Dilution of the value of CBA Credit Card Awards Points on 5 Feb 2018

GreatWhiteHunter on 09/01/2018 - 20:05
Last edited 09/01/2018 - 21:43

If you have accumulated a balance of CBA credit card awards points, bear in mind that the points cost of a lot of awards will rise by around 20% on 5 February 2018.

For example a $500 Coles gift card currently costs 100,000 points.

From 5 February 2018 I understand this same reward will cost 120,000 points - so the value of your existing points will have been diluted by 16.66%
600,000 points now buys $2500 rather than $3000 so the maths is : (1 - $2500/$3000) = 0.1666 dilution for this reward.

This is only one of a raft of dilutions.

CBA haven't officially published the revised reward points required for each reward - but if you don't believe me, call them on 13 16 61

I have just cashed in pretty much all my accumulated points for Coles gift cards….

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Comments

  • MadgeH on 09/01/2018 - 21:40

    Good one. Thanks for the heads up

  • T-man on 10/01/2018 - 00:20

    Do you have anh info about the point redemption for Velocity and Qantas? Wil it be the same current conversation rate? Thanks.

    • GreatWhiteHunter on 10/01/2018 - 09:07

      At this stage I believe the changes affect the prices of awards - in particular all the various gift cards.

  • Associateddust @ Commonwealth Bank on 10/01/2018 - 10:22

    Thanks OP. Does anyone know which gives the best value for cashing out CBA points? The conversion rate to QFF points is fairly pitiful.

    • T-man on 10/01/2018 - 23:56

      Transfer to Velocity when they have 15% bonus.

  • Rod71 on 11/01/2018 - 09:52

    Bloody hell, what a rort. It was bad enough when they changed the bonus points from Amex so you could only get them from supermarkets and fuel etc. Is there any way to keep the features of a platinum card but ditch the rewards?. I'm currently paying the gold card annual fee as they gave me a free upgrade to platinum.

    • Rod71 on 11/01/2018 - 18:09

      Just had a quick look. Might switch over to the Low Fee Gold Card. No annual fee for the first year, and no annual fee for subsequent years as long as you spend 10k within the year. Plus the gold version retains the international travel insurance.

  • GreatWhiteHunter on 17/01/2018 - 15:56

    From their web site

    https://www.commonwealthawards.com.au/

    Do you redeem Award points at Flight Centre, Myer or for Gift Cards?

    We’d like to let you know that there’ll be a change to the number of points you’ll need to redeem at Flight Centre, Myer or for Gift Cards on the Awards website. This change is effective from 5 February 2018.

    No further details provided. I assume they believe this is adequate disclosure based on the terms and conditions of their rewards scheme….

  • GreatWhiteHunter on 03/02/2018 - 09:41
    +1

    They have published the new conversion rates.

    It seems they were not as bad as I predicted:

    https://www.commonwealthawards.com.au/cms/securecontent/?id=cba.awards.help.gen&cm_re=Home%20GLD--Large%20Promo--GIFTCARDS

    $100 gift card used to cost 20,000 points
    From 5 February 2018 it now costs 20,833 points.

    • Unbranded on 03/02/2018 - 11:24
      +1

      Thanks for the heads up a while back. I cashed in all of my points yesterday when I saw the new conversion rates, otherwise I would have lost about $50 in value on my points balance.

  • dcuksuop on 03/02/2018 - 10:45

    I tried to get some gift cards last night, but don't have an email on my awards profile, and can't update it unless I call during M-F business hours. argh.

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