Coles Mastercard Rewards Has Eroded - Seeking Best Credit Card for High Spend / Time Poor

Ljwp on 05/05/2024 - 11:56
Last edited 07/05/2024 - 20:07 by 1 other user

Seeking advice on the best rewards credit card for (apparently) a high spender.

Family of 4, two young kids. I don't have a lot of time for constant churning, searching for reward flights or managing gift cards all over the place.
Over the past 2 years, we've routed about 180k / year through the credit card. Always paid in full each month.

With kids and pandemic complicating travel over the past decade, I resigned to simple = best when it comes to credit card rewards. We have Coles Rewards Mastercard with $99 annual fee.

As Coles invested heavily in gaining market share and pumping their loyalty programs, the ROI and time/value proposition of discounted groceries was a no-brainer.

As they've established however and credit providers have transitioned, the value has slowly eroded. About 2 years ago, they sneakily introduced caps on the number of double points earned per $ spent. Now only 2 points per $ up to 3,000 / month. Naturally at my spend rate, that slices off a huge chunk.

2017 - $1,700 discounts from ~100k spend (1.7%)
2018 - $1,600 discounts from ~110k spend (1.5%)
…
2022 - $980 discounts from ~180k spend (0.5%)
2023 - $790 discounts from ~180k spend (0.4%)

I'm about to call the retentions department to have the annual fee waived, but thought I'd put in an hour to see if I could do better. Kids are getting older so more tolerable to think about flight rewards though easy cash saved on essentials or back in my hand is still king.

Update (thanks hamza23)

As of 1 July 2024:

We are increasing the International Transaction Fee for Retail Purchases and Cash Advance transactions to 3.00%. (Was 0%/free)

1 Flybuys Point for each whole Australian Dollar spent on each Eligible Transaction (rounded down per transaction) from $3,001 up to and including $8,000. No points on Eligible Transactions thereafter.

Financial Coles Credit Card Credit Card

Related Stores

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Comments

    • jwp on 05/05/2024 - 16:55
      +1

      I had seen it, but thank you.
      Needs a bit of work to keep it up to date. I'll try to update it if I go with something not mentioned.

  • Hybroid on 05/05/2024 - 12:05
    +3

    Seems like a lot of time and effort researching and submitting applications and cross-checking offers and calling to waive fees and calculating spend/return and ensuring monthly payments made etc., to save a relatively measly $800 on $180,000 spend per annual year…

    That’s basically $66 saving on $15,000 spend a month.

    Have you factored in how much additional you pay in surcharges for using a credit card? Likely far more than that.

    Yet you say your time is better spent making money instead of saving it, which seems contradictory to this post. Confusing.

    • jwp on 05/05/2024 - 16:54
      -1

      Sorry you're confused.

      Yes - general rule used to be 1% return spent on things I would buy anyway meant up to 1% fee at least delayed the spend. Most things like tax bills, school fees, insurance & utilities charged < 1%. Absolutely, need to keep an eye on that though instead of falling into the convenience trap.

      As you say - not worth looking too hard for offers or having to fiddle around for rewards. It was a good task to tick off on a rainy Sunday morning. Probably spent 30 mins so far. I'll call The Phillipines tomorrow and let you know how long it takes :)

  • zoombie on 05/05/2024 - 12:12
    +1

    amex, if you can spend your entire 180k on amex. you can redeem $1800 in cash from the points (1c per dollar spent). if you use the points for business class travel or sell them, you can get much better value.

  • gidxg03 on 05/05/2024 - 12:58
    +1

    Similar situation to you and we too had the Cole’s Mastercard for the flybuy ear rates. We’ve since switched strategy to churning Qantas and Velocity credit cards. Route a few months spending and then churn. Just arrived back from business return flights to Europe for 2 all on points. Way better value than I ever earned on flybuys.

    • jwp on 05/05/2024 - 16:42

      If it were just the two of us (either kid free or able to leave them behind) that would be great. Not sure I would want to go to the hassle of switching so often but it sounds like it's paying off for you. I'm learning long haul premium flights are the best bang for buck.

      Thanks for the inputs

  • ihbh on 05/05/2024 - 15:11
    +1

    Are you a business? How do you spend $180k p.a. for a family of 4?

    My time is better spent making money instead of saving it.

    Imagine you could afford not to work and spend time with your two young kids. It's very hard with that mindset unless you hit it big with something to provide a big asset base to invest.

    • jwp on 05/05/2024 - 16:45

      That probably came across a bit of obnixious. All I meant was I'd rather be investing in myself and my family than spending too much time scheming for every dollar.

      I got a reminder that the annual fee was about to be charged and it happened to be a rainy Sunday morning. Thought I'd tick looking into this off the list.

  • sumyungguy on 05/05/2024 - 15:43
    +1

    If you become interested in travel, my last three significant QFF redemptions (574K, 574K, 605K) all returned greater than 3%.

    • jwp on 05/05/2024 - 16:57

      Nice. We're definitely getting back into the travel. Not sure about letting the kids into business class though. How old do they have to be to ride in the back while we sit up front? :)

      • ol mate on 11/05/2024 - 13:33

        You can fly your kids as unaccompanied minors on the same flight.

  • cheekymonkey on 06/05/2024 - 09:48

    Try the Amplify Rewards Platinum card and they have some bonus offers right now.
    Claim WISH gift cards (amongst others) or exchange for Virgin points.

  • Autonomic on 06/05/2024 - 14:11

    You're much better off churning cards, especially if you and your spouse can apply for cards. It might be a hassle, depending on how you set up your bills for payment, but you'd make more than $800 in rewards (giftcards/cashback) churning 2 cards.

  • hamza23 on 07/05/2024 - 13:11
    +8

    It just got even worse. As of 1 July 2024:

    We are increasing the International Transaction Fee for Retail Purchases and Cash Advance transactions to 3.00%.
    (Was 0%/free)

    1 Flybuys Point for each whole Australian Dollar spent on each Eligible Transaction (rounded down per transaction) from $3,001 up to and including $8,000. No points on Eligible Transactions thereafter.

    Variation notice

    • bp1984 on 07/05/2024 - 13:14

      does that apply for online international purchases? ie, amazon us? no fee was the only reason I had this card 😒

      • onrole on 07/05/2024 - 13:22
        +1

        Yes, it does apply to online international purchases.

    • li1123k on 07/05/2024 - 13:15
      +6

      After enjoying the benefit of it over the last 7 years, now it’s time to say goodbye, no worth the annual fee of $99

    • soan papdi on 07/05/2024 - 13:24

      No amount of profit is sufficient for these banks. Greedy

      ANZ boss Shayne Elliott said the bank’s credit quality remains robust despite rising cost-of-living pressures in the Australian economy as he posted a 7 per cent fall in half-yearly cash profit and announced a $2 billion buyback to boost its shares.

      National Australia Bank on Thursday reported a 12.8 per cent drop in cash earnings to $3.5 billion for the six months to March, blaming the ultra-competitive home loan market which was squeezing its margins.

    • xitrapharlax on 07/05/2024 - 13:30
      +4

      I'm definitely keen to hear if there is a consensus on the next 'low maintenance' similar value card out there. The loss of the no fee international purchases kills this card for me.

      • Untalentedllama on 07/05/2024 - 13:35
        +1

        100% this really messes with my original plan of travelling overseas with this card later this year

      • badwiring on 07/05/2024 - 13:59
        +6

        The fee-free international purchases were the reason I held on to this card as the value proposition got worse and worse over recent years. This is definitely a dealbreaker for me. I can't for the life of me see how this card is justifies its $100 annual fee now.

        • bp1984 on 07/05/2024 - 14:23
          +2

          same here… time to look for an alternative

      • soan papdi on 07/05/2024 - 14:27

        I'm going to switch to a Macquarie debit card and just churn credit cards for bonus points. Already with ING but Mac offers 4.75% for whatever is in the account, so one-up to ING which have same benefits otherwise.

    • jwp on 07/05/2024 - 20:03

      Thanks for this. Popped back to have an even bigger whinge but you beat me to it. I'll add to the post.

  • lilkid28 on 07/05/2024 - 15:05
    +3

    Time to cancel Coles Mastercard, huge devaluation

  • Marrk on 07/05/2024 - 17:59
    +3

    Signed up not long ago, getting rid of 0% international transaction fees in particular makes it pretty unappealing now.

  • phynicle on 08/05/2024 - 00:20

    I've still got the old price protection for two years with mine. Worth keeping?

    • Ven0m on 08/05/2024 - 21:52

      They changed this to 90 days recently for existing holders

      • phynicle on 09/05/2024 - 09:30

        Oh really, havn't been made aware of that

  • Cheagle on 08/05/2024 - 00:37

    Using this for Youtube Premium Argentina at the moment.. will be getting stung 3%…

  • Marrk on 08/05/2024 - 07:09

    Might try cancelling over the phone and see if they will refund the yearly fee..

    https://www.reddit.com/r/AusFinance/s/VxiS33MnXo

    • Marrk on 10/05/2024 - 15:06
      +1

      Update on this - refund of yearly fee being sent by cheque, called to cancel.

  • MattyAu on 10/05/2024 - 16:54
    +1

    Nail in the coffin for me, used to be a great card, now they've ruined it.

  • jwp on 13/10/2024 - 17:06

    Ended up shifting across the NAB Signature Rewards for now.

    No monthly fee (with > $5,000 spend / month).
    15k / month before earn rate decreases. No cap on reduced earnings.
    No Int'l conversion fees.

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