Hi
I know many here rave about ING and for the most part they seemed a less rip off than most banks.
Recently I bought something from jb hifi that was $379 I asked jb if i could split that into 4 payments so I can get my cash back from ING jb had no issues.
I have had the account few months now, suddenly ING rang me to "chastise" me and warned me that I am not allowed to split a purchase into smaller portions to get cash back. They warned that they will take away this feature if it happens again.
In my defense I stated no fraud was committed here and no crime was committed. It was only 1 purchase and in the scheme of things $379 split into 4 portions is not $3790 split into 400 portions. Further this sort of things needs to be stated on day 1 when I had the account, not months later. This is only for 6 months not forever. Also I do not recall under the terms and condition that I have read then when I open the account have stated that , it may be that they have changed the terms and condition now that they see this happening.
They made accusations that I am not using it as an everyday transactions account. They further went on to say had there not been a 5% cash back I would never have split my purchase 4 times, so they are insinuating I am somehow trying to commit something clandestine here.
Dissatisfied they rang me on a Friday morning insinuating somehow I was doing something as clandestine as making a purchase and choosing how I best see fit to protect my interest, I told them I will contact fair trading and ASIC about what just happened.
Of course they then went through this spill on how the call was recorded, how everything I say is noted. Again more "threats". The way I see it appears banks run the show, not the law, it seemed everything they do is protected, they do not seemed concern that their approach is not correct.
I cannot think of any other industry except insurance companies that behave this way.
Any comments as to what they did was petty and disgusting?
It's within ING's rights for them to allow/disallow granting cashback for split payments. I think you should be thankful that they gave you the 5% offer in the first place - not all banks are that generous. I don't think they are being unfair in warning you not to do this, however I don't know how they can police this because, as in above posts, one can buy gift cards ahead of time in different denominations to get the cashback even though this is not as convenient as split payments.
On the other side of the coin, if there was no mention in the T&C that split payments are not allowed, ING should now be sending everyone a polite letter stating the new condition/terms. They should not bet making phone calls targeted at just the individuals that have been doing this - to me that seems a bit rude because they're basically categorising these people as "wrong-doers" in need of a stern warning.
I would suggest that you have a choice to make… all the best.