Reduction in Transfer Rates to Velocity/Krisflyer

[token01]

Its not my story. its from the fb page i was doing some recon on. Heres hoping Dezza Dezza does it.

 

[Keyman]

Just lodged my complaint with the ACCC.

The text of the complaint is set out below to save you from reinventing the wheel if you would also like to complain:

"Citigroup has, with effect from 1 November 2015, undertaken retrospective point devaluation changes to its Citi Rewards Program in a manner not dissimilar to the actions of the NAB in 2002 which resulted in an investigation by the Commission. The outcome of the Commission's investigation of NAB's action is set out in the Commission's release number MR 145/02.Citigroup did not notify cardholders participating in its Citi Rewards Program of the changes it intended to make. I, like most cardholders, found out of the changes after the event when it was too late to do anything about it.
I have been diligently accumulating reward points in the Citi Rewards Program over many years in the confidence, induced by representations on Citigroup's website and promotional materials, that a dollar spent on a Citibank Signature card within Australia would earn 1.5 Citi Rewards points that in turn would translate to a Velocity point or a Krisflyer point.
I understand the Commission will already have received many similar complaints from aggrieved cardholders and would be grateful if the Commission could investigate the appropriateness of Citigroup's actions from a legal stand point."

 

[Isochronous]

I've just finalised my legal demand letter. Made a call first. Clearly she had been inundated and was aware of the issue. Read from the script about only needing to give notice if cancelling the programme, and the bull**** goods/services line, blaming it on SQ. It was all rather amusing when I asked her if she had read clause 6.2 herself, and admitted she had not.

Also said that management was aware of the issue and they were considering whether to award compensation or to reinstate notice etc.

Will be sending my legal demand by DHL to Alan Machet tomorrow.

The next step will be letters to ACCC and ASIC to attack Citibank for their abuse of their AFSL and Australian credit license, among other breaches of the corporate and financial services legislation. I may post a template or primer on this if people are interested.

 

[M@rcoPolo]

Still no reply to my secure message sent from the Citibank website on Monday evening asking for compensation. I was expecting at least a standard BS reply by now so that I could take it and escalate. Has anyone else got a reply from Citi through their secure message service? How long did they take to reply?

 

[Cruiser Elite]

I may post a template or primer on this if people are interested.

Iso I would suggest that >360 posts in less than 3 days is clear evidence people 'are interested' - post away - the more ammo AFF members have the better.

 

[burmans]

Still no reply to my secure message sent from the Citibank website on Monday evening asking for compensation. I was expecting at least a standard BS reply by now so that I could take it and escalate. Has anyone else got a reply from Citi through their secure message service? How long did they take to reply?

No reply to me either but have had a missed call from Citibank.

 

[kcoulson]

For some reason, I can't find a Citibank facebook page - is it under something different?

 

[Franko Costa]

https://www.facebook.com/citibankaustralia/

 

[deka2]

Last night I sent a secure message to them after logging in.

From recent posts looks like i'll have a long wait for a reply.

I cleared out my Citibusiness account two weeks ago, but have a touch over 100k reward points from my Signature card, so i'm down about 17,500.

If Virgin changed the cost of points it will be interesting to see what ANZ do, given they recently increased the transfer rate to Virgin on the Rewards Black card.

 

[daveozsydney]

same boat - no reply in secure messages....

 

[doctau]

A question for anyone who has one of the (Qantas?) direct earn cards - does it report how many Citibank points you earned and then sweep across (whether at 1:1, 1.5 or other) at the end of the month, or does it report how many Qantas points you earned?

If it reports how many Qantas/whoever points you earned, not in Citi points, then that would make their claim that "converted" in 6.2.1 means direct sweep and not manual FF redemption more dubious since they ostensibly aren't ever converted.

 

[kyle]

Still no reply to my secure message sent from the Citibank website on Monday evening asking for compensation. I was expecting at least a standard BS reply by now so that I could take it and escalate. Has anyone else got a reply from Citi through their secure message service? How long did they take to reply?

Still waiting for reply here too.

 

[diningdecadence]

i got lucky and decided to convert the bulk of mine to Hhonors with the current bonus.

agree this appears to be against T&C but what are people actually wanting as an outcome? haven't seen much discussion about that. i.e. if Citi offered to convert at old rate, would you really transfer your entire balance?


speculating, but i'm guessing people are simply looking for 90 days notice so continue to earn&burn at current rates? i personally would feel compensated if they offered SPG or AA at similar level to other hotel/airline partners (prestige card)

 

[doctau]

I have a relatively small amount (80k) and a specific SQ redemption in mind which I can't book until January. Personally, I'd be happy to just get the old rate for a transfer now, but I imagine those with larger balances may not be.

 

[LordGarlic]

i was the one that posted the comment on citi fb. I am not a fb fan or user but due to the devaluation, I was hoping citi would have a heart and revert to the previous redemption rate... It has been a tough few months at home....

 

[LordGarlic]

im spewing that i should have done the conversion last fri after the doc gave the greenlight to fly

 

[cove]

Everyone in this thread has been hurt by varying amounts. How Citibank fixes their problem will determine whether they expect to be the least admired bank in Australia for 2015/2016. It really is their call on whether they damage their brand any further by staying silent.
Sure the suppliers of the points/miles vary the cost from time to time but I know everyone has a plan for the future use of those points/miles and wish to avoid them expiring.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

agree this appears to be against T&C but what are people actually wanting as an outcome? haven't seen much discussion about that. i.e. if Citi offered to convert at old rate, would you really transfer your entire balance?


speculating, but i'm guessing people are simply looking for 90 days notice so continue to earn&burn at current rates? i personally would feel compensated if they offered SPG or AA at similar level to other hotel/airline partners (prestige card)

Customers understand that earn/burn rates can change. However, we expect notice of such in circumstances where this can be provided.

This case appears to be one where notice could/should have been given.

It may be that Citi cannot roll-back their software to convert points at the old rate. If that's the case, we require compensation in the form of additional CitiRewards to make up for the shortfall when converted at 2:1 rather than 1.5:1.

If we are required to transfer all CitiRewards to velocity/krisflyer... that's for us, as customers to decide, once we have notice. We may not choose to convert them all, but we do require the opportunity to do so.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Oh wait... from Citi's facebook page:

We do continually review our rewards program to ensure it provides value for all of our customers and any changes made are always in line with the rewards terms and conditions provided to our customers.

Seems we all got these changes wrong. Time to move on.

 

[CJEMNMAC]

no reply from secure message here either..