Card Offers CommBank Ultimate Awards Card: 100K award points – potentially fee free

[Myrna]

Like others, long term holder of this card as a mainstay for routine spend... Also good to have an international fee free option. At 2.5k/month to remain fee free, I could manage it without too much trouble and haven't paid a monthly fee ever, but at $4k will be giving serious consideration as to retaining it or not.

Due to covid and now a young family, not done too much research into it, but how does the travel insurance rate on this card?

The increase in monthly spending for fee free is going to be a deal breaker for existing cardholders. I suspect many will reconsider if it is worthwhile holding the card (me included but as a retiree without a salary, it is difficult to get another credit card, so I may have to 'cough up' the $35 monthly fee from time to time.)
We activated the travel insurance on this card for our recent trip (no need to pay for trip with card - we used points / miles). Overall its benefits appeared to be better than the other CommBank cards - remember it only covers international travel and not domestic. They automatically issued a letter that the insurance covers covid - useful if you need to show it in some countries.

 

[tizey]

my card was compromised this week, so a new card and card number is being issued - meaning I've got to reestablish all my direct debits/paypals/etc as everything was linked to that card, which is a pain.

Looking at their options, I think for us, its worthwhile 'downgrading' to smart rewards card which has a $2k minimum monthly spend and the way we use the card wont lose points and maintain an international fee free options with travel insurance with how we manage our cards/spend in the household.

not the best card in terms of points earn, but probably best for our circumstances given inability to apply for new cards due to wifes working arrangements.

 

[QF_Flyer]

Is the monthly spend requirement being increased for existing cardholders then? Or is it just speculation at this stage? I agree it's likely, if that's the case for new customers, but I've not heard anything

I'll keep it for now, it's pretty weak domestically, but excellent for forex spend, and the wide spread of transfer partners is good to have. I turned off QF after the SUB and switched to CBA points, so I could keep some options open (some of the options aren't amazing value, but with 3 points/$1 earn they're not all awful either).

 

[StayGoldPonyboy]

Ultimate Awards

In addition to the monthly spend requirement change already mentioned...

From 3 June you will earn two points per $1 spent on dining and utilities

From 3 June 2023, you will receive two complimentary airport lounge passes each year.
Via Dragon pass.
Also says:
Each visit can be used by either the primary card holder or guest. Guest must always be accompanied by the primary card holder and cannot use the access on their own.

 

[Scr77]

@StayGoldPonyboy probably worth posting full changes here for those who aren’t following the Smart Card thread.

 

[BJReplay]

how does the travel insurance rate on this card?

I have used it, and rate it!

I had delayed (7 days) baggage and flights (2 days extra delays). My paid travel insurance covered some of my costs. The CBA insurance covered other costs and was substantially better in many cases (covered lost costs on non-refundable accommodation that the paid insurance wouldn't cover), and covered additional costs associated with having to get clothes and essentials for covering missing luggage for seven days.

Their online claim website was broken, which was a pain, while I was claiming, and their phone system overloaded as a result, but they were friendly, helpful, and paid up.

 

[sydunipete]

This (the increase of minimum spend to $4000) MAY be a deal breaker for me. I've been a loyal CBA customer since leaving school (and that's MANY years ago), I was on staff for a while, multiple home / investment loans, personal banker etc etc.

But my regular savings account attracted no interest, so I moved that to Macquarie.

I have fee free Mastercards for international travel (28degrees and Bankwest).

I recently acquired a platinum Amex for domestic spending because the points (when transfered to SQ) are far superior and there are other benefits that I can use (Priority Pass etc).

My personal banker moved on and nobody gave me a new contact.

So now the CBA Ultimate card has become a fringe card for me - only used for overseas spending (3 points and no fees) and to meet the minimum spend to avoid the $35 fee. But even that isn't worth it with $4000. The $4000 spend loses me more in Amex points that the $35.

I will investigate other credit cards but suspect I will likely keep the CBA card because of the travel insurance only. It offers unlimited travel (I'm away for 6 months at a time), I don't by return tickets (often required by some other cards) and on my careful reading of the PDS it seems pretty good for my needs. I even hiked Kokoda Track using just the included travel insurance.

Worst case 12 months at $35 is still pretty reasonable for 6 months of travel insurance.

 

[sydunipete]

I will investigate other credit cards but suspect I will likely keep the CBA card because of the travel insurance only. It offers unlimited travel (I'm away for 6 months at a time), I don't by return tickets (often required by some other cards)

Having said that I just decided to read the new PDS. It makes several mentions of "return overseas tickets". I rarely buy return tickets. I've shot a question to the email address in the PDS and will see what happens.

 

[BJReplay]

I recently acquired a platinum Amex for domestic spending because the points (when transfered to SQ) are far superior and there are other benefits that I can use (Priority Pass etc).

Interesting - I know everyone's different (cue the shout from the crowd - "I'm not") but I've just closed my Platinum Amex because I just could no longer justify the fee vs the value of points differential - even with the dramatically better SQ points conversion rate. The annual fee would have been due today if I hadn't have closed it.

I used the Accor benefit (approx $400), the travel benefit ($450), and other benefits when they were offered (cash back on dining, for example).

I don't rate Priority Pass as tend to be travelling J 80% of the time for work or on my own dime, and with lifetime QF club access, it's only filling in gaps on the odd occasion.

I only just broke even COVID dining bonuses helping catch up and without them, wouldn't have broken even on the card fee with a fair amount of work. That work wasn't worth the time it was taking - I know what my time is worth, and it's not worth that much!

Amex offered me 100,000 points to keep the card for another year, and then credited them to me two months before my card fee was due. So, I transferred those points along with all the rest to SQ, paid my account, and closed my account online. I didn't even call them back.

What this means is without the Amex spend, I'll hit the $4,000 per month on the CBA card easily enough.

I looked at getting a lower fee Amex card and putting spend through it, but the additional points earned (after transferring to SQ or QF) after even a $195 card fee) would have probably worked out at being worth $60 to $200 dollars' worth.

Not having to think about which card to use is - as the MasterCard ad says - priceless!

 

[sydunipete]

Interesting - I know everyone's different (cue the shout from the crowd - "I'm not") but I've just closed my Platinum Amex because I just could no longer justify the fee vs the value of points differential - even with the dramatically better SQ points conversion rate. The annual fee would have been due today if I hadn't have closed it.

I used the Accor benefit (approx $400), the travel benefit ($450), and other benefits when they were offered (cash back on dining, for example).

I don't rate Priority Pass as tend to be travelling J 80% of the time for work or on my own dime, and with lifetime QF club access, it's only filling in gaps on the odd occasion.

I only just broke even COVID dining bonuses helping catch up and without them, wouldn't have broken even on the card fee with a fair amount of work. That work wasn't worth the time it was taking - I know what my time is worth, and it's not worth that much!

Amex offered me 100,000 points to keep the card for another year, and then credited them to me two months before my card fee was due. So, I transferred those points along with all the rest to SQ, paid my account, and closed my account online. I didn't even call them back.

What this means is without the Amex spend, I'll hit the $4,000 per month on the CBA card easily enough.

I looked at getting a lower fee Amex card and putting spend through it, but the additional points earned (after transferring to SQ or QF) after even a $195 card fee) would have probably worked out at being worth $60 to $200 dollars' worth.

Not having to think about which card to use is - as the MasterCard ad says - priceless!

As you say - we're all different.

I mostly fly J. My home port in Europe is Stockholm which has a terrible lounge and SAS doesn't provide lounge access (even when flying in J) at contracted lounges. So Priority Pass will give me an additional 4 lounge visits (for 2 pax) this year and a far superior lounge at my homeport (Pontus vs SAS Arlanda).

I'm retired so instead of yelling at the neighbour's kids to keep off my lawn I do spreadsheets of points and value and status credits etc etc. Boring I know. For me year 1 with the Amex is a no brainer and future years will be a bit above break even but the cost is keeping track and deciding do I spend on Amex or Mastercard. I wouldn't go to this effort if I was still working - or spending someone else's money.

The main attraction for me of the CBA Ultimate card was the "free" travel insurance. If that goes (due to $4000 minimum spend or T&Cs in the PDS that don't meet my needs) then I will have gone from a 100% loyal CBA customer to nothing.

 

[BJReplay]

I mostly fly J. My home port in Europe is Stockholm which has a terrible lounge and SAS doesn't provide lounge access (even when flying in J) at contracted lounges.

Having been spoiled by J for business, I now have to fly it for personal travel.

I find it fascinating that little things can be so significant - I have only flown SAS once, and found that odd (no lounge access), but didn't think anything more about it at the time. But I do recall at the time that I was planning the trip the choice was between SAS and another airline with similar prices and schedules. I guess next time I will look more closely at the other airline.

I'm retired so instead of yelling at the neighbour's kids to keep off my lawn I do spreadsheets of points and value and status credits etc etc. Boring I know. For me year 1 with the Amex is a no brainer and future years will be a bit above break even but the cost is keeping track and deciding do I spend on Amex or Mastercard. I wouldn't go to this effort if I was still working - or spending someone else's money.

I'm semi-retired, but still find time for points analysis. Don't get me wrong - I did the spreadsheet too - so how much do I actually value my time? Part of the reason to switch from one card was the difficulty in organising both myself and my spouse switching from one card to another through each cycle to maximise points and get the benefits of both cards.

The main attraction for me of the CBA Ultimate card was the "free" travel insurance. If that goes (due to $4000 minimum spend or T&Cs in the PDS that don't meet my needs) then I will have gone from a 100% loyal CBA customer to nothing.

The travel insurance was a great benefit that I not only used (as in relied on) but used as in claimed (as you probably saw above).

No doubt CBA have done their own analysis and they can't make the card break even with the card merchant fees on $2500 spend covering insurance costs, operating costs, etc, but they think they can with $4000 spend (or the number of customers who will pay $35 per month for some months).

 

[sydunipete]

No doubt CBA have done their own analysis and they can't make the card break even with the card merchant fees on $2500 spend covering insurance costs, operating costs, etc, but they think they can with $4000 spend (or the number of customers who will pay $35 per month for some months).

I'm sure this is true. It's uncanny how the amount matches mine for break even between CBA MC and Amex.

Worst case about $400 is pretty cheap for year-round travel insurance.

 

[sydunipete]

Having said that I just decided to read the new PDS. It makes several mentions of "return overseas tickets". I rarely buy return tickets. I've shot a question to the email address in the PDS and will see what happens.

I asked about the requirement for a return ticket and received this response:

"If you did not have a return ticket booked to Australia before the event that gave rise to the claim, we will reduce the amount of your claim by the price of the fare to Australia from the place you planned to return to Australia from."

There's also an orphan reference to having paid for your ticket with the CBA card. It's a very badly worded PDS.

 

[StayGoldPonyboy]

Notice of changes to comm bank cards arrived other day ... Sorry for poor pics

I recently got the Ultimate awards card for an upcoming OS trip. The Smart awards card didn't exist when I applied (or I didn't notice it, oops, it probably would have suited me better but anyhow the lounge passes will be good)

 

[rj606]

I'm surprised this card doesn't get more love. For my usage patterns it is definitely the best available. While it has a poor domestic reward rate per $, the international return of 1.25 qantas points/$ coupled with the no international fees make this a winner for my situation. I put a lot of international spend through the card (easily enough to hit the new $4k/month required to avoid monthly fees). While there are some cards that offer slight more points on international transactions, none of those have the no-international-fee , and at around 3% for some cards, you can easily give back all the value you get in frequent flyer points in international transaction costs (and the cards with higher than 1.25 qantas points/$ also have considerably higher fees, especially if you still meet the new $4k no-fee threshold).

I wish there was another card with no international transaction fees I could use to swap between for the extra signup bonus points, but the other cards with no international transaction fees have either MUCH lower point earning rates or much lower bonuses (usually both).

 

[exceladdict]

Has anyone applied for this card recently and can comment on how long it takes to award bonus points, after spend criteria is met? T&C say
'Bonus points will appear on your credit card statement as ‘Bonus Awards’ within 90 days of you meeting the eligibility criteria.'
and
'If you opt-in to Qantas Points in your credit card application, or after applying but before you meet the offer eligibility criteria, you will receive 70,000 bonus Qantas Points in place of CommBank Awards points. Points are initially accrued as Awards Points in the Program and will be automatically converted, at the end of the next Statement Period, into Qantas Points and transferred to your Qantas Frequent Flyer account after meeting the eligibility criteria. If you don’t opt-in to Qantas Points, or you opt-out of Qantas Points prior to meeting the spend eligibility criteria, you will receive 100,000 Bonus CommBank Awards Points.'

 

[nightelves]

Has anyone applied for this card recently and can comment on how long it takes to award bonus points, after spend criteria is met? T&C say
'Bonus points will appear on your credit card statement as ‘Bonus Awards’ within 90 days of you meeting the eligibility criteria.'
and
'If you opt-in to Qantas Points in your credit card application, or after applying but before you meet the offer eligibility criteria, you will receive 70,000 bonus Qantas Points in place of CommBank Awards points. Points are initially accrued as Awards Points in the Program and will be automatically converted, at the end of the next Statement Period, into Qantas Points and transferred to your Qantas Frequent Flyer account after meeting the eligibility criteria. If you don’t opt-in to Qantas Points, or you opt-out of Qantas Points prior to meeting the spend eligibility criteria, you will receive 100,000 Bonus CommBank Awards Points.'

Points gets credited few days after the statement. For both Awards points or Qantas points. I've got the awards, my housemate has the Qantas and that's exactly what happened for both of us.

 

[exceladdict]

ok sure. And did the bonus points show up in the account pretty soon after meeting the criteria? how long was this after opening the card?

 

[nightelves]

ok sure. And did the bonus points show up in the account pretty soon after meeting the criteria? how long was this after opening the card?

Activated card on 29th April
Met spend
Fee waived and statement arrived on 10th May
Points awarded on 11th May

 

[exceladdict]

Activated card on 29th April
Met spend
Fee waived and statement arrived on 10th May
Points awarded on 11th May

Awesome news, thank you for sharing.