The Commonwealth Bank Low Fee MasterCard is a credit card that is offered by the Commonwealth bank, one of the big four banks in Australia. The credit card processor is MasterCard, the second largest credit card processor in the world. It offers the card free of any annual fee to qualifying card users.
There is no annual fee for new or existing commonwealth bank customers, although they have to meet the Commonwealth Bank’s credit history requirements. If the conditions are not met then there will be a $78 annual fee. If there is a qualifying Commonwealth loan or bank account then there will be no fee. However there is another condition in that at least $1,000 needs to be spent on the card, although this can include cash advances. If $1,000 is spent on the card but there is no qualifying Commonwealth bank account or loan then there will be a reduced annual fee of $24.
There is a balance transfer deal with a relatively low interest rate for the first five months of the card. This balance transfer only applies to Australian issued cards.
The standard interest rate is rather high for credit cards. However there is a 55 day interest free grace period that lasts from the time a good is purchased. This grace period only applies to spending on the card and not to balance transfers from other cards or cash advances on the card. The grace period also does not apply to purchases made when there is still a balance transfer outstanding on the card.
There can be an extra card issued at no cost to another member of the family. Spending will still be charged to the same account and the main card holder will be liable to pay this off.
The card has technology that enables the use of PayPass which is a MasterCard system that allows transactions for $100 or less to be simply paid for by tapping the card against a PayPass terminal. This greatly speeds up transactions without the need to sign for the card or enter a pin number to authorise the card.
The card is offered by Commonwealth Bank, which is one of the largest banks in Australia and has a large network of ATMs around Australia. The card processor is MasterCard which is accepted at around 29 million locations around the world.
