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An interchange fee cap is simply a price control. Amex also charge prices. The RBA can control that too. What's so hard to understand?

The RBA can regulate any aspect of Amex's payment business through the setting of standards it must follow. That is very clear from s 18(1) of the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998.

It's relatively common for the WW/Coles portals to reject foreign-issued cards. Whether that practice spreads is TBD. I think it would be unlikely for in person transactions anytime soon.

Both are true: https://archive.md/LvLJM

Amex doesn't pre-empt legislative changes. Indeed, it is often the last to react. A good example is the last big legislative change to credit card earning structures in Australia. In 2017, the RBA began to regulate interchange fees. It only applied to Visa and MC. They devalued quickly. Amex...

And go where? The Big Four will move first with a further devaluation once the interchange reduction kicks in. We'll probably see even more of them drop their international transfer partners as well. Amex merely needs to stay one step above them.

I don't see the AU Amex devaluation as a preemptive strike. It was a response to other conditions — weak AUD, which hits transfers to foreign airlines where they purchase points in USD; overly generous base earn rate as you say in the next paragraph; reduction in competitive landscape in...

This isn't a flight with low passenger numbers. This is a flight with almost no passengers.

I'm not that surprised. When the flight is almost entirely empty, they will prob open to partners: As I've mentioned in other threads, with US travel weakening, carriers are getting desperate to fill seats. Qantas has award availability to the US in historically one of the busier travel...

I'll also add. I follow J sale fares to the US. Qantas has had 7 sales this year: March, May, June, July, September, October, November.

J down to $7-8K as well. Equal lowest sale fares this year.

There have been very few NLL links in circulation in recent months. Mostly they have been targeted offers that appear in the Amex portal when you're logged in. Danny Deal Guru is a good public source of such links, but as I said, they're almost always targeted. I have two columns in my budget...

Looks like a big nothing burger to me. Hilton continues to be an excellent program for the credit card gamer through large numbers of uncapped free night certificates + free Diamond status.

Yes it is, welcome to the brave new world of credit card points earning (or lack thereof).

I'm sure NAB is happy for the optimisers to self-select out & quit NAB/Citi, leaving only people who use credit cards in a sub-optimal fashion, making the bank lots of money.

The BITRE data does not break down arrivals by nationality. The article is making a claim about nationality.

The BITRE data cannot answer the question posed by the article. It's a complete non-sequitur. It's like asking: What will the weather in Sydney be tomorrow? Then answering: Looks good judging by the forecast for London.

It's also in the very first sentence of the article: 'There have been plenty of anecdotal reports of fewer people travelling to the United States in 2025, compared to previous years. But is this actually true for Australians?'

Even if that were correct (and I'm not saying it is), all it would show is that the article is even more misleading than it already is, because Australian visitor numbers are even lower.

The year to date figure also masks increasing weakness. Monthly arrivals were up in January & February compared to the same months in 2024, but have been down by considerable amounts recently: 8% in August, 7% in July & 10.2% in June