Changes to Westpac credit card point earn rates from 1/8/25

[elanshin]

How many would remained loyal, I wonder?

Loyalty has never been the goal for any bank (or telecommunications). Your best goal is always to hop around on CC and mortgage products. What they don't want is for it to be too frequent.

At the end of the day one of the key metrics is "new customer acquisition". Much flashier than "customer retention rate"

 

[Aeryn]

My Altitude Black including Qantas fee has always been free and should be for life. Its a back up card when churning others but the earn rate on the occasional spend is so much lower than ANZ Black, NAB Black or Amex that I'm thinking of closing it anyway, to reduce my credit total.

 

[oz_mark]

My card had grand fathered fees as well. Call the bank, rep said the bank can change the fees. Can GF fees be changed?

Unless there is specific language around the fee being for life, it can change. Often increased fees only apply to 'new' customers, with them being rolled out to 'existing' customers later.

 

[Mattg]

I wonder if this change is reflected on the business card side @Mattg would you happen to know?

I'm not currently aware of any changes to the business cards.

 

[Kremmen]

I just wish there was a button to convert marketing wanker-ese ("earn rate" and "spend cap") into English ("earning rate" and "spending cap").

I also wonder why "Points-Earning Caps" isn't "Points-Earn Caps" for consistency.

 

[one9]

I was about to apply for the Westpac Black card. Whilst I realise it is likely the StGeorge card will also change soon, I am thinking that it’s better to apply for the StGeorge card instead in case there is a bigger time period before it changes. My question is: when applying for the card, I remember from ages ago when I had the card, if you were a Westpac customer and got your pay into a Westpac bank account, the system could see that and you didn’t have to send payslips. Is it the same if you apply for a StGeorge card but have a Westpac bank account that your pay goes into?

 

[LondonAussie]

have to send payslips

Oh wow is that still a thing in Australia?

In the UK the banks have access to this information via credit reference agencies data, so it's very rare to be asked to send anything in as part of an application. On the flipside it's an automated decision that's hard to contest if they get it wrong, they'll just say complain to the credit agencies not us. So perhaps that's not a good thing!

 

[mick]

I was about to apply for the Westpac Black card. Whilst I realise it is likely the StGeorge card will also change soon, I am thinking that it’s better to apply for the StGeorge card instead in case there is a bigger time period before it changes. My question is: when applying for the card, I remember from ages ago when I had the card, if you were a Westpac customer and got your pay into a Westpac bank account, the system could see that and you didn’t have to send payslips. Is it the same if you apply for a StGeorge card but have a Westpac bank account that your pay goes into?

Yes, that was my situation. When I applied for my STG QF Amplify card a few months ago, I gave it permission to logon to WBC and it read my employer payroll deposit transactions to make their application determination.
With these impending changes by WBC, it makes my decision to close my QF Altitude Black card even easier.

 

[ken86c]

Seems like these cards will be very poor value using third party payment processors like yak and pay.com especially after the $10k threshold is surpassed

 

[Seat0B]

My wife has had the black Qantas card for many years on a grandfathered annual fee of $150. Not only do the point earning changes severely reduce its value to us but they now want to charge an annual fee of $295 + a $95 Qantas reward fee for a thoroughly unrewarding card. Will definitely be cancelling before it renews.

Me too - same situation exactly

 

[Seat0B]

Hi Aussieboozer Did your wife receive a letter from Westpac stating her grandfathered annual fee will increase? I am on a grandfathered annual fee and was advised at that time by their retention team that the fee is guaranteed not to increase for life...so they should not put the annual fee up

I too was on a discounted fee and they have advised me by email.

 

[m535607]

I too was on a discounted fee and they have advised me by email.

I was promised in October 2010 by their card retention team when I called to cancel my card to keep the card on a discounted $180 annual fee for the life of the card. I still have the statement with the original card number then and all the changes over the years in terms of card numbers and upgrades etc. I lodged a formal written complaint to Westpac yesterday and you should do the same by lodging a complaint online. If they get a number of complaints they may do something about their broken promise of ''for life of the card''.