Coles and Citi finalise $945 million credit card agreement

Wesfarmers and Citi have recently announced a completed agreement that will see the latter take over distribution of Coles branded credit cards for the coming decade.

The agreement was initially announced in November 2016, at which point, Coles Managing Director John Durkan reiterated Coles’ commitment to offering its customers great value financial products, and said the partnership would foster growth for the brand’s credit card line up.

"Coles services over one million customers across credit cards and car and home insurance, and we will continue to provide simple and competitively priced products that deliver value to Australian families," Durkan said at the time.

Citi is Australia’s largest credit card issuer outside of the big banks, also distributing credit cards for financial institutions including Virgin Money, Suncorp and Bank of Queensland. With the backing of such a big name credit card provider, there’s hope that Coles credit cards may feature even more competitive rates and offers in the future.

Check out the range of Coles credit cards on offer.

Under the deal, Coles will continue to offer cards under its own brand and then following a transition period, Citi will take over distribution and management of credit card operations. Wesfarmers reported that the Coles credit card portfolio had gross receivables of approximately $945 million as of December 2016.

What does that mean for you?

While there have been no major changes to the Coles credit card line up yet, there is one piece of fine print that credit cardholders should be aware of - particularly those with their eye on a balance transfer offer.

Once Coles credit cards become part of the Citigroup portfolio, cardholders won’t be able to transfer balances between Citi and Coles credit cards, as they’ll be owned by the same provider. That includes cards from Citibank, and other Citigroup brands, such as Suncorp or Virgin Money.

If you’re in the market for a new credit card, make sure you check out all your options before settling on one. An easy way to do that, is by using Mozo’s credit card comparison table to compare 201 credit cards across 58 different banks.