ANZ Launches AMEX/VISA Qantas Card - Changes to points earn on VISA

[medhead]

The situation with the Plat. Card is a fee increase of $100, making a total of $295 to hold both cards.
Thus just keeping the Platinum Card only............$195 and half points.

The advantage and from what I can gather, the only advantage in having both is that the points actually become 1.5 per $ when you use the AMEX.

This is the problem. You must have adifferent deal from me. I've got a gold anz card. My deal is that points earning on visa is halved and uncapped, AMEX earn is 1 point per $ and uncapped, annual fee stays the same. I have the option of doing what they are calling points maximiser (or something like that) that gets me 1.25 points per $ on the AMEX, still 0.5 points on the visa and the annual fee matches the annual fee for the new gold card product (so $195 or something like that).

I've also been offered double points on the AMEX for 3 months. I don't know if I should take advantage of this offer. I've got the gold amex and it looks hot, but I'm that annoyed with them over this whole thing that I really don't feel like being brought off by the double points offer.

Basically, I'm going to keep up the complaints and try to get the deal where points earn stays the same on visa. If not, then it cancellation, with the only variable being whether I sell out for the extra points or not

 

[melaus]

Points Booster is the title of the scheme with the Platinum, which gives you a one off 1000 point bonus on the first Amex spend and an on-going 1.5 point per 1$.

Wonder how "on-going" the 1.5 point deal will last?

Could be worth an experiment for 1 year, still although I know it's really cattle class plus on Jetstar or Air Asia, the taxes etc when using FF points these days are ridiculous!

 

[medhead]

Points Booster is the title of the scheme with the Platinum, which gives you a one off 1000 point bonus on the first Amex spend and an on-going 1.5 point per 1$.

Wonder how "on-going" the 1.5 point deal will last?

They must be using points booster for gold cards as well.

The 1.5 points is the standard offer if you get a new platinum card today. So all points booster is doing is bringing you in line with the new card products. iirc

 

[chrisb]

I got my offer today. Not as bad as I expected.

No change to the Visa card - 1p/$ for the first $2500, 0.5p/$ upto $10k

An offer of a Amex doing 1p/$1 uncapped, with a bonus 1p/$ for 3 months.

I will not be taking up their offered Amex which has to be explicitly accepted. I only have this card because it's NOT an amex.

 

[melaus]

chrisb: Gold or Platinum

 

[chrisb]

chrisb: Gold or Platinum

Gold...... (10 character minimum kicks in...)

 

[medhead]

I got my offer today. Not as bad as I expected.

No change to the Visa card - 1p/$ for the first $2500, 0.5p/$ upto $10k

An offer of a Amex doing 1p/$1 uncapped, with a bonus 1p/$ for 3 months.

I will not be taking up their offered Amex which has to be explicitly accepted. I only have this card because it's NOT an amex.

Umm, I want to ask a rude question - what is your spend like per month or per year, approxiamtely.

I've been on the phone to ANZ heaps trying to stay on 1p/$ for the first $2500, 0.5p/$ upto $10k. They keep telling me it is because my spending is wrong and that others have spend that says they get what you got. And that the offer is also based on what is best for the customer's spend level.

I have a realy problem with this reasoning because I basically spend about $2500 per month. So they are halving my points. Someone who spent more would benefit more from moving to an uncapped offer rather than staying capped. So I'm not sure that the 1p/$ is for people who spend more. But then I can't imagine that they'd reward lower spenders with a higher earn rate. Basically, I'm really , so would love any information you are willing to share. But I do think that ANZ smells a bit fishy on this.

Of those who are following, I've sold out and will be taking the 2p/$ opn the AMEX for 3 months. This was helped by them refunding my annual fee ($95) while I consider what is the best option. a small but overall

 

[serfty]

Received an offer to take up the Amex card at no extra cost with optional booster offer at additional cost of $295.

Point earn remains the same as current:

Platinum card (Upgraded Gold Card with Gold annual fees and Gold point earn, $1500 @ 1:1, $1501-$5000 @ 1:2).​

General monthly spend on this card $1300-$1700.

I won't be taking up their offers.

 

[simonl78]

I have been an ANZ frequent flyer Visa cardholder for over 10 years. I use the card for most purchases to build up the frequent flyer points, and I pay off the balance every month.

I recently received a letter from ANZ to advise that they were changing the points earning capacity for Visa from 1 point per dollar spend up to $2,500 per month, to 1 point per $2 spend uncapped. I rarely spend over $2,500 per month.

To maintain the previous points earning capacity, I would have to take up an Amex card, which I reluctantly did.

In the eight times I have attempted to use the Amex card, 6 of the retailers would not accept it, and the 4th wanted to charge 4%! One of the retailers that refused the card was Aldi, where I do the family's weekly grocery shopping. This meant I was obliged to use my Visa card, and earn half the points I previously did!! And no, there has been no reduction in the annual fee I pay to be on the rewards scheme!

I think this is simply not good enough, and I will be ditching ANZ for a fairer scheme.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I have been an ANZ frequent flyer Visa cardholder for over 10 years. I use the card for most purchases to build up the frequent flyer points, and I pay off the balance every month.

I recently received a letter from ANZ to advise that they were changing the points earning capacity for Visa from 1 point per dollar spend up to $2,500 per month, to 1 point per $2 spend uncapped. I rarely spend over $2,500 per month.

To maintain the previous points earning capacity, I would have to take up an Amex card, which I reluctantly did.

In the eight times I have attempted to use the Amex card, 6 of the retailers would not accept it, and the 4th wanted to charge 4%! One of the retailers that refused the card was Aldi, where I do the family's weekly grocery shopping. This meant I was obliged to use my Visa card, and earn half the points I previously did!! And no, there has been no reduction in the annual fee I pay to be on the rewards scheme!

I think this is simply not good enough, and I will be ditching ANZ for a fairer scheme.

Since you took up the offer, the only way ANZ will know you are not happy is if you actually cancel the amex quickly.

You'll get a pro-rata refund no problem on any additional fees.

Holding out til the end of the year is exactly what ANZ wants you to do.

 

[simonl78]

Cancelling the Amex card will achieve nothing as I will only receive 1 point per dollar spent on the remaining Visa. They have already refunded the annual reward scheme fee after I vigorously complained.

There are 2 ways my complaint can be resolved: Amex becomes as widely accepted as Visa, or the original rewards scheme for Visa is re-instated.

 

[levelnine]

Problem is, for those looking for a better scheme for Visa/MC, there really isn't much else out there. There is the Citibank Platinum Visa with $1:1QFF (and the Citibank Business card too), but none of the big banks have a 1:1 raito anymore. Very disappointing.

 

[medhead]

Yep there is nothing better out there, @ 1:1 but my NAB gold visa is fee free* and earns 0.66:1. So I'm better to ditch ANZ in this case. Basically ANZ seems to have made a big mistake. They have taken a market leading product at 1:1 and are move to a dual card product that is behind all the other dual card products.

* as part of a package

 

[melaus]

If it will help anyone here who is "good at working out what they are up to"

My monthly spend average on a Platinum Visa for the last 10 months is:

$2,776.18 (I have only kept the last 10 statements).....................

Always paid monthly.

Seems like they are moderating a little with fee fiddles of late. Could be due to the huge negative response.

Curiously the last ANZ rep I spoke to asked me the question...."So you are still considering the offer" ? I of course said yes and there was no sweetener offered!

As I mentioned in another post, it is obviously well locked in with AMEX so the best I think anyone can do is to keep pushing for a "sweetener" :evil:

 

[trippin_the_rift]

If it will help anyone here who is "good at working out what they are up to"

My monthly spend average on a Platinum Visa for the last 10 months is:

$2,776.18 (I have only kept the last 10 statements).....................

Always paid monthly.

Seems like they are moderating a little with fee fiddles of late. Could be due to the huge negative response.

Curiously the last ANZ rep I spoke to asked me the question...."So you are still considering the offer" ? I of course said yes and there was no sweetener offered!

As I mentioned in another post, it is obviously well locked in with AMEX so the best I think anyone can do is to keep pushing for a "sweetener" :evil:

I think they are doing exactly what we don't want them to do, but it's quite obvious....

Since everyone already has an amex card - and nobody wants to carry 2 amex cards - anz are essentially culling off medium/higher spending cardholders.

My average through anz in the last 12 months is 100k give or take, been a cardholder since 2000 and have easily put 1m+ through the card.

Perhaps their focus is not on volume, but on the real money makers for the bank - those that don't pay their balances off each month.....

 

[simonl78]

Heres a copy of the important parts of my letter re the no change to current earning or annual fee.


Received an updated terms and conditions which also had a poinst maximiser offer of a higher annual fee for 1.25 points on AMEX spend.

This is clearly discrimination on some level.

I am one of the suckers who have had their rewards points halved on the Visa. Perhaps it's because I religiously pay off the balance every month, so the only income ANZ gets out of me are the annual fees.

I contacted their complaints section and was advised that they have different marketing campaigns, so basically bad luck for me.

I recently had my annual rewards fee refunded because I complained that the Amex card was unacceptable to so many merchants (not to mention the surcharge that some merchants wanted to charge!), but as I mentioned to the "helpful" complaints person, I would rather have this fee re-instated in exchange for reverting to the previous rewards points earning scheme. No chance.

For all those, like me, who find this unacceptable, don't forget that you have the option of complaining to the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman. Just Google it. I happen to knaow that Banks can incur immediate investigation costs if the Ombudsman believes that a complaint has merit.

Good luck!

 

[medhead]

Perhaps their focus is not on volume, but on the real money makers for the bank - those that don't pay their balances off each month.....

I would guess this is the case, because some people who have their mortgage with ANZ have been offered to stay on the old point earn rates. I've made an enquiry about moving some of my mortgages to them to see if they keep me on the old points earning rate.

For all those, like me, who find this unacceptable, don't forget that you have the option of complaining to the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman. Just Google it. I happen to knaow that Banks can incur immediate investigation costs if the Ombudsman believes that a complaint has merit.

Good luck!

ANZ also have what they call the customer advocate. The not so nice complaints person I got totally failed to mention this when I asked to speak to someone else about the matter.

ANZ - Customer advocate

 

[melaus]

By now, I think they have really dug their heels in!

As indicated earlier here, I actually went to my local branch and sat with the manager who telephoned them on my behalf, with me sharing some of the conversation.

We spoke with 2 departments, the cancellation section and I think the normal number which has been allocated to this "campaign"

From what I gather, with the Platinum anyway, they are committed to getting the extra $100 out of you if you want the "Points Booster" for 1.5 points/AMEX$ and 1000 point bonus offer.

As per the original offer you do get a single point per dollar and the 1000 point bonus by using AMEX and no extra charge to your account for holding both cards (for the first year anyway)

So I summed it up, if you want to keep your points earning ratio up, the only way is to TRY to get maximum useage out of the AMEX with the booster bit. It's going to cost extra each year but as long as the card is not rejected or higher surcharged (as is the case mostly) and you can use the thing, you 'may' just come out ahead with points @ 1.5 ?

So backed into a corner if you like your points!

I do tend to agree as some have posted above:
YOU MAY NOT BE A GOOD CUSTOMER IF YOU PAY YOUR BALANCE OFF MONTHLY AND DON'T PAY INTEREST

 

[medhead]

So backed into a corner if you like your points!

Not really, there are other products out there that are cheaper and earn the same. - Earth Platinum for one.

 

[BlueAU]

I do tend to agree as some have posted above:
YOU MAY NOT BE A GOOD CUSTOMER IF YOU PAY YOUR BALANCE OFF MONTHLY AND DON'T PAY INTEREST

Couldn't agree more. Not having paid a cent of interest on my cards, and always trying to put as much as I can through it (whether work funded, or money from dinner with group of friends), the banks see you as a devalued customer, since they aren't making money off you. The only income is the annual fee and the commission from the shops ....