[kristo]

In protest to the ANZ reward points windback I am closing my ANZ Telstra Card.

My next annual fee is due 26th April.

ANZ advise me that reward points balances are up to 8 weeks behind real time but I have 2 months after I close the card to redeem rewards.

I must cancel the card prior to the charging of the annual fee.

I intend to ensure I redeem all my reward points.

Has anyone else had practical experience in this matter?

[arun]

Kristo
Look for that 8 weeks clause in writing. I did not have any problems with Citibank. But someone said that they had problems with Commonwealth - This girl in an angry moment during an argument with the credit card customer service rep, asked to cancel the card. Then next day she went to transfer all points - and she was told that she was no more their customer and hence no points.

[straitman]

Originally Posted by arun

Kristo
Look for that 8 weeks clause in writing. I did not have any problems with Citibank. But someone said that they had problems with Commonwealth - This girl in an angry moment during an argument with the credit card customer service rep, asked to cancel the card. Then next day she went to transfer all points - and she was told that she was no more their customer and hence no points.

Oops

[Craigo]

I cancelled my ANZ Visa last May. In June the ANZ directly credited the remaining points to my QFF account. They also did a direct debit from my CBA savings account for a $25 charge that came in after I'd closed the card. So, no problems for me.

(typo edited)

[wleong]

Originally Posted by kristo

I must cancel the card prior to the charging of the annual fee.

I intend to ensure I redeem all my reward points.

Has anyone else had practical experience in this matter?

I did this a few years ago, even though ANZ charged me a new annual fee, I still managed to close off the card and get a full refund. It's best to do this the month they charge your account.

Also, there's a chance the Bank might stuff up and forget to put the charge through. This happened to me when I had an gold credit card with Citibank. I also got away with paying annual fees on two years with ANZ Bank.

Good luck!

[danielh]

I thought they Pro-Rata'd your annual fee within about 6 months of paying it as well. So if you cancel your ANZ card after 2 months of paying the annual membership then you should be getting 10/12th of your Annual fee back.

Regards
Daniel

[travelvoice]

Following some great advice received from members here, and indeed this site's publication "A guide to selecting 'Frequent Flyer' credit cards", both my partner and I decided to close both our ANZ Frequent Flyer Visa cards. My fees alone were $245 + the supplementary card holder fee on Visa Gold which is our joint account used for household purchases.

Our monthly spend often exceeds the $1500 cap on the Blue Card and $2500 on Gold (joint) Card. We chose to close these accounts 2 weeks prior to the annual fee being charged.

We selected CBA Woolworths Ezy Mastercard. Our monthly shopping bill and petrol bill alone now pulls in Bonus Points in the vicinity of $1000 per month.

With the lowest fee at just $39, we figure we are jointly over $400 per annum in front. Also with Woolworths Ezy Mastercard we still earn point 1:1 and they are NOT capped annually.

Thanks for some great tips.

[danielh]

The combination I have chosen is an ANZ Qantas Gold Visa ($2500 1:1 cap) and an ANZ QFF Diners Card.

I have had theANZ Gold card for many many years and it used to be a fantastic card to use. With the caps and large change in conditions, it has become less attractive. I plan to keep it for the next few months though as I fly weekly with my company and I get 1 for 1 bonus points on my flight purchases which are about AU$500 a week. This will keep me within the $2500 cap and so I will also get the additional 2000 (AU$500 x 4) bonus points a month. The yearly cost of this card is AU$150 and I will consider getting rid of this one after July this year when my weekly flights will stop.

The other card is the ANZ QFF Diners Card. It came out to support the changes to the current Qantas Gold Visa card and to get more money of ppl like us. It is fee free for this year but it will be AU$150 a year from Nov 05 onwards for me so I plan to get rid of this card in the next few months and replace it with the Diners Card I get from work. This will only be something like AU$30 a year. NOTE: I choose the ANZ Diners originally because of some flash marketing about things like getting FF points on cash withdrawals but mainly for the fee free year.

By this time next year I will probably have the ANZ Qantas Gold Visa and a work Diners card. Total cost per annum about AU$180 (AU$150 + AU$30).

Regards
Daniel

PS: The only reason why I'm keeping with ANZ is because I have been with them for about 18 years and I think their Internet Banking site is fantastic and easy to use.