Westpac Altitude Black

Terrible service by Westpac, better deal with another bank, I wouldn’t bother. I am also closing all my business with Westpac after this experience, that’s how bad it was.

After a 25 year relationship with a different bank, I received notice that my Platinum Amex card linked to my Banks Mastercard was to cease. In looking for alternatives, primarily for the reward points NOT additional credit, I considered the Altitude Black Option. Despite considerable dollars in Real Estate Assets and an SMSF, No Debt, an impeccable Credit Rating and significant income from passive investments, I continued to be asked for more and more documentation that included my SMSF Audit, Bank Statements, Rental Statement, Notice of Assessment and then lastly my full tax records. Adding to my frustration, I could only speak to a call centre who simply recorded my concerns and passed it on to a verification team member. After 2 weeks of trying to comply with the never ending requests for more and more information, I gave up and applied to American Express directly and was approved in a single day. Unless you have the patience of Jobe, more money than the Reserve Bank of Australia and prefer speaking to the Horse and not the Jockey then this is the Credit Card for You!

First they couldn't check my income automatically. Sent payslips but their email addresses mailbox was full!!! Had to send payslips to some platinum card email address. Finally approved but it's been almost two weeks and the (fairly high limit) card is nowhere to be seen. Not too hopeful about my bonus points judging on other reviews too :(

I was offered this card as a promotion for a fixed annual fee of $100 for the life of the card. Now it has increased to $195 & upon inquiry I was told eventually that the fine print allows them to change the fee. I would not have signed up for this card if I had known they would do this to me.

I applied the Westpac Altitude Black card in Mar 2018 as they were doing a promotion to give away 80,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points after the customer has spent $5,000 or more within 90 days. This is the first time that I applied a card with Westpac.

I had already spent $5,000 with this card by end of 13 Apr 2018, and Westpac immediately charged me the $250 annual card fee as well as the $50 Qantas reward fee. But I have yet to receive the 80,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points till now, and there's simply no communication from Westpac to indicate when the points will be transferred to my Frequent Flyer account.

I have also applied another Frequent Flyer Black card with ANZ in Mar 2018, and in contrast, ANZ transferred me the 75,000 Frequent Flyer points immediately once I fulfill their minimum spending. Westpac's handling of this matter is really disappointing, and I will seriously never consider to use their services in future if this issue does not ever get resolved.

We have just been approved for the Altitude Black card after Westpac cancelled our Platinum Qantas Amex card under Reserve Bank changes. They said that they had cancelled the Amex card and we could no longer use it but were issuing a Black card.
I phoned when I received their mail but apparently had missed the cut off date - but they said the old card was still valid. Except it wasn't and my direct debits started to bounce. Great.

After we were advised that the new Black Card was approved they said it was linked to Qantas - which we didn't want. Sent 2 emails over a week and a half which were acknowledged but never replied to.
Phoned this morning and spent 45 minutes on the phone and was transferred 4 times. Each time had to go through a lengthy id process and explain the situation in detail. The second person was truly a dill - obviously had his question sheet in front of him and didn't deviate until he eventually realised he couldn't solve the problem.
We clearly explained at the outset ....we are being issued with a new Altitude card. You have issued it as a Qantas card. We do not want to be linked to Qantas. Simple. Not for these people.
Eventually was transferred to a very nice lady in Card Services who fixed everything up in 5 minutes.

It is about time that Westpac looked up the meaning of customer service. They have no bloody idea.

"You need to wait 12 months between closing one Westpac Altitude Card and opening another". When I asked the fellow where this is written in the PDS, he couldn't locate it. I have scoured the Westpac PDS and the Altitude T&Cs are there is no reference to this statement. Just another excuse for not sending the points. Am now going to follow up with Point Hacks who endorse & advertised this promotion of 100k points, 2 lounge invitations in Feb 2018. Have met minimum spend requirements on 13 March. Have paid account in full. Old mate, backpacker in the Rewards Centre advised that it is 4 weeks from date of eligibility for the lounge passes to be delivered and 3 months for the points to be credited. "It is not a manual process to allocate the points, it is a computer generated script that looks at 3 requirements:
1. Minimum Spend Requirement satisfied
2. Have you held another Westpac Group Card within the last 12 months (so this is St George too folks) and
3. Are you a Westpac Group staff member? (Obvs if you are, no dice.)

Told old mate, I am happy to close this account and move onto the next. Steep learning curve for the Annual Fee though - $395. Yikes!
May I add that the NAB QF Mcard credited 100,000k points to my QF FF even before I paid the statement and their annual fee was only $295. They also list your NAB customer number on the back of their card which is very handy. No, I don't work for NAB - just a point of difference between the 2 products.

I got scammed by Westpac together with everyone else. Signed up to Altitude Black, spent over 20k, never received the bonus points. It’s now a year later, so cancelled the card and closed all my other accounts with Westpac after being a loyal customer for 10 years. Good job Westpac! Now you missed out on a home loan I took with another bank and all my accounts- hope it was worth it!

Westpac used to offer good customer service with this product, this is no longer the case.
After a deceptive and potentially fraudulent transaction, Westpac offered no assistance whatsoever in resolving this issue, instead they just proceeded to communicate with me over the phone in an unhelpful, patronising and insulting fashion.
Background: I submitted what I thought was a booking for accommodation through a travel grp in London - Dec 2018. I entered my credit card details online thinking this was a auth deposit to secure the booking. Totally incorrect.
Instead my credit card was debited as a pending transaction $4100.00 AUD instantly and there was no booking confirmed. Only a booking "request" was made to the property owner, after 24 hrs there was no confirmation or communication from the accommodation group apart from a "we'll get back to you", Meantime my ccard had a 4100 charge on it.
After >24hrs I contacted the merchants customer service who whilst polite offered no assistance apart from saying that because the 24hr deadline had passed that the booking was declined. Expecting the 4100 to be refunded as quickly as it was charged I was advised this won't happen, and it would take up to 10 days. So 3 days after i've have a 4100 debit on ym card, received absolutely nothing in return except a cancelled accommodation request, and as a direct result no funds remaining to book alternative accommodation 1 week prior to arrival, this has really puts me in a state of distress.

So i called Westpac thinking this maybe a cause for their concern and asking them to assist, perhaps contact the merchant (who had meantime provided to me an email with company details saying that the request has been cancelled and a void of transaction for 4100 was due but would take up to 10 days) and confirm the scenario. I'd hoped Westpac would be supportive of this case as I could prove email and webchat copies as evidence and hoped there would be some desire on their part to act on a merchant debiting their cards for products / services not provided and organize a void or at least contact and investigate the transaction. Instead there was nothing but stonewalling from Westpac and a total lack of willingness to assist. Worse all I received from Westpac (customer service officer and supervisor in their supposedly premium card customer service team) was patronising "I understand" (repeatedly) but we wont and will not do anything to assist. As I tried to explain the situation the initial rep got increasingly aggressive and rude in her tone over the phone whilst the supervisor just used a passive aggressive approach repeatedly saying "I understand" but refused to take ownership of the case, or complete any follow up to assist. Best of all they finished with "Is there anything else I can assist you with" which as a throwaway line was totally presumptuous and insincere.
Overall an infuriating experience and a dismissive approach by Westpac absent of any customer advocacy or security concerns relating to deceptive and potentially fraudulent transactions authorised on one of their card products.
Think twice before you pay the hefty annual fee which in this case provides nothing but insincere, worthless, dishonest representations about providing a premium service and rigorous card security relating to this product.

I have been using this card for 7 months now. Applied because of a 100000 qantas points sign up. After 3 months and minimum spend amount I recieved 50000 points. After ringing them and asking about the other 50000 they told me I had to wait another 3 months. After these three months I rang again and got told it had to get "investigated"
after 2 weeks and numerous calls back to them they got back to me and said I am not eligible for the other 50000 points and failed to give me a reason why.
I have since lodged a complaint with them and am waiting to get a reply from them.

Unfortunately we lost both our Altitude Black MasterCard's while travelling overseas. When we contacted the Westpac they transferred us to International MasterCard to arrange an emergency card as we had three weeks of our trip to go. International MasterCard did not send appropriate information to Westpac to approve a replacement card despite many phone calls at significant expense. International MasterCard did not return any calls or send emails as promised. We were never asked by either the bank for MasterCard if we had money to survive, as I was asked by Visa when my card had to be cancelled due to fraud when overseas some years ago.
The outcome was we did not receive a card after 3 days and multiple phone calls to both Westpac and International MasterCard. WE GAVE UP and survived by using the one card we had left, a Velocity Visa card.
Now on return we will be changing all our MasterCard's to Visa.
WARNING - do not lose your MasterCard overseas as you are unlikely to get an emergency replacement.

I haven't received my point too . 100% its scam. It's really disappointing that bank like westpac does these sorts of things Lucky [Number Removed]

Lost MasterCard in Italy and international MasterCard service atrocious.
Being long term customers with Westpac international MasterCard did not send through appropriate information for them to approve the card despite multiple phone calls. International MasterCard did NOT once return a call or send an email as promised. As we have had previous experience with Visa where our card was replaced in less than 24 hours we expected that after 2 days we could get a card. Despite extensive numbers of calls over 3days ($$$) no card was able to be provided. We were so lucky that we happened to have a debit card that we could use otherwise we would have been in a very difficult situation. The promises are not true.... when we return home all of our MasterCards will be changed to Visa
Please be cautious when you travel with MasterCard -hold onto them as you will be lucky to get an emergency replacement overseas.

I purchased for $395 had a minimum spend of $5000 in 3 months to receive 80K Qantas points.
I did this and waited... called up they said minimum wait of 3months. Called again after 3 months they said in a few days. Called up again and they said I didn't make the requirement spend amount, even though I have statements proving I did so. The call centre staff are very rude and unhelpful HIGHLY AVOID!!! I have Amex card through Amex and the service is 100x better, the points are credited quickly the staff answer calls immediately and the rewards are much higher. If anyone is looking for a new card avoid Westpac. I have also used Nab rewards who were a little slow with the bonus but still credited them overall I'd recommend AMEX best company by far. Also professional travel insurance. Defiantly worth the small fees on some purchases. If you are planning on getting this card for bonus points don't bother they will not credit them to you and you will waste your time and money. Also the actual application process was terrible.

Absolutely terrible, do not bother with this rewards program it is not worth the costs or the time!

I've had this rewards card for quite some time now and it is always a struggle to end up achieving enough points to collect on rewards!

Every time I go to the rewards site to claim on my points the value of the points required to purchase rewards is depreciated!!!

They do not give you any type of notification that the points you have collected are depreciating. It takes an extremely long time to acquire enough points to claim anything decent but by the time do you think you have claimed enough and make your target they have increased the amount of points you need to collect on that same reward!

For example you once needed 19,000 points to claim on a $100 gift card, then it went up to 22,000 points that went up to 23,500 points and then it has now gone up to 24,100 points! This is in just the last 6 month or so. No notice of when the increase is coming into effect so you have a chance to use your points GRRR obviously this is intentional so you cannot claim your point in time before the increase!

Huge waste of time and money don't bother!

It's been two weeks since I applied for the card and have not received any response from them until now. It's only when I call to find out the status that they keep asking for more and more information. They them selves are not sure of what they want. If it wasn't for the frequent flyer points I would never use this card!

Good for points, especially if you can use the Amex. Get two free lounges passes at the Amex lounge each year plus 2 passes to Qantas lounge, but have to buy a Qantas or Jetstar fare to get them. Doesn't charge overseas transaction fees, which is good as these can mount up.

I applied for a card because I wanted a means of accruing frequent flyer points, not because I needed the credit. This was a point that I made in an email to Westpac along with my application. I explained that I would be happy to pre-fund the card, so that I wouldn't even pose any credit risk for them.

My personal bank account had $165,000 in it at the time of my application, and I have never defaulted on a payment before in my life, but because I hadn't actually owned a credit card for about ten years, I was given a hard time getting a card.

Eventually I was told in writing that they would approve my application if I provided them with payslips and bank details, which I did, after which I heard nothing.

SIX WEEKS LATER I called them back to find out why I hadn't been provided with my card yet, and I was bounced around a Filipino call centre for over an hour, before being told that because I'd disclosed that I own 16% of my employer that I was be deemed to be self-employed, which meant that I was not an employee, which meant that the information I provided was false, which meant that my card application was denied. Unbelievable.

I'm young (38) and I have already made $6m from a standing start, which means that I'm on my way to becoming a very rich old man - this experience has ensured that I will never bank with Westpac ever again.

I have been using this card for years, points reward are so good. Got quite a few international flight by covert points

The rules were simple, a password 8-16 characters long, at least 1 number and 1 letter and no common dictionary words.

I try and enter a password that normally works within these rules, it has 5 letters, 3 numbers and a special. The password is rejected, yet it fits well within the criteria.

I ring Altitude for assistance and their only suggestion is to change it in some way.

So I got online to check – did you know the average person has some 90 online accounts with usernames and passwords to remember. Accounts we use regularly we will remember the password, eg our online banking details. However an Altitude Rewards programme that we might use once or twice a year I am never going to remember unless I can make it something consistent with a number of other occasional use services.

Altitude suggested I write the password down – wow, I wasn't expecting that. Isn't it less secure to write passwords down?

My guess is that the system was complaining because I had used the password previously, in which case they should be able to remove the previous use and allow me to enter it again. The customer service however insisted there was nothing they could do and I had to change the password.

The irony of the whole story is that it happily accepted my new password: qwerty111