CommBank is preparing to relaunch its Yello loyalty program from 1 October 2026, combining it with the CommBank Awards points system. The major expansion will see customers earn points across a much wider range of products with the bank.
The revamped program, which CommBank refers to as ‘the next evolution of Yello’, will introduce a single Yello Points offering that can be earned not just through credit card spend, but also through banking, borrowing, investing, insurance, travel, and partner offers.
The program will also give eligible customers more ways to earn and redeem points with participating brands, including Woolworths Everyday Rewards, Origin Energy, Myer, and Velocity Frequent Flyer.[
There are plenty of new ways to earn points, but not everyone will end up ahead – particularly in the lower CommBank Yello tiers. While not all of the key details have been revealed yet, here’s what we know so far.
More ways to earn Yello Points
CommBank confirms to us that existing CommBank Awards points will transfer 1:1 to Yello Points. Under the new program, customers will be able to earn points through a combination of products, including:
- Home loans (sign-up bonuses and ongoing annual points)
- Personal loans (earn points on eligible loans)
- Home, car, health, life, and contents insurance (sign-up bonuses)
- Credit cards (sign-up bonuses and ongoing spend)
- CommSec and term deposits (monthly points for qualifying activity, reinvestments)
- Travel Booking and Dine in Deals (boosted earn rates up to 5 points/dollar)
Travel Booking utilises CommBank’s existing travel portal, powered by Hopper. Dine in Deals will be offered in conjunction with EatClub. We expect exact earn rates and sign-up bonuses to be finalised before the October launch. As a guide, some products are expected to offer 10-40,000 points in bonuses.
Updated CommBank credit cards
The existing Ultimate Awards and Smart Awards credit cards will remain (and be renamed to the Ultimate and Smart cards, respectively). While the monthly fee structure is also staying the same, CommBank confirms that the current spend waivers will be removed.
In place of the spend waivers, CommBank will introduce new travel and dining credits that offset the monthly fees. Both cards will share the same standard earn rate, which is now tied to your Yello tier.
The Standard Awards card will be removed and not replaced, but CommBank says a new ‘premium charge card’ with airline lounge access and no international transaction fees will launch on the Discover network later in the year.
The new credit cards: at a glance
| CommBank Ultimate | CommBank Smart | |
| Monthly fee (No spend waivers) | $35/month ($420/year) | $19/month ($228/year) |
| Monthly credits (12-month expiry) | $25/month Travel Credit $10/month Dining Credit | $10/month Travel Credit $10/month Dining Credit |
| Inclusions | Travel Insurance 2x Lounge passes/year No International FX fee DoorDash DashPass subscription Cracked screen insurance protection | Travel Insurance DoorDash DashPass subscription Cracked screen insurance protection |
| Earn rates | Yello: 0.5 pts/dollar Yello Plus: 0.75 pts/dollar Gold: 1.0 pts/dollar Diamond: 1.5 pts/dollar International spend (all tiers): 2.0 pts/dollar | Same as Ultimate |
As both the Ultimate and Smart cards will offer the same points earning (based on your Yello tier), the Ultimate card effectively adds two lounge passes and fee-free overseas transactions for an extra $16 a month ($192 a year). If those perks don’t matter much to you, the Smart card might be a better fit.
Conversely, if you have an eligible mortgage with the Wealth Package, you have access to an ongoing fee waiver on one credit card. In that case, the Ultimate card might be the better fit, simply for the extra benefits.
Overall, this is a major shift in strategy, as Yello will dish out more points to customers who hold multiple CommBank products. Your tier will influence how much you earn from eligible card spending. The current Yello tiers will remain in place when the new program launches.
The changes do mean that customers with a credit card – but not many other CommBank products – will likely be worse off after the changes.
CommBank Yello brings back more transfer partners
The previous CommBank Awards program was known for having a diverse range of transfer partners (until most of them were removed). Some of these are making a comeback in the revamped Yello program. However, you may need to pay an ‘annual participation fee’ to transfer to certain partners.
At launch, we expect that the Yello transfer partners will include:
- Qantas Frequent Flyer (3 to 1 rate with a $149/year participation fee)
- Velocity Frequent Flyer (2.5 to 1 rate, $99/year participation fee)
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club (2.5 to 1 rate)
- Myer (2 to 1 rate)
- Everyday Rewards (3 to 2 rate)
CommBank says additional partners are expected to follow in late 2026 and early 2027. It’s worth noting Everyday Rewards is also a Qantas partner, so CommBank may tweak these rates later on.
While this is useful for customers who like the flexibility to transfer points, keep in mind the effective earn rates for each tier. For Yello Diamond customers, the effective earn rate on a credit card is 0.6 Velocity Points or Privilege Club Avios per dollar, or 0.5 Qantas Points per dollar. The bigger points opportunities will be on loyalty bonuses with other CommBank products.
Summing up
CommBank Yello is shaping up to be a much broader loyalty program than other banks, with more opportunities to earn points across your relationship with the bank and a welcome return of airline transfer partners.
However, the new tiered card earn rates mean customers who have a broader relationship with CommBank could come out ahead, particularly at the Yello Diamond level. Those who primarily use only a CommBank credit card, rather than a mix of other products, may find themselves worse off.
The return of Qatar Airways as a transfer partner is a significant positive for frequent flyers. But do take into account transfer rates and the annual participation fees that apply to Qantas and Velocity.
For existing Awards cardholders, the removal of the spend waivers is another important change to consider. While the new travel and dining credits help offset the monthly fees, you’ll need to use those credits within their 12-month validity period to get their full value.
If you’re willing to consolidate your home loan, insurance, investments, and everyday banking with CommBank, there are potentially plenty of points on offer with the new Yello program.
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Note: an earlier version of this article contained some incorrect information. This has been updated.
I’ve been involved with Commbank Awards since 2002, both as part of the organisation that re-established the program and ran it for over 15 years and as a customer. Over the past couple of years, I’ve only remained a Ultinate Awards customer. I was quite bemused by the comms that came out stating the program changes as well as notifying me that I won’t qualify to participate in the Yello program. I was advised that if I don’t redeem my points that they will convert to Yello points, but then I won’t be eligible to redeem them. Currently the card is fee free for me (saving the $35 monthly fee based on spend), but in future the $35 fee will apply. But it’s ok, because I will get $25 travel credit (to use on CBA’s travel proposition) and then $10 dining credit per month. I guess the $10 will effectively cover the end of meal latte… but it won’t be free in real terms as I would have paid the $10 for the joy of using the card, which doesn’t really give be rewards (because I don’t qualify). It’s an interesting move. I can’t say the current Yello programs is enticing in any way. Card linked offers that are presented are available through a multitude of other programs across banking, insurance, airline, motoring…..and the list goes on.
Lastly, Comm Bank have removed the Awards redemption link from their app, making it harder to redeem before September 29.
Anyway, rant over. Good luck to Comm Bank and wish you all the best. As with some relationships, they just come to an end.
Ive got about 130k Comm Rewards sitting in my account, been waiting for the next 10-15% bonus transfer to Velocity (last one was Dec/Jan… Doesn’t look like we are going to see this again given the program changes.
I’m thinking its probably a good idea to transfer points now to Velocity whilst the rate is 2:1, instead of 2.5:1 and also an annual fee to keep transferring.
Am I correct in my thinking? Bite the bullet and do it before the change?
I think you are right, the new program is worse, the point value is reducing. I dont think they will have another 15% bonus promo to let everyone escaped!!
Yep.. I’m going to continue collecting until 28/29/30 September and then quickly transfer before 1 October.
Found this helpful page on CBA (which wasn’t in the comms that was sent out as a CBA credit card holder:
https://www.commbank.com.au/commbank-yello/commbank-yello-changes.html
Why has the updated article removed the section explaining that the $149 Qantas participation fee can be avoided by transferring via Everyday Rewards, while still achieving the same effective 3:1 rate?
If this no longer works, it would be great to explain why. Otherwise, that’s a pretty significant “hack” to remove from a Point Hacks article.
Are you no longer sharing useful hacks because of commercial relationships? If so, the website might need a rename…
Hi Michael, we were requested to remove that as it may change. We are keeping it as a mention, but with the note that things may change between now and launch.
hey Nivea – what do you think about taking out the ultimate card instead? more value if you have CBA tx account
My reading is that the way to bypass the Qantas participation fee is to transfer the yello points to everyday rewards (3:2) then from everyday rewards to Qantas (2:1). Of course this is only for those who also hold an everyday rewards account and opt in auto redemption to Qantas. The earn rate is essentially the same as you transfer the yello points directly to Qantas (3:1), minus the participation fee.
Yes – I’m interested to know also why this was removed from the article…
Plus you’ll only be earning points on purchases with their partners such as Woolworths, Myer etc. The way I read the T & C’s is that shopping at Coles for instance will not earn any points.
Not earning points on all shopping combined with no waiver for the monthly fee means I’ll have to ditch the card.
The Commbank forthcoming changes from 1 October and 1 January have effectively made the Commbank Ultimate MasterCard a non viable product for credit card only customers.
To be an eligible customer for Yello the customer must have a Commbank transaction account and complete 5 transactions per month and to convert Yello points to Velocity after 1 October there will be a $99 annual fee. Plus after 1 January 2027 the $35 fee waiver for spending $4000 is no longer.
I see that CBA have a Pensioner Security Account with the only restriction that you are over 55 and a AU residential address with no fees. It appears that is one way if forced to setup a transaction account that you’d be unlikely to use if you meet that criteira
Is the Velocity FF participation fee for a direct opt-in to only earning Velocity FF or it is automatically applied if you transfer Yello points to Velocity at any point during a calendar year?
We’re still waiting to hear confirmation on how it works.
Am I reading this right in that the Smart Awards card is losing its “No international transaction fees” perk on top of losing the spend waiver?
Do we know this impacts users of the card who earn towards Qantas directly and never used Commbank Reward points, is that part of it getting scrapped in favour of everything just being Yello direct points now?
Thanks,
I had the same question
Hi Nivea, that is correct. The Smart card will no longer waive international transaction fees.
Earning via Qantas after 1 Oct will be subject to the higher 3:1 rate and $149 p.a. participation fee. It’s similar to now where you are effectively earning CommBank Awards points but auto-transferring them to Qantas at the current 2.5:1 rate and $90 p.a. fee.
Thanks for confirming Brandon. That’s a real shame, looks like I’m going to have to cancel the card now. There’s no benefits. I accepted the low Qantas earn rate on the basis I wasn’t paying for the card outside of the Qantas fee, but with the increased Qantas fee and now paying a fee for the card (along with dropping the lack of international transaction fee). Just forget it lol.