They offer and promise but don't deliver

[ashleyn]

I have been an active CC points hunter for the last couple of years, churning through some 20+ cards and harvesting a small fortune in points, however many of those have required rather heavy threats to the banks concerned to actually get the points. Currently in dispute with the Commonwealth over their latest offer where the points and fee refunds are not forthcoming. Have others had similar experiences and if so what have you done to resolve them ?

 

[illumination]

I have been an active CC points hunter for the last couple of years, churning through some 20+ cards and harvesting a small fortune in points, however many of those have required rather heavy threats to the banks concerned to actually get the points. Currently in dispute with the Commonwealth over their latest offer where the points and fee refunds are not forthcoming. Have others had similar experiences and if so what have you done to resolve them ?

To answer your question, no, haven't had any significant difficulties with getting the institutions to issue the points. Sometimes an email/phone call to initiate a "push" can work..

now... why the hell did you post this in "Current Credit Card Promotions"?!

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Cruiserette just had same probs with CBA - UFB - I have never seen or heard anything like them - they make Citi look like total professionals.

 

[ashleyn]

To answer your question, no, haven't had any significant difficulties with getting the institutions to issue the points. Sometimes an email/phone call to initiate a "push" can work..

now... why the hell did you post this in "Current Credit Card Promotions"?!

Ummm well it seemed like an appropriate place ? to talk about CC promotions ? Happy to be moved somewhere else

 

[illumination]

Ummm well it seemed like an appropriate place ? to talk about CC promotions ? Happy to be moved somewhere else

lol ok.
Sorry, re-reading it, I sound a bit harsh.

I would imagine it would be more suitable for "General Credit Card Discussion"?

 

[Coops1]

Had to chase them up for myself and +1. Not onerous, slight PITA with CBA as as it took several promises and a couple of months to get the refunds and points after the relevant timeframes.

I don't let it deter me....sitting on 1.15million points at this point...

 

[EestiTiger]

Yep I have made some recent issues too.

Citi - basically told me no points for you as they originally opened my account as a citibank rewards, not QF rewards. When I rang them and changed it they said all good. Fast forward a few months, no points so drop them an email and ask where are the bonus points. They then said as I changed from one reward to the other, I don't get ANY bonus points and there was nothing I could do! I fired make an email with the key words 'Banking Onbudsman' and not only did I get the bonus points, I somehow got an additional 10,000 points I was pretty happy...

Second one recently was CBA. Met minimum spend waited close to the 7 weeks or whatever it was and nothing. Sent them an email asking what is happening. Palmed me off without even looking into it saying you have to wait the 7 weeks. I emailed back on the 7 weeks and said right it is 7 weeks, you tell me when these points will be credited. I had a nice email back telling me the next run the following week and told me to the day. I think CBA are having an issue reading the above post and it is only after you chase them up, that they look into your specific case and then credit the points.

It is very frustrating... Prior cards have been fine. I have an outstanding ANZ black application so hoping they are more efficient

 

[Radio8tiv]

Mrs.Radio had a little hiccup with CBA but their service was excellent to resolve it, she applied for the recent promotion and only got a lower level card, before she activated the card she said to them she didn't want/apply for the card she got and they allowed her to still qualify for the higher points bonus and higher points earn plus received the annual fee refund without hassle.

 

[Dr Ralph]

I have been an active CC points hunter for the last couple of years, churning through some 20+ cards and harvesting a small fortune in points, however many of those have required rather heavy threats to the banks concerned to actually get the points. Currently in dispute with the Commonwealth over their latest offer where the points and fee refunds are not forthcoming. Have others had similar experiences and if so what have you done to resolve them ?

I've had mixed experiences.

Cth, Bankwest and Citibank have been difficult to deal with. NAB and ANZ have been easy.

For the problems ones I don't bother with the phone calls, they are a waste of my time - you get different stories and promises each time. I put everything in a formal letter and indicate that if the problems aren't resolved in 14 days the same letter will be sent to the Banking Ombudsman.

 

[burmans]

I have had some problems over the years but I have found that pdfing the sign on page helps. Also I tend not to ring customer (non)service, I find an email address and use that. I usually find a threat to raise to the financial ombudsman gets great results if common sense isn't prevailing (and unfortunately this is the case far too often).

Ie, as per Dr Ralph's advice.

 

[ashleyn]

I've had mixed experiences.

Cth, Bankwest and Citibank have been difficult to deal with. NAB and ANZ have been easy.

For the problems ones I don't bother with the phone calls, they are a waste of my time - you get different stories and promises each time. I put everything in a formal letter and indicate that if the problems aren't resolved in 14 days the same letter will be sent to the Banking Ombudsman.

Just to round out this one, I did ring and got a very reasonable and knowledgeable operator who told me the 90 day promise is nonsense. The points and other benefits are linked to a statement cycle (first statement date after the 90 days) which in my case was 121 days. After 121 days, voila, it all magically appeared. Commbank should be honest upfront and correctly set their customer's expectations and they would save themselves a mountain of grief.

 

[burmans]

Commbank should be honest upfront and correctly set their customer's expectations and they would save themselves a mountain of grief.

Ain't that the truth! Though really not quite sure why they play these games, this type of thing must lead to a fair few calls and waste of CRS's time. How's that a good idea for them?

 

[BillytheFIsh]

In the last few years my wife and I have harvested sign-on bonuses from (off the top of my head) ANZ, NAB, Citi, BankWest, Amex (VA + DJs cards), WOW (HSBC), Macquarie (direct and JQ) and I must say I've been pretty impressed with how little effort it has taken to chase up the bonus points. Most posted automatically in the time they disclosed and those that didn't were generally sorted within 1 phone call.

The only one I had to escalate was the Bankwest transaction account account 10K (I signed up in the promo period, but they didn't open the account until after I had done the ID check by which time the promo had expired) and even then, an internal complaint had it resolved within a week or so.

Luck of the draw I guess, but I always make sure to PDF the offer page and where I clicked through just in case something goes wrong.

 

[theblank]

Have others had similar experiences and if so what have you done to resolve them ?

No.

Recently I applied for an AMEX card and got my 80,000 points in something like 2 weeks after my first spend, even though they say it will take 8-10 weeks.

I suspect some banks have manual systems for adding these promotional points to new cards, and as such, people who do boring processing jobs can sometimes make mistakes, and is probably not a simple process to check and fix either.