The Coles Rewards Mastercard has long been popular with Australian frequent flyers for its low annual fee, ability to earn Flybuys points and waived international transaction fees.

Unfortunately, the Coles Rewards Mastercard will no longer offer fee-free international transactions from 1 July 2024. From this date, Coles will remove the foreign transaction fee waiver. The new fee for transactions made overseas or in a currency other than Australian dollars will be 3%.

From the same date, Coles will also increase the interest rate on its rewards credit card from 19.99% to 20.74%.

With this card, you can earn 2 Flybuys points (equivalent to 1 Velocity point) per dollar spent, up to the first $3,000 spent each month. After that, cardholders currently earn 1 Flybuys point per dollar spent on any remaining amount each month. But from 1 July 2024, no further Flybuys points will be earned after spending $8,000 each month.

These updates are shown on the Coles website, and existing cardholders have been notified by email.

The annual card fee remains at $99.

Coles credit cards are issued by Citibank, which was acquired by NAB in 2022. Coles is currently the only Australian supermarket to offer its own credit cards after Woolworths withdrew its cards in 2020.

Other cards without international transaction fees

If you’re looking for a credit card with no international transaction fees, there are still several options. This includes some that have no annual fees, and others that award frequent flyer points. See our guide for a full list of options.

From 12 June 2024, the NAB Rewards Signature card will get added to that list. NAB is removing foreign transaction fees and adding a range of other improvements to that card.

Other upcoming changes to Australian credit cards

A range of other banks will also make changes to some of their credit cards over the next two months. These changes include:

• Virgin Money increasing interest rates on its Velocity Flyer and Velocity High Flyer cards from 15 May 2024
• NAB overhauling its Rewards Signature credit card from 12 June 2024
• Westpac increasing interest rates on selected cards from 20 June 2024
• St.George increasing interest rates on selected cards from 4 July 2024.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.