CBA increasing their points/dollar redemption requirements for in-store Myer and Flight Centre purchases (maybe gift cards too)

Lbling on 10/02/2016 - 20:59
Last edited 11/02/2016 - 00:25

A bit of PSA for those who own CBA award credit cards and are holding onto their points for bigger value redemptions. Those guys at the sneaky and greedy bank didn't even bother to inform me via email or snail mail about this upcoming change and it was only out of curiosity that I logged in to check my points last night that I noticed on their home page the following message:

Service Message Update:

"From time to time, we make change to the CommBank Awards program so we are able to continue to provide a wide range of awards and benefits. As a result, the number of points required to redeem in-store at Myer and Flight Centre and Gift Cards will soon change. From 15 February 2016, a $100 redemption at Myer or Flight Centre will require 20,000 CommBank Awards points (or the equivalent proportion).

It doesn't seem very clear to me if the gift cards will also be increased to the same as the Myer and Flight Centre points redemption ratio but the second sentence seem to indicate it would. The redemption value for products remain the same but that is probably the most poor value way of using your points so that makes no difference for me.

I had over 200k points and immediately decided to convert them into various gift cards before my points are devalued by 7.5% for gift cards if they are also affected (current 186 points per dollar vs upcoming 200 points per dollar) and 8% for Myer or Flight Centre direct redemptions (current 185.2 points per dollar vs upcoming 200 points per dollar).

If you value velocity points more, I believe you can convert your CBA award points to Velocity/Qantas FF points at a rate of 2 CBA Award points (for Platinum and Diamond CC members) or 2.5 CBA points (for Award and Gold CC members )per velocity point.

So if you were like me and was saving up your points for a big purchase, don't bother, cash it up now and maybe start looking for another credit card provider that provide better redemption rates. If anyone has a good CC reward program that provides good redemption rates, please share here.

TL;DR - CBA Awards is jacking up the points redemptions rate from 15th February so redeem/convert your points to something you want now before you lose up to 8% of the value of your points.

Edit: corrected percentages of devaluation.

Financial

Related Stores

Commonwealth Bank
Commonwealth Bank

Comments

  • PVA on 10/02/2016 - 21:24

    crooks.

  • tomleonhart on 10/02/2016 - 21:32

    Everytime i read a thread like this, it just reminds me of the saying

    "only gold is money, everything else is credit"

    • toristo on 10/02/2016 - 22:14

      Gold only has value because we all agree it has value though. It's just metal. People used to trade with shells and rocks - gold is nothing more than a slightly more refined system of agreed value and trust.

      What I'm trying to say is that gold is worthless and I'll gladly take the rubbish off your hands.

  • bling on 10/02/2016 - 21:41

    I was pretty annoyed as I was going to do a fair bit of Myer in-store redemption when I move to a bigger place in a couple of months time.
    I just got Coles gift cards instead so that's my groceries sorted for a while.

  • sschen on 11/02/2016 - 00:55

    All the big four banks are crooks, they charge us more and more each year and at the same time give us less and less! I am with ANZ and I received a letter just last week to say they are reducing points earning rate on their visa card. $1 used to earn 2 reward points. From March, it will only earn 1.25 points, a whooping 37.5% less points.

    http://www.pointhacks.com.au/credit-cards/anz-rewards-credit…

  • Yarra Warrior on 15/02/2016 - 11:50

    Ouch, I just noticed this change starts today. I tried to call the CommBank Awards customer service and it seems I am getting a tough discussion of not being able to use the old redemption rules. FYI, I was offered to take an extra offer (additional 1 Bonus point = 1$ spend) up to next 30 days but I refused to accept that offer. That means I have to spend another $7000 just to get back my 7000 points that have been sucked up.
    I am sending them an email to complain about that and I just want to redeem all my points once.

    Anyone experienced this issue before? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

    • bling on 16/02/2016 - 20:39

      let us know how you go with the complaint, but big banks are unlikely to rule in our favour.
      I noticed that it affected the gift cards too just I suspected.

      Their policy department may sucked, but delivery was fast though - received all my gift cards today.

    • JimB on 01/03/2016 - 11:44

      See my comments below.

  • JimB on 19/02/2016 - 15:03
    +1

    (profanity) hell,

    I wish I read this earlier. I had 80,000 points which I use for BP Gift Cards and just ordered 4 x $100 Gift Cards (at 20,000 points each).

    Previously they were 18,200 points.

    I'm going to call them up as I wasn't made aware of the changes.

    I'm also upset, because usually I redeem my points once I get about 40,000 points or $200 cards but have been slack lately. Or maybe the fact that Petrol has been cheap so it doesn't hurt my wallet so much that I forget about the rewards points! lol

    • JimB on 01/03/2016 - 11:43

      Just an update.

      Called up CBA and they confirmed I was NOT emailed the notification of the changes.

      They offered the Bonus points for a month, but I wasn't happy with that and requested I was reimbursed the additional points that it cost me for the gift cards (5,600 points, less than I originally thought). They said it wasn't possible, but I requested speak to a Team Leader about it.

      I was promised a call within 48 hours. I got a call this morning, more than 10 days afterwards! lol… but eventually they approved my request to give me the additional 5,600 points. I believe that I should be entitled to the bonus points too ($1 = 1 point).

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join