Westpac reduces points on credit card spend

[Supersonic Swinger]

This doesn't seem to be as bad as the NAB devaluation but:

https://www.ausbt.com.au/the-next-domino-falls-westpac-reduces-credit-card-points

 

[burmans]

Definitely could have been worse, but suddenly the Krysflyer card looks good again.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

I have a few fee free cards which earn me between 0.5-1.0 Velocity per $ and 1 QFF per $ (not to mention complimentary travel insurance and a couple of lounge visits).

I'll let my 100,000 bonus from Altitude Black post and then I will cancel. I see no point anymore holding any of these cards with annual fees other than churning them for sign-on bonuses.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Glad that Altitude conversions to Velocity and Enrich aren't changing to match SQ/CX. Seems to be a few changes re: pricing of Altitude gift cards etc. on the Altitude site, but at least it also clearly confirms that no more changes are being made to FF conversions!

 

[kpc]

My Earth Black Amex card goes from 1.5 QF pts per $ spent to 1.25 QF pts per $ spent, a 16.6% reduction but remains uncapped. So unhappy but could be worse!

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Kpc: A great card for government spend too except with the ATO, as it still earns full rates at the Post Office, on tolling accounts and other places where AMEX is accepted, whereas all AMEX-issued cards award 0.5/$1 on the same (or 0.375/$1 for Gateway cards)

 

[oz_mark]

Glad that Altitude conversions to Velocity and Enrich aren't changing to match SQ/CX. Seems to be a few changes re: pricing of Altitude gift cards etc. on the Altitude site, but at least it also clearly confirms that no more changes are being made to FF conversions!

Westpac have been dribbling their changes through, rather than going for a big bang change.

 

[kpc]

From Sep 2016:

Thanks for the heads up. ..the one most of us will be annoyed about is that 2.5 altitude pts will be needed for 1 Krisflyer mile (currently it is 2 for 1)..so a 20% devaluation

This doesn't seem to be as bad as the NAB devaluation but:

https://www.ausbt.com.au/the-next-domino-falls-westpac-reduces-credit-card-points

From AUSTBT article:

Altitude Black (with Altitude points): AMEX spend decreases from 3 Altitude points per dollar to 2.5 (equal to 1.25 Velocity points/Enrich miles or 1.0 Asia Miles/KrisFlyer miles), while MasterCard spend overseas drops from 3 Altitude points per Aussie dollar to 1.25 (0.625 Velocity/Enrich points or 0.5 KrisFlyer/Asia Miles), with no changes to the domestic earn rate.

So in a 7-8 months period, the earn rate for Krisflyer miles with the Altitude Black Amex has gone from 1.5 KrisFlyer points per $ to 1.25 KrisFlyer points per $, and now finally to 1 KrisFlyer point per $ I cancelled my card earlier this week, with no resistance / counter offer at all when i mentoned this to the agent. Amex Explorer remains (for now) at 1.5 KrisFlyer points per $

 

[Jack_OC]

From Sep 2016:
From AUSTBT article: So in a 7-8 months period, the earn rate for Krisflyer miles with the Altitude Black Amex has gone from 1.5 KrisFlyer points per $ to 1.25 KrisFlyer points per $, and now finally to 1 KrisFlyer point per $ I cancelled my card earlier this week, with no resistance / counter offer at all when i mentoned this to the agent. Amex Explorer remains (for now) at 1.5 KrisFlyer points per $

I'm cancelling mine now too. I've had a Westpac Altitude card in one incarnation or another for 10 years, but I've really only ever used the Amex, as there have always been higher earning non-Amex options from other providers (e.g. Citi). However, now that the Amex earn rate is down to 1 pt/$, it's no better than the base rate with the Amex Plat Edge (and worse than the Plat Edge for petrol/supermarkets), so it no longer serves any purpose for me.

PS - on Explorer vs other options. I also have the Amex Velocity card, which I initially took out just for bonus points, but I planned to keep it until just before the renewal date, as it has a nice earn rate on VA flights (3 pts/$), restaurants (3 pts/$), hotels (2 pts/$), other airlines (2 pts/$) and overseas transactions (2 pts/$).

Even if you really want Krisflyer points instead of Velocity points (as I do), after conversion this works out at roughly 2.2 KF points/$ or 1.5 KF points/$ on those categories. I was going to cancel it rather than pay another fee, but now I'm reconsidering. It comes with a free flight, which largely cancels out the $349 annual fee, and I've worked out that based on my spend in the past year, it would have worked out about the same as Explorer on average for me if I converted everything to KF, but much better than Explorer if I kept the points in Velocity. So now I'm thinking I will keep Amex Plat Edge, Velocity Amex and Citi Signature (fee free for life), and ditch all the others.

 

[Jack_OC]

I just cancelled my Altitude Black. No resistance whatsoever, despite being a long time customer, often putting through >$10k per month on it. They didn't even ask why I wanted to close the account - once I got through to the so-called "retentions" dept they just said "sure", ran through the scripted spiel about being liable for transactions incurred but not yet posted etc, and then said "all done, thanks, bye".

I wasn't going to be tempted by any fee reductions/points offers, but I am surprised they didn't even bother to try! I've literally never had such a quick card cancellation phone call before (and I've done quite a few in my time). Almost as if they don't want people to keep this card anymore!

BTW - others may be interested to know that part of the scripted spiel said that you have 90 days to redeem Altitude Points from the date of closure. I wasn't sure about that, so I transferred them all to KF before cancelling.

 

[VicBitter]

I just cancelled my Altitude Black. No resistance whatsoever, despite being a long time customer, often putting through >$10k per month on it. They didn't even ask why I wanted to close the account - once I got through to the so-called "retentions" dept they just said "sure", ran through the scripted spiel about being liable for transactions incurred but not yet posted etc, and then said "all done, thanks, bye".

Cancelled mine as well after 20+ years. At least you got a "bye", my call "dropped out" as soon as it was processed. Everything else was the same as your experience. Other thing to note that when you cancel access to the account online and previous statements is gone immediately. Be sure to save any statements etc if required prior.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Well, after hearing about this online nearly a month ago, it was nice of Westpac to finally send notification of the changes.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Actually, just a thought: has anybody confirmed whether Westpac's definition of July 1 means transactions made/settled on/after July 1, or to statements issued on/after July 1 (as Westpac usually calculates points once a month and then ships them across to Qantas)? My card statement usually comes about a week before the end of the month, so thinking I could shift a lot of my payments forward before the earn rate is cut.

 

[moffat39]

My wife has had the Westpac Black with AMEX since around February 2017. I already had my own and she got one for the sign on bonus.

Was having a look at my statement tonight in detail and came across this " If you opened your account from 1/1/17 to 30/04/17 you will continue to enjoy the current points earn rate until 1/11/17" That was below the notice about the changes in earn rates and no earn for ATO payment.

That softens the blow by a little.

 

[cove]

My Altitude Black is now gone.

 

[moffat39]

After a payment to ATO in June mine will be too. Wife will keep hers till 31 October this year.

 

[cove]

We are still ok with our Kris Flyer Platinum Amex. We both kept this card from the very start.

 

[moffat39]

I am so envious!

I only started transferring my Westpac altitude points to SQ in 2011 for my first trip to Europe in J with SQ in 2012. Prior to that had been transferring my points to MH for J trips within Asia.

By the time I had heard about the Krisflyer Westpac card around 2012 it was too late to apply.

 

[cove]

My immediate work colleagues kept this one too. Recently one of the wives went Suites class on SQ and thought it was great.

 

[onemore]

Is there any cards where you can pay debt to the ATO?