AMEX Explorer reduces earn rate on Paypal payment to government bodies?

Hi all, does anyone notice that the earn rate on Paypal payment to government bodies like DIBP or Auspost (postbillpay) earns only 0.5 points per dollar spent since 01 Apr 2018? It happens on both of my friend's and my account. It's quite strange as the payment through Paypal should be treated as normal purchase and earn 2 points per $.

Darn. I love that little loophole where payments to government bodies via Postbillpay using PayPal have earned the full 2 points per $. It would be a shame if it were closed, but hey -- it is a loophole so I suppose it comes as no surprise to see it closed.

I usually pay my Sydney Water bill through paypal and have always recieved the 2 points per $. Would be sad if that came down to 0.5 point.😢

Well, I tried to read the T&C in Amex Explorer but couldn't find any clause regarding using Paypal to pay to local government bodies. My understanding in Paypal is a third-party processing platform, so it should be that we pay to Paypal then Paypal pay to Merchant, so we should earn the full 2 points per $ spent. Let's see whether David or anyone else from AusBT could get any clarification of this change from AMEX.

Good luck getting anywhere with that sort of complaint. We already know that the banks are charging overseas transaction fees, on Paypal.com.au AUD purchases if they determine that seller is based overseas. IMO, they are only doing this by exception reporting on known overseas sellers names because they are definitely not applyin it to all.'

I think you can kiss goodbye to that loophole too, and just be grateful that you got away with it for a while.

Yep, they've definitely closed the loophole. I paid some council rates via PayPal last week and just noticed that I received only 0.5 Rewards points per dollar. Darn.