CommBank's announcement comes just a day after NAB announced the first ever Australian no-interest credit card, however, the NAB StraightUp Card.has slightly lower fees than the CommBank Neo card.
CommBank Neo will provide customers with up to $3,000 credit, with a monthly fee dependent on your credit limit, and has no interest payments, no late payments, and no foreign currency fees.
Customers will be refunded their monthly fee if they have no purchases in a month and the card balance is zero.
The credit limits and their monthly fees are:
- $1,000 credit limit: $12 monthly fee
- $2,000 credit limit: $18 monthly fee
- $3,000 credit limit: $22 monthly fee
In contrast, the NAB StraightUp Card has a $10, $15, and $20 monthly fee for the same credit limits respectively.
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Unlike the NAB card however, CommBank Neo will offer eligible customers a range of benefits through cashback offerings from a range of more than 80 retailers.
Angus Sullivan, Commonwealth Bank's Group Executive of Retail Banking Services, said the cashback offering made the monthly fee even greater value for customers.
“Using the full power of our innovation means CommBank Neo will also offer access to discounts and cash back offers with a range of retailers through CommBank Rewards,” Mr Sullivan said.
“We are really excited to launch our simple, easy to understand product which we believe offers great value to our customers.”
Source: CBA
CommBank Neo will be available in late 2020 and will be able to be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted.
There will be a minimum repayment of $25 or 2% of your closing balance, whichever is greater.
The card doesn't provide access to cash advances or gambling.
CBA also plans to launch a similar product for small business customers in early 2021, named CommBank Neo Business.
Is it cheaper than a regular credit card?
Credit cards are often maligned for their high fees, so an interest free credit card may sound great in theory, but is it all it's cracked up to be?
If you were to spend $1,000 with a $3,000 limit and took 12 months to repay this, you'd be charged $264 in fees on the CommBank Neo card.
In comparison, if you were to take 12 months to pay $1,000 off a credit card with no annual fee and an interest rate of 8.40% p.a, you'd be charged around $84 in interest.
So the CommBank Neo card would actually cost $180 more than a regular credit card in this specific example.
Using the same example, the NAB StraightUp Card would charge $240 in fees, $24 less than the CBA card and $156 more than a regular credit card.
Brooke Cooper
Harry O'Sullivan
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