[WillPS]

Just edited a reply which has now disappeared 🙁 hopefully it comes back. The thrust is I don’t disagree with that, my issue was with the numbers, and by maths it’d take £22k of spend to justify £180 worth of fees with Avios valued at 1p; not £10k.

[WillPS]

QFFlyer wrote:

WillPS wrote:

JonF wrote:

Credit Card
• Additional 0.5 points per £1 spend over the free card, on £10k is 5000 avios = £50
• Cabin Upgrade voucher trade in 7000 avios = £70

Not sure I follow the logic of paying £180 (£20/month – £5/month ‘dual reward’) for £120 worth of additional value from the paid card (over the free version)?

Big spenders will gain a lot more than that if they spend more based on the extra Avios earned. Plus you don’t *have* to take 7k Avios, the voucher for some will be worth heaps. It’s just another option.

For me it works, as I can’t originate in the UK most of the time, which limits the use of the voucher.

I agree and I’m not complaining, in my case I’ll get £46.20 worth of Nectar points rather than nothing (which is what I had priced in as an upgrade voucher is useless to me).

I’m critiquing the numbers @JonF quoted, which presented a £70 valuation of the voucher (not the upgrade) and £50 valuation of the extra half point as sufficient justification for (at least) £180 worth of fees. Using that 1p valuation I think you’d have to spend £22k (£1833.33/month) in order to justify the fee on points alone –
22k x 0.5 = 11000 points = £110 @ 1p per Avios
Bonus for 10k = 7000 pts = £70 @ 1p per Avios

I’m not trying to say that’s an insanely high spend if this is your only credit card (and if you just want Avios points, not Nectar, it’d be a solid choice for one in that case).

[WillPS]

JonF wrote:

Credit Card
• Additional 0.5 points per £1 spend over the free card, on £10k is 5000 avios = £50
• Cabin Upgrade voucher trade in 7000 avios = £70

Not sure I follow the logic of paying £180 (£20/month – £5/month ‘dual reward’) for £120 worth of additional value from the paid card (over the free version)?

[WillPS]

On other half’s Nectar Amex but not my supp.

I’m going fallow currently.

[WillPS]

John wrote:

I find it a bit odd that Tesco is using “2x” here which implies that Virgin points are definitively worth 1p. I don’t think they ever said it like that before, including for avios?

I think they used it but referring to points rather than vouchers – 1 Clubcard point converts to 2.5x Virgin points (and in the past 2.4x Avios).

[WillPS]

Alex G wrote:

Still worth exchanging Tesco => Virgin => Hilton.

You are buying Hilton points at one third of a penny, which can be good value for US redemptions. (Especially 5 night stays.)

You need a lot of Tesco points though, as Virgin to Hilton is in increments of 10k.

Seems poor value compared to Hotels.com, no? (Even after the drop to double from triple value).

[WillPS]

Aye. I wonder if a possible ‘upside’ to this deal could be Virgin points becoming exchangable with Clubcard (ala Avios/Nectar).

[WillPS]

Rui N. wrote:

The standard earn rate on Nectar is quite poor indeed, but they have so many offers for specific items that if you strategy even a little bit you can improve the earning rate several fold.
My weekly shop at S. is around £50-£125, and always get at least 200 bonus points, my record is around 800. Plus a few £ saved on the smart shopper offers every week.

Yeah I do all that. I guess £1-4 has always felt a bit stingy compared to the 9p (more like 8p in reality) per £ that I was getting from shopping at Tesco with the Premium Credit Card (albeit with an annual fee which accounts for 2/3 of that) + an extra few quid in discount from Clubcard Plus whenever I can be bothered to go to a shop (cancelled immediately each time).

[WillPS]

Carlos wrote:

WillPS wrote:

I think it’s still *just about* worth keeping the Tesco Premium Card I have going. Changed my mind, it’s dead.

For ‘everywhere else’ spend it’s totally dead now – it goes from being effectively 0.75% (less in reality) to 0.5% (less in reality). It was borderline before but now it’s easily beaten by the free Avios Barclaycard, converted to Nectar which works out as 0.66%.

For Tesco it still makes sense if you spend that £2500 – 1 pt per £ plus 2500 pt bonus at £2500, so 5000 points, in theory worth £100 – probably more like £90 once you factor in the cost you pay vs what you’d pay cash. Knock the annual fee off and you’ve got a rate of a little over 2% at Tesco, and every £ over that is worth about 1.8%.

Not a product I feel particularly smug about having any more but still useful.

Just need to figure out how best to get value from the £200 or so worth of vouchers I will have by June before the devaluation.

Edit – just remembered that I can buy Tesco gift cards with a 4% discount via Perks at Work. RIP Premium Card.

To make it worse the rates on Hotels.com are not very good as Tesco redirect you to their portal which has uplifted rates.

On UK redemptions I find the rate is the same – you sometimes need to log in to see the ‘secret prices’ (as you do on the main website).

What you don’t get is the offers/cashback which mean you effectively pay 10+% more than you’d pay in cash. Still an excellent redemption at 3x, IMO.

[WillPS]

Harrier25 wrote:

WillPS wrote:

RIP Premium Card

RIP Tesco! There’s a better quality of food in Sainsbury’s, and Nectar points too! 😀

Sainsbury’s is slowly but surely winning me over now, I have to say. The earn rate always feels insultingly poor to me but there is something to be said for the ease of redemption with Nectar – both how easy it actually is (no faffing about with ‘vouchers’) and also how little concern I have that I could be passing up on a better redemption another time/elsewhere (we don’t fly so none of the Avios related options are much use for us); other than the occasional coffee, your points will be worth exactly £2.50 per 500.

I’ve never had an issue with Tesco quality, mind, and there are some staples there which I don’t think can be had cheaper (esp. if you factor in Clubcard Plus) – passata and jelapenos I never buy elsewhere.

[WillPS]

I think it’s still *just about* worth keeping the Tesco Premium Card I have going. Changed my mind, it’s dead.

For ‘everywhere else’ spend it’s totally dead now – it goes from being effectively 0.75% (less in reality) to 0.5% (less in reality). It was borderline before but now it’s easily beaten by the free Avios Barclaycard, converted to Nectar which works out as 0.66%.

For Tesco it still makes sense if you spend that £2500 – 1 pt per £ plus 2500 pt bonus at £2500, so 5000 points, in theory worth £100 – probably more like £90 once you factor in the cost you pay vs what you’d pay cash. Knock the annual fee off and you’ve got a rate of a little over 2% at Tesco, and every £ over that is worth about 1.8%.

Not a product I feel particularly smug about having any more but still useful.

Just need to figure out how best to get value from the £200 or so worth of vouchers I will have by June before the devaluation.

Edit – just remembered that I can buy Tesco gift cards with a 4% discount via Perks at Work. RIP Premium Card.

[WillPS]

Rob Burgess wrote:

If it does, it won’t be for a while.

You need to remember that – because Avios were awarded after 4 months – they are STILL treating the Oct/Nov one as ‘active’. It won’t be until May that they can finally put the previous version behind them, at which point they will presumably rethink.

As readers found, it also put huge pressure on branches because of the requirement for many people to do ‘in person’ ID checks. Some people in London who applied in November were getting appointment dates in February, so their 4 months won’t end until June/July! All promos involving Premier seem to be on hold because they can’t get around this issue.

Hopefully this is the kick up the arse Barclays need to sort their process out; it’s archaic as hell and is particularly poor for an institution cutting back their branch network so heavily. Smacks of cakeism.

[WillPS]

I’ve had decent results going through Perks at Work previously for ‘Wow Points’ (cashback, basically).

A few manual claims but always settled to my satisfaction.

Given that they’re still offering 2% I’ll stick with them.

[WillPS]

Are all Co-op’s in Northern Ireland Co-op Group owned?

The normal gotcha with Paypoint/Amex/Co-op is that it doesn’t work at stores run by societies (Central England, Midcounties, East of England, Southern, Scotmid, Lincolnshire etc.).

[WillPS]

Asda (1p per £ in Asda, 0.3p elsewhere, paid in Asda Rewards credit)
The Co-operative Bank Members Card (1p per £2 spent in Co-op food stores, 1p per £3.33 elsewhere, must be both a Co-op bank account holder and a Co-op Group member)
Barclaycard Rewards (0.25% flat rate, no FX fee)

That’s your lot in terms of rewards Visas, excluding products no longer open to new applicants (i.e. Hilton 🙁 )

[WillPS]

You should see the 70,000 points sitting in your Amex account. Once these are paid in to your BA account (and you can see them in there on ba.com) you can safely cancel the Amex. This should occur somewhere around your payment due date.

Any time before and they will be forfeit.

[WillPS]

PaulAllen wrote:

Has anyone received the bonus just yet? There must be a few of us over the line by now!

Given the offer ran for 2 months, and they are advising payment within 2 months, I think we can take that as a sign they will do them all in one big batch in a little over a month’s time.

[WillPS]

Shazza12 wrote:

@WillPS, thank you very much for this. I really appreciate you taking the time to share. I will contact the complaints team with this information.

You’re most welcome. Sainsbury’s Bank are atrocious to deal with, unfortunately.

Good job their cards are utterly useless day-to-day.

[WillPS]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/193vOHo14SOSpMkv-01eUel2hUcAMuw4O/view?usp=sharing

I also got 8k, got the other 2k after calling and reading out the text on the screenshot.

[WillPS]

Depends upon:
> which Tesco credit card (there are 4 different earnings rates)

> where you’re spending (Tesco or elsewhere)

> your typical transaction value (rounding is a menace for low txn values)

If you’re satisfied you’re genuinely getting 3x face value, which you might if you’d otherwise pay the full price for Disney+, then a Clubcard point is worth 3p (obviously). If you’re getting less than 1 pt per £3.33, then Chase is a better deal – but remember Chase is capped at £15 (£1500 spend) per month.

[WillPS]

iamlost wrote:

Rui N. wrote:

2500 MR are not worth £160 even in the most fantastic redemption possibility.

No, but spending £25k a year on it to get 12,500 bonus points does move the needle. Besides, most of the fee is offset if you genuinely make use of the Deliveroo £120 credit.

Sunk cost fallacy. Don’t pay £140 fee and you’d get similar, possibly greater, rewards on a different credit card.

You’d also no longer have the imperative to use Deliveroo specifically twice a month in order to ‘make back’ the fee, potentially giving up on better offers elsewhere in order to do so.

It’s important to count the benefits compared to what you would actually do if you no longer had the card, rather than if you had no reward payment card at all.

[WillPS]

Good old Tesco.

Pay+
Clubcard Pay+
Clubcard Plus

Three entirely seperate product offers.

[WillPS]

I became eligible on 7th November (that was the statement date at which my Cashback Visa became an Avios Plus). The date in the email I received is 10th March, received 11th November.

I wonder if the ‘up to 2 months’ is an indication that they’ll do all these payments in one big batch at the end of March.

[WillPS]

Philondon wrote:

When I wanted a “dummy” account to switch from, recently, I opened a Santander Basic bank account as there was no overdraft and so no credit check so it won’t affect credit ratings (if those things bother you as I know credit ratings don’t bother some people)

No arranged overdraft does not necessarily mean there will be no credit check.

[WillPS]

£144 for £165 worth of Nectar points. Hardly the king’s ransom but might be enough to stop me immediately swapping back to Blue Rewards when this 100k points materialises.