Citibank upgrading fee free Gold to fee free Platinum

[techdave]

By CBA, you are referring to Citibank rather than Commonwealth Bank? Just to stop Commonwealth customers getting excited

Lol..yes I meant Citibank...was pretty late at night..:mrgreen:

 

[jandk]

FYI - i cancelled my citibank platinum about 4 months ago because i'd successfully signed up for fee free gold about 6 months ago...yesterday received this fee free platinum card.

I'm pretty happy to have gotten it fee free but agree that people paying $295 pa plus $90 odd for supp would be pretty annoyed.

These platinum cards are certainly getting cheapened (see amex $95 pa platinum cc)

 

[eecchhoo]

Seems like everyone I know with Citibank gold including myself got upgraded to Platinum (5 of us already)..

This sounds like an act of desperation by Citibank in order to increase their profit (or cut their losses)..
This is because merchants are charged extra for platinum transactions.
I mean..c'mon....even ppl with silver got their free upgrades as well.

I wonder whether the US credit crunch has any connection with this.... :-|

If the merchants are charged extra for platinum cards, so currently is can we use the platinum card at any store showing visa or mastercard logos?

I am just worried when lesser merchants will accept the platinum card compared to the silver/gold cards if we upgrade it to the platinum.

 

[jingles]

If the RBA gets its way, you may have another problem, and this is with premium cards generally.

They are looking at a further watering down of the "Honour All Cards" rule so that merchants can elect to decline scheme cards that have higher fees than others. It seems this would allow merchants to decline a platinum card, but still accept the non-premium cards. Of course, Visa and Mastercard are less than amused by this proposal, so maybe the alternative of surcharging more for premium cards will come to pass.

If that happens, we may all be downgrading our cards!

I think that explains why they are doing a mass mail out of free Plat cards

If they send everyone a free upgrade to Plat they can argue that say 70% of their customers are using a Plat card and it is unfair that merchants have the ability to decline the majority of their customer base.
I am hesitant to upgrade from the gold card based on what oz_mark said.



I received my Plat card today (I had never used the gold card) however my partner has not received her Plat card and she spends thousands of dollars on it per month on work expenses.


*

Does the Play card still have the 10,000 QFF points transfer minimum?

 

[alect]

I'm not so concerned about merchants not accepting Plat v. Gold - the differential is not that great - it's more of a jump from standard to Gold.

I did notice the * at the bottom of the letter says:

The annual fee you will pay on your new Platinum Card is the same as you paid on your Gold card, currently $0.00....

Why say "currently" if it's a fee free for life card??? I just don't trust these people.

 

[oz_mark]

I think that explains why they are doing a mass mail out of free Plat cards

If they send everyone a free upgrade to Plat they can argue that say 70% of their customers are using a Plat card and it is unfair that merchants have the ability to decline the majority of their customer base.
I am hesitant to upgrade from the gold card based on what oz_mark said.

It is only a proposed change from the RBA, and the credit cards are fighting it (weakens branding and all). It may not actually come to pass, but is definitely on the table at the moment.

 

[oz_mark]

Why say "currently" if it's a fee free for life card??? I just don't trust these people.

Standard letter.

 

[FrankC]

How many people did NOT get a free upgrade? I know at least 1 - me. Don't know if that is a good thing or not. I use it quite a bit (number of times), but not high amounts

 

[techdave]

How many people did NOT get a free upgrade? I know at least 1 - me. Don't know if that is a good thing or not. I use it quite a bit (number of times), but not high amounts

The good thing is ... it seems like gold will be more exclusive than platinum!

 

[sparoy]

Looks like they are upgrading fee free Silver cards too. My platinum arrived in the mail this week.

Something seems a bit fishy. I can understand Gold to Platinum but Silver to Platinum?? I can also understand a high spending Silver to Platinum upgrade, but my spend on the Silver is only 5k pa.

MDC

My daughter's fee free silver card hasn't been upgraded to platinum so far and yet the rest of us in the family that have fee free gold have been upgraded.

I hope hers would be upgraded too. The conversion rate for silver card now is only 2 pt : 1 QFF.

She would get double that at 1:1 if she's upgraded to platinum.
My understanding is that the points balance will be carried over to the new card?

 

[jingles]

How many people did NOT get a free upgrade? I know at least 1 - me. Don't know if that is a good thing or not. I use it quite a bit (number of times), but not high amounts

It seems people only started receiving them 10 days ago give citibank a chance to get them out.

Either way they are upgrading everyone to a chipped card so you will receive a new card soon.

I nevver used mine and have a Plat card so it is not being done by spend

 

[jandk]

FYI...when i called to activate earlier today the guy (useless citibank call centres) asked me whether i had the silver or gold previously in relation to the plat upgrade, so looks like they're doing this with silver/golds/men/women/children/pets...

very strange!

 

[mainly tailfirst]

It seems people only started receiving them 10 days ago give citibank a chance to get them out.

Either way they are upgrading everyone to a chipped card so you will receive a new card soon.

I nevver used mine and have a Plat card so it is not being done by spend

Clearly not being done by spend.
Since moving to the LOTFAP we've put < 1k on the Gold card and we've received the offer as well. It doesn't have the LDW provision that the US card does, so I think I'll keep the gold as the backup card - the Aust plat doesn't really give my anything extra. For $0 a year, it's still a great bargain.

mt

 

[oz_mark]

FYI...when i called to activate earlier today the guy (useless citibank call centres) asked me whether i had the silver or gold previously in relation to the plat upgrade, so looks like they're doing this with silver/golds/men/women/children/pets...

All I know is next time they offer me a platinum card for $250 I will be treating it with more contempt than I normally do . Pretty much lost any chance of getting me back as a customer (unless they throw a free card at me, but chances of that happening are slim)

 

[SIA1A]

I had a paid Gold + supplementary with annual fees of $40 + $15 per year. I think I received these as a deal about 10 years ago and was promised no annual fee increases for life.

I received the new Platinums, unsolicited, late in August with the same line that many of you have noted in the covering letter about the current annual fees being maintained.

I have been a fairly heavy spender on the Gold card and in recent years I have hit the 60,000 point cap several times so for me the much higher point cap on Platinum (100,000 or 120,000 I think) is a strong attraction. Because of this I now need to look at dropping my Diners (also owned by Citibank Australia - the Aussie Diners business was not sold by Citibank, unlike in the US where Discover now owns Diners). Diners has some lousy 'features' - high annual fees, high merchant fees (that often flow directly to a surcharge), bill must be paid within 14 days of issue, surcharges for almost all methods of paying the monthly bill, the tricks go on and on. In short, the Diners card is nothing special, except that there's no obvious credit limit (though apparently 'out-of-the-ordinary' spending patterns can attract 'card declined').

When I activated the card I was verbally offered a lower interest rate (about 12% for 6 months) vs the regular circa 19% rate. I accepted, of course, but I always pay in full using autopay every month so this is of no value to me.

To answer a couple of queries from other people:

- The old card stays active, the idea being that you don't need to change automatic payment arrangements that you might have in place with third parties. Apparently a substantial proportion of customers - including me - are reluctant to change card numbers because of this. Presumably the old card won't be renewed when its expiry date arrives - so I suspect that I will need to let some merchants know about the change some time down the track.

- The old card can still be 'seen' on Citi internet banking. However, you won't see any new charges showing up on the account for items charged to either the Gold or the Platinum after you register the Platinum. You need to separately register the Platinum with a new username. If you have a deposit account with Citi, the Platinum replaces the Gold on the internet banking menu. You can still separately register the Gold on IB if you want to continue tracking it. You won't see any new activity but the balances and payment dates match the detail on the Platinum account. The 'Rewards' section of the Citi site for the old 'Gold' account says: "Access Error. The Citibank credit card that you have selected is not included in the Citibank Rewards program." So it's not clear about whether spending on the Gold card will continue to earn rewards points after Platinum has been activated.

 

[vilemerchant]

Are your current reward points transferred to the platinum? Not that it matters, no offer for me yet :/

 

[xoithit]

Are your current reward points transferred to the platinum? Not that it matters, no offer for me yet :/

yes, everything remains (even the expiry date). The only changed is the card number.

I'm not a big spender (~7K since I had my free Gold this May). I received my Platinum upgrade offer this week and activated it right away

 

[Cynicor]

Has anyone been issued a new PIN for their cards? I want to register it online but am waiting for a pin to arrive. Or does it use the same pin as before? I just couldn't understand the girl online when I called to activate.

Jon

 

[aasz1978]

Probably related more to PIN or SIGN campaign, I would suggest opting against PIN regime (and this may include the new Platinum chipped card).

I learn that the reason for this campaign is to reduce merchant's exposure in the event of unauthorized transactions or disputed transaction.

The theory is if you entered your PIN, you (the purchaser) would be taken to have consented on the transaction and in the event of a dispute, your recourse will be severely curtailed compared if you sign, where your recourse will be easier.

This probably explains why the migration to a chipped base credit card is seemingly for the benefit of merchandisers/card issuer.

Any more info is appreciated.

 

[vilemerchant]

Probably related more to PIN or SIGN campaign, I would suggest opting against PIN regime (and this may include the new Platinum chipped card).

I learn that the reason for this campaign is to reduce merchant's exposure in the event of unauthorized transactions or disputed transaction.

The theory is if you entered your PIN, you (the purchaser) would be taken to have consented on the transaction and in the event of a dispute, your recourse will be severely curtailed compared if you sign, where your recourse will be easier.

This probably explains why the migration to a chipped base credit card is seemingly for the benefit of merchandisers/card issuer.

Any more info is appreciated.

PINs for CCs are a good idea, but since it's pin OR sign it's a fairly pointless upgrade. Someone with a stolen card can still just scribble a signature just like always..