Taking the 'Reward' out of Reward Cards

Lkwiksand on 29/03/2017 - 13:02
Last edited 29/03/2017 - 13:21

Hi all,

I signed up for an ANZ Rewards Black card (dual Visa + American Express) about 6 months ago, have been perfectly happy with the upfront bonus and subsequent rewards points. We do pretty much all our spending straight on the card(s) and have received ~$850 of cashback/vouchers since getting the cards.

Now, as you may know, within the last few weeks ANZ publicly announced they were no longer offering American Express cards. Last week I got a letter in the post saying that the Amex is no longer contributing to the reward balance (effectively useless to me now!), and the points from the Visa have been halved.

I'm not in any way attached to ANZ and will quite happily shop around and swap when a better deal comes up, however just wanted to know if other people had received similar correspondance from similar programs with other banks (Westpac Altitude, Commonwealth, NAB, Amex itself etc?).

And finally given ANZ rewards is no longer very rewarding, would anyone recommend another bank?

Thanks!

Edit: Just had another thought too, I'm sure they (ANZ) are well within their contractual rights to change whatever terms they want, but am I wrong in assuming that an annual fee paid should be paid on the basis that the account remains in the same state as the one you signed up for? After all, it's substantially less of a product that it was when I signed up for it six months ago. Wonder what my chances of getting back part of that annual fee is. Slim to none, I'd bet :)

Financial

Comments

  • mskeggs on 29/03/2017 - 13:23
    +1

    I think all the cards will be looking at their programs as the intercharge rate has dropped, so you might change to another card for the same thing to happen.
    Can you indicate your monthly spend? The most rewarding cards are the ones with high annual fees. They only really stack up if you regularly push $4 or $5k a month on them.

    Canstar ranks all the cards in a listing I have always found helpful:
    https://www.canstar.com.au/credit-cards/

    • kwiksand on 29/03/2017 - 13:31

      It's been $5-7k per month the whole time, with basically all bills/spending going directly on the card and paid off in full at the start of the month. Which has been enough to 2x $250 cashback (direct credit off the card balance), a $300 store voucher and more recently a few gifts and gold class voucher.

      I'd had several cashback rewards cards in the UK, where depending on the type of purchase you'd get anywhere from £1 - £6 per £100 spent credited straight back to the bill at the end of the month. I much prefer the idea of using the program to pay off parts of the balance, rather than attempting to get frequent flyers points or similar.

      Thanks, will look at canstar again and decide on a switch again, but as you've said the other banks are potentially likely to follow in ANZ's steps (if they haven't already)

  • MercSal on 29/03/2017 - 14:03

    I don't think the ANZ changes come into play until August. At least that's what i remember my letter saying, and what it say's here : https://www.anz.com.au/promo/personal/credit-cards/Changes-t…

    but yeah, i'll be looking around again soon to make a change

  • hashtagbargain on 29/03/2017 - 14:09

    I too received this in the mail today, I wonder why amex pulled out of just the FF Black card and not others (like travel adventures).

    The new revised rewards plan is absolutely cr@p in my opinion and is nowhere near worth the $450 in annual fees they ask for the card.

  • MelbEng on 29/03/2017 - 14:09

    Last time I looked, the Westpac Black card was the best deal.

  • kwiksand on 29/03/2017 - 17:37

    Thanks for the replies, the Westpac one is definitely looking the best right now!

  • Alex10 on 29/03/2017 - 20:07

    I have just logged into my ANZ Frequent Flyer Black account (Visa + AMEX card) that I joined 13 months ago from an OzBargain post. It shows they just charged me $370 annual fee, $10 additional card fee (I havent even activated the second card), and $110 REWARD PROGRAM FEE (2 CARDHOLDERS).

    My understanding was that there was no annual fee. So either they are wrong or I stuffed up. Can anyone confirm?
    Any way to fix this?
    Cheers

    • lilkid28 on 29/03/2017 - 21:58
      +1

      Only first year free.

    • djkelly69 on 29/03/2017 - 22:13
      +1

      Pretty sure it was no annual fee for the first year? So now that you are over a year, they are charging you the annual fee.

      • Alex10 on 30/03/2017 - 22:58

        Thanks for the reply. Do you think they would waive the fee if I call them?

        • djkelly69 on 30/03/2017 - 23:02

          Maybe. Usually threatening to cancel the card is the way to get the fee waived, but might be a bit late for that.

          Otherwise could ask to cancel the card and have the annual fee pro-rated (ie. they keep say 1/12 of the annual fee for the month you have held the card and refund the rest).

        • Alex10 on 01/04/2017 - 17:33

          @djkelly69: Thank you djkelly

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