"We're making some changes to your Coles Mastercard" - in other words, we are making it worse for you

If there is one thing I am really getting used to/completely annoyed by, it's the constant changing of terms and conditions of credit cards that I use. The changes ALWAYS seem to be negative.

It is frustrating that changes in rewards cards and loyalty programs always seem to be negative.

Whats the negative? so far all you are complaining about is that Citibank will provide the backend service instead of Wesfarmers.

This was announced back in 2016 and firmed-up in early 2017, and by the sounds of it, none of the actual product details (earn rate, annual fee etc.) are changing, just the lender that provides the capital for the credit card to function (it'll still be branded as the Coles card). Not really a "raw deal" when nothing material is actually changing.

Citibank is also the card issuer behind Qantas Premier, the Virgin Money cards, Suncorp, Bank of Queensland, Card Services and Diners Club, among others, with Coles just being Citi's latest 'white label'.

There are a few small changes being made

1) Narrowing of the interest free period, changes from "up to 62 days" to "up to 55 days"

2) Due date changes (25 days after statement date, rather than one month)

3) Minimum payment due calculation changes

4) Some changes to fees

5) Exclusion of ATO/government charges on applicable cards

6) Timeframe for posting points looks to be changing

Go with VGW, normally a few hours and your funds move into your VGW account, very easy currency to currency transfer, you use your own money, you earn 0.33 points per $1 spent in Aust, tap and go, earn Coles FB points, no interest ever, no late payment fees, no having to deal with our Citibank friends in India (double cross by making a late payment/or not paying or going against the rules and you will get phone spammed.
I wouldn't touch Citibank with a BargePole... someone I know closed their account with them and even now, 2 years down the track, Citibank still says this person still has an outstanding debt, and practically won't close the account.

Originally Posted by Blake

Change will take effective 5th March as 'Brinkers' has outlined most changes above. Westfarmers Group doesn't manage this Coles credit cards as Latitude Financial Group does, Latitude is a US company also. Terms & Conditions state "ITEM 3.4. It will take up to 60 days after an Eligible Transaction has been processed by us for flybuys Points to be credited to Your flybuys Membership Account". Simply, if at all possible, swipe Flybuy card at point of purchase rather than waiting on Citi Bank to get their act together. No where does it state that Citi Bank will NOT charge 0.95c for privilege of using Bpay either.

Pity about Coles stooping to Citbank. I've had mostly bad experiences with Citi. A pretty ugly organisation. Anyway, one less card I need to monitor.

I've had a Coles Mastercard for years -- ever since the days that it was a GE Finance card -- and I keep looking for an excuse to get rid of it, but I can't find one. The fact is that for a very low annual fee I get 1 Velocity point per dollar spent (if I transfer the points during the frequent 15% bonus promotions), and no overseas transaction fees, among other benefits that may be of use to some customers (eg. free delivery on Coles Online orders).

I got onto the Coles Mastercard August 2017 and it became my card for overseas transactions. When Virgin platinum dropped points for payments to government entities my virgin spend plummeted and moved over to Coles. Coles seemed like the perfect answer - until the email last week that as of March 5th Citibank is the direct link (as opposed to apparently providing the functionality). Excluded transactions now cover government payments so for me the Coles Mastercard has moved from top of the class to just another card with few benefits given our nature of spend. It was nice knowing you Coles! I have the old faithful 28 degrees card for overseas transactions and really surprisingly, the Latitude Infinity card which Latitude automatically supplied to replace the old Myer Visa card still gives rewards for government spend. Yes, the cards are regularly reducing their attractiveness. I'd love to see the analysis by the card companies of the impact of the changes on their customer bases!

Another reason to start using cash. The cash economy is booming & it's impossible to measure as cash doesn't get banked just passed around . I don't care if they don't pay their gst.