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August 18, 2026 \u2014 1:11pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Commonwealth Bank is pushing customers to spend their credit card rewards with Virgin\u2019s Velocity scheme instead of Qantas Frequent Flyer points, as part of a dramatic overhaul of its loyalty program.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the bank announced the changes to its reward points program, which will also include the launch of a new inhouse \u201cYello\u201d points currency, ahead of an October ban imposed by the Reserve Bank on the credit card surcharges that have funded generous perks to date.<\/p>\n Under the new scheme, customers wanting to convert Yello points to airline points will get more generous rates when exchanging them for Virgin Velocity points than Qantas Frequent Flyer points.<\/p>\n As part of its changes, Commbank customers who have only one credit card with the bank will receive fewer points for their spending, while those who bundle multiple products with the bank, such as a mortgage or term deposits, will get more. Disincentivising credit card churners and encouraging customers to increase their involvement with the bank will fund the broader Yello points scheme, as banks grapple with a shortfall in revenue from the interchange fee caps and surcharge ban.<\/p>\n Angus Sullivan, who leads the bank\u2019s retail division, said the change would let more customers earn rewards. \u201cFor the first time more than 9 million of our customers can earn points on the everyday banking they\u2019re already doing \u2013 their home loan, savings, insurance and cards \u2013 and redeem them on the things that matter, from groceries, utility bills and fuel through to a well-earned holiday,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n Related Article Details of the exact points earning rates for each airline and retailer will be announced later on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Both the Reserve Bank\u2019s reforms \u2013 which include the surcharge ban and a cap on fees paid by merchants every time a shopper pays for something with a card, which is expected to cut banks\u2019 revenue by $660 million a year \u2013 and Commonwealth Bank\u2019s new credit card points scheme will come into effect from October.<\/p>\n Airlines create rewards points for their own loyalty schemes and sell these to retailers, banks and other companies which use these as customer benefits. Sources with knowledge of the matter said Virgin offered CBA a more generous value for its Velocity points than Qantas did.<\/p>\n Other retailers CBA has partnered with include DoorDash, Woolworths, Origin Energy and Myer.<\/p>\n More to come<\/p>\n The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day\u2019s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/4f792360cdd8053c0ce21dca9cfe1c8159e06f08.jpeg\")
The Commonwealth Bank is cutting back the generosity of its points schemes.Renee Nowytarger<\/p>\n![\"Credit](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785026175_688_517578cf9b000d4720984200504865249d4fb3a8.jpeg\")
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Elias Visontay<\/a> is a National Consumer Affairs Reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 18, 2026 \u2014 1:11pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-859291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}