Earn 11,340 Avios for getting the free & ‘no FX fees’ Post Office credit card

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• Paul says:

  23 Jan23 January 07:40

  Bonuses aside, I’m intrigued about the best option for foreign spend – a) an fx free card like this, b) AMEX Gold offering double MR (and potentially triple MR at foreign hotels which count as “travel spend” albeit that I don’t think “officially” that’s meant to happen) and c) cash obtained via the BA link to earn both avios and credit card points from AMEX spend – so either MR, avios or starpoints. Any thoughts, Raffles?

  • Stuart McIntyre says:

    23 Jan23 January 07:57

    Or another option, use currency exchanged with Amex, and thus earning standard and bonus MR points?

    So many options!

    • Rob says:

      23 Jan23 January 08:09

      Not too happy taking umpteen thousand pounds in cash to settle my hotel bill!

  • Rob says:

    23 Jan23 January 08:11

    Look at the old article I linked to in the post.

    Use Amex Gold and you effectively pay 1.5p per Avios (2 points per £1, 3 per cent fee). Lloyds Avios card gives Avios with no FX fees but has £24 annual fee – better than Post Office for higher foriegn spenders.

  • What's the Point says:

    23 Jan23 January 22:02

    Just used the AMEX Gold to book a Hilton stay in the US. Got $1.63 exchange rate (not bad) and 1,024 MR Points (triple points). Including the foreign transaction fee of £10, less than 1 pence per Avios.
    Not the cheapest way to buy Avios, but thought I would give it a go to see what would happen.

    • squills says:

      23 Jan23 January 22:16

      That’s a pretty good rate, maybe shows that where straightforward GBP/ USD is concerned, Amex has excellent rates.

  • Rob says:

    24 Jan24 January 12:00

    The £24 fee on the Lloyds card isn’t terrible – the breakeven (compared to the Post Office card) would be spending over £2,000 abroad each year, assuming you value the Avios at 1p.

• squills says:

  23 Jan23 January 07:58

  The currency exchange via Amex option is easy to answer with no reference to your 2 alternatives: because there are other better alternatives if you want cash. Sign yourself up with HIFX or one of its competitors eg Moneycorp (it’s free). Then compare the costs of transferring a given sum into your desired currency on Amex vs HIFX. You’ll find that on a £1000 exchange, HIFX will invariably easily beat Amex currency exchange (by about 1-1.5% = £10-15, even when giving the MR points a decent 1p value and including that in your calculation).

  • John says:

    23 Jan23 January 08:04

    If you live in London you should always use Thomas Exchange or a local bureau if you’re friendly with them.

    • andystock says:

      23 Jan23 January 08:12

      For instant currency collection I always find Thomas Global Exchange have the best rates in London. They have a branch in the small arcade outside Liverpool St station which is always busy, on cannon street and a new one on London Wall near the Kings Arms pub. You can go online and secure your rate in case the rate drops throughout the day.

      • John says:

        24 Jan24 January 11:44

        I personally use the Hammersmith branch. Rates are set by the central office and the low spread online rate is set at 10am, and may change every hour until 5pm depending on forex movement and how much they have bought and sold that day.

        I don’t see the aversion to carrying lots of cash around. I frequently carry $9000 to Australia and back – I make sure not to walk through the WTMD until my bag goes in, and I always take my belt off.

        • Rob says:

          24 Jan24 January 11:59

          Because there is no point!

          Let’s assume I am dropping £5,000 in Dubai on my hotel. I can pay on the Lloyds Avios Rewards and pay the spot rate plus earn 6,250 Avios. I also get a months credit before I pay them.

          If I carry cash, apart from security issues and the trouble involved in ordering and collecting it, I will NOT be getting spot. Even if the spread was just 1% I am £50 out of pocket compared to using the Lloyds card, plus I earn no Avios, don’t get a months free credit, get unnecessary security issues and need to go the bureau to pick it up!

          Slightly OT, but I was in Marks & Spencer on Kings Road recently and someone was picking up around £10,000 in Euros. How crazy can you be? It is, admittedly, convenient but the exchange rate is not great to put it mildly.

    • TT2000 says:

      23 Jan23 January 13:29

      Yes Thomas are the best for notes I find, but the Post Office card is good if you want to avoid carrying lots of cash.

• Joe says:

  23 Jan23 January 08:00

  its £47.50 if you are a premium member! just submitted mine so lets see what happens

• Rob says:

  23 Jan23 January 08:12

  As there is no fee, you might as well keep it and use it if you’ve got foreign spend coming up.

  • ian says:

    23 Jan23 January 13:01

    any ideas if the bonus will post if the message at the end of sign up process was:

    Thank you for your application for a Post Office Credit Card, you should hear back from us within 5 working days.
    In the meantime, if you have any questions on your application please contact our Customer Service Team.

    • Rob says:

      23 Jan23 January 13:21

      No, I think you won’t get it because you didn’t get immediate acceptance.

      • John Gallagher says:

        27 Jan27 January 23:50

        I’ve just made an application for both myself and my wife – both indicated it would take 5 working days for a decision 🙁

        • John Gallagher says:

          27 Jan27 January 23:52

          to add – we both qualify under all the following criteria:

          both have lived at the same address for three years and
          both have not had any credit issues in the past and
          both are on the electoral register

          and both have perfect credit records 🙁

• squills says:

  23 Jan23 January 08:21

  Yes

• callum says:

  23 Jan23 January 08:34

  Credit scores don’t really exist in the UK, credit reports are used instead – with each individual lender making their own score from that data.

  It therefore isn’t a “finite” amount that can be “used up”, and if you have a decent credit rating then adding the post office card isn’t going to make a huge difference. The only real impact it will have is on the credit to salary ratio, and if that’s an issue you can drastically reduce the limit or close it down.

  • James67 says:

    23 Jan23 January 16:34

    True but this is a good opportunity for those people who might have difficulty meeting a spend target, particularly on an amex. With this one they are getting a very useful amount of avios for nothing. If couples both apply they are already looking at a CE experience for the avios and a little cash, particularly good value for those in regions who can also benefit from sotopover in London.

  • callum says:

    23 Jan23 January 18:40

    No its not “semantics”, the system you describe – a score that you use up by applying for credit – is incredibly different to reality. You don’t use up any score by applying to this, nor does it damage your rating. Getting this for the cash back then cancelling later will have virtually no effect on your ability to get those other cards mentioned.

    • Rob says:

      23 Jan23 January 20:36

      Cancelling has no impact. Keeping it open does have an impact, because it increases the amount of credit you can already access. When this gets high as a % of salary then lenders get nervous, since technically you could draw it all down tomorrow. Easiest way around this, though, is to keep the limit on your other cards at a sensible level.

      However, you also want to show decent headroom above your normal spending, so it doesn’t look like you are pushing the limits on your other cards and are desperate for another!

      My gut feeling, and only my gut feeling, is that a limit of twice the highest balance you ever carry over the year is about right. This is hypocritical, since I have a £20k balance on my BMI card and never use more than £5k in a month, but then I have never been turned down for a card and so have never felt the need to ‘manage’ by accounts.

      • Scott says:

        24 Jan24 January 14:35

        My credit score has increased over the last year or so (15+ credit cards). Since credit cards/ scores are so integral to this game, perhaps Raffles, you could do a blog post on it.

• Mr Bridge says:

  23 Jan23 January 09:18

  What about the actual exchange rate, is it the same as other cards?

  • squills says:

    23 Jan23 January 09:24

    Anecdotally, yes it’s pretty good vs M/C and Visa, ie no significant difference

• Mike says:

  23 Jan23 January 09:55

  My recent applications for amex cards haven’t left a blip on my credit report, it appears amex may just do an internal check if you’re an existing cardholder.

  • Mr Chiggles says:

    23 Jan23 January 15:07

    Exactly, searches cost money – much more reliable and cheaper to check your internal data

    • John says:

      24 Jan24 January 11:47

      Lloyds and Halifax appear to never search you at all apart from the first time you open an account with them.

      I didn’t get searched when applying for the Nationwide Select either, unless Experian or Nationwide are incredibly incompetent.

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