Is CBA’s revamped rewards scheme worth it?

As a slew of new conditions and clawbacks are set to kick in on credit card reward schemes, CBA is making a new customer and “loyalty” land grab. But there’s a catch if you’re a cashback fan or a Qantas frequent flyer.

CBA is the latest – and of course, largest – institution to announce changes when card surcharges are banned come October 1 – so millions of Aussies will be affected. The changes are to its overarching Yello loyalty scheme, to be renamed Commbank Yello points.

And yes, gone is cashback. For many customers, this is all they know about Yello: it’s been something of a mysterious scheme that means a few “Yello” dollars are deposited into your account if you have opted in each month.

For example, among cashback on other CBA products, it currently pays a flat $4 monthly cashback on eligible home loan packages. It also refunds 10 per cent of the cost of flight and hotel bookings made through Travel Booking.

But from October, Commbank Yello will operate more like a traditional rewards scheme, where you earn points from everyday spend and can then redeem them across a range of different ways, including for shopping, travel, gift cards and points transfers to airlines.

And CBA has a big airline partner: Virgin’s Velocity. So, let’s unpack CBA Yello points, to see if it’s worth your trouble.

Firstly, with the new CBA Yello points scheme, you will receive points when you use or pay for a suite of eligible banking and insurance products. You’ll also soon be able to access the scheme with a regular Streamline Basic account, giving more customers access.

Unlike a regular credit card rewards scheme, though, you will only accrue points at particular places. Besides CBA’s own products (including the Travel Booking service), the new earn partners include not just Velocity (joining Qantas and Qatar), but also Origin Energy and Everyday Rewards.

Everyday Rewards is an interesting one – Yello will offer a way of doubling up on the rewards you can earn within that rewards program, without needing a credit card. Points aficionados currently do that by paying with a high points-earning credit card like Amex.

These same partners are naturally where you can redeem points, so you’ll shortly be talking groceries. You can also exchange points for gift cards at various merchants, including existing partner Myer.

Examples released by CBA include 12,500 Yello points potentially netting you a $50 Myer gift card and 100,000 points necessary for one night in a participating 4-star Sydney hotel when booked through Travel Booking (which is provided by Hopper).

Note there will also be your classic loyalty-scheme benefits: ticket presales and offers for events. It’s also promising “discounts and access to exclusive money-can’t-buy experiences”.

In all, CBA has pulled off quite the feat, brokering such high-calibre partnerships – a list that will presumably grow. So, is Commbank Yello any good?

Well, obviously not if you like cashback. You will have to sign up to an explicit cashback platform to continue getting rebates – or what I think of as automatic discounts.