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CBA Ultimate Awards Credit Card - 70,000 Qantas or 100,000 CommBank Awards Points (Spend $5,000 within 90 Days) @ CommBank

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Get 70,000 bonus Qantas Points or 100,000 CommBank Awards Points when you apply by 30 June 2022 and spend $5,000 on eligible purchases within 90 days of activation.

Features:

  • Choose to earn CommBank Awards or opt-in to earn Qantas Points for $30 per year
  • 3 Awards points or 1.2 Qantas Points for international transactions made in store and online up to and including $10k
  • 2 Awards points or 0.8 Qantas Points for purchases at major Aust supermarkets, department stores and petrol stations up to and including $10k
  • 1 Awards point or 0.4 Qantas Points for all other purchases up to and including $10k
  • 0.5 Awards points or 0.2 Qantas Points for spending over $10k
  • Earn unlimited Awards points or Qantas Points each year
  • Cashback benefits for eligible cardholders through CommBank Rewards in the CommBank app
  • No monthly fee if you spend at least $2,500 on your Ultimate Awards credit card in your statement period and choose to receive online statements
  • No international transaction fees for purchases you make overseas or online
  • Included international travel insurance, simply activate before you travel
  • Enjoy paid access to over 1,000 lounges worldwide with Mastercard® Airport Experiences provided by LoungeKey, paid for using your Ultimate Awards credit card.
  • No additional cardholder fee to share your card with someone else
  • Up to 55 days interest-free on purchases

Related Stores

Commonwealth Bank
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Qantas
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closed Comments

  • +3

    $35 monthly fee if you do not meet the minimum spend criteria

    $30 per year Qantas points 'opt in fee'

    • +1

      Does the monthly fee get waived if you have a CBA homeloan package? If not, it's poo poo…

      • Find out anything on this mate?

      • Still got to pay monthly fee with home loan package. I tried…

        • Wow, what's the point of a package then.

          Classicc CBA dumbass…basically incentive to churn and burn as fast as you can.

          I'll spend $3k month 1. Probably $2k week 2. Then close before month 3 (would have prepaid all insurances etc and won't have $2.5k left to spend).

          If they aren't waving the monthly, then they will lose my mortgage as well. Good finance model.

          • @tunzafun001: Basically you can get any other CBA card annual fee free except this one on the home loan package.

            • +1

              @odje: No worries, called HSBC and ME this morning. Vote with my feet.

    • Do you happen to know when the Qantas fee is charged?

  • +3

    Looks good, except that you need to spend 2.5k a month to avoid the monthly fee…. or it seems to be $35? wow…

    • Yep, not going to suit everyone but if you know you'll spend $2.5k every month then it seems like a fairly good deal.

      I'm looking for a Coles MC replacement from these banks… https://banksyncforynab.com/supported-banks

      • Probably in T&C's but any idea if any limitations to what is eligible spend for $2,500 monthly spend? Rent, mortgage repayments (to CommBank), etc? 👍

    • -1

      $420 monthly fee lol

  • +3

    Decent bonus to signup for then dump ASAP. Those are generally pretty crap points earning rates for CBA's supposedly 'Ultimate' tier of card

    • Thanks for the feedback. Any better credit cards from these banks?

      (I'm looking for a Coles MC replacement that I can use to sync with YNAB).

      • Depends if you're after Qantas, cashback or other airline miles.

      • +2

        If you've got a home loan package with any other big 4 bank the other 3 have generally superior top tier credit cards to this CBA 'ultimate' card that will get their fees waived.

        If you want to go the cheap route (i.e. not having to pay any monthly or yearly fees regardless of how little you spend on the card) get a Qantas Discovery AmEx (0.75 QFF points everywhere) + A fee free Visa Credit Card that still earns points (e.g. the PayPal Rewards VISA from Citi) for any place that doesn't accept AmEx (almost every major store accepts AmEx these days). Both those card providers are listed as being supported by banksync.

        If you've never had an AmEx before and meet the income requirement consider first signing up when there's a good bonus offer for the Qantas Ultimate AmEx (e.g. 120000 points) then downgrading to the Discovery card later on if you don't feel the $450 annual fee (offset by a $450 AmEx Qantas Credit) is worth it.

        The other popular alternative is a gradual churn between card providers (with large signup bonuses and typically partial or total 1st year annual fee waivers)

        • Thanks. We're with St George so will look into their cards as well as the cards from Amex.

          • @ShortyX: If you have a home loan with them you can get any of their Amplify cards and the annual fee will be waived.

        • So CommBank home loan doesn't waive fees of $35 monthly for this card?

          • +1

            @CookieCounter: People on whirlpool and AFF have reported that having a CBA home loan package does not waive the fee for this 'Ultimate' card strangely enough.

            Only able to waive fees for the other CBA cards (e.g. Diamond awards - which is also a pretty garbage card in terms of points earn rates with even worse sign up bonuses typically)

      • None can beat Coles MC in term of rewards rate, annual fee and no fx fee except Amex under certain circumstances. What is this YNAB for?

        • What is this YNAB for?

          Budgeting. Although the pricing has just gone up a fair bit so might need to look at alternatives.

  • +1

    This credit card is otherwise known as a Trap.

    • +1

      For a churn card it's not too bad if you go for the Qantas points. Seems like there's no exclusion periods as well.

      • Really? Churn and burn ftw if you've got big expenditures lol. Rolling 70k point SUB.

        • Yeah couldn't find a 12 months exclusion period, unless I missed it.

          • +3

            @nightelves: Things you should know

            ^ Offer available on new Ultimate Awards credit cards applied for between 1/10/2021 and 28/02/2022. Offer not available on all other card types, existing cards, and switches from other card types and is not available to customers who currently hold, or have held, any Awards card types in the 12 months prior. You will be ineligible for the bonus Qantas Points or CommBank Awards points if your credit card account is closed, transferred, or in default at any time prior to the points being credited to your account.

    • Only minimum credit of $6,000 is much lower than some of the other Traps I've seen out there, diamond rewards is $15,000 min credit for example.

  • So existing CBA Diamond Awards card holders can't get on this? Looks like no go.

  • +1

    It's too much of headache to remember your statement period and calculating that you have spent $2500 or not to save on monthly fee. On average I spend more than $2500 a month but might be spending less in one statement and more in other.

    • Agreed I’m not sure if it’s worth the effort either. Could always buy gift cards to top up and meet the spend.

  • The CBA rewards can be redeemed for apple giftcards at 21,000 point for $100 giftcard.

  • +5

    I've switched to using this card when they did a similar promotion last time (~6 months ago?), the experience has been… meh. I switched mostly due to the free FX fee and no monthly fee if spending > $2500/m.

    Some things to notice:

    • I was very surprised that CBA's card "security" is ancient. You can't use the card online or add to your Apple/Google wallet or even do Tap & Pay in stores unless you first transact in a physical store that requires a PIN (so no big department stores or Coles/Woolies unless you spend over $100 per transaction) by inserting your card. CBA's own support agents didn't know about this "feature" either. I wasted so much time calling them up, to eventually work out this "feature" myself.

    • Their statement periods are wacky. For the first few months the statement periods were 27 days for some reason…

    • Their rewards store has very limited selection of gift cards, especially e-gift cards. Like, there's no JB-Hifi for instance (there is one where you can only redeem in physical stores).

    • Within the six months or so using CBA, their entire banking system was down twice. I don't remember having any major issues that frequently with either Westpac or Bank West (which is ironic, given Bank West belongs to CBA).

    • I don't think this CBA card has any priority phone lines (or I couldn't find it)… When I had my Westpac Black card I can call up a priority line with no wait time, with CBA the general line's call wait times were… not great.

    • Increasing credit limit isn't fully automated. After you supply all the docs, they still ask you to call them up (presumably because their agents are confused with the docs you supplied). Last week I tried to call them up, the wait time was over an hour so I gave up.

    I'm keeping this card for now, but knowing all these limitations I probably wouldn't have signed up.

    EDIT:

    Forgot to mention, there are some good qualities, just to balance this out a bit. Things I like about it:

    • The CBA mobile app (on Android) is quite nice. Much better than Westpac's laughable attempt (even their new Android beta app is terrible to use), and on par with Bank West's in terms of usability, but nicer looking.

    • Their merchant rewards programs are nice, I've already successfully claimed three cashbacks from them.

    • +1

      Great review! If you have the time could you please clarify which stores and whether you use the CommBank rewards points for them (the bonus 100k points). "Their rewards store has very limited selection of …"

    • Can’t use online?

    • Have had the card two weeks now since approval. Tried adding to wallet with no success. Tried the PIN trick at Coles, still nothing, updated iPhone and tried all combinations of my name, still unable to add to wallet.
      Commbank rep not much help either.

      Wife has the same card and had issues but I managed to add to her iPhone eventually.

      • Also the commbank rep said it’s not possible to add to two seperate phones.. I have her card in my wallet also.

      • I am the secondary cardholder and I was able to add the card to my apple wallet through the CBA app. I haven't paid yet with it just heaps of online things.
        didn't try to add it to my watch yet. Today for lunch I will pay with it I ll see if I need pin or not.

        • Once you've added it it should be fine. I wasn't able to add it at all.

          I managed to figure out (via apple forums) why i couldn't add it and it's not Commbank's fault.
          What worked for me is to turn off the passcode in the iphone settings and turn it back on.
          All your saved cards in the wallet will need to be verified again.

  • +2

    CBA once again disappointing the churners

    • Sorry am I missing something? I thought this would be perfect for churners?

      • Only because you have to make sure you spend at least $2500/month to avoid the $35 fee. Im going to get it and churn.

      • $35 monthly fee
        $5k spend in 90 days could be used to churn 2 credit cards rather than 1

        • +1

          ah i see.. thanks for that.
          I think it's still worth churning considering the zero annual fee potential

  • Would I be able to cancel the card after getting the points cashed out/gift cards or is there some minimum term?

    • +3

      that is what true OzBargainers do all the time, apply - spend - collect the points - cancel- repeat
      As long as you are not about to apply to a home loan and always pay your credit card full, you can keep churning cards, make sure you write down the date of cancellation some require 12months or more in between. Enjoy

  • FWIW from previous posts 100k CommBank Rewards points is worth about $500 in gift cards. Definitely worth choosing the 70,000 QFF sign-up points .

    However, it's more economical to go the CommBank Rewards Points for the $5k spend:

    QFF Points = $5000 * 1.2 QFF Points (earn rate) * $0.11cpp (value) - $35 opt-in fee = $25 net gain.
    Commbank Rewards points = $5000 * 3 CommBank rewards points / 200 (200 points = $1 in gift cards) = $75 gain

  • I think it's worth getting this card if you will be hitting $2,500 a month so technically spending more than $5k in the first 2 months and getting the bonus points and then churn the card. Even if you won't spending $2.5k a month, 3x $35 + $30 = $135 for 70k QFF points is not that bad of a deal.

  • Interested in peoples experiences: How long to get the Qantas points after meeting the minimum spend?

  • Can anyone direct me to the instructions as to how to opt-in to QFF points instead of CommBank rewards? I don't recall seeing this during the application process and I can't see it online.

    • I was sure that I did get to put in my QFF details during the application process as I recall I had to confirm that I was up for the opt-in fee.

      I have just got my card after approx 3 week process and wanted to confirm that I really was opted in and I needed to login to netbank and click through to the awards site where I got a pop up window that confirmed I was QFF Direct opted-in.

  • Surprised this doesn't have more upvotes.

    No fee (assuming you cancel after you get your points) AND the ability to have use on international spend means pretty easy to meet the criteria if you use this on an overseas holiday or purchase.

    • +1

      True and you could top up your Revolut card to make it to the minimum before you’re charged.

      • That’s a genius idea - do you incur any cash advance fees ?

        • +1

          I wasn’t on my NAB or St George cards when doing it via Apple Pay.

  • Just received my card after a few rounds of back and forth with document requests, radio silence from them.. all in all took about 3 weeks which was not a good experience.

    Someone commented above but wtf at this - "You will need to make a PIN transaction before you can Tap & Pay with your card".. I didn't realise we are still in year 2000. Any ideas where I can make a PIN transaction first as I don't usually spend >$100 in one transaction?

    • I don't think it is necessary. I have used my first transaction with this card online then add to Google Pay without using any PIN transaction.

    • +1

      When you try and use the card with tap and go for the first time it will fail and ask you to insert and use your PIN. So the value of the first transaction isn't relevant. Mine failed at $8.

      • -2

        then just insert it instead of Tap and Pay with the card

  • +1

    This card is not bad with no foreign exchange fee and Complimentary Travel Insurance and Price Protection insurance (if item you bought is cheaper by $75+)
    https://www.commbank.com.au/content/dam/commbank-assets/impo…

  • Anyone tried using 100k Awards point to pay for the credit balance? Does it worth? Please help!

  • Did anyone activate the travel insurance and manage to upgrade it with covermore to include covid ?

  • +1

    If someone is concerned about meeting the $2500 monthly spend, then this card is out of their league. No point complaining, plenty others to meet their needs.

    So obviously anyone taking up this product is fairly confident they wont pay the monthly fee, so tell me, which credit card has a better return on points than this card? IF you want a higher points earn you are going to be up for $300-400+ annual fee for a start, thats $40k spend for zero return.

    Spend 40k on this card and you have earned between approx 25k in points for no cost at all.

  • Has anyone received their (Qantas) points yet? I'm still in the first month, met the $5k spend criteria, but hoping to receive the points after the first statement so I don't have to spend $2.5k in month 2, 3 etc to avoid the fee.

    • In my 2nd month now, they waived first month fee even though I didn't hit $2.5k, probably because it wasn't a full whole month. The point from normal spend in the first month pretty much got converted to QFF points in the same day the first month ended, so I am hoping this is the case for the bonus points too.

      • I received the bonus points on the same day as the statement. Happy days!

        • Nice! Assuming you cancelled on the same day? Did you have to pay any fee for the few days while waiting for the card to be fully closed?

          • @firestint: Nope cos the monthly fee would only be charged at the end of the month after they determine you haven't spent the requisite 2.5k

  • Bit of a palava applying for this card.
    Requested online ID check - done.
    Requested proof of income (1 X bank statement) - done.
    Then a day or so later, requested another bank statement - done.
    Requested additional card holder to present to branch for ID check - nope. Removed additional card holder.
    Now a few days later, requesting me to present to branch for in person ID check. Grrrrr, they are as bad as Westpac.
    Will definately be churning out of this card as soon as I get my 70k Qantas points!

  • +1

    Weird, instead of 70,000 qantas points i received 42,762 instead even when i am sure i picked the qantas program. I can see i got charged the qantas program direct fee of $30. Checking my awards, it mentions i received 106,905 Awards points which was automatically transferred to 42,762 Qantas Points. Going to call them up

    • Did you find out what happened and or get credited?

      • after speaking to the awards team and getting transferred to the credit card team 5 different times saying its not their job to deal with it. I finally spoke to someone who lodged a complaint on my behalf. Hoping to speak to someone in the next few days to sort this out. You have to mention acquistion points to them so they understand. The lady who lodged the complaint also said another person had the same issue.

        • I just had the exact same issue happen with my account. Clearly there is an issue with their system as I see in the statement it says 100k awards points instead of the 70k QF points

          • @MrBr0: Following up, called CBA, spoke to Awards Team who put me through to the CC applications team. They saw the issue and said would speak to Awards team to sort it out. Then came back on the line and said nope sorry can’t help as points have already been transferred. I pushed back and said this is your system issue as you charged me for the QF points setup. On hold again and a complaint was raised. Waiting to get a call back from complaints department

            • @MrBr0: @MrBr0

              Similar situation happened to me. Unable to link Qantas. They bounced me to 4-6 people who said they weren’t responsible.

              They said they couldn’t help. I am pushing back because this is clearly a system not customer fault.

              I will be raising a complain also. Keen to keep updated on whether you are able to resolve this

              • @Divestor: Clearly something is wrong, they have extended the 70k point offer to June so no doubt others will have the issue.

                Complaints called me today, asked about the situation and took down some notes and will get back to me.

                I made it clear, I entered in Qantas into the application and gave my FF number when I applied. I checked this when I got the account which clearly shows I have enrolled in QF points and they charged me the QFF linking fee.

                • @MrBr0: Spoke to a complaints manager a few days ago. Even their complaints manager is clueless. They emailed me stating they called me but i get no calls. I even tried calling them back and its always leave down a voicemail or email. No email back or call back. I message CBA through live chat and the funny thing is they load another complaint on top of the my complaint. Finally get a phone call and the complaints manager said i will get the points deposited within 14 days. I honestly don't have a good feeling about this, i feel like i will need to chase them up again. Anyways i asked him to waive this months monthly fee of $35 which he did. Closing down this credit card down and staying away from CBA in the future.

                  • @sequence21: Further update. I got a call back as well from complaints saying they would also credit the missing points within 14 days. As yourself, I don’t have much faith this will be completed without further follow up

                  • @sequence21: Did your points come through? 14 days is tomorrow for me and nothing has come through to my QF account.

                    • @MrBr0: Jeez they really are the worst bank so far! I wonder should I ring them now and make sure that I will be getting qantas points and not awards points before the system automatically messes it up.

                      • @cathalm8: my next statement is due tomorrow. Hoping points are paid then, but who knows with this bank.If it does not come, ask them to waive the monthly fee.

                        • @sequence21: I called them, got the excuse oh it’s up to 14 business days and thats what the 3rd party company sets as the time. I was given a firm date now by which they will be credited and if they are not they will call me to escalate this with the 3rd party company who does the transfers.

                          I have a feeling this is all the do with statement cycles and the 14 days is just some excuse.

                          I hope everyone else has a better time than I have with CBA

                          • +1

                            @MrBr0: Just got my missing points today. Been slugged with the $35 monthly fee just in time. Just going to pay it and not be bothered calling them and close the credit card down. Good luck to you.

                            • @sequence21: Yeah I have a feeling it’s going to be done on the billing cycle for mine as well which is 2 days after they said the points would be due

                      • @cathalm8: Check the awards info, on mine as soon as I hit the $5k spend I had the 100k show up as a credit in the list. Not knowing what it meant I did nothing about it until the statement finalised and then saw the mess that happened.

                        • @MrBr0: I just got 175k points 'bonus award' added just after the second statement although it says 'adjusted' beside the points so not sure what that means. They have not been transferred to qantas yet. Do I now need to wait until my 3rd statement before I cancel to ensure the points are released to qantas?

        • hey just about to go through this process after receiving only 40k points - what’s the best way to escalate this for a prompt response? is there an email/team I can request to avoid the long call times?

    • How long did it take them to credit you the bonus Qantas Points?

      • got the points on the first statement but ofcourse its wrong as per my comment above

  • Jeez the people working in the approvals really are slow, they keep requesting the same documents via email over and over again..

    • Ugh I’ve sent mine again. Any luck with approval yet?

      • No I have still no luck at least I thin that's the case lol, so I havent received an email saying I have been approved.

        However today I received an email saying why have i not actviated the card as it was already posted out…. wtf? lol

        I am trying to contact them via message on the app now to find out more, i tried calling and it was a 90 min wait time.

        This is my first card with CBA, they could well be the worst bank ive had to deal with for credit cards so far….

        I think they must draw it out on purpose cause they are too busy or lazy maybe, not sure.

        How about you? Any joy?

        • No joy yet. Go to your application section of the app and see what yours says?

          For you that sounds promising at least. Like the card is issued.

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