NAB Buys Citi Consumer Banking in AU

furyou on 12/05/2022 - 15:47
Last edited 12/05/2022 - 15:47

Just got an email, nab is taking all of citi over.

"Citi acquired by National Australia Bank"

  • On and from the Transfer Date, NAB will be providing your Citi branded products and services.
  • Citi has provided NAB with a licence to use the Citi brand from the Transfer Date. Citi will also provide some services to NAB for a transition period after the transfer. This means your products and services will continue to be Citi branded, and Citi may continue to have some involvement, but NAB will hold your deposits and be your credit provider.
  • NAB will do this under its own Authorised Deposit-taking Institution Licence, Australian Financial Services Licence and Australian Credit Licence (as applicable), and will be the primary licensee in relation to these products and services.

I'm not sure how this affects us long-term citi fee free credit card holders, and other citi point gathering bargainers. The brand is staying at least.

I have a feeling nab wouldn't be as generous as a rich international bank.

Financial

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Comments

  • CaptainHoltisDad on 12/05/2022 - 16:04

    The current NAB qantas offers aren't bad, provided you are able to get the annual fee refunded when you cancel.

  • currentfad on 12/05/2022 - 16:05
    +5

    This was announced in August 2021…

    https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/nab-to-acqu…

  • Hvrd on 12/05/2022 - 17:29
    +1

    hope they keep 0% currency fee

    • furyou on 12/05/2022 - 17:41

      They already said int. transactions are going to change :(

      • c64 on 12/05/2022 - 18:00
        +7

        i will close my account, no other reason to keep it open

      • bwatt72 on 30/07/2022 - 12:55

        That’s the only reason I have Citi bank for 0% free who else offers this these days as if it changed on my Citi bank then I’m done with it

  • plmko on 12/05/2022 - 18:19
    +5

    Terrible news. Citi has superior international facilities.

  • burningrage on 12/05/2022 - 22:18
    -1

    There will be a number of years worth of transition. NAB actually doesn't have what they call "Unsecured Credit Platform" and has to use Citibank's technology.

    Who knows, maybe NAB sees the light and keeping Citibank brand is in their best interest to gain international profile.

    • netjock on 12/05/2022 - 22:35
      +1

      NAB sees the light and keeping Citibank brand

      They will only get to use it for a limited time.

  • netjock on 12/05/2022 - 22:33

    NAB will screw it up. Guaranteed. How could you be forever the worst of the Big4.

    Less competition is worse for us all.

  • USER DC on 13/05/2022 - 07:37

    Great to hear, hopefully now we get Google pay on Citibank cards

  • 88mph on 13/05/2022 - 08:44

    Hmm… wonder what'll happen to the free for life Premier (ex Signature) card most of us got a few years ago?

    Still use it as my main card, nothing beats the complimentary Priority Passes, and points redemption on gift cards a few times a year.

    • cashless on 13/05/2022 - 17:39
      +1

      I think this will be the end of the Signature/Premier card from Citi. “Fee free for life” they said when it got OzBargained. That’s only the life of Citibank of course, can’t imagine that NAB will carry that forever. More than likely they’ll “optimise” the range of credit cards they offer, so will try to integrate it into another credit card, either for an annual fee or remove the rewards.
      It’ll be a great pity for those that have it, missing out on rewards (doubled with Diners Card), Priority Pass & of course the free Travel/Purchase insurance.
      Serial card churners here will have their work cut out to beat that

    • GeneralSkunk on 13/05/2022 - 20:20

      Yeah 100%. That was the best ozb deal I ever saw and made use of. Haven’t seen it since. Still run all our expenses through it and currently have almost 300k points ($1000 or more) after cashing out $500+ about 12 months ago. Don’t use the priority pass though, forgot about that other stuff.

      If it’s free for life, I guess they’ll need to honour that but as someone else said, they will retire the cards and not renew them after they expire, then transfer us to a new card. Which of course won’t be free.

      He else can NAB steal thousands per year from each of their customers to give to shareholders in profit?

      • endolphin on 13/05/2022 - 20:36

        This makes me sad for you. Imagine the millions of points you would have if you really put that sort of spend to good use across 6+ cards per year!

        I've never understood the hard on everyone has for the fee free for life card. If they offered it right now I wouldn't apply for it. Unless it came with a tasty bonus, in which case I'd churn and burn in 2 months.

        • GeneralSkunk on 13/05/2022 - 22:10

          Yeah I'm lazy, applying for 1 card is enough of a pain in my arse than to be doing it x times per year. Even buying 240GB Boost sim cards once a year and getting on their chat and dealing with all that, it's 6 months away and I'm already not looking forward to it.

          If NAB kill these cards, I'll probably start doing what you suggest though, to a lower extent.

          • 88mph on 13/05/2022 - 22:24

            @GeneralSkunk: Each to their own, I'm not a big churner myself… Although I do have one card always on a deal awaiting cancellation once the bonus is in and onto the next one 😌

            But mostly, have around 4 or 5 others, that I've held for years, may never cancel… each has a strategic purpose.
            The fee free Citi for the PP and probably $500 worth of gift card redemptions annually, zero fee Bankwest Platinum for overseas expenses, 2 zero fee Amex's for their unique offers, a zero fee Supermarket card for my extra grocery points…

            • GeneralSkunk on 13/05/2022 - 22:30

              @88mph: Oh yeah, sounds not too extreme. I use ING debit card from my home loan for overseas and local ATM fee-free transactions. It's just risky with some things like eBay can say AUD but then I get hit with intl transaction fees even though it's in AUD?? Citi isn't friendly with that, nor forgetting to pay the balance each month!

        • cashless on 14/05/2022 - 11:04

          Like others mentioned being a serial churner is great & don’t you just love banking those sign up bonuses? But @endolphin is not giving this Citibank card it’s deserved “credit” (‘scuse the pun).
          When I signed up for Signature card it was I think 1.5 reward points = 1 KrisFlyer mile. For me that paid back huge dividends. The rate is not so good now, having dropped to 2.5 points =1 mile.
          But Flybuys work on a 1 for 1 basis, so every year or so I get 3 or 4 weeks of free groceries.
          Good idea to churn other cards for points, but you have been seriously missing out if you didn’t get this card.

          • endolphin on 14/05/2022 - 12:27

            @cashless: I don't think so. How much did you have to spend to get those 3 or 4 weeks of groceries (or previously, krisflyer points)??

            1 to 1 transfer you say. A flybuys point is worth 0.5c so you are making a return of 0.5%. Maybe this card gives you 2 points per dollar sometimes? Don't know, but ok, 1.0%. That's rubbish.

            I endeavour to have all of my spend contributing to a bonus, which over many cards and years has averaged a net 18% return.

            On the few occasions where I am not contributing towards a bonus (between cards) then I use HSBC debit for 2.0% cash back.

            • cashless on 14/05/2022 - 15:38

              @endolphin: Yeah, each to their own I guess. Using the Citibank card for daily spend & churning about 3 or 4 other bonus paying cards a year nets me a tidy bonus too (not sure I can match your 18% though).
              True that over the years Citi have reduced the kickbacks, but with no annual fee, free insurance (travel, purchase protection, extended warranty- very useful, I’ve used them) there are still a lot of OzBargainers that will be unhappy to loose this card when it goes.

              • furyou on 14/05/2022 - 18:03

                @cashless: Churn is great if you can take x credit checks a year. Personally I got my credit limit when I had a different job, I'd never qualify for it now.

  • Sweet3st on 13/05/2022 - 11:43

    So better to change my global currency account to HBSC? Or Wise? I get regular incoming payments (~$1,000/month) in USD. Citibank exchange rates aren’t fabulous but I can keep as USD and exchange when the rate is good.

    • Kyle-K on 13/05/2022 - 14:11
      +1

      Personally I use Wise for this exact purpose.

  • TimeOrMoney on 13/05/2022 - 16:13

    NAB has been on a buyout spree. 86400 & Citi, what's next?

  • Pcoder on 15/05/2022 - 10:24
    +1

    As citi has given them a licence to use the citi brand and most likely still access to their international network, I don't see any changes a foot for the next couple of years as they probably got a licence fee free period included with the sale. After that period things might change depending on if the cost is too high to license the brand.

    One change that could happen sooner is Diners club could be expanded over into NAB as Citi were the operator of it in Australia and it might be more profitable for NAB, compared to the standard Visa or Mastercard payment networks (They will obviously retain use of these networks).

    The big change in regards to Citi in the next period will most likely relate to the operations, with merger and integration of teams and possible changes to their branches.

    • 88mph on 15/05/2022 - 18:58

      Good to hear, sounds like nothing to see here for a few years, moving along…

      • gibspmuh on 22/05/2022 - 19:47

        They've already unwound their fee free and instant Citi to Citi international transfers last month, that was a hassle (though at least there's more competitive options in the market now compared to a few years ago).

  • forumninja on 17/05/2022 - 17:43
    +3

    The free wine when you dine offer ends on 1 June 2022.

    • burningrage on 19/05/2022 - 12:12

      Gonna miss this

    • furyou on 20/05/2022 - 16:15
      +1

      actually i've never ever used this in all this time.
      i duno, are signs obvious where this exists?

      • Ulysses31 on 20/05/2022 - 18:09

        Only used it once/twice. Kinda gotta ask, after seeing little CITI signs next to EFT machine. When I looked on their website it looked extremely dismal.

  • nocrocks on 20/05/2022 - 00:59

    I wonder what will happen to Coles Mastercards (which are issued by Citi) with price protection?

  • peter on 22/06/2022 - 06:40

    The NAB web site now calls Citibank Plus a basic account: "Citibank Plus Account is a fee free basic account ideal for all your day-to-day needs"
    https://www1.citibank.com.au/deposits/everyday-accounts/citi…

  • USER DC on 27/07/2022 - 08:34

    I can confirm that my COLES Mastercard CC has become a lot worse,

    Had always been paying my CC balance before the due date via BPay payments (ever since I opened the account).
    Turns out on the due date they now try to direct debit my bank account for the FULL CLOSING STATEMENT (which apparently doesn't include the payments I made myself before the due date).

    So sickening, Guess what Direct debit refused, Ofcourse I dont keep enough funds in my account for anyone to let take out so easily.

    Even worse When I called the Coles CC team, lady promised me I WONT BE CHARGED ANY FEE for direct debit cancellation etc. like that because I had been paying my full balance before the due date (in actual reality Way before due date), BUT GUESS WHAT 4 days later I was hit with $15 PAYMENT DISHONOR FEE,

    and that too when I called about this $15 fee, today this lady claims Coles CC team didn't promise me any such fee waiving, or that I wont be charged any fee, instead claims that COLES itself advised me the fact that Direct Debit had been refused, (NO BS I told Coles CC team that Direct debit will be refused).

    Definitely not happy with this new takeover by NAB of Citibank who owns Coles CC's. This is so messed up (them trying to charge me like $400+ when I had ALREADY PAID that entire $400+ before the due date by BPay payments)

  • bwatt72 on 30/07/2022 - 13:09

    Is anyone having issues with osko I did a transfer from one account to Citi and it said temporarily unavailable for this user.
    I’m send from me to me two banks.
    Yet if I select someone else I don’t get it?
    I’m thinking Citi bank osko is down and my other bank is warning me.
    It took 24 hrs if not more than the instant which I prefer.
    Even just trying a payid does not let me.
    I did this on Thursday night and still says any transactions will not go through as osko.

    I know nab has or is taking over Citi but have they restricted this feature.
    I used to hate this 24 hr plus between banks when most in the world is instant and was great when it started here.
    But I’m not sure why it’s an issue now and since Thursday night still same.

  • Vote for Pedro on 30/07/2022 - 21:52

    Be aware that it is likely to impact the deposit guarantee if you are both a nab and citi customer.

    You will, per my understanding, only be covered to a max $250k as its all under nabs licence now whereas previously you would be covered under citi and nab for $250k each.

    Not that our banks will go kaput, but you know, cover thy ass.

    • bwatt72 on 31/07/2022 - 12:22
      -1

      Not sure what your talking about but I’m not a nab customer just Citibank and someone else and it seems when I try to transfer from another well know bank to Citi it only does the very slow transfer. Ie 24 hrs plus.
      Never had this before not sure if Citibank if it’s just not working which has been since Thursday or this feature is no more being taken over by nab.
      Even payid says there is an issue.
      But personally I would be using the osko way.

      Nothing should be changed between the two banks and it’s not as if one of my account is wrong as have used for ages and even one I did on Thursday went through but was very slow.

      Bit shocking if the osko feature is down still with Citibank since Thursday this.feature is still not working and wants to use the slow method.

      I’m not sure if this is anything to do with nab but I’m already starting to get sick of Citi already.

      Which others use fee free for overseas purchases similar to Citi as if nab takes this fee free option away I’m done with Citi as was only reason to get it.

      • Vote for Pedro on 31/07/2022 - 12:58
        -1

        You are right about one thing, you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about. Kudos to you on that win.

        Literally my first sentence:

        if you are both a nab and citi customer

        But I think I see where you went wrong. You thought i was replying to you. Forum threads and interwebs can be tricky and confusing for the uninitiated user. So I forgive you.

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