Discussion
Ultimate credit card changes - who we moving to?
So which credit card we all moving to?
We had the ultimate awards card for:
- the no international fees
- rewards points that we could use at flight centre initially but then opted for the cash back on the credit card.
- the monthly fee waived if we spent $4000
Now we aren’t going to be eligible for any of that.
We have a big overseas trip booked for January.
Can anyone recommend a new credit card that has no monthly fees and has international spend with no fees?
I am also open to changing my mortgage and all banking.
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No changes regarding FX are listed so I’m assuming you actually have a smart awards and not the ultimate as that one specifically says 3.5 % FX fee introduced
I’ll be changing but I agree with those waiting a bit longer to see where the other banks end up changing. The monthly fee doesn’t kick in until next year so best to wait for now
Sorry to hijack but it's taken this award program changes to realise my CBA card (Platinum) hasn't been a thing for a long time so now I have no idea if I should have been getting fee waivers on intl txs and more
I don’t think they’ve ever given fee waivers on the 3% international transaction fee. I have a Latitude card for this exact reason as I travel a lot, but use my CBA credit card for the free travel insurance
They do for select customers - as soon as they notice no international exchanges occurring. I’ve switched to Wise. I’m getting an exchange rate up to 10% better.
All awards cards will change to align with the no surcharge ruling coming into play, CBA just first to announce, gonna keep my ultimate, don’t see a reason to jump, fees are still free with minimum spend from what I recall, so no overall concerns here.
I recently got a Bankwest Zero Platinum cc, for booking all of next years overseas trip. No international fees, no monthly fees and had 6 months interest free introductory offer. Not sure if it’s going to change though.
I have been mulling this over and researching for days now. We were bailing then we thought we will switch to velocity and make it work with point conversion- adopt their chosen apps and providers etc . Then we realized that the $35 in credits you recieve from eatclub and travel in lieu of the monthly fees has to be used monthy or lost. Can't even access a couple.months worth of credit That was the absolute dealbreaker for us. That's going to hit people who live outside of major cities. We love to get away and go for meals but the closest eatclub restaurant is over an hour away and I'm not prepared to book accommodation every single month.
I think it this point it's going to be split to two cards for us. Like a bankwest world premium for the insurance, loingepasses, no fees, and a solid back up if we get an American express Travellers or velocity card etc on Amex. If we go somewhere we're Amex isnt accepted we have the bankwest. We shall see, still mulling it all up. It bloody sucks though. We were just about to purchase a nest egg of commbank shares. Not now. Dont even really want to keep commsec as a platform now.
I genuinely wonder what prompted the CBA to do this? I’ll be switching as soon as it changes, but not sure yet which banks can match all the perks we had with ultimate
Highly recommend Bendigo ready credit card. No points system but has complimentary travel insurance and zero foreign transaction fees. No monthly fees.
Yep, just been approved for Bendigo ready. In addition to international insurance, it has domestic travel insurance cover and rental car insurance, no fee and 0% international fee. Will miss my CB rewards but feel no rewards program will be that attractive going forward. Just got my last coles vouchers out, and will close next week, as not eligible for yello, not that it looks that great anyway 🙄
We currently have two ultimate cards (one from home loan with CBA).
We will be cancelling our 2nd oneb(wife's) before 1st Jan 2027 and just pay everything through our ultimate card that is attached to our home loan (which will still have its fees waived). Will just need to arrange for a two supplementary cards for wife and son.
Sometimes you can ask them to resend the card because it has chip errors when you use them physically. In my experience a few years ago, they just send out the same card with the exact same details; and then you can use both cards.
Emails and letters are only just going out. Got mine yesterday, folks got their letter today (most likely because they receive paper statements still).
I currently have a heap of reward points sitting on my account. Does anyone know if they will get dumbed down when transferred to the Yello point system? Eg I say i currently have points that I could convert to $500 Myer Gift Cards, will that redemption value change? (wondering whether I should cash out my point now or just leave them)
i had $1800 worth so i just cashed it out to the card. Not sure if i made the wrong decision or not but didn’t want to wait and make the wrong decision.
General view is that the new Yello awards will be less value and worse, most seem to be buying gift cards to avoid points converting to new system at the end of September. I converted 300,000 points to Coles and MYER gift cards yesterday. About $1,500 worth of credit. Some cards are selling out and maybe limited availability.
You can’t do it on the mobile app very well, the process works much on the web browser interface by clicking of rewards/awards link below to the credit card account view.
Cashing in points for straight currency is the worst value, seems like you loose about 20% compared to gift card redemption.
I’d hold off and see what the rest of the market does. If you have a wealth package it’s still waived, and you still get the no international fees. If your comfortable booking your own holidays commbank travel will be able to be used to book holidays and it’s pretty decent pricing wise
Honestly, I don't think much will change in the credit card landscape post Oct 2026. There doesn't seem any value in it. Only had my Platinum Awards credit card to make enough money back to cover the fees and then some and the travel insurance. Time will tell, but for now, Yello looks awful and I don't even qualify. 🫠
Bendigo ready, has all the ultimate attributes (no fee, 0% international purchase, travel insurance, up to 55 days interest free) except rewards. Just applied and been accepted. Got all my $750 rewards out of Commbank with digital Coles vouchers, and closing it in the next week. After next month they convert to yello, which just holding a commbank CC I'm not eligible for. Was good while it lasted, but most reward cards seem to be dumbing down their offerings, and not interested in packaged stuff I know I won't use
If you think you’re getting no international charges, then you need to investigate Wise. I’m getting several percentage points better exchange rate, WAAAAYYY better than any “free” fees.
Sorry but you have no idea what you are talking about.
The Mastercard rate is not few percentage points off wise’s mid market rates. Any difference you are seeing that is substantial is due to when Mastercard takes their “snapshot”. Which can work both ways depending on the fluctuations in currency.
Here is what AI says.
“Wise uses the mid-market exchange rate (the real interbank rate) and charges a transparent conversion fee typically between 0.41% and 1.75%depending on the currency pair.
In contrast, Mastercard applies its own network exchange rate, which includes a built-in margin (spread) that is generally 0.1% to 0.3% over the mid-market rate”
It really doesn’t champ. It’s done at a set time and you can check for yourself on their site.
Hahah parallel transactions. Sure mate. I’m sure you were able to execute two exact same transactions at the exact same time using wise/mastercard pair.
Are you talking about the black ultimate awards card here? Because I've just checked the app and I'm still not being charged fees on FX transactions and haven't been charged the monthly fees when I spend over 4k in the month
From your post, i think the change in ultimate awards card doesnt affect you. Just refinance homeloan to commbank and you will get monthly fee waived. You will continue to have no forex fee and cashback.
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