‘Credit Card Offers’ updated for December 2013 – summary of top deals and recent changes

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• Grantyboy says:

  3 Dec3 December 07:37

  Thanks Raffles. Why did you recommend leaving 2-3 months between spg and gold card apps? I ask as I have just done this within 1 month! Will they reject the bonus?

  • Rob says:

    3 Dec3 December 07:58

    No, you’re fine to get the bonus. Its just that the longer the gap you leave, the more chance you have of being accepted the second time. This mainly applies to new Amex customers, as they don’t know how good a credit risk you are until you start spending.

    • s8yad says:

      3 Dec3 December 11:37

      Hello Raffles,

      I applied for the SPG card and have hit the spend threshold before the first statement date. I emailed Amex about the missing 20k bonus and have been advised that they will be applied within 30 days after 3 months membership. They rep said that if he manually added the points they risked a double entry. I recall having the bonus applied as soon as the target was achieved?

      • Rob says:

        3 Dec3 December 12:21

        It should be, and it usually is. Sometimes Amex sets up the card wrong and there is some sort of manual process at the end of the bonus spend period when they get added later.

        There is also anecdotal evidence that regular churners are getting the bonus given to them later to increase the fee they pay, although there is no proof of that!

• phreegreens says:

  3 Dec3 December 08:07

  Random SPG card question. I have been approved, waiting for my card to be delivered, anyone had one issued recently and is is “contactless”?

  • Graeme says:

    3 Dec3 December 08:30

    phreegreens – I’ve had one for a fortnight or so. It took 7-10 days from application (which was immediately approved) to receipt – sorry I can’t be more precise. It’s not contactless either.

    Just £300 short of my target now though!

  • sandgrounder says:

    3 Dec3 December 09:24

    I didn’t get online approval but it was with me last Friday after a Sunday application, so 5 days. My wife got the recommend a friend 5k on the Tuesday. No contactless sadly.

    • Mark says:

      3 Dec3 December 16:43

      New Gold Charge cards do now seem to support contactless though, so I guess that is gradually being rolled out…

      • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

        3 Dec3 December 19:17

        My Gold issued a year ago was contactless, it’s not new! I think my oldest contactless Amex is from 2011.

• needroos says:

  3 Dec3 December 09:42

  Anyone who has applied and received AMEX Plat recently? How long before you received your Cathay Gold card? I completed my enrollment but no updates or confirmation since.

  • Rob says:

    3 Dec3 December 09:51

    Go to the Cathay website and do ‘Forgot username?’ using the email you gave Amex. When you get the username email, go back and do ‘Forgot password?’ using the username. You can then log in to the Cathay site and see if you are Gold yet.

    Just seeing that Cathay recognises your email means it is in progress.

    Cards come from Hong Kong and take 10 to 20+ days.

    • needroos says:

      3 Dec3 December 10:53

      Thank you, all done! Good as Gold!

• Mycity says:

  3 Dec3 December 09:50

  Raffles, I cancelled my Plat Amex last day of May. Will I be ok to apply now for a new one or should I wait till January?

  • Mark says:

    3 Dec3 December 16:46

    Should be fine. My wife cancelled her Gold in early May and reapplied in late Nov. I got my referral points immediately as usual and her online account is showing progress towards qualifying for the sign-up bonus (a recent addition to the site along with progress towards annual spend bonuses such as the BA Amex 2for1).

• Jeremy I says:

  3 Dec3 December 11:16

  Hi all. Re the UA Mileage Plus card. I have the existing card (which has worst earning rates and no visa card; only amex). If i apply for the new card will i get the 12k bonus do you reckon?

  Extract from terms below – am I a “first-time Cardmembers with new accounts”? Any advice greatfully received.

  Loving the website, by the way rob. Thanks for everything you do. Anything aimed at the lower end of the market (low hanging economy earning and redemption opps) always appreciated!

  Jeremy

  With this offer you will receive 12,000 bonus miles after you make a minimum qualifying card spend of £1,000 on either card within 90 days of the account being opened. . This one-time bonus offer is valid only for first-time Cardmembers with new accounts. Previous and existing Cardmembers are not eligible. Offer expires on 31st December 2013. Offer subject to change without notice.

  • Rob says:

    3 Dec3 December 12:23

    Very difficult to say. Nothing to lose, though, as the new card is free and better!

• Danksy says:

  3 Dec3 December 11:19

  My last SPG was cancelled in April new one accepted online within 3 mins, will be referring the mrs for hers too!

  My platinum was taken out in June, I wonder if they will make all CX cards inactive from Feb 16, or use the annual anniversary dates to kick out membership?

  I only use the cx card to precook seats for free, and for lounge access in t5!

  😀

  • Rob says:

    3 Dec3 December 12:22

    100 per cent certain that CX cards will work fine until the expiry date printed on them.

• JC says:

  3 Dec3 December 11:41

  Hi raffles,

  First of all – great site, I am finding it really useful!

  The Starwood card is top – you get 25,000 Avios for a £75 fee – but the BA premium plus is only 6th even though you get 25,000 Avios for £150 and a companion voucher for £10,000 spend.

  If collecting Avios is there any reason you rank the SPG card much higher than the BA+ card? Or would you say the BA+ card is the better bet if I can spend £10,000 on it in a year? The BA card seems much better to me but wondered if there was something that I was missing?

  • Rob says:

    3 Dec3 December 12:20

    This is a ranking of the best current special offers, not the best cards overall. If you look at my review of the BA PP Amex, you’ll see it gets 10/10 for the sign-up bonus and 10/10 for the return on your long term spend, as long as you can hit the £10k.

• Frenske says:

  3 Dec3 December 13:29

  Mmm I would put the AmEx Gold Reward in first place, since it gives you 2x MR points on Travel and Supermarket spend and also on any foreign spend. This should easily bring the total points earned over the ones earned on SPG.

  • Trevor says:

    3 Dec3 December 14:17

    PRG: You can get 20,000 sign-up, possible transfer bonus (only if you hang around long enough, paying for your card in the meantime, and are lucky), extra 2,000 for referral and you’ll get 2,000 for the £2k spend required to trigger the bonus. If you happen to spend all that in places that qualify for double points, you’d get a further 2,000 (though you’d be very lucky to). That totals 26,000 Avios if you are lucky. The card is free initially, but you’ll be paying to keep those points after a year if awaiting a transfer bonus. Having this card also means you don’t qualify for the Amex Platinum.

    SPG: You can get 20,000 sign-up, 5,000 transfer bonus to Avios, extra 1,000 for referral and you’ll get 2,000 for the £2k spend required to trigger the bonus. That totals 28,000 Avios for £2k spend. The card has a £75pa fee, but refunded pro rata, and you don’t have to immediately transfer or lose the points when you cancel the card. Furthermore, it doesn’t affect your qualification for any other Amex sign-up bonus.

    For £2k spend before moving on to churn the next card, you get more from the SPG. Any further spend on the PRG to try gain double points is money that isn’t earning you a sign-up bonus elsewhere which is far more lucrative. I know which one I rate top.

    • Mark says:

      3 Dec3 December 16:56

      Of course if you can combine double/triple points on the qualifying spend that helps. Over half the qualifying spend on my wife’s card achieved so far with a booking on hotels.com which got us triple points, and we’ve got some more to book in the near future. With my referral points, the qualifying spend should net us 9K referral+22K referee+6K triple points (on £2K) = a potential 37K total for a £2K spend with no fee. Plus the Lounge Club membership is worth something….

      She only cancelled her SPG card in September so doesn’t qualify for another bonus on that yet, though I should be able to in the new year. Does anyone know when the current offer ends?

      • Mark says:

        3 Dec3 December 17:08

        Also there’s a further 3K reward points available if you take out a Gold Credit card and spend £500 (as a Gold Charge card holder).

      • Rob says:

        3 Dec3 December 17:44

        30th January on the SPG

  • Rob says:

    3 Dec3 December 15:31

    It isn’t strictly about the ‘best’ card, though. I put SPG top because it is a limited time offer and its better for people to focus on this now whilst they can.

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