jones
Kmart
Target
Big W
You can also earn double points at the major hardware stores:
Bunnings
Mitre 10
Total Tools
Stratco
Home Timber and Hardware”
Then on the right hand side of page click on Redeem Awards under Rewards box
Chrome blocked the pop0up so appeared it wasn’t working for me at first.
Allow pop-up to get access
Source: https://www.nab.com.au/content/dam/nabrwd/personal/banking/documents/nab-rewards-terms-and-conditions.pdf