Why NAB is cutting credit cards rewards points values and raising fees
Key takeaways
- NAB is raising annual fees and cutting points values across many of its credit card brands.
- The changes affect NAB's white label credit card brands like Bank of Queensland, Virgin and MyCard.
- What's next: More banks and card providers will likely follow suit with points value cuts and fee hikes.
NAB is the first big Australian bank to announce major changes to its rewards card offerings in response to the RBA's credit card surcharge ban.
The ban, while good news for consumers, makes it more expensive for banks to offer generous credit card points programs.
While NAB hasn't yet announced details about changes to NAB-branded credit cards, it has now announced changes to its white label card brands, which include:
What's changing?
From 1 October 2026 points will be worth less and annual card fees will be higher.
Let's look at MyCard. Right now, a $100 gift card is worth 20,900 MyCard Rewards Points. From 1 October 2026, that jumps to 33,770 points.
That's a 62% increase. But MyCard will apply an increase to existing customer balances to help offset these increases.
The points you earn on MyCard reward and frequent flyer cards are also set to decrease.
Virgin Money cards will also see fee hikes and lower earn rates.
The Velocity Flyer's annual fee will jump from $149 to $169, and earn rates will drop too. The Velocity High Flyer will also see a $20 annual fee increase to $349.
Earn rates on this card are currently 1 Velocity Point per dollar (for the first $8,000 per statement period) and 0.5 points thereafter.
From 1 October this falls to 0.75 points for the first $5,000 per statement period, then 0.25 points after that.
If you spent $10,000 on the Velocity High Flyer you'd earn 9,000 Velocity Points under the current system. From October, you'd earn 5,000 points. That's a 44% cut in points earning potential.
Why are these changes happening?
In March, the Reserve Bank of Australia announced a ban on credit card surcharges from 1 October 2026.
This is good news for most Australians. You'll no longer have to pay those little fees many businesses charge when tapping your credit card.
But these fees allowed banks to offer reward and frequent flyer credit card points-earning cards more cheaply, in effect subsidising the high end credit card market.
Now that those fees are going away, banks and card providers have to charge higher annual fees or lower earn rates for points (or both).
Other banks will follow suit very soon.
What should customers do?
There's likely no way around it: the rewards and frequent flyer credit card market is going to get more expensive and less rewarding by the first of October.
You could get a new credit card before the first of October, which would help you avoid a higher annual fee. But you'll have to accept the lower earn rate.
You also really need to compare your options carefully to get a card that works for you. And make sure you have a strategy that maximises the points you earn.
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