[Cranzle]

_Tom wrote:

Thanks for checking, Rob!

@Cranzle – are you relying on the 15 nights to bump you up a tier during the course of 2026? I’m just wondering what your reference to losing a quarter is all about?

For me, I’m Titanium in 2026 based off of 2025 stays, so as long as I get these 15 nights credit at some time in 2026 it won’t affect me. Are you in a different position?

Yes, I didn’t quite hit Platinum again in 2026, so I’m expecting to drop anytime soon (although it hasn’t happened yet. It would make sense for me to hit Platinum in Q1

[Cranzle]

Rob Burgess wrote:

I’ve spoken to Currensea. As this is the first they’ve done this, there is extra manual checking being done to ensure that everything works as it should. Nights should post sooner rather than later.

That’s good to know, as it would be a shame to lose a quarter on a scheme that is run on a calendar year basis

[Cranzle]

On the iOS app, press “Night This Year” underneath the 15 number, it then confirms that the 15 nights are from Marriott Bonvoy Credit Card (which i presume is Amex).

[Cranzle]

Are they still charging £60 for a replacement card?

[Cranzle]

.

[Cranzle]

Rob Burgess wrote:

Anyone know what the HMRC fee is for a Mastercard Business Debit Card?

Amusingly HMRC doesn’t tell you anywhere. Not sure if it is personalised down to the exact card level or not and so only shows when you input your card number.

A Mastercard Business Credit (not Debit) card would be 1.8%.

At 1 point per £1, even with the tax write-off of the fee, it doesn’t make sense UNLESS you are after the Elite Night Credits. Even then, the fee on £4,000 of card spend could be more than the cheapest hotel night mattress run!

Remember that the sign-up bonus and free night voucher are only triggered by FX spend.

You would be one of the best placed people to know, because HMRC don’t charge a fee. Just just charge you what they are charged, and therefore have decided to no longer publish their ‘fee’

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/657/pdfs/uksiem_20200657_en.pdf

[Cranzle]

rum wrote:

Cranzle wrote:

Rob Burgess wrote:

All the ones listed should work. There are over 100,000 Currensea cards in circulation now, inc their own-brand and Hilton ones. Any IT issues should have been squashed years ago.

From my experience, no, IT issues haven’t been squashed. I’m unable to activate or use the app on multiple devices. No resolution from there support, it’s been 4 days.

Interesting observation – thanks for posting. Might I ask which bank you’ve tried to link it with?

The bank link is complete, Barclays. It’s the card activation that I am unable to proceed with.

[Cranzle]

Rob Burgess wrote:

All the ones listed should work. There are over 100,000 Currensea cards in circulation now, inc their own-brand and Hilton ones. Any IT issues should have been squashed years ago.

In my experience, no, IT issues haven’t been squashed. I’m unable to activate or use the app on multiple devices. No resolution from there support, it’s been 4 days.

[Cranzle]

Did anyone really believe investing in a company run by Shachar would turn out well?
Pure liar. Another Adam Neumann

[Cranzle]

can2 wrote:

what annoys me about Starlink, besides the clown owner, is the £195 “demand surcharge” in London if you want to sign up..

Isn’t this identical to BA’s “Carrier Imposed Charge”?

[Cranzle]

Blair Waldorf Salad wrote:

WA Palm Jumeirah up from 85K to 100K

That property is not a WA in the true sense. Very mediocre property with poor service.

[Cranzle]

Has anyone seen a Microsoft offer recently? It usually appears around this time of the year.

[Cranzle]

Is there a suggestion here an Amex merchant is using their own cards on the merchant account?

What could go wrong?!?

[Cranzle]

My thoughts:

Waitrose – Small stores, generally not enough parking. Small selection, own brand is mid-range marketed as high end. Branded products are obviously the same everywhere. Does anyone know how to ‘game’ the loyalty system? I used to receive generous discount vouchers (spend £60 get £20 off etc), when I stopped scanning the loyalty card. I haven’t had any discount vouchers for over a year so rarely shop there.
Free coffee – frankly, who cares. No one is drinking coffee whilst shopping, I’m not desperate enough to make a visit for a crap free coffee whilst taking my own cup.

BA – I’m no longer chasing loyalty.

[Cranzle]

This is also the once Worlds Favourite Airline that intentionally reduced website functionality (further from its already limited offering) so everyone HAD to call into and speak to their overworked call centre staff during Covid.

[Cranzle]

jill wrote:

Have you Noticed that all the offers on AMEX, especially the platinum card, are in London or south of England. Living in Scotland I have not been able to take up any of the offers and find the card not worth the fee and so have cancelled I wonder why AMEX don’t realise that some people people live outside the main metropolis. Do you agree?

It’s nothing to do with Amex. Perhaps you could lobby your local restaurants to partner with Amex to run some offers?

[Cranzle]

I do find it amazing that BA choose to spend money on an all ‘star’ cast for their continually changing safety demonstration videos, but can’t find the budget to clean the interior of the cabins or maintain them, let along upgrading them.

[Cranzle]

Garethgerry wrote:

CJD wrote:

You sound excessively paranoid.

May be paranoid but never been hacked or identity stolen , unlike 200,000 (minimum estimate) non paranoid people in UK victims of cyber crime

Garethgerry wrote:

CJD wrote:

You sound excessively paranoid.

May be paranoid but never been hacked or identity stolen , unlike 200,000 (minimum estimate) non paranoid people in UK victims of cyber crime

How are you stopping your mail from being intercepted, stolen or ‘lost’? It’s far easier to steal your identity the ‘old way’ rather than the ‘new way’.

It sounds like you don’t use Apple Pay or the like either. So your happy to voluntarily put your card into a skimming machine, or expose your card to so that some details can be caught on spy camera etc.

I’m almost fully digital and have embraced all new tech over the last 25 years and have never been hacked or had my identity stolen.

The risk is there either way, I’m not sure how you analyse which is riskier.

[Cranzle]

PeteM wrote:

It’s not as bad as I feared. Remember you can use Tastecard there again. Plus the £7 any day pizzas from O2 Priority (which don’t mix with any other offers).

Can TasteCard be used together with the ‘Club’?

[Cranzle]

I have successfully paid on account at hotels before staying to take advantage of offers like this. It does require visiting the hotel.
Someone experienced at the front desk should be able to handle this for you. MO are quite good.
Just explain that you want to prepay money on account before your stay. I’ve used multiple cards.

[Cranzle]

Marc wrote:

Alex_A wrote:

Marc wrote:

Alex_A wrote:

Had my card since Nov 24. Total spend around £11.5K, so I’ve triggered (and received) my 100K MR sign-up bonus.

Got on chat yesterday, told them I was considering cancelling because the bulk of my spend will be on other cards going forward. Asked about retention offers and was told there are none currently available on my account.

The chat agent did encourage me to ask again periodically.

I probably shouldn’t be so surprised, but what a royal pisstake to ask for a retention bonus after three month, right after triggering an all-time high sign-up bonus. Blows my mind.

Hey Marc, just to clarify—this is a website and forum dedicated to people looking for ways to get value out of the system, including through retention offers. The site has plenty of articles actively encouraging people to take advantage of new card offers, pro-rata account fee refunds, and (yes) retention offers.

I appreciate that many in this thread are longer-term members, but my situation is far from unique. Plenty of short-term cardholders have posted about their retention offer experiences shortly after receiving a welcome bonus.

It’s totally fine if you wouldn’t have asked, but singling out one person for doing something that’s widely discussed here seems unnecessary. We’re all here to share strategies and learn from each other.

Thanks for clarifying what this website is for. And I’m extremely grateful for all the amazing content on here which has helped me a great deal to refine my strategy around credit cards, etc. Yet, I can’t remember reading an article from Rob to sign-up for a credit card and ask for a retention bonus after three months. JDB summed up the issue nicely in his reply above.

Oh and if you scroll back, you will find that I have indeed also called out others previously on this thread when the piss was in fact taken.

What’s with the necessity to ‘call out’ anyone? Why do you care? There are 44 pages of replies to this retention offer thread. Clearly a lot of people ask for a sweetener.

At what month would one not be ‘called out’? 1,3,6,12 or 24 months? 5 years? 10 years?

[Cranzle]

lyons.laptop@gmail.com wrote:

Same happened to me. No discussion, consideration or usual Amex good customer service.
I have been a high net worth customer with their top three cards for 50 years. My secretary paid my BA Amex card (in order to earn better avois)from my business account!!!!
Apparently a big NO NO.
What is this country coming to????
I hope other credit card companies take note and start recruiting and competing.
Peter L

Great first post.

[Cranzle]

JDB wrote:

@memesweeper – I agree! I think that any concept that one is somehow treated differently by cabin crew on any airline as a reward ticket holder is in the head rather than any reality. The only different treatment we have experienced, and only on BA, is that my wife feels she is regularly treated as a second class citizen vs male passengers by male and female BA crew.

Hotels are a totally different ball game where guests are definitely treated differently depending on how and how much they have paid as well as how they are dressed and their demeanour/attitude etc. Once one is ‘demanding’ benefits the game is already lost.

I recently flew BA where the cabin crew member had no concept of personal space. He would put his head right in my face at every interaction. It’s was really bizarre and clearly the new lot aren’t being trained on this aspect. Perhaps BA just assume it’s obvious, but we all know that if we assume it makes an ass out of you and me.

It’s a shame BA have fallen so far.

To the OP – it just sounds like standard BA service to me, nothing to do with you being flying on a redemption ticked. The art of service isn’t really taught in any place. BA. To Fly. To serve.

[Cranzle]

The Urbanite wrote:

Rui N. wrote:

Did these guys still allowed you to pay their cards with another credit card?

They allowed this for years after accounts had been shut down and long paid off. You could keep making payments to the account and it would just go on the (closed) account as a credit which you could request a refund via bank transfer for. Good way to liquidate limitless Vanilla Mastercard gift cards and generate rewards on the cards that continued to pay rewards on financial transactions.

So that’s the dark secret that you’ve been keeping from us for years! I’ve read a few of your cryptic posts alluding to this secret scheme. Well done for figuring that out!

[Cranzle]

Curve want me to verify my identity. Every time I press ‘Let’s Get Started’ to proceed to verify my identity from within the app, it says ‘Try Again’.
My account has been blocked for months.

I genuinely fail to see how they are running a business where so much is going wrong and they fix nothing. Other than giving new names to new price plans every few months.

@ShacharBialick – How’s your court case with AmEx going?