St.George Bank will require four Amplify Rewards points for every Velocity Frequent Flyer point from 30 September, doubling the conversion cost on airline transfers while leaving Everyday Rewards grocery redemptions unchanged, according to product disclosure tables updated on the bank’s site this week.
What changed
Under the outgoing schedule, manual and automatic Velocity transfers priced at two Amplify points per Velocity point. Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles move from a three-for-one ratio to four-for-one on the same date. Digital gift cards, merchandise and travel redemptions also need more points—illustrative disclosures show a $100 eGift card rising from about 20,000 to about 29,412 Amplify points—while charitable donations and Priceless Planet contributions are exempt.
The Westpac-owned lender said the repricing aligns Amplify with “market sustainable” earn-and-burn economics after two years of elevated grocery and fuel spend inflated points liabilities. Consumer advocates counter that cardholders who chose Amplify specifically for Virgin Australia transfers are effectively paying a stealth annual fee increase without a change to the $75 rewards program charge.
Everyday Rewards carve-out
Transfers to Woolworths Group’s Everyday Rewards remain at 3,000 Amplify points for 2,000 Everyday points, a ratio St.George highlights in marketing as the everyday shopper’s escape hatch. That split matters in Sydney and Melbourne corridors where Amplify Signature cards are sold alongside mortgage bundles: households that auto-transfer to Velocity for holidays face a 50 per cent cut in airline value, while households that shop at Woolies can keep prior economics by redirecting monthly sweeps.
Minimum transfer blocks stay at 3,000 Amplify points with 500-point increments for airlines, and up to 150,000 points per Everyday transaction. Cardholders must opt in to automatic transfers; otherwise they need to phone or use the Amplify portal before month-end to beat the deadline if they want legacy ratios on balances accrued before 30 September.
Competitive context
Qantas-linked cards from competing majors still price airline transfers differently, and several fintech cards have trimmed lounge or insurance perks instead of touching conversion tables. St.George’s move tests whether Virgin-linked households churn to Qantas products or absorb the haircut and keep the Westpac ecosystem for offset accounts.
For household finance desks, the lesson is to rerun spreadsheet models: a family banking 80,000 Amplify points a year into Velocity for school-holiday flights will need roughly twice as much spend to fill the same itinerary after October, unless they pivot to Everyday Rewards and treat supermarket discounts as the primary return.
St.George said it notified affected customers by email and in-app message. No changes apply to purchase earn rates on eligible spend, only to redemption and partner transfer multipliers.