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Sorry badly worked. Spend doesn’t need to be outside Europe. It’s non gbp and European spend wherever you are

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AndrewT wrote:

The app has now been updated to confirm 1% cashback on all spend outside the UK & Europe.

I got 1% back on my purchase of Hyatt points so it’s just non GBP spend rather than needing to be outside Europe.

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JDB wrote:

rams wrote:

Churning the card becomes more attractive now potentially. Previously you got the bonus again with a 6 month gap I believe

@rams – with HSBC, I wouldn’t necessarily count on being let back in repeatedly every six months and they don’t officially offer pro-rata refunds so there are probably better games in town for SUB suckers.

Fair @JDB.

I’ve done it twice myself but with big gaps. That being said most likely will just keep it now as I don’t have another quality Mastercard/visa offering as appealing

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Churning the card becomes more attractive now potentially. Previously you got the bonus again with a 6 month gap I believe

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Thanks for this thread. Just arrived in Boston and used the app. One small sign was up which opened a barrier to the empty queue. I basically pushed to front of whole line as no one else was using it.

I had applied for global entry a few months back and now completed the interview so not sure how much I’ll use it but seems like MPC line can be smaller than global entry at times

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I have this issue and was thinking of asking the hotel. Northernlass has confirmed my suspicion of what they’ll say

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I did just change a date of a redemption booking for free though. You need to click on your booking and change. Need to be a seat available presumable at same miles cost. Had booked 21 Nov return and saw seats for 28th. Easy change and free and all done online

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I had this the other day when I booked a trip. Believe the miles re-deposit fee is unavoidable. Also miles are not returned if the have expired (you can book flights after they are due to expire).

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Ouch at the ticket prices.

I managed to get bottom category athletics (still had great views) for 125 euros each, 50 euro tickets to both gold medal hockey matches. Bargain was 24 euros for cycling heats. I got very lucky

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Blair Waldorf Salad wrote:

“The 1.5 points spend on the Premium BA card and the bonus miles on the Gold card come to the same for a given spend of say, £15,000.”

Not sure I agree with this if airline spend makes up a good proportion of that £15K. The Gold card earns 2 points per £1 on all airline spend. The BAPP earns 3 points per £1 on BA spend.

with the 2.5k bonus per 5k spend the gold give you 22.5k points per 15k which matches the BAPP for non-airline spend. It then depends if your airline spend is with BA or elsewhere to see which works out better if airline spend makes up a good proportion of this spend

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points_worrier wrote:

Just spoke to HSBC Premier about my world elite card. Asked them incidentally about the suspension and ?upcoming changes. They were reticent to say everything, as they werent sure what they could say. But confirmed:
– They have had all the details today
– The card fee is increasing (would not say to what)
– The benefits are increasing: now including fast track, more airline partners, greater earn rate to ?1.25 or ?1.5 miles per £
We should find out at the end of next week officially. She felt it was an improvement. But then the agent would never say it wasn’t…
Anyone else want to see if they can wheedle any more information out?

Thanks for sharing. An increased earnings rate is good. Needs more retailer offers as well

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My deadline to renew Ambassador came and went. They’ve offered me another month to do it. That normal?

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IHG (and Hilton) getting cards will be great. More options the better

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Even flights are crazy. I go with work to Boston occasionally and my flight in September is over £6k. That’s double similar dates 2 years ago

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Can only echo how good HSBC are for putting it right when they get it wrong. I went to branch to make a large transfer (above their daily app limit) and didn’t have my ID so couldn’t do it. My fault no problem. I had explained how much and they said to come back with ID. Went to a different branch the next day and explained the situation at the front desk, this time with my ID. They asked me to wait to see someone who would help. Went through all the steps and just as he’s about to execute he asks me if I’m ok with the £18 fee. That was the first I had heard of the fee despite speaking to 2 other people who knew how much I was sending. The HSBC guy agreed the fee was ridiculous and so I cancelled and instead sent the payment myself online over a few days.

I didn’t have an issue with the fee per se, as that’s up to HSBC, it was more that 2 different people I had spoken to did not think it was important to raise that, so wasted my time going to branch the second day and spent 30 mins+ trying to get the transfer done. When I called to raise the complaint the lady in customer service was great and actually explained I could temporarily increase my daily limit in the app so it would only take 2 transfers to complete everything. I asked her to add in the notes that I thought she was excellent. She raised my complaint and someone from HSBC called later that morning to say they agreed with me and found in my favour. I expected nothing else and then she offered me £100 for the trouble caused. Over the top I think (I expected £20 maybe if anything) but again showed they look to put things right. (Unlike Barclays – woeful organisation)

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I was able to ask chat to look for the closure date of my last BA card. It took some time and they even found one in 2017 but did confirm my clo9sure was in March 2022. Their data seems patchy as it only easily shows them current cards held. Seems to have been a data purge as my account no longer shows older cards either

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lordy wrote:

rams wrote:

Bumping this thread as considering Lloyds card – any feedback for how it treats Curve fronted to NS&I or equivalent?

Unsure about NS&I and co. But I put a PayPal tin on curve through Lloyds and ive been charged a cash fee with interest as its a ‘Cash like ten’ So assuming same will happen with anywhere else.

Thanks for sharing. Will avoid them and go for NatWest rewards instead

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ukpolak wrote:

My mum was “de-banked” by NatWest last year – basically denied access to her wealth (savings) and income (pension). This was all rather sudden with no comms whatsoever, and calling and visits the branch etc yielded a brick wall: “someone will be in touch to discuss”. Meanwhile bills were bouncing, deposits bouncing etc.

An email to Alison Rose yielded a call back from the exec complaints team who gave the same scripted info, as did a call from me to my NatWest relationship manager who was equally useless and his hands were tied on what he could say or what he had been told. We were all in the dark.

Alas nothing ever came back other than a letter after about a month saying that they were terminating their banking relationship and giving her 30 days to move all money and direct-debits etc elsewhere. Bank switching services wouldn’t work and it all had to be done manually based on memory of what bills were due and when.

Worst of all, she had been NW staff throughout her whole career – even during the days when Fred the Shred would send weekly videos asking cashiers to recommend OAPs take out loans to pay for grandkids’ Christmas presents, recommending they use their pensions as source of income.

I joined a FB group about it and it seems very commonplace unfortunately – somehow you become out of their risk appetite or no longer profitable / valuable, but to this day we just don’t know in the case of my mum.

Of course a DSAR came back with nothing in there, and she did a CIFAS (?) fraud marker check which also yielded nothing.

I’m no big fan of Farage but NatWest got what was coming to them – Dame Rose lost her job about 3 months after we’d contacted her and IIRC the regulator is now looking in to “debanking” as they just went completely silent on my mum’s case and denied access to all of her money.

Whilst it sounds like you’ve had more success at least in terms of comms, I do wish you all the very best. My lesson learned was to have back-up accounts (credit card and current) and also to screen print direct debits and standing orders to allow for a reasonable migration if I suffered the same fate.

BTW I have read of a number of banks doing this (through the FB groups I read) but this is the first time I’ve ever read of Amex doing it.

Good luck in getting it sorted – it was a mega stressful period for my folks and on one call to their customer service agents, they basically told my mum to ask family for a short term handout.

I had the same experience last year with Barclays smart investor which then led to my Hilton credit card and premier accounts being closed with no reason provided. They made an absolute mess of transferring my trading accounts to Hargreaves Lansdown taking almost 5 months all in from when they denied me access to it. It’s not surprising when you read in the press of Barclays being a shambles of an organisation.

Speaking of which I referred the case to the financial ombudsman last year who have just sat on it as they are utterly hopeless organisation.

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Made last £3k fronted transaction on 22nd Feb. Saw email and made £3k fronted transaction today. £18.75 fee which is odd as implies they’ve charged 2.5% on £750. They are such a shambles

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Bumping this thread as considering Lloyds card – any feedback for how it treats Curve fronted to NS&I or equivalent?

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Wonder what this means for my boy’s Virgin Headstart bank account which no long is available paying base + 1%. Virgin actually texted me today to say I can now call to withdraw money from it rather than going to a branch, presumably as they have so few branches left.

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Very few people I know got tickets for this. Multiple applications with nothing. Disappointing because as you say Germany is a great place to watch footy

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Thanks.

Any recommendations for best Melia to stay in Europe?

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Thanks for sharing your trip report. Fun to read

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