St George Ampliy Signature card. 100,000 Amplify points. NO FEE!

[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?

 

[Dr Ralph]

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.

With Stgeorge?

 

[jbman]

This sounds more like an excuse for not getting the points rather than the reason. Someone has personally looked over the your statement and tried to point to that being the reason.

As I stated it’s flagged as Food & Beverage by their own system

 

[kdser]

Betty

Thank you so much for sharing the information. So where did you spend the other $500 plus to get to the minimum requirement of $2,000?

I am just thinking, regardless of what the St George rep has told you, whether it is possible that it is your other transactions that are not qualified as eligible transactions.

I would imagine the St George system for whatever reason wasn't triggered to issue your bonus points whereas the rep merely wanted to justify it rather than investigating the real reason.

 

[BettyB]

Betty

Thank you so much for sharing the information. So where did you spend the other $500 plus to get to the minimum requirement of $2,000?

I am just thinking, regardless of what the St George rep has told you, whether it is possible that it is your other transactions that are not qualified as eligible transactions.

I would imagine the St George system for whatever reason wasn't triggered to issue your bonus points whereas the rep merely wanted to justify it rather than investigating the real reason.

If you read the email from the St George person you can see that it's the Woolworths gift cards that they've flagged as being the problem.

No other gift cards were purchased and no other transactions involve merchants that sell gift cards. All other purchases would normally trigger the bonus points.

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?

No. All other purchases were for car hire and accommodation.

It was only $2000 spend for me to get the points.

 

[kdser]

Are you sure you met the $2000 spend requirement? Just to double check, did you exclude the $49 annual card fee when you count the total spend?

 

[I love to travel]

BettyB I just think you got very unlucky. But agree that you should fight it and quote this thread as evidence.