Credit Card Offers St.George Amplify Signature: 150,000 bonus Amplify Points (expires 30/4/25)

[Rusty776]

closed this card a while ago... do you need to cancel PP as well? Not sure if it would auto renew using a card that was closed.

 

[Kangol]

closed this card a while ago... do you need to cancel PP as well? Not sure if it would auto renew using a card that was closed.

PP auto renews; I've not tried using it after closing but have read reports that subsequently using the free visit(s) will not incur any additional charge.

 

[BettyB]

Not getting anywhere with this. St George wont even respond to me.

looks like this is headed to FOS.

Just received a reponse about why I didn't get any points. Turns out that SGeorge are stating that becuase I used gift card purchases to get to the minimum spend that this is counted as a 'cash equivalent' transaction and therefore I didn't meet the minum spend requirement in the first 3 months of the card.

Anyone else come across this?

I thought that buying gift cards is fine?

 

[Dr Ralph]

Just received a reponse about why I didn't get any points. Turns out that SGeorge are stating that becuase I used gift card purchases to get to the minimum spend that this is counted as a 'cash equivalent' transaction and therefore I didn't meet the minum spend requirement in the first 3 months of the card.

Anyone else come across this?

I thought that buying gift cards is fine?

Gift cards have definitely worked for me to meet the minimum spend.

What exactly did they say? Was this a gift card that you bought directly from Woolies or Coles or a WISH card or something else?

This could be a game changer!

 

[BettyB]

Gift cards have definitely worked for me to meet the minimum spend.

What exactly did they say? Was this a gift card that you bought directly from Woolies or Coles or a WISH card or something else?

This could be a game changer!

This is the email that I recived from them:

Dear Betty, Reference Number: xx_xx_X Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to investigate your concerns raised with us on 22 December 2019.

I understand your concern relates to the 60,000 Amplify Qantas Bonus Points offered for your new Amplify Platinum credit card and that you have not yet received these points. Upon review of your credit card transactions, I can see there are transactions made to purchase Woolworths Gift Cards. Any purchase of a monetary value, including gift cards, is deemed a cash equivalent transaction and is therefore not included as an eligible transaction.

With the exclusion of these transactions, the minimum spend criteria of $2,000.00 has not been met. All eligibility requirements for the bonus offer are provided directly beneath the offer under “What else do I need to know?”, and we feel this clearly defines the eligibility requirements and that they are readily accessible to our customers.

For your reference I have included the eligibility requirements for the offer below: *Amplify Platinum and Signature Qantas Bonus Points offer: The respective bonus points promotions are available when you apply and are approved for a new Amplify Platinum Qantas or Amplify Signature Qantas credit card between 23rd May 2019 and 02nd October 2019, and spend the minimum amount of $4,000 on eligible purchases on an Amplify Signature Qantas credit card or $2,000 on eligible purchases on an Amplify Platinum Qantas credit card within 90 days from card approval. Eligible purchases do not include BPAY or BPAY equivalent transactions, fees, cash, cash equivalent transactions, refunds, balance transfers debited from the card account, government fees and ATO payments. Existing customers who currently hold a Amplify Platinum or Amplify Signature card issued by St.George, Bank of Melbourne or BankSA, or who have held one in the last 12 months, are not eligible for this offer. The bonus points will be credited to your points balance within 12 weeks after the eligible spend criteria is met. Interest free days do not apply to credit cards with balance transfers, you'll be charged the applicable purchase rate on any spend that you make whilst you have an outstanding balance transfer.

I appreciate that this is not the outcome you were looking for and I apologise for any frustration and inconvenience this may have caused you. As a once-off goodwill gesture, I would be happy to offer 10,000 Amplify Qantas Bonus Points to your Qantas Frequent Flyer membership number.

To accept this offer, please reply to this email with the following: “I, Betty B, accept St George Bank’s offer of 10,000 Amplify Qantas Bonus Points as full and final resolution of the concerns I have raised under reference number xx_xx_. Please credit the accepted 10,000 Amplify Qantas Bonus Points to my Qantas Frequent Flyer membership number .”

Please kindly allow up to 30 business days for these points to appear in your Qantas Frequent Flyer membership account from when you accept this offer as above. 2 I have recorded your feedback and experience for future reference under Complaint ID xx_XX. Please also find attached a copy of our complaints commitment brochure. Thank you again for contacting St George and I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this matter has caused you. Should you wish to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I'd have to confirm but I thnk that it wa a WISH card that I bought. I don't think they'd be able to see what I bought from Woolies or Coles if this was a only one visa or something similar?

 

[Dr Ralph]

This is the email that I recived from them:

Dear Betty, Reference Number: xx_xx_X Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to investigate your concerns raised with us on 22 December 2019.

I understand your concern relates to the 60,000 Amplify Qantas Bonus Points offered for your new Amplify Platinum credit card and that you have not yet received these points. Upon review of your credit card transactions, I can see there are transactions made to purchase Woolworths Gift Cards. Any purchase of a monetary value, including gift cards, is deemed a cash equivalent transaction and is therefore not included as an eligible transaction.

With the exclusion of these transactions, the minimum spend criteria of $2,000.00 has not been met. All eligibility requirements for the bonus offer are provided directly beneath the offer under “What else do I need to know?”, and we feel this clearly defines the eligibility requirements and that they are readily accessible to our customers.

For your reference I have included the eligibility requirements for the offer below: *Amplify Platinum and Signature Qantas Bonus Points offer: The respective bonus points promotions are available when you apply and are approved for a new Amplify Platinum Qantas or Amplify Signature Qantas credit card between 23rd May 2019 and 02nd October 2019, and spend the minimum amount of $4,000 on eligible purchases on an Amplify Signature Qantas credit card or $2,000 on eligible purchases on an Amplify Platinum Qantas credit card within 90 days from card approval. Eligible purchases do not include BPAY or BPAY equivalent transactions, fees, cash, cash equivalent transactions, refunds, balance transfers debited from the card account, government fees and ATO payments. Existing customers who currently hold a Amplify Platinum or Amplify Signature card issued by St.George, Bank of Melbourne or BankSA, or who have held one in the last 12 months, are not eligible for this offer. The bonus points will be credited to your points balance within 12 weeks after the eligible spend criteria is met. Interest free days do not apply to credit cards with balance transfers, you'll be charged the applicable purchase rate on any spend that you make whilst you have an outstanding balance transfer.

I appreciate that this is not the outcome you were looking for and I apologise for any frustration and inconvenience this may have caused you. As a once-off goodwill gesture, I would be happy to offer 10,000 Amplify Qantas Bonus Points to your Qantas Frequent Flyer membership number.

To accept this offer, please reply to this email with the following: “I, Betty B, accept St George Bank’s offer of 10,000 Amplify Qantas Bonus Points as full and final resolution of the concerns I have raised under reference number xx_xx_. Please credit the accepted 10,000 Amplify Qantas Bonus Points to my Qantas Frequent Flyer membership number .”

Please kindly allow up to 30 business days for these points to appear in your Qantas Frequent Flyer membership account from when you accept this offer as above. 2 I have recorded your feedback and experience for future reference under Complaint ID xx_XX. Please also find attached a copy of our complaints commitment brochure. Thank you again for contacting St George and I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this matter has caused you. Should you wish to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I'd have to confirm but I thnk that it wa a WISH card that I bought. I don't think they'd be able to see what I bought from Woolies or Coles if this was a only one visa or something similar?

Wow. Thanks for sharing the letter. This is definitely a game changer. Makes me think that other transactions that people have been using, like money paid via pay pal for share trades, may also be off limits now.

The fact that they are offering 10,000 points to walk away suggests to me that there may be some wiggle room here. There's a couple of approaches that I'd suggest, depending on how much time you're prepared to spend on this:

1) Send them a response saying that because the term (NOT terms and conditions) did not specifically exclude gift cards it's not reasonable to interpret this as including gift cards. May be able to strengthen this argument by stating that you've bought gift cards before and this has worked to get the bonus points so their interpretation seems to have now changed.

OR

2) Say that you're disappointed but want a chance to get to the minimum spend. Say that you're willing to spend $2000 in the next 30 days if they'll give you the points.

OR

3) Send this directly to the new FOS - AFCA (https://www.fos.org.au/)

OR

4) Take the 10,000 points, walk away with a learning experience.

Let us know how you get on. This has significant repercussions for many of us who are in the churning game!

But if this were me I'd be pushing my luck!

 

[ramamba]

Any purchase of a monetary value, including gift cards, is deemed a cash equivalent transaction and is therefore not included as an eligible transaction.

From Wish gift cards T&Cs (https://giftcards.woolworths.com.au/medias/woolworths-wish-gift-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf) paragraph 6.6:

6.6 WISH Gift Cards cannot be refunded or used to obtain cash. You cannot use your WISH Gift Card to make a credit card payment or other transaction payments.

Could an argument be had that it's not in fact a "cash-equivalent transaction" as those gift cards cannot be used to obtain cash? Does StGeorge have a definition of a "Cash equivalent transaction" buried somewhere in their Cards T&Cs? And where do they stop with a "monetary value", i thought any purchase has a "monetary value" except when the item is free?

 

[BettyB]

Wow. Thanks for sharing the letter. This is definitely a game changer. Makes me think that other transactions that people have been using, like money paid via pay pal for share trades, may also be off limits now.

The fact that they are offering 10,000 points to walk away suggests to me that there may be some wiggle room here. There's a couple of approaches that I'd suggest, depending on how much time you're prepared to spend on this:

1) Send them a response saying that because the term (NOT terms and conditions) did not specifically exclude gift cards it's not reasonable to interpret this as including gift cards. May be able to strengthen this argument by stating that you've bought gift cards before and this has worked to get the bonus points so their interpretation seems to have now changed.
OR
2) Say that you're disappointed but want a chance to get to the minimum spend. Say that you're willing to spend $2000 in the next 30 days if they'll give you the points.
OR
3) Send this directly to the new FOS - AFCA (https://www.fos.org.au/)

Let us know how you get on. This has significant repercussions for many of us who are in the churning game!

Thanks for the detailed suggestions. Definitely not happy about it at all. Seems like a lot of effort to go to for 60,000 points. The fee was only $49. Might just take the 10,000 points and chalk it up to experience.

 

[BettyB]

From Wish gift cards T&Cs (https://giftcards.woolworths.com.au/medias/woolworths-wish-gift-card-terms-and-conditions.pdf) paragraph 6.6:



Could an argument be had that it's not in fact a "cash-equivalent transaction" as those gift cards cannot be used to obtain cash? Does StGeorge have a definition of a "Cash equivalent transaction" buried somewhere in their Cards T&Cs? And where do they stop with a "monetary value", i thought any purchase has a "monetary value" except when the item is free?

Thanks. this does seem to help to strenhthen Dr Ralph's first option. I may have a go at it.

 

[cove]

Meanwhile a family member continues his struggle to get this credit card.... The rest of the family are all onboard.
I buy gift cards on Amex rather than Amplify and no issues.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Thanks. this does seem to help to strenhthen Dr Ralph's first option. I may have a go at it.

Don't give up!

It's all a game. But hopefully one you can win

 

[I love to travel]

No gift cards is certainly a game changer

 

[daft009]

The way around it would be to buy the gift cards in-store. Sacrifice the 5% disc but you're guaranteed the bonus points then

 

[kdser]

Holy cough. Gift cards have always worked for me. This will be a game changer if they are excluded in the future.

 

[jbman]

Just to note.

On my transaction list a Woolworths gift card transaction looks like this

Woolworths Gift Cards Bella Vista Au
Food & Beverage

So their system is not flagging it as something else.

My guess they only picked this out because of the name and not because their system rejected it as part of minimum spend.

 

[kdser]

If this is the case, why did she not get the bonus points in the first place?

Hi Betty, are you able to please provide more information on how exactly you purchased the gift card, such as through which website or app, what gift card etc, and how the transaction is shown up in your credit card statement?

 

[BettyB]

If this is the case, why did she not get the bonus points in the first place?

Hi Betty, are you able to please provide more information on how exactly you purchased the gift card, such as through which website or app, what gift card etc, and how the transaction is shown up in your credit card statement?

I've been through my statements and these are the only ones that relate to gift cards:



28 Aug 27 Aug WOOLWORTHS GIFT CARDS BELLA VISTA AU $475.00

29 Aug 29 Aug WOOLWORTHS GIFT CARDS BELLA VISTA AU $475.00

9 Sep 6 Sep WOOLWORTHS GIFT CARDS BELLA VISTA AU $475.00



These were all for $500 WISH card purchased via cash rewards.



These appear to be what St George is concerned about.



I'm taking Dr Ralph's advice and plan to fight it.

Just to note.

On my transaction list a Woolworths gift card transaction looks like this

Woolworths Gift Cards Bella Vista Au
Food & Beverage

So their system is not flagging it as something else.

My guess they only picked this out because of the name and not because their system rejected it as part of minimum spend.

You can see from what I have stated this is exactly what they have flagged as a problem.

The way around it would be to buy the gift cards in-store. Sacrifice the 5% disc but you're guaranteed the bonus points then

Who knows now. I'm surprised about what's happened to me...so who knows!

 

[I love to travel]

If this a change it is recent. Used gift cards to count as minimum spend in September.

 

[Dr Ralph]

If this a change it is recent. Used gift cards to count as minimum spend in September.

This has been my experience as well. I think @BettyB has a good chance at being successful in a claim for 60,000 points. But the bigger issue for everyone else is that this may now signal a change for the future. I've regularly used WISH cards to ensure that I got the the minimum spend. If this option is taken away then I'll struggle to get to minimum spends!

@BettyB this is significant. I'd be happy to draft something for you if you'd like me to be involved. We all stand to loose if this change is accepted.

 

[Captain Halliday]

This has been my experience as well. I think @BettyB has a good chance at being successful in a claim for 60,000 points. But the bigger issue for everyone else is that this may now signal a change for the future. I've regularly used WISH cards to ensure that I got the the minimum spend. If this option is taken away then I'll struggle to get to minimum spends!

@BettyB this is significant. I'd be happy to draft something for you if you'd like me to be involved. We all stand to loose if this change is accepted.

Datapoint: I used the favoured method to meet min. spend in Dec ‘19.

So if it turns out to be a change it’s very recent.

EDIT: after re-reading @BettyB ’s post, I see her transaction were August.

As noted above, my my transactions were early Dec and bonus points credited as expected.

Makes me wonder if there’s another transaction that has caused the problem?

Did you make a payment with the big Canberra merchant?