[WillPS]

Sainsbury’s Bank are cutting the ‘in-Sainsburys’ reward rate from 2 points per £ to 1 from Nov 1: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/09/sainsbury-s-cuts-the-amount-of-nectar-points-you-can-earn-when-s/

Amex will pay you more than Sainsbury’s themselves will now. Absolute joke of a card.

[WillPS]

How strict on the £50k saved/invested with HSBC requirement are they?

[WillPS]

Gary_Dexter wrote:

Whatsthepoint wrote:

Gary_Dexter wrote:

Decreasing your credit limit is never a good idea, despite what Amex tells you.

Other lenders will see the limit decrease when you apply for other credit products elsewhere, and a decrease in credit limit could be a sign that you can’t manage/be trusted with higher limits.

Are you sure that is the case. In the past, my credit report has often stated that one of tasks I could do is reduce the total amount of unused credit on my cards either by cancelling cards or reducing credit limits to improve chances of being accepted by some credit cards?

Yes. Ignore that the CRA’s tell you – their “advice” is just gumpf to bolster your make believe score (that’s not seen or used by lenders).

Lenders look at the raw data in your credit report. And if they see things going down, they’ll wonder why.

Computers don’t wonder, they see in 0s and 1s.

Unless you know every bank’s proprietary credit scoring algorithm you can’t confidently tell anyone that any actions other than clear signs of distress (stacking late payments, CCJs etc) will be determined to be signs of distress or not.

I’ve certainly had no issues gaining credit after lopping my limits back from 5 figures a piece to £2k to £5k a piece. Quite the contrary in fact.

[WillPS]

First Direct require an average monthly pay in of £1000 pm, which a final year student is unlikely to be able to satisfy.

Also the OP isn’t looking for a new current account – be a bit daft to fill a credit record with searches when the OP has a reward credit card in mind.

OP – I would recommend you to apply for the HSBC Student credit card – they are one of only 2 banks that offer a specialist product now, be silly not to use it. Automate a payment to Spotify or even just a regular £10ish Amazon top up. Pay in full by direct debit.

Barclaycard are very unlikely to accept you until you have a salary, so I would make your mission to make yourself as creditworthy as possible when you get there. You can also do things like making sure you use a mobile network who report to your credit record.

[WillPS]

Will Hilton honour status when booked via Amex Travel?

[WillPS]

Also check out Halifax Ultimate Reward which has similar coverage to Lloyds Platinum, plus Home Emergency cover. Mobile insurance paid out on my loss claim immediately last November, replacement phone despatched next working day.

£17/month, but you can get a £5 “reward” every month by paying in £1500 and spending £500 on the debit card (credit card debit card payments and NS&I count).

[WillPS]

Jon wrote:

Quick update on my MCOL. From the court:

“Upon reading the amended particulars of claim it is ordered that the Defendant shall file and serve an amended defence by 28th July 2022.”

Did they come up with anything, @Jon?

[WillPS]

PeteM wrote:

a friendly yet forceful discussion about how silly this is. I offer to show my card and ID to prove I didn’t steal the credit card. She goes and checks with management. She comes back, asks to see card and ID. Allows the cashier to sell me my £550 of gift cards. Not sure it’s worth it for the 10% anymore…

Complain.

Stores making up policies on the hoof.

[WillPS]

John wrote:

You are not purchasing avios at 0.34p if you ever spend money at Waitrose / Morrisons / Argos or the other retailers offered. Furthermore, you can cash the money out to bank, which gives a base rate of 0.851p per avios already.

If you spend money at Waitrose, you’re giving up 0.887p of gift card for every 1 avios you get this way.

For Argos, you get £2.63 of gift card for every £ of account fee you pay if you redeem directly, but if you go via avios you only get £2.35 of gift card for every £ of account fee.

Now if you’re happy to buy avios at 0.9p then go for it obviously.

Luca M wrote:

I do not think it is great but no bad either, it gets better with larger denomination so better to wait to exchange £20 at once then twice £10.

Well you get 10 avios more for converting £20 of reward cash than 2x £10, but yes you might as well.

Worth noting that even many of the gift card redemption options offer poor value compared to taking cash and then purchasing gift cards with Perks At Work, Sodexo or even TopGiftcards sometimes.

[WillPS]

Never held a Creation credit card but very interested in how this progresses. God speed @Jon and everyone in the long queue for FOS.

[WillPS]

SamG wrote:

It makes more sense in the US market whereby Curve does have some utility in routing charges to correct credit cards to take advantage of bonus catagories on dining / travel etc. But in the UK I agree, the vast majority of UK customers would only have 1 or 2 cards linked. I have my HSBC WE and my Santander Zero as I do sometimes GBIT transactions that have ended up charging me FX if I’ve gone over the limit

Surely Curve does the FX bit regardless of which underlying card you use?

[WillPS]

Rob Burgess wrote:

Are there really so many people who have 3+ Visa or Mastercard products? To be honest I thought these changes were too weak and unlikely to raise them much cash.

Yep. 5 x Halifax debit cards + 1 x Barclaycard (so I can use it on my Samsung watch + Google Pay). Was a convenient way of splitting the Amex bill in to £500 chunks, especially since Amex started insisting that you could only pay using a single registered debit card.

Not worth paying £5 or even £2 a month for tho.

[WillPS]

John wrote:

Hamptons are basic hotels, you can’t charge to your room and don’t earn points on any spend. They aren’t going to keep track of you having “£80 credit” to spend between now and the stay. Most don’t even like having a tab open at the bar. Though there are a few Hamptons where you can buy something like £20 credit as part of the room rate for £15 or so – but then the computer would say £20 credit at check in, they wouldn’t have an option to enter other numbers.

This isn’t universally true, Blackpool Hampton allow you to charge to your room and earn Honors. I think they even have rates which include £20/30 room credit (which are always at least a touch more than £20/30 more than the normal rate for whatever reason).

• This reply was modified 56 years, 3 months ago by .

[WillPS]

Just been emailed with the following:
Exchange £10 Rewards for 1,155 Skywards Miles as a 50% bonus offer (normally 770 Skywards Miles)

[WillPS]

Makes me seriously think about whether I should close my legacy 0.5% cashback card and hope there’s a bonus early next year.

I’ve been doing quite well off their Visa offers recently but they’re mostly duplicated by my Natwest Reward now.

[WillPS]

Trafford Centre in the other direction has some good chain options too. I hear good things about ‘Pesto’.

[WillPS]

Same as Hampton. Unofficially you might get an upgrade, but there’s nothing compelling the hotel to.

[WillPS]

Add in the notes that the 2nd guest will check in first. Never heard of it being a problem in the UK although it is in territories where checking ID/credit cards is a normal or mandatory part of the check in process.

[WillPS]

Does anyone know of a hotel chain or individual UK hotel which will honour status benefits for members who book via Hotels.com?

[WillPS]

Buy something that’s easy to return to find out I guess.

[WillPS]

jimmyk00 wrote:

Surely it’s a case of false advertising more than anything else. Barclaycard are issuing World Elite cards under license from Mastercard without making clear if, or when any benefits will be given. World Elite is a very specific subset of Mastercard and although benefits vary from issuer to issuer, there is a minimum expectation of some travel-linked benefits, such as insurance, lounge access or hotel status, especially considering the £20 monthly fee.

Barclaycard either need to remove their World Elite licensing/branding from Mastercard, or immediately confirm what extra benefits they will offer for the £20 per month.

I don’t really see what the fee has to do with it at all. Amex Green has an annual fee of £60 despite not even offering a better earning rate than the fee-free Amex Rewards CC. In fact the only thing Green includes for that £60 over and above ARCC is Travel Inconvenience Cover.

Are you saying that I could apply for that card and then demand Amex offer me additional benefits which they’ve never mentioned?

The Barclaycard website justifies the £20/month as giving you a better welcome bonus, a better rate on purchases and an enhanced upgrade voucher for a certain level of spend.

• This reply was modified 56 years, 3 months ago by .

[WillPS]

awalker wrote:

No bonus offered today… yesterday when I said I was considering cancellation the chat advisor suggested calling to discuss downgrading. I got around to it this evening and mentioned cancellation due to fee, they asked if I had any companion vouchers to redeem, then 30 seconds later the card was cancelled. I’d asked about waiving too. Bit odd as I’m used to them going above for personal & business custom. Maybe I should just be grateful I wasn’t given a sales pitch!

I didn’t get offered anything other than a downgrade to the free card last week either, I’d have taken 10k avios for £3k spend but to be honest even then with my rate of spend I only stand to benefit to the tune of £15-20/month once you factor in the fee refund I’d be giving up while doing it, so I wasn’t that fussed.

Hoping for a Platinum offer around August and then I can go fallow for 2 yrs.

• This reply was modified 56 years, 3 months ago by .

[WillPS]

BuildBackBetter wrote:

Avios option is still available, pushed down the list (almost had a panic attack, even though I emptied the rewards to Avios last month).

You’re absolutely right.

I wonder what the chances are that Natwest might consider adding hotel point redemptions?

[WillPS]

John wrote:

WillPS wrote:

Tir A Môr is indeed the one I’m thinking of.

30k HHonors seems impossible now, even the late availability ‘cheap’ price starts at 34k.

As points are tied to the value of USD, that 34k will be 30k soon when the pound drops to $1.10

Also in this vein, for anyone with points bookings not at a capped rate, which were made last week or earlier when the pound was $1.35, check the price and rebook as they should all have dropped by 2000 points or so

Back on topic is the pool here available for general use, or must it be used as part of a spa thing?

Spa only. And they were quite insistent that there was no discount for Diamond or anything like that as it’s a ‘totally separate company’. (That logic rather falls apart when the cleaners for the hotel were wearing Surf Snowdonia uniforms…!)

[WillPS]

Comrade Chag wrote:

WillPS wrote:

Toaster wrote:

Do people really get some enjoyment from owning/using a metal card?

Yes, personally speaking I very much enjoyed the way the card felt and in particular in situations like in a restaurant where you leave your card out to indicate you’d like to pay. I also liked how robust it was as all the other cards in my wallet tend to delaminate and generally get mashed over a few months – this is less of a problem with flat plastic cards but even then I’ve found the details start to wear off quicker than with The Platinum Card at least.

“LOOK AT MY CARD, PLEB! IT’S METAL THEREFORE I’M IMPORTANT!”

Nah not like that at all. More like the feeling of having an unusual phone; something to talk about.

I don’t wear a watch or wear any branded clothes. My car was the cheapest car on the market 7 years ago and I intend to drive it until it’s uneconomic. It’s definitely not about status!