Qantas premier platinum card discrimination issues

I recently applied for this card and was rejected and believe I have experienced discrimination because I am retired with a self managed super fund ,even though they accept an application on this basis.

My SMSF balance is quite large and returns more than twice the qualifying income. Also I am a home owner and have an excellent credit rating. I also have a Citibank credit card for flybuys points.

Being Qantas Gold I am after a card that earns Qantas points to use when overseas travel finally is possible.

This leaves a bitter taste in the mouth and I won't be using any Qantas associated products in a hurry. Anyone experienced similar discrimination?

It's not Qantas that is rejecting your application - it is Citibank, which runs the card business with Qantas branding.

As a business, they are not required to provide you with a credit card. If they feel that you don't suit the type of customer they are looking for, then they are within their rights to reject your application.

'Credit-worthiness' is rarely the defining factor when credit card companies decide on whom to bless.

You may have all the assets under the sun and they may be a mix perfectly liquid and secure. However, like a lot of retirees in a similar boat, you may not necessarily be quite as adept at spending those assets - at the rate that the cc company may wish or desire.

Think about it this way: credit card companies 'top of the list' may well include the ability to catch a customer who is a prolific spender and who pays their monthly account on time. By dent of age, a retiree will often be marginally less attractive to a cc company, simply because that financial relationship may well be shorter than that of a 30 year old. Additionally, the retiree will probably be a better money manager and probably more conservative in purchase history.

Premium Platinum. Top range - and you can bet that Citi would have a defined 'preferences' list. 'Discrimination' here is hard to prove. Perhaps it might be worth asking Citi first whether there are any other products of their that you would be able to apply for? If not, then that might well provide you with additional armoury.

Mind you, there seem to be regular complaints on this and other sites about the 'ability' of retirees to obtain credit cards in general (not just premium level cards). Perhaps a chat with the Financial Ombudsman may be interesting for you, particularly if you hold other cards such as Amex or Diners - but as @grannular points out above, credit card companies are not obligated to issue you with a particular card .. or any.

If you feel you have been discriminated then you should report it to the relevant authorities. Or you could also choose to understand what discrimination actually means, the total irrelevance it has to your situation and how playing the good old discrimination card isn't going to help your cause.

Now if you choose the former option, please do update us on how you go.

I suggest you google search what discrimination is......... or you can get over it and join the many other people "discriminated" by Citibank when applying for one of their or their partner credit cards......... which I would say would be a fair chunk of people have been at least once in their churning life time

Russell age is a factor in anti discrimination legislation. So it is not quite a card to be played but rather older Australians are perfectly entitled to raise the issue and the finance ombudsman is the place, but as others have commented these are discretionary and so all Citi has to do is offer another card with fewer perks. But it does grate that the unspoken criteria is spend and not credit worthiness.

The whole point of assessing credit worthiness is to discriminate between desirable and non-desirable customers for a specific product.

You are not entitled to approval for all banking products you decide to apply for.

Scott this of course is subject to compliance with anti-discrimination legislation which the financial services ombudsman adjudicates, and has their hands full on these sorts of cases.

Credit Card companies want someone who both spends a large amount on their card with a high probability of racking up debt. The credit company makes money on you 3 ways, through transactions, annual fees and unresolved debt interest. If your liquidity is high enough to always pay on time and never run into debt that may count against it. It isn't 'discrimination' they have every right to not provide you with a credit card.

Drakesy it is discrimination if the financial sector ombudsman says it is. But the company can offer another credit card with fewer perks and cover themselves.

It's not your age, it's your credit worthiness. Qantas and those who stand behind the financial product are perfectly entitled to deny you credit if you are retired and don't meet their credit criteria. That's just simply not unlawful discrimination under the Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth).

More broadly, it is difficult to have any sympathy for self-funded retirees. They have been the beneficiaries of some of the most costly and inequitable policies that Australian governments have ever cooked up. I am very much looking forward to the point at which the electorate's demographics tip and governments no longer have to appease boomers. Those who are under 50 will be waiting with some of the most regressive policies imaginable to punish the remaining boomers for the years of intergenerational inequity which they have perpetrated on Australia's youth.

Why don't you run along to FOS or the AHRC and post their "get lost" letters here when they inevitably come back to you. Just use the "Attach File" button. It will make for some entertaining reading for the rest of us. Thanks in advance.

Greg the act says ‘it is unlawful to harass, victimise or treat someone less favourably than another person because of certain characteristics that are protected: age (is one of them). The wording of the rejection would have to be carefully crafted. I’m not sure who the ‘you’ is you refer to as I’m not one who has felt the anti discriminatory work of banks...yet!!! But I’m sure my time will come as it will for most of us.