Who else still holds the Citibank Free For Life Premier Card?

[Chicken]

Are you referring to the news below?

Just logged into Citi web site, and I have this message as well:

Changes to Points transfer partners:
Cathay Pacific, Etihad Guest, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Qatar Airways Privilege Club will no longer be available as Points Transfer redemption partners effective 16 November 2025.

Then when I went to the Rewards section within internet banking, I got this message:

Please note effective from 16 November 2025, Cathay Pacific, Etihad Guest, Singapore Airlines Kris Flyer and Qatar Airways Privilege Club will no longer be available as Points Transfer redemption partners, and Shop with Points at Kogan.com will be unavailable as a redemption option.

I suppose this could mean it won’t be possible via Citi as that card will be retired. Whether/what transfers are available with new card is unknown. Surely they would have to advise that before Nov 16?

Singapore has hard expiry on miles, so I would wait until Nov 14 to see if any NAB would make any other announcements. If not, I would transfer all my Citi points to SQ on Nov 14.

Transferring now would mean penalising myself by bringing the expiry date of my points ahead by one month.

 

[FrequentFlyer85]

Thinking strategically considering the below…
Annual Additional Cardholder Fee (applicable to MyCard
Rewards accounts): Card activation by the additional
cardholder will no longer be required before this fee is charged.
For new additional cardholders added from the Transition Date,
the first fee will be charged when the additional cardholder is
added, or the account is first used (whichever is later).

This means if you leave any additional card holder requirements until the switch to MyCard, you'll be charged a fee. Currently under Citibank management it is fee free for all cards except Citibank Rewards ($90)

They're just saying that the additional cardholder fee will still only apply to the Rewards card (as Citibank Rewards will become MyCard Rewards).

It doesn't say there's a new fee for MyCard Premier or MyCard Prestige cards.

 

[oz_mark]

My fee, being fee free for life = zero and may be why the documents have $your fee as their system needs to be reprogrammed to print either ‘Nil’ or ‘Zero’.

The link to the documents sent everyone to the same document. They weren't personalised in any way.

It also says

‘Your fee’ in the table above refers to the Annual Fee amount that you’re currently paying, including any promotional discounts or waivers.

 

[kpc]

I dont trust Nab....I TFd my balance of over 300000 Citibank pts to KrisFlyer, leaving one solitary point left.

If they ditch the 2 annual free Priority Passes as well, I will ditch the card as well!

 

[Chicken]

The link to the documents sent everyone to the same document. They weren't personalised in any way.

Exactly. These are not reports, generated personalised from the banking system / CRM, like how an invoice would calculate all the pricings 100% correct for that specific account / customer. These are just EDMs sent out using whatever spam sending system Adobe / Marketo, written by someone using a canvas on hard HTML codes.

Seems like the last 4 years had made some people unable to manage change / uncertainty with a cool head, but everything involves banging on the panic button about 100 times.

 

[Legoman]

They're just saying that the additional cardholder fee will still only apply to the Rewards card (as Citibank Rewards will become MyCard Rewards).

It doesn't say there's a new fee for MyCard Premier or MyCard Prestige cards.

I stand by my justification for applying now for additional account holders in order to avoid the brown for as long as possible:

We'll only send you a new MyCard branded physical card when your current card is up for renewal

 

[oz_mark]

I could be wrong but my understanding is that from 16 November redeeming reward points will no longer be available.
Will this be temporary? I'm not sure.

Temporary - between 16 November and 24 November

 

[ramamba]

I stand by my justification for applying now for additional account holders in order to avoid the brown for as long as possible:

We'll only send you a new MyCard branded physical card when your current card is up for renewal

will be interesting to see if they let us keep the Citi cards, the comms refer to new account numbers, hence I'm thinking old plastic will become useless rather quickly.

I have to say of all MyCard designs the premier is the most hideous one. They managed to outdo the old Bankwest zero blobs.

 

[Happy Dude]

Temporary - between 16 November and 24 November

There is a temporary unavailability of redemptions across the program between those dates.

But SQ, Etihad, Qatar and Cathay will not be redemption partners from 16 Nov.

 

[Legoman]

The problem, which is intentional, is that everything NAB (and to be fair this is not unique to NAB but widespread in the corporate world), that is put out to customers is deliberately vague. ie. depending on interpretation it can be taken any number of ways. This can be by design, or it can be an unintentional happy coincidence from a lack of decision making, but either way the result benefits the corporate because it breeds supposition and speculation in the customers. What they're doing is drip-feeding missives that basically say not much more than 'change is coming'. Alarm bells immediately start going off and the speculation starts.

The corporate benefits from this because they don't even need to have made concrete decisions about any of the changes at all yet at this point, but what they now have is the feedback via the customer speculation about what changes they can make with minimal pushback, versus those that will face determined resistance. This then helps them to make those decisions and then we get more drip-fed clarification about what the changes will be. But again, the details will remain vague enough that they give themselves ample wiggle room to change again depending on the backlash/commentary.

In international diplomacy they call this 'plausible deniability'. The use of terms like 'yourfee' is purposely designed to be vague, because it forces you to then try and find out what 'yourfee' actually means, when obviously just replacing 'yourfee' with a number would be much easier. But making things easier and more directly understandable is not the aim of the game here. 'Yourfee' is designed to be able to be interpreted multiple different ways which depend on who you are to them as a customer and you can't find that out directly because it's decided by the bank depending on any number of factors they determine which are all 'commercial in confidence' and won't be revealed.

This is all a game NAB is forcing their customers to play. The customers want to know the rules before they play, but the bank wants to know the result before they reveal the rules, so they can write them in a way that ensures they win.

 

[oz_mark]

In international diplomacy they call this 'plausible deniability'. The use of terms like 'yourfee' is purposely designed to be vague, because it forces you to then try and find out what 'yourfee' actually means, when obviously just replacing 'yourfee' with a number would be much easier. But making things easier and more directly understandable is not the aim of the game here. 'Yourfee' is designed to be able to be interpreted multiple different ways which depend on who you are to them as a customer and you can't find that out directly because it's decided by the bank depending on any number of factors they determine which are all 'commercial in confidence' and won't be revealed.

They say that 'YourFee' is the fee you're currently paying. Given that everyone has got exactly the same document, they can't really put a number there without creating an individual variations document. An individual table may come closer to the time.

 

[Legoman]

will be interesting to see if they let us keep the Citi cards, the comms refer to new account numbers, hence I'm thinking old plastic will become useless rather quickly.

Did you not read the quote I lifted directly from the Citibank page titled 'The move to MyCard'? It literally says in direct wording that you will keep your existing card until it expires. I don't know how that could be any clearer to be honest.

I have to say of all MyCard designs the premier is the most hideous one. They managed to outdo the old Bankwest zero blobs.

But you know the brown is the kewl one to have because its Mastercard logo is not red/yellow, it's grey/silver instead. Otherwise it looks like something you cleaned out of a baby's nappy, but don't think about that, look at the grey/silver Mastercard logo!

 

[Legoman]

They say that 'YourFee' is the fee you're currently paying. Given that everyone has got exactly the same document, they can't really put a number there without creating an individual variations document. An individual table may come closer to the time.

I'll just point out that the ability to produce recipient-specific documentation by updating fields automatically from the client database has been a feature of every word processing software from Office 97 and no doubt way before that too. It's a basic functionality. It's not even complicated or difficult to do. Trust me that an organisation the size and capability of NAB definitely has the wherewithall and ability to automatically produce customer specific and accurate documentation be that via post, or e-mail, or website. They can very easily do this. The reason they don't is because they don't want to in order to maintain the vagueness.

 

[oz_mark]

will be interesting to see if they let us keep the Citi cards, the comms refer to new account numbers, hence I'm thinking old plastic will become useless rather quickly.

I have to say of all MyCard designs the premier is the most hideous one. They managed to outdo the old Bankwest zero blobs.

While the account number is changing, the card number itself will stay the same.

 

[JohnGlav]

Exactly right Legoman.

"Plausible deniability" are key words.

Some may consider that my views have their basis in paranoia.

There is a chance they are correct. It is not a zero percent chance.

If they are correct, then NAB will be a benevolent manager of MyCard and all cardholders should be no worse off.

I would be very happy with this outcome and very pleased to be 'wrong'. It's not about me.

Then again there may be a modicum of truth to my views. It is not a zero percent chance.

If my views are correct in some way, NAB will not be a benevolent manager of MyCard and by the time most cardholders wake up to their reality and intentions the bird will have irrevocably flown the coop (through clever legal manoeuvring, techniques and wording of terms and conditions amongst other things).

Little by little the frog can be boiled and the goose can be cooked.

Law is not about certainty by the way.

In a civil case, the test is 'a balance of probabilities' - not a zero percent chance of error.

In a criminal case, the test is 'beyond reasonable doubt' - not a zero percent chance of error.

Each cardholder should consider and decide what's best for their circumstances.

 

[ramamba]

While the account number is changing, the card number itself will stay the same.

Aha, thanks for that. I just assumed that if we have new account numbers and new Bpay reference numbers then it would mean a new card number, but looks like that's not the case which is good.

 

[Chicken]

I'll just point out that the ability to produce recipient-specific documentation by updating fields automatically from the client database has been a feature of every word processing software from Office 97 and no doubt way before that too.

You think large organisations use MS Office mail merge to send these email? Seriously.

I would give you a hint. Search EDM and canvas on the internet.

 

[Legoman]

You think large organisations use MS Office mail merge to send these email? Seriously.

I would give you a hint. Search EDM and canvas on the internet.

I really don't care what software they use. That's not the point of this thread or the question being asked. I was merely making the observation that software exists to do this very thing, including right back to the most basic software such as Office 97. That fact alone tells you right there, that if they wanted to be specific about fee changes on a very personal level to each individual customer, then they could have easily done so. The very fact they chose not to do that is therefore a choice they made. They chose to be vague, and that tells us all something about their motives.

 

[Chicken]

That fact alone tells you right there, that if they wanted to be specific about fee changes on a very personal level to each individual customer, then they could have easily done so. The very fact they chose not to do

Fact? You don't even know how these email are generated and you call fact. More like fact twisting.

It is like saying everything inside a PDS booklet, with 50000 copies printed, 20 copies per bank branch spread around the country, is personalised to one specific customer and one specific individual circumstances.

This is insane.

This is like saying, Bankwest is saying open an account and get $50 cash, then people going up in arms 'Bankwest is lying! The PDS doesn't say anything about $50 cash!'

This is truly unbelievable.

 

[JohnGlav]

Here you go for the exact website captured wording from back in mid-Dec 2013
Signature family and friends offer.pdf

For anyone who wants it I suggest you keep a copy of that PDF offline on your own computer. That link will not live forever.

'This information sheet is an Australian Government requirement under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009.'

The National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 is still a thing in 2025 and ASIC administers it.

Breathes in and exhales deeply in the time honoured tradition.