MBNA Mastercard Changes | Page 2 | Credit card reward programs | Discussion forum

Hi all, I've just recently discovered this forum and this is my first post 🙂

I got a mailed notice from MBNA dated July 19 to "let you know about increases to the standard annual interest rate; the elimination of your annual fee; and changes to your MBNA Rewards Travel Program Terms and Conditions". And the changes sent to me seem to be different than some of the ones reported by others in this thread...

The upshot is this:
- After Sept 1, 2018, there will *no longer* be an annual fee charged to my account (was $89)
- As of Feb 1, 2019, the rewards structure will change from earning 2 points on every $1.00 spent on eligible purchases to 1 point earned for every $1.00 spent. EXCEPT for eligible gas purchases, grocery purchases, and restaurant purchases -- for these categories, the original reward rate applies (2pts/$1.00 spent) until I have spent $5000 annually in each category at which point the reward goes to the new standard.
- As of Feb 1, 2019, the redemption structure will go from 100 pts per $1.00 cash reward to 200 pts for $1.00 cash reward (so 12,000 pts will equal $60).
- Further, the minimum number of points required to redeeem will go from 5,000 points to 10,000 points.
- As of Sept 14, 2018 the interest rate went from @21.99% to 22.99%

There was also this note:

"We may make changes to your MBNA Rewards Program in the future:
We are clarifying our MBNA Rewards Travel Program Terms and Conditions to bring to your attention that Rewards Programs terms may change in a number of ways, including by changing the value of Points already earned by you, the rate at which you earn Points, and how and when you may redeem Points and the redemption options available to you."

Then there's a bunch of stuff that's staying the same (e.g., 100 pts to redeem for $1.00 in travel redemption; insurance coverage, etc etc).

And then this interesting tidbit at the end:
"You may redeem your existing Points for a Cash Reward at your current rate of 100 points per $1.00 until the MBNA Rewards Program changes take effect on Feb 1, 2019. In fact, from Sept 1, 2018 to Jan 31, 2019, we will be temporarily lowering the minimum Points needed for a Cash Reward from 5,000 to 1,000 MBNA Reward Points, if you wish to do so."

I signed up for this card in March 2017 and have been using it for virtually everything since, except for the last couple of months I've been using the ScotiaBank Momentum Visa for 4% back on groceries and gas 🙂 and I've taken a number of cash rewards from MBNA in that time.

I'm very curious about the note advising that they "may make changes to your program in the future" after they laid out all the new policies...Makes me think this rejig won't be the last.

I'm also curious about their reducing the minimum required points from 5,000 to 1,000 for the lead-up to the new redemption rate taking effect. I've loved the fact that this card gives hard cash rewards paid out to my own bank. But something tells me that will be changed before too long (and not surprising since the standard across other cards seems to be a statement credit).

Anyway, not sure if that's helpful to anyone else but there it is. I'm still not sure whether I'm going to continue on with this card now that the rates will be matching the ScotiaBank Visa especially if they do away with the cash payouts. It's a PITA to manage two cards.