American Express cutting some earn rates on Corporate Cards

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If you’re the holder of an American Express corporate card linked to one of the rewards programs, chances are you’re about to have some earnings rates reduced. American Express have been contacting holders of corporate cards enrolled in the Ascent, Choices or Spirit programs of reductions in the points earning rates for payments made to Telecommunications Providers and Government Bodies.

The new earnings rates will take effect from 1 July, 2015. The earnings rate table for corporate cards is shown below. For members enrolled in the Spirit program, the above rates are the effective rate that Qantas Points are earned through the program. For Choices and Ascent, these are the points earn in the relevant program.

Spend Category AUD Points Earn Rate to 30 June 2015 Earn rate from 1 July 2015
Travel & Entertainment Expenses $1 1 MR Points 1 MR Points
Other Business Commodities $1 1 MR Points 1 MR Points
Insurance Providers (except issued by American Express) $1 0.5 MR Points 0.5 MR Points
Utilities Providers $1 0.5 MR Points 0.5 MR Points
Telecommunications Providers $1 1 MR Points 0.5 MR Points
Government Bodies $1 0.5 MR Points 0.25 MR Points

As can be seen from the table the two changes coming into effect from 1 July, 2015 are:

  • You will now earn 0.5  points for every dollar spent on  “telecommunications providers” including goods and services purchased from phone, mobile and internet service providers. This is a reduction from 1 point per dollar
  • You will now earn 0.25  points for every dollar spent on  “government bodies” including the Australian Taxation Office, Australia Post, federal/state and local government bodies.”

For both of these categories, this is a halving of the earn rates achievable.

With some of the surcharges applicable to the use of American Express cards, this halving of earn rates may need to be considered, as it may now make it worthwhile to switch to a Visa or Mastercard with lower surcharges. Another althernative may be to look at bank issued American Express cards, as these are not affected by these partuclar changes – although some bank issues cards have had their own cutbacks.

 

 

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