Bankwest will next month reduce the overall amount of Qantas points that can be earned on its Bankwest Qantas MasterCard credit cards. The devaluation will take effect from 22 May 2019 and impacts the Bankwest Qantas Classic MasterCard, Bankwest Qantas Platinum MasterCard and Bankwest Qantas World MasterCard.
Bankwest is making changes to the number of Qantas points earned for every dollar spent on each card. However, the annual Qantas point caps are being removed and some cardholders may be slightly better off after the changes.
The Bankwest Qantas Classic MasterCard currently earns 0.5 Qantas points per $1 spent, up to a maximum of 50,000 Qantas points per year. The annual cap is being removed, but the new earn rate will be just 0.3 Qantas points per dollar. This card has a $100 annual fee.
The Bankwest Qantas Platinum MasterCard ($160/year) currently awards points at a flat rate of 0.5 Qantas points per $1 spent, up to a maximum of 200,000 Qantas points per year. The new earn rate on this card will be 0.75 Qantas points per $1, but only up to the first 1,875 Qantas points ($2,500 in expenditure) per month. Any additional spend each month will earn just 0.3 Qantas points per dollar. With the new earning structure, anyone spending under $5,625 per month on this card will earn more points than before. But anyone spending over $5,625 per month will earn less.
The Bankwest Qantas World MasterCard ($270/year) currently awards 0.66 Qantas points per dollar with no earning cap. Under the new earning structure, this card will award 1 Qantas point per $1 for the first $5,000 spent each month. After this point, the earn rate will reduce to 0.5 Qantas points on any additional spend in the same month. With this card, anyone spending under $15,625 per month will theoretically be better off after the 22 May changes.
These changes are clearly targeted at cardholders running large amounts of expenses through their Bankwest credit cards.
Curiously, in announcing the changes Bankwest has said “purchases that are eligible to earn Qantas Points aren’t changing”. But the Bankwest website now specifically states that “ATO payments, council fines and fees” are ineligible to earn Qantas points. These types of payments were not specifically excluded from earning Qantas points in the current iteration of the Bankwest Qantas Rewards Terms & Conditions.
The Bankwest Qantas Platinum and World MasterCards have been popular as they are two of the few Australian credit cards that award frequent flyer points but do not charge any foreign transaction fees. So you can use these cards overseas or when shopping online, without paying forex fees, and still earn Qantas points.
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