I cant check now because I've closed the account and online rewards access closes along with it - but certainly as of July I was still getting 2x points / $ on the Black Rewards VISA and I'm fairly certain that last time I looked online I was still getting this rate.
It was a good earner this card, but when the annual fee time came around I really had to ask both myself and the agent I spoke with ... whats the returned benefit for such a high fee? The agent pointed to travel insurance and lounge access, I countered with the fact that the lounge access agreement was mostly broken and rarely worked (never for me) due to disputes between the lounges and Veloce. Travel insurance ... well -all- my cards offer this and I usually book on Velocity Amex as the earn is outstanding.... which left us with ... well ... nothing else. The agent tried to get me to move onto a Plat card as the fee is cheaper, but the earn is even worse at 1:1 (so 0.5/$1 VFF points) and the agent insisted I was only earning 1.25/$1 now (though my statements begged to differ ...) so no doubt whatsoever that lower earn was coming my way.
Add to that the removal of ATO payment points early last year and, well, you suddenly realise that its just another high fee card without any outstanding benefits. Anyway, to their credit the offer was to halve the fee for this coming year only. At $187 thats still not free and still for a card with nothing much interesting to offer so I asked for some points to help me swallow the reduced fee ... but no, couldn't do it so I let the account go. I'll turn up on their doorstep in a years time looking for some new customer sign on points (its kind of ridiculous this game sometimes).
Note to others who are going to close their card accounts:
- The CSR told me that they would refund my annual fee, already charged, but as a goodwill gesture only as the original agreement stated that the fee wasn't refundable after the statement date if further transactions had been made. I didn't check the agreement to see if this was true, but it sounds about right. So, be careful. If you're going to cancel, stop using the card well before the annual fee date.
- Despite what the CSR said, once you close your account you also immediately lose access to the rewards website. You do still have 60 days to use up your points, but you can't see them or look at the transaction history online, you need to call and work through it by voice.
- Be aware that minimum points redemption is 3000 points. I moved pretty much all mine before I closed the account, but there are some dregs left over from the current statement month which will probably be lost.
