Overpayment of Qantas Frequent Flyer Points

[mghinoz]

If I were to receive an overpayment (significant amount) of QFF points from a credit card provider, does the credit card provider have the ability / access rights to reclaim or recover those points from my QFF account?

I'll fill in all the details for you once I know the points are safe

 

[Robert K]

They can take it back. Obviously

 

[blackcat20]

I'm not sure about credit cards, but I had an overpayment from EDR which was reclaimed from my QFF account...

 

[fbrimfield]

If I were to receive an overpayment (significant amount) of QFF points from a credit card provider, does the credit card provider have the ability / access rights to reclaim or recover those points from my QFF account?

I'll fill in all the details for you once I know the points are safe

Without having a look at the actual T&C's of the credit card, i'm going to hazard a guess that there would be a wide clause there allowing them to be able to take the points back, or 'adjust' your balance to reflect what you accurately earned.

That being said, a cogent argument could also be made that you should not suffer for the banks mistake, and they should bear the consequences of their mistaken actions. For example, if you were overpaid points, and then booked an award flight which you otherwise could not have taken without the overpayment of points, then it is highly unlikely that the award would be cancelled and points taken back, because then you'd be suffering a detriment at the mistaken representation of the bank/airline (that you had more points than you earned). If they just sit there and you do nothing with them, then that argument would assume less validity.

Anyway that's the lawyer in me speaking. I'd be curious to see what other people thought.

 

[boylero]

shhhhhh!

 

[straitman]

If I were to receive an overpayment (significant amount) of QFF points from a credit card provider, does the credit card provider have the ability / access rights to reclaim or recover those points from my QFF account?

I'll fill in all the details for you once I know the points are safe

The easy fix they have is to not allocate points to that equivalent amount for future purchases. (per Amex)

 

[madrooster]

Usually they will just apply negative points which I've seen done by both NAB and Woolworths.

 

[RWJ777]

Without having a look at the actual T&C's of the credit card, i'm going to hazard a guess that there would be a wide clause there allowing them to be able to take the points back, or 'adjust' your balance to reflect what you accurately earned. That being said, a cogent argument could also be made that you should not suffer for the banks mistake, and they should bear the consequences of their mistaken actions. For example, if you were overpaid points, and then booked an award flight which you otherwise could not have taken without the overpayment of points, then it is highly unlikely that the award would be cancelled and points taken back, because then you'd be suffering a detriment at the mistaken representation of the bank/airline (that you had more points than you earned). If they just sit there and you do nothing with them, then that argument would assume less validity. Anyway that's the lawyer in me speaking. I'd be curious to see what other people thought.

This lawyer says that it is highly likely that they would have drafted their participation conditions with a clause excluding liability for error and enabling correction of error; that's what I would have done.HOWEVER, you get away with what you try on; if you can apply said points to another purpose, and evince that you did not knowingly do so of their error, you might be OK. I mean, how will they recover?But if you're saving them for a future purpose, and they're going to stay in your account for a while, I'd say they could be vulnerable.

 

[pauly7]

Usually they will just apply negative points which I've seen done by both NAB and Woolworths.

Hotels can do it too

 

[mghinoz]

Well I'm a few months away from using the points so I'll just need to sit tight and hope they don't disappear. A free 40,000 QFF points would have to be one of my better days of collecting points!

 

[mella2007]

Well I'm a few months away from using the points so I'll just need to sit tight and hope they don't disappear. A free 40,000 QFF points would have to be one of my better days of collecting points!

There is no way I'd be writing on a public forum the error nor how many exact points you got...better to keep quiet, perhaps chat to a couple of people you know irl and let it pan out

 

[MelUser]

I would like this credit card!

 

[Major]

I'm sure an internal audit will pick up an error of this magnitude, eventually. 40,000 points should stand out like the proverbial

 

[Simo]

Book a JASA or transfer them to a family member.

 

[pagingjoan]

And if you had NOT received a credit for 40k points that were legitimately due to you......
What would be the advice given here?
(Just presenting the other side of the argument.)

 

[munitalP]

Open an EDR account in your cats name, get the cat a FF account, transfer the points until needed

seriously though, they are not yours, you don't have a right to them, so expect them to get deducted sadly...



ring ring....

"Hello, this is ABC Credit cards calling about 40k points..."

"Talk to the cat"

 

[RWJ777]

Given that number too, they're worth quite a bit, so even if you were able to squirrel them away, you may be subject to some other type of recovery. Financial institutions are pretty fierce when it comes to not allowing consumers to profit from errors, including sometimes referring to police.

 

[MAX_1]

Is this a new credit card? If yes, maybe there was a offer of x points for signing in?

 

[fbrimfield]

This lawyer says that it is highly likely that they would have drafted their participation conditions with a clause excluding liability for error and enabling correction of error; that's what I would have done.HOWEVER, you get away with what you try on; if you can apply said points to another purpose, and evince that you did not knowingly do so of their error, you might be OK. I mean, how will they recover?But if you're saving them for a future purpose, and they're going to stay in your account for a while, I'd say they could be vulnerable.

Yep it seems we agree that the points become vulnerable so long as they're not attached to a seperate transaction, but I don't think you'd need to show that you did so without knowledge of the mistake.

For my money it would primarily come down to a simple contractual issue, they made an offer to book you on an award ticket for X points which they hold on the other parties behalf, the offer was accepted and a ticket was issued. They wouldn't be able to rely on the transaction being entered into unwillingly because each reward booking gets a once over by a human being before tickets are issued.

Besides it would be difficult to show that you willingly transacted in bad faith knowing the points weren't yours.

Oh wait, this whole thread is evidence of that. And a company representative is a member of these forums. Whoops, there goes that idea.

 

[wallacej]

I had a situation some years ago where I made a purchase for points through a cc provider. The points value of what I wanted was more than I had available. The item was able to be put into my basket. I found this interesting and kept adding items. I ended up spending 140k of points, my available balance was close to only 30k only.
I went on to the checkout expecting the transaction not to complete. It did. All items arrived! I nervously leftall items packaged for some weeks, expecting a call, that never ever came.
This was now close to three years ago, and it was a new card, and I thought possibly I had bonus points available that I could not see. To this day, I imagine that is still the case, why else would they not track me down. The account is now closed.