The next domino falls: Westpac reduces credit card points

Along with the Commonwealth Bank and NAB, Westpac is preparing itself for the RBA’s upcoming cuts to credit card ‘interchange fees’ with new frequent flyer earning rates across its suite of rewards cards which take effect from July 1 2017.

Among the changes: American Express cards will be retained but will generate less frequent flyer points per dollar spent, payments to the Australian Taxation Office will earn no points at all on personal cards and top-level cardholders will no longer accrue bonus points on international transactions.

Whether you have a shiny Black card or an entry-level rewards card, here’s how many frequent flyer points you’ll earn per dollar spent as of the new financial year.

Altitude Black (with Altitude points): AMEX spend decreases from 3 Altitude points per dollar to 2.5 (equal to 1.25 Velocity points/Enrich miles or 1.0 Asia Miles/KrisFlyer miles), while MasterCard spend overseas drops from 3 Altitude points per Aussie dollar to 1.25 (0.625 Velocity/Enrich points or 0.5 KrisFlyer/Asia Miles), with no changes to the domestic earn rate.

Altitude Qantas Black and Earth Black: Cardholders will earn 1.25 Qantas Points per dollar spent on AMEX – down from 1.5/$1 at present – and 0.625 Qantas Points on all overseas MasterCard spend: also down from a generous 1.5/$1. As with Altitude Black, these cards will remain uncapped.

Altitude Platinum Plus (with Altitude points): Although closed to new applicants, existing cardholders will earn 2.5 Altitude points per dollar spent on AMEX as of July 1 2017, down from 3 Altitude points at present.

Altitude Qantas Platinum Plus and Earth Platinum Plus: These cards will churn out 1.25 Qantas Points per dollar spent on AMEX from July, down from 1.5 Qantas Points.

All Altitude, Earth cards: Points will no longer be awarded on ATO payments made using American Express from July 1 2017. Visas and MasterCards issued under the bank’s Altitude and Earth banners already award no points on ATO payments.

There are no changes to Westpac’s direct-earning Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer credit cards – available only to existing customers – or to conversion rates from the Altitude Rewards program to airline frequent flyer schemes, as these were already reduced for KrisFlyer and Asia Miles members last year.

However, as of May 2 2017, Westpac BusinessChoice Rewards Visa cardholders will earn 0.33 Qantas Points per dollar spent on government payments (currently 0.66 Qantas Points per $1 – including for payments made to the ATO), while Altitude Business Gold customers will reel in 0.5 Altitude points per dollar on the same (currently 1-2 Altitude points per $1).

Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.