ANZ performed some sleight of hand last week, when it announced that ANZ Cashrewards was being launched in the bank’s app.

ANZ acquired Cashrewards last year, through its venture business 1835i, and launched an offer called Cashrewards Max, promising ANZ customers a program with higher cashback rates than the standard Cashrewards program.

Cashrewards works with around 1900 merchant partners. Shoppers who use their Cashrewards account to make purchases with these merchants are eligible for cashback rewards, with an average reward of around 7 per cent.

Cashback rewards are credited to the customer’s Cashrewards account, where they can be retained. In the case of ANZ customers, they can be transferred into an ANZ or PayPal account.

The Cashrewards Max program was “retired” at the end of September and all Cashrewards Max accounts automatically became standard Cashrewards accounts.

What this means is that the bank has downgraded the benefit to customers but this was not disclosed in its media release. 

What it focused on instead was the fact that Cashrewards is now available through the ANZ app and works with debit and credit card transactions.