Just wondering if any NON-Westpac customers had any luck getting the $395 fee waived or reduced.
Not keen on waiting 45 mins to talk to someone so thought I'd try here!!
My annual fee was due this week.
I called to tell them I was cancelling the card due to the fee.
The lady on the phone said they didn't want to lose my business, and she would speak to the relevant department to see if she could get the fee reduced or waived. She seemed confident of getting it waived completely.
While I was waiting on hold, I was browsing around the Altitude Rewards website and found that you can use points to pay for the annual card fee (Categories - Financial Services and donations - Card Fees).
When the operator came back on the line she was very apologetic and said that they tried to waive the fee completely but "the system" would not let them. She said that they best they could do was offer a $200 discount down to $195.
I asked if I could then use points to pay the $195. She said that was fine, I just had to wait for the $395 fee to hit the card, and then call back to get the $200 discount applied, and use points to pay the remainder.
I think it will be around 33k points to pay the $195. No doubt this may represent bad redemption value, but it suits my needs for now.
Hope this helps.