Card Promotions Commonwealth Bank (Ultimate Awards Card) 100K award points – potentially fee free

[exceladdict]

Anyone cancel their card mid cycle, and still have their points (not bonus, just standard points) come through after the fact? Just want to jump onto the next churn!

Yep looks like got to wait to see, but it was said to be 3 months from closure all points will continue to be credited!

Confirmed that all two points I earned last statement cycle credited even though I closed the account a few days prior.

 

[FySk]

I am looking at this card for travel - insurance and no conversion fees. If I have a supplementary card holder who is not my child or wife/spouse, would they be eligible for travel insurance using their supplementary card? or is it only offered to the primary card holder?

 

[_TheTraveller_]

Does anyone know when the last bonus offer came through around this time last year? Bummed that deal is gone

 

[Scr77]

CBA Rewards currently have a 30% transfer bonus. Includes KrisFlyer, Qatar, United, Marriott etc.

Ends 30 Nov.

 

[BJReplay]

I'm about to test CBA on notices. I have an Ultimate Card where the spend to avoid the fee is $2,500 per month. Having not been notified of any changes to my credit card T&Cs, and having opened not one, but two (one for me, one for Mrs BJReplay) HSBC Star Alliance cards, my spend for the Dec-Jan statement will fall below $4,000 for the first time since they apparently brought in the change for pretty much everyone else.

I look forward to the conversation with them if they charge me a fee or, alternatively, the knowledge that I'm grandfathered on a lower spend threshold to avoid a fee

Either outcome will be good.

 

[theblank]

I was notified of the change. I cant remember how. Good luck.

 

[BJReplay]

I was notified of the change. I cant remember how. Good luck.

Yeah, I can't remember being notified (and at the time I was waiting to be notified having read the threads / commentary on various sites including this one in real time), and I checked on Monday to confirm - no notices by email, no notices attached to statements.

I've got every other notice under the sun: SurePay changes, payment limit changes, no gambling payment changes, yada yada yada.

 

[BJReplay]

I'm about to test CBA on notices.

I checked to confirm - no notices by email, no notices attached to statements.

Well, sure enough, they've charged me a fee, and I've started off with a chat enquiry rather than a complaint.

The chat enquiry (eventually, when I asked for advice about how and when I would have been told about the changes) advised me that I was notified on the last page of my July statement.

I pointed out that I wasn't, and I've checked my July statement, and my June statement, and, in fact, every statement from June through to January this year.

The person on chat couldn't see my statements (WTF?) but has raised a ticket for someone who can, to look at them, but "as a gesture of goodwill has refunded my fee" and I should be aware that the minimum spend is now $4,000.

The refund hasn't yet shown up, but I'm assuming it will in a few days, as I was told it might take a few days. We'll see. If I don't see it, next step is a formal complaint.

I thanked them, but pointed out that I haven't officially been notified, so would they mind raising another ticket to make sure that I'm officially notified of a change to the terms and conditions and charges applicable to my credit card as they're required to do under Australian Consumer Credit Law, and they're going to do that, too.

I wait with somewhat bated breath.

If I don't get formal advice of a change in T&Cs and Fees, I'll be raising a complaint, though I guess I can wait until my next statement to know that that's happened, or not.

I wonder if they're able to work out if they didn't include the notice on my credit card statement, that they may not have included it on other credit card statements, too?

I genuinely wouldn't have known if I wasn't a lurker here or OzBargain.

 

[QF_Flyer]

Well, sure enough, they've charged me a fee, and I've started off with a chat enquiry rather than a complaint.

The chat enquiry (eventually, when I asked for advice about how and when I would have been told about the changes) advised me that I was notified on the last page of my July statement.

I pointed out that I wasn't, and I've checked my July statement, and my June statement, and, in fact, every statement from June through to January this year.

The person on chat couldn't see my statements (WTF?) but has raised a ticket for someone who can, to look at them, but "as a gesture of goodwill has refunded my fee" and I should be aware that the minimum spend is now $4,000.

The refund hasn't yet shown up, but I'm assuming it will in a few days, as I was told it might take a few days. We'll see. If I don't see it, next step is a formal complaint.

I thanked them, but pointed out that I haven't officially been notified, so would they mind raising another ticket to make sure that I'm officially notified of a change to the terms and conditions and charges applicable to my credit card as they're required to do under Australian Consumer Credit Law, and they're going to do that, too.

I wait with somewhat bated breath.

If I don't get formal advice of a change in T&Cs and Fees, I'll be raising a complaint, though I guess I can wait until my next statement to know that that's happened, or not.

I wonder if they're able to work out if they didn't include the notice on my credit card statement, that they may not have included it on other credit card statements, too?

I genuinely wouldn't have known if I wasn't a lurker here or OzBargain.

Just throwing my 2c in here, I got an email dated 18/7/2023, advising me of the extra points on dining/utilities, and the lounge passes, commencing 3/6 (yes, in the past), and advising me of the "bad parts" commencing 25/8.

I haven't bothered seeing if it was on any statements, but I def think it should have been if not, and should have been made clear in online banking (which I'm sure it wasn't).

Edit: had a look at 2023 statements quickly, notices attached to the ends of the PDFs about Surepay and all sorts of other stuff (changes to the condition of use), but not these changes specifically.

 

[BJReplay]

Just throwing my 2c in here, I got an email dated 18/7/2023, advising me of the extra points on dining/utilities, and the lounge passes, commencing 3/6 (yes, in the past), and advising me of the "bad parts" commencing 25/8.

Edit: had a look at 2023 statements quickly, notices attached to the ends of the PDFs about Surepay and all sorts of other stuff (changes to the condition of use), but not these changes specifically.

Interesting - it appears that they're relying on email for the notice in your case as well. If the email has failed to be delivered, that's on them, despite their best attempts to contract out of it, as you have no way of knowing that they've attempted to notify you of an email but failed.

If it's landed in spam and you've not seen it, you've not seen it.

In my case, I have a filter for the to address (which is specific to CBA - [email protected]) to label it and ensure it doesn't go to SPAM), so I know if they've sent me an email, and it's got to my mail server.

So, in my case, and possibly yours, they're relying on email (and possibly an email tracking bug) to rely on the fact that you've received notification.

I got a statement on the 23th of June, a statement on the 24th of July, and a changes to payment limits notification on the 5th of August.

 

[BJReplay]

In my case, I have a filter for the to address (which is specific to CBA - [email protected]) to label it and ensure it doesn't go to SPAM), so I know if they've sent me an email, and it's got to my mail server.

Actually, now that I think about it - I have recently changed my email address for CBA - it used to be [email protected] and I've changed it to [email protected].

One of the reasons I change (not just CBA, but pretty much all addresses) is
a) I'm retiring the old mydomain.com.au as the base domain [email protected] gets too much spam, and
b) Lots of organisations struggle with emails in the form of BJReplay-somename and fail or they don't understand it.

So perhaps CBA is one of those, and the change in T&Cs silently failed at their end because of the hyphen

 

[QF_Flyer]

Actually, now that I think about it - I have recently changed my email address for CBA - it used to be [email protected] and I've changed it to [email protected].

One of the reasons I change (not just CBA, but pretty much all addresses) is
a) I'm retiring the old mydomain.com.au as the base domain [email protected] gets too much spam, and
b) Lots of organisations struggle with emails in the form of BJReplay-somename and fail or they don't understand it.

So perhaps CBA is one of those, and the change in T&Cs silently failed at their end because of the hyphen

Could be, one of my email addresses has a "_" in it, which a lot of forms seem to struggle with (it works, but occasionally I have to manually change it back after it's been replaced with a space or dash somehow!

Either way, pretty poorly implemented, considering CBA have used the statements to notify us of other things, it would have been easy enough to just add another 10 pages onto the usual PDF haha. I didn't get caught out thankfully, but if I'd missed it, I'd have been pretty annoyed.

 

[BJReplay]

Well, sure enough, they've charged me a fee, and I've started off with a chat enquiry rather than a complaint.

Well, I'm back nearly a year later, and having escalated this to a complaint, which eventually got resolved, with the fee refunded, and an investigation, I got this email this evening (almost a year late):

Dear BJReplay,

During a recent review, we identified your Ultimate Awards card ending ****@@@@ was inadvertently excluded from the initial notification that was sent out to notify our customers about pricing adjustments effective 25 August 2023. Please accept our sincere apologies for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.

Your account is important to us and we are committed to providing transparent and timely communication regarding any changes that may affect you. As such, we want to take this opportunity to provide you with the details of the pricing changes that were applied to your account effective 25 August 2023.

What you need to know
Below changes were applied to your account or any replacement account(s) effective 25 August 2023:

The Cash Advance interest rate has increased from 21.24% p.a. to 21.99%1 p.a.
Qantas Frequent Flyer Direct2 opt-in fee has increased from $30 per card, per year to $60 per card, per year3
The minimum Cash Advance fee has increased from $3 or 3.00% of the transaction amount (whichever is greater, maximum $300) to $4.00 or 3.00% (whichever is greater, maximum $3004)
The minimum spend requirement5 to pay no monthly fee has changed from $2,500 to $4,000.
If you have a separate interest rate or annual fee arrangement agreed with us, there will be no changes to the terms of that arrangement. However, fees and charges are subject to change and we will notify you of any future changes.

What you need to do
No action is required by you. We are currently investigating your account to identify whether you have been adversely affected by this issue during the impacted period. We will reach out to you separately regarding this if you have been identified as impacted.

So, I'm not sure whether my complaint and request for an investigation an explanation sparked this review or not, but the wheels of "we're not going to get shafted by the next royal commission" grind slowly but surely at WhichBanik.

 

[ETW]

I recently had to challenge them for the $35 fee because despite my statement being for $4100 they maintained I didn’t hit $4k spend during the month. It seems there is some confusion about how they count transactions that are pending when the previous statement is issued; essentially they disappear into the ether.

 

[BJReplay]

It seems there is some confusion about how they count transactions that are pending when the previous statement is issued

Yeah, that just so much - you can't control how long they stay pending, only when you make the transaction - so count them in the month you make them.

Sure, if they get reversed later on, by all means retrospectively charge a fee: if I make a $4000 purchase and then it is reversed five days later, charge me a fee, but don't charge me a fee if it is pending on the statement date, and force me to chase, you, because what you're doing is first strike in my reasons to close my account count.

 

[MG1]

I'm considering this card as a replacement of my Coles card (which NAB destroyed from July onwards) so as to have a points-earning no foreign transaction fee credit card with a decent earn rate. What are other posters' thoughts? Was the application and approval process difficult or straightforward (I've not applied for a CBA card previously)?

It looks like it's 1.5 Velocity-equivalent points per $ on non-AUD expenditure, which seems pretty good.

Considering this one, Smart Awards, 2 from Bankwest and 1 from NAB, I think that this one wins out - unless I've missed something?

I'm not sure if I'll be eligible for the bonus points because it's only available for Yello customers where certain criteria need to be met.

I also hold a couple of Amex cards, which I get plenty of perks with.

 

[BJReplay]

Was the application and approval process difficult or straightforward (I've not applied for a CBA card previously)?

Interestingly enough, I just received this card.

I am an existing CBA Ultimate card holder, a Yello customer, and thought I'd roll the dice on bonus points (I don't currently get the Yello bonus on my Ultimate card, so I might qualify), and I also happen to know I've got a couple of months of big spending coming up, but will struggle to meet the $4000 threshold for Ultimate in the future.

So, the theory was:

• Apply for Smart
• Maybe get bonus points.
• Test my theory on getting a credit card as an unemployed, non-superannuant retiree living on inconsistent investment income
• Double up on points for a couple of months (I won't hit the $10,000 limit on Ultimate, because I'll be able to spread expenses on two cards)
• Close and/or downgrade Ultimate later on.

I was surprised at the credit limit I was offered; it was effectively 25% of my income. My income is sporadic - on an annual basis, it is fairly predictable, but it isn't month by month.

Initially they requested a bunch of information that it was easy for me to provide:

• Tax Returns
• Notices of Assessment
• Statements from Broker (since my income was from investments)
• Because my income flows through a Family Trust, I also provided Trust Income Tax Returns, and Trust Holding Statements, Operating Statements and a Trust Extract to show a couple of years of income.

Then it all went downhill for about three weeks. They kept on asking for my 2024 Tax return, even though they had it from the very first day of the application.

Right at the end, they asked for a payment plan for my tax debt, because by the time that the realised that they had my tax return, the ATO had issued my 2024 assessment, and I owed them money.

I spoke to one of their front office people, who obviously gets this all the time - the assessment team ask stupid questions, and they have to deal with customers - and I said - well, I didn't have a debt when I applied, and my payment plan is not to pay the debt until it falls due, which isn't until November 21st, and then I'll pay it from my savings account. I've set up a scheduled payment. He said "can you send through a screen shot of that, but I'll make the point that the debt shouldn't be considered, given that it isn't due".

Two days later, the card arrived in the mail.

I was surprised by the credit limit - for someone without regular income, without investments in their name.

 

[N860CR]

Interestingly enough, I just received this card.

I am an existing CBA Ultimate card holder, a Yello customer, and thought I'd roll the dice on bonus points (I don't currently get the Yello bonus on my Ultimate card, so I might qualify), and I also happen to know I've got a couple of months of big spending coming up, but will struggle to meet the $4000 threshold for Ultimate in the future.

So, the theory was:

• Apply for Smart
• Maybe get bonus points.
• Test my theory on getting a credit card as an unemployed, non-superannuant retiree living on inconsistent investment income
• Double up on points for a couple of months (I won't hit the $10,000 limit on Ultimate, because I'll be able to spread expenses on two cards)
• Close and/or downgrade Ultimate later on.

I was surprised at the credit limit I was offered; it was effectively 25% of my income. My income is sporadic - on an annual basis, it is fairly predictable, but it isn't month by month.

Initially they requested a bunch of information that it was easy for me to provide:

• Tax Returns
• Notices of Assessment
• Statements from Broker (since my income was from investments)
• Because my income flows through a Family Trust, I also provided Trust Income Tax Returns, and Trust Holding Statements, Operating Statements and a Trust Extract to show a couple of years of income.

Then it all went downhill for about three weeks. They kept on asking for my 2024 Tax return, even though they had it from the very first day of the application.

Right at the end, they asked for a payment plan for my tax debt, because by the time that the realised that they had my tax return, the ATO had issued my 2024 assessment, and I owed them money.

I spoke to one of their front office people, who obviously gets this all the time - the assessment team ask stupid questions, and they have to deal with customers - and I said - well, I didn't have a debt when I applied, and my payment plan is not to pay the debt until it falls due, which isn't until November 21st, and then I'll pay it from my savings account. I've set up a scheduled payment. He said "can you send through a screen shot of that, but I'll make the point that the debt shouldn't be considered, given that it isn't due".

Two days later, the card arrived in the mail.

I was surprised by the credit limit - for someone without regular income, without investments in their name.

Banks do weird things. I got knocked back with this card (with a 300k salaried income from a major corporation)

 

[MG1]

Interestingly enough, I just received this card.

I am an existing CBA Ultimate card holder, a Yello customer, and thought I'd roll the dice on bonus points (I don't currently get the Yello bonus on my Ultimate card, so I might qualify), and I also happen to know I've got a couple of months of big spending coming up, but will struggle to meet the $4000 threshold for Ultimate in the future.

So, the theory was:

• Apply for Smart
• Maybe get bonus points.
• Test my theory on getting a credit card as an unemployed, non-superannuant retiree living on inconsistent investment income
• Double up on points for a couple of months (I won't hit the $10,000 limit on Ultimate, because I'll be able to spread expenses on two cards)
• Close and/or downgrade Ultimate later on.

I was surprised at the credit limit I was offered; it was effectively 25% of my income. My income is sporadic - on an annual basis, it is fairly predictable, but it isn't month by month.

Initially they requested a bunch of information that it was easy for me to provide:

• Tax Returns
• Notices of Assessment
• Statements from Broker (since my income was from investments)
• Because my income flows through a Family Trust, I also provided Trust Income Tax Returns, and Trust Holding Statements, Operating Statements and a Trust Extract to show a couple of years of income.

Then it all went downhill for about three weeks. They kept on asking for my 2024 Tax return, even though they had it from the very first day of the application.

Right at the end, they asked for a payment plan for my tax debt, because by the time that the realised that they had my tax return, the ATO had issued my 2024 assessment, and I owed them money.

I spoke to one of their front office people, who obviously gets this all the time - the assessment team ask stupid questions, and they have to deal with customers - and I said - well, I didn't have a debt when I applied, and my payment plan is not to pay the debt until it falls due, which isn't until November 21st, and then I'll pay it from my savings account. I've set up a scheduled payment. He said "can you send through a screen shot of that, but I'll make the point that the debt shouldn't be considered, given that it isn't due".

Two days later, the card arrived in the mail.

I was surprised by the credit limit - for someone without regular income, without investments in their name.

@BJReplay - thanks for your detailed experience; that sounds quite unpleasant. Let's hope that you can get that debt situation sorted out.

With regards to being a Yello customer: one of the conditions for this is to perform 5+ transactions from a transaction account. Do you do these manually or electronically - can these transactions be scheduled ones to another bank or are these excluded from Yello eligibility (I think I read something about this but wasn't completely sure)?

Once you start using the card, I'd be interested to know what that experience is like.

Post automatically merged: Sep 12, 2024

Banks do weird things. I got knocked back with this card (with a 300k salaried income from a major corporation)

I've read this elsewhere on this forum too - that is quite perplexing.

 

[BJReplay]

I got knocked back with this card (with a 300k salaried income from a major corporation)

I got knocked back for the Ultimate with 400k at one point because 20% of it was supposedly discretionary bonus even though I'd been getting each and every year for the last 5 years. They eventually gave it to me with a $10k limit.

So, they eventually gave me a credit limit of 2.5% of my regular income.

Now I've got no regular income, they give me a credit limit of 25% of my much (much) smaller irregular income.