[pomjim]

NATIONAL Australia Bank has announced savage cuts to the value of its credit card loyalty programs.

And, despite the reductions, some customers will also be slugged nearly double the previous annual fee. The bank's gold card users will no longer be able to earn up to a maximum of 150,000 points a year from July 1.

Instead of earning one point for each dollar up to that figure, points will be capped at $1 per point up to $3000 a month, then it reverts to $2 per point to $10,000 a month.

No points will be earned past $10,000 spend a month.

That means the maximum number of points a customer can earn in a year will be 78,000 -- a reduction of 48 per cent on the previous maximum.

But the annual fee for the card has jumped as much as 73.3 per cent from $33 per customer each year to $57.20 for each credit card account.

This will be a saving for couples or families who have multiple cards from the same credit card number.

But individuals will bear the full brunt of the increased charge.

In a further blow, customers will also have to earn more points before being able to redeem points.

From July 1, card users will need 15,000 points (instead of 12,500) points to redeem various retail vouchers.

For Harvey World Travel, the cost of getting $100 worth of travel will rise from 10,000 points to 15,000 points.