Coles MasterCard are bar-stewards

[Old Techo]

A few months ago Coles increased their rewards credit card annual fee by nearly 100% to $89. I worked out that one needed to spend almost $10,000 just to earn enough points to cover the new fee.

A few weeks ago Coles advised an increase in fees for posted statements. Up by 300% from $0.50 to $2.00

Today I received a letter from them stating that effective Oct 13th payments made using the Bpay facility within your Coles on-line account would no longer earn reward points.

I use said Bpay for 2 x rates, 2 x water bills, power bills, numerous gas bills, 4 x rego, 4 x vehicle insurance, 2 x house insurance, 2 x phone bills and these are the regular ones that spring to mind. Add recent large medical bills and it's well over $25k per annum and over half of the Coles card total expenditure. So once you take out this $25k and another $10k to cover the annual card fee there is now very little left as a reward.

Historically reward cards have been reasonable earners for us at around 1% saving, but not any more. At 1% on $40k that was $400 back and worth having.

Another Bpay rule strengthening from Oct 13th is one cannot allow another party (other than a bank) to make repayments to your card. Example, a mate or rellie may owe you money and they could pay that into your Coles card using the Bpay facility. I have paid money into another's credit card by this quite legal means. From Oct 13th Coles reserve the right to reverse any such transactions.

If you have a Coles Rewards MasterCard be aware of the recent and future changes.

[TramcarTrev]

Bar-Stewards?? more like Shop-Stewards...
Hmmmmm yes.... Woolworths one is just as devious.... In my opinion based on experience the only card worth having is one issued directly from a bank and even then they rip you off.

The only winners with plastic money are the shareholders, everyone else pays heavily for the "honour" of having a card...

[Jay&dee]

We challenged NAB re our annual fee and after negotiations we were able to have the annual fee refunded. This applied for 1 year only, so I will call again next year for further refund. ( I hope)

Jay&Dee

[Murray & Anita]

Our MasterCards from Commbank have no annual fees, earn points, give us free travel insurance (which works -we've had to use it), extended warranty on purchases, and cost us nothing in interest as we pay off each month's balance.