Card Promotions New Westpac Altitude Platinum Offer 75k QFF Points. 1st year fee free

[aleaf]

Hoping for some info - my employer issued me a company credit card a year or so ago. It never occurred to me that this might disqualify me from receiving the bonus points for a new card. And as I read in this thread it really does take 90 days for bonus points to show, I'd hate to be waiting 90 days for nuthin.


Was on the phone with Westpac earlier today but the agents sounded a little ... vague. Was not confident she would be able to help. Can someone provide guidance? Would a company issued card count as an existing card ergo no bonus points for me?

 

[GSP]

Hoping for some info - my employer issued me a company credit card a year or so ago. It never occurred to me that this might disqualify me from receiving the bonus points for a new card. And as I read in this thread it really does take 90 days for bonus points to show, I'd hate to be waiting 90 days for nuthin.


Was on the phone with Westpac earlier today but the agents sounded a little ... vague. Was not confident she would be able to help. Can someone provide guidance? Would a company issued card count as an existing card ergo no bonus points for me?

What sort of company card? I have the Green Amex Corporate Card issued to myself, but is in the name of the company and is not listed on any of my accounts or has affected any applications Amex or otherwise.

It's likely that the card is in the companies name and you as a cardholder, similarly like you can setup a secondary card holder so you should be OK, but I'd talk to your company also about this. Additionally check on the credit sites to see if it is listed as one of your open accounts or not.

Good luck.

 

[jpp42]

I can't say for certain about Westpac company cards and there could be different arrangements, but I've held both Amex and Citibank corporate cards and neither has ever shown on my own credit report or anything to do with my own accounts at these institutions.

 

[squid01]

Just hit the spend on Westpac Platinum card - any recent experiences with getting the bonus points and timeframe?

 

[hedge]

Anyone having issue with submitting the supporting documentation or your income? The SPE AV keeps timing out when I submit my proof of income via their web portal. Happened on two computers?
I can't use their bank verification system as my bank isn't supported...

 

[terko]

Anyone having issue with submitting the supporting documentation or your income? The SPE AV keeps timing out when I submit my proof of income via their web portal. Happened on two computers?
I can't use their bank verification system as my bank isn't supported...

Yes, this happened to me too, I called them and they sent me an email i could reply to with my attachments.

 

[shift6]

Just hit the spend on Westpac Platinum card - any recent experiences with getting the bonus points and timeframe?

It took 3 months+ for me to get the points into my QF account. Westpac refused to look into the non-crediting of points until the 12 week period of hitting minimum spend had been met per terms and conditions.

When this time period was up, I dialled up again. Westpac then actually started the investigation, and said the reason was due manual intervention when processing my initial application, and manually triggered the bonus points this month.

 

[logicallysynced]

I think I hit the minimum spend on my Altitude Platinum card before my first statement, but I’m not sure. I do keep a tally of everything I spend on it on the side, but I also like to call them when I believe I’ve met it for them to confirm.

When I called them the person on the other line had no idea, he started counting up transaction by transaction and questioning everyone on whether it was eligible or not - never had that with any other bank before, usually they just tell me yes or no.

I got my monthly points from the card yesterday with my first statement (which I can’t seem to find/open by the way), and it was 2319 points, so given it’s a 0.5 earn rate that’s over $4000 so I assume I met the threshold and just need to wait up to 3 months for it to give me the bonus?

So paranoid though.

 

[shift6]

I got my monthly points from the card yesterday with my first statement (which I can’t seem to find/open by the way), and it was 2319 points, so given it’s a 0.5 earn rate that’s over $4000 so I assume I met the threshold and just need to wait up to 3 months for it to give me the bonus?

So paranoid though.

For people taking up credit card churning, I can only suggest a mindset where things can go wrong. If bonus points aren't awarded timely, or require additional effort resolve issues - that we exercise patience or let it go. Perhaps another unsolicited suggestion - to not use this as a reason to spend outside your means to over compensate meeting promotion criteria.

Unsolicited musings aside, my experience was that I got soft confirmation of having fulfilled the spend criteria via online chat With Westpac. I also had a similar experience of them questioning my transactions/merchant names and summing up my spend in call when I lodgged a formal query to the Rewards team when points didn't land after 90 days.

Separately, if you want to do some additional checks - when looking at the eligible purchases for the promotion as of this post:

†Eligible purchases do not include interest, fees and charges, cash or ATM cash advances, cash equivalent transactions, gambling transactions, a purchase from or payment to a local, state or federal government or government related agency, BPAY or similar transactions (such as Post Billpay), refunds and balance transfers debited from the card account.

And compare it to the Westpac Altitude Terms & Conditions

3.2 When will you not earn Points? You will not earn Points on: • all fees and interest charges; • Cash Advances; • Balance Transfers; • transactions made using bill payment services such as BPAY® or Post Billpay; or • Government Related Payments; You will also not earn Points (and cannot redeem Altitude Points) if: • you have not paid the Minimum Payment Due in full and on time; • your Card is blocked or cancelled or your Card Account is blocked or closed; • there is fraud on your Card Account; • your Card has been reported as lost or stolen; • your Card is used for business related purposes; or • you do not comply with any of your important obligations under the Terms and Conditions of your Card Account (including making sure you do not exceed your authorised credit limit). We may adjust your Points balance by the amount of any Points awarded in any of the above circumstances. Notwithstanding the above, we may allow you to redeem some or all of your Points at our discretion.

One transaction type that stands out to me are 'gambling transactions', where it seems like its possible to earn points per usual spend per the T&C, but not eligible for the Eligible purchases under the promotion (which means that points earn on statement end may not be a reliable indicator for promotion eligibility). Perhaps something to be wary of.

The T&Cs and promotional material is typically removed when the promotion ends, irrespective of customers still waiting for the elapsed time to pass. A final suggestion is taking a downloaded copy of the promotional material so you have it on hand if you do need to pursue it if you're still waiting after x months.

 

[logicallysynced]

For people taking up credit card churning, I can only suggest a mindset where things can go wrong. If bonus points aren't awarded timely, or require additional effort resolve issues - that we exercise patience or let it go. Perhaps another unsolicited suggestion - to not use this as a reason to spend outside your means to over compensate meeting promotion criteria.

Unsolicited musings aside, my experience was that I got soft confirmation of having fulfilled the spend criteria via online chat With Westpac. I also had a similar experience of them questioning my transactions/merchant names and summing up my spend in call when I lodgged a formal query to the Rewards team when points didn't land after 90 days.

Separately, if you want to do some additional checks - when looking at the eligible purchases for the promotion as of this post:


And compare it to the Westpac Altitude Terms & Conditions



One transaction type that stands out to me are 'gambling transactions', where it seems like its possible to earn points per usual spend per the T&C, but not eligible for the Eligible purchases under the promotion (which means that points earn on statement end may not be a reliable indicator for promotion eligibility). Perhaps something to be wary of.

The T&Cs and promotional material is typically removed when the promotion ends, irrespective of customers still waiting for the elapsed time to pass. A final suggestion is taking a downloaded copy of the promotional material so you have it on hand if you do need to pursue it if you're still waiting after x months.

Thanks for the tips and sage advice. I think it’s worth taking on for anyone doing churning, and I do apply that sort of mindset.

my experience was that I got soft confirmation of having fulfilled the spend criteria via online chat With Westpac

This is interesting. Whenever I have messaged Westpac using their online chat (90% of the time it’s offline or ‘experiencing issues’ mind you), they very clearly state they cannot look at your account and you must call them to make any of those types of enquiries. I’m surprised they were able to do that for you.

 

[Kangol]

Not sure what thread to ask in, but has anyone tried making DEFT payments, on their website, using either Altitude Black or Platinum cards?
If so, did it count as a regular spend with regular points earn?

 

[NoName]

Just had the 3rd statement come in for my Altitude Black Qantas card and still no sign up points. Terms state will be credited within 12 weeks of meeting the $6k spend requirement and this period will tick over next week. So obviously they will have breeched these terms by the time the next statement come around. Does anyone have any experience with them either manually crediting the bonus points between statements or failing that extracting additional points as compensation?

 

[Kangol]

Just had the 3rd statement come in for my Altitude Black Qantas card and still no sign up points. Terms state will be credited within 12 weeks of meeting the $6k spend requirement and this period will tick over next week. So obviously they will have breeched these terms by the time the next statement come around. Does anyone have any experience with them either manually crediting the bonus points between statements or failing that extracting additional points as compensation?

Send them a message saying they have not honoured the terms and that you want _ compensation, otherwise you would have no choice but to take it to AFCA. Make sure the _ is very significant in relation to the bonus.
If they say yes, you win.
If they say no, take them to AFCA and ask for even more (eg more points plus cash).
You can't lose, as long as you have double checked the date the required spend was made and correctly counted the stated duration.

What was the bonus, 90k QFF?

 

[NoName]

Send them a message saying they have not honoured the terms and that you want _ compensation, otherwise you would have no choice but to take it to AFCA. Make sure the _ is very significant in relation to the bonus.
If they say yes, you win.
If they say no, take them to AFCA and ask for even more (eg more points plus cash).
You can't lose, as long as you have double checked the date the required spend was made and correctly counted the stated duration.

What was the bonus, 90k QFF?

Thanks for this, exactly the information I was after.

The offer was 90,000 QFF in the first year after $6k spend (another 30,000 QFF in the 2nd year but not relevant here). Any suggestion as to what additional points you would suggest? Extra 50,000? I suppose I might as well wait until after the 12 week mark to alert them rather than asking for a manual credit now. Its only another 10 days away.

Have checked several times to confirm criteria. Met the $6k spend in late May, my own record and also credit file confirmed previous Westpac CC closure was over 12 months prior to application. Nothing I can see that makes me ineligible.

EDIT: If it ends up going down the AFCA complaint route is there any issue in cancelling the card while the process plays out? Would like to move on to the next card asap.

 

[Kangol]

Thanks for this, exactly the information I was after.

The offer was 90,000 QFF in the first year after $6k spend (another 30,000 QFF in the 2nd year but not relevant here). Any suggestion as to what additional points you would suggest? Extra 50,000? I suppose I might as well wait until after the 12 week mark to alert them rather than asking for a manual credit now. Its only another 10 days away.

Have checked several times to confirm criteria. Met the $6k spend in late May, my own record and also credit file confirmed previous Westpac CC closure was over 12 months prior to application. Nothing I can see that makes me ineligible.

EDIT: If it ends up going down the AFCA complaint route is there any issue in cancelling the card while the process plays out? Would like to move on to the next card asap.

50k at least! 60k even.
I don't have experience in cancelling the card during the process, but I can't imagine it would make any difference.
The terms of the contract are unaffected by whether you still have the card open - unless there is something along the lines of "your card account must be open to receive points". Maybe check if a new clause has been put in.

 

[NoName]

Thanks for this, exactly the information I was after.

The offer was 90,000 QFF in the first year after $6k spend (another 30,000 QFF in the 2nd year but not relevant here). Any suggestion as to what additional points you would suggest? Extra 50,000? I suppose I might as well wait until after the 12 week mark to alert them rather than asking for a manual credit now. Its only another 10 days away.

Have checked several times to confirm criteria. Met the $6k spend in late May, my own record and also credit file confirmed previous Westpac CC closure was over 12 months prior to application. Nothing I can see that makes me ineligible.

EDIT: If it ends up going down the AFCA complaint route is there any issue in cancelling the card while the process plays out? Would like to move on to the next card asap.

Update to this and the 12 week mark came and went over the weekend so called this morning. They claimed their records show I opened the card within the 12 month exclusion period which my credit file as well as a closure letter they sent to me shows is not correct. Advised I require an additional 50,000pts for breach of contract. Issue raised and will hear back in 2-5 business days. This should be a slam dunk though really.

 

[NoName]

Update to this and the 12 week mark came and went over the weekend so called this morning. They claimed their records show I opened the card within the 12 month exclusion period which my credit file as well as a closure letter they sent to me shows is not correct. Advised I require an additional 50,000pts for breach of contract. Issue raised and will hear back in 2-5 business days. This should be a slam dunk though really.

Very quickly resolved in my favour with a 1 off credit of 90,000 QFF points processed. Should hit my account in a few days. No sign or mention of compensation though so will be following this up and making a complaint if necessary.

 

[NoName]

Very quickly resolved in my favour with a 1 off credit of 90,000 QFF points processed. Should hit my account in a few days. No sign or mention of compensation though so will be following this up and making a complaint if necessary.

Closing this one out.

Rang again this morning. Told by the Altitude team who I had been speaking to that they could not authorise the additional points so put through to complaints. Explained the situation. Told they couldn’t give points either but could offer $400 instead. Said I valued 50,000 Qantas points higher than that so counter-offered $500. Accepted. Suspect I may have been able to get a little more but just happy to have resolved it quickly.

 

[kokoikaka]

Anyone have experience with this card recently? Would like to know how long would it takes to give bonus point.

 

[terko]

Anyone have experience with this card recently? Would like to know how long would it takes to give bonus point.

Yes, i have it now (but not for much longer....). Just hit the spending criteria in month 2, and the bonus points came through the day the 2nd month statement was issued.