Bits: £1 BA ‘hold your fare’ offer, new Barclays credit card rules, Premier Inn ‘stay 3, get 1 free’

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• Daniel @ Propeller Travel says:

  25 Sep25 September 15:02

  Important to mention that using a travel agent, as long as you don’t abuse the privilege, allows you to hold bookings on (almost) all fares, without paying a fee.

• Leo says:

  25 Sep25 September 16:04

  I am presuming this includes the ordinary platinum barclaycard? Was going to give up my IHG visa in due course and then re-apply. I don’t want to have to give up my long-standing card for credit rating purposes. Should I just keep the IHG? I’ve got the Amex etc.

  • Jason says:

    25 Sep25 September 19:11

    I was under the impression the more credit you have the more detrimental it is to your credit score. So I though cancelling cards you are not going to use was a good idea!

    • Leo says:

      25 Sep25 September 20:06

      My understanding is that it’s wise to keep older cards to keep up your credit rating – you can reduce the various credit limits etc.

    • cheekychappie says:

      25 Sep25 September 20:11

      You need to think that £15-20K of credit is fine, anything more isn’t helpful and anything less than £10K could be better.

      • Jason says:

        25 Sep25 September 20:13

        Is that per card?

    • Richard says:

      25 Sep25 September 20:15

      It’s also supposed to be good to have credit you don’t use, though, so that it’s clear you’re not desperately spending up to your limit.

      I spent quite a while reading about credit ratings when I went self-employed a little while back, because I was worried I’d never be able to get a credit card again. I ended up reaching two conclusions: 1. nobody really knows how they work, and 2. if your credit *is* good, then your credit rating will be good, and it’s not worth worrying about denting it by trivial things like applying for a card every six months. (As opposed to denting it by significant things like missing payments and defaulting on debts – which it’s easy to forget a lot of people do.)

      • cheekychappie says:

        25 Sep25 September 20:20

        It is all very individual – as you say – but average people here, ie not the FTSE100 CEOs et al – would be about right to think £20K credit over 4 cards is good, another £10K is OK, more than that they start to ask questions.

    • RIccati says:

      25 Sep25 September 22:20

      It’s not the amount of credit you have (above certain, high threshold in proportion to income).

      It is a credit utilisation. It is often cited (FICO forums) that if you spend above 30% of your credit limit then it is seen negatively by the lenders. (The old irony: to get credit you must show that you don’t need credit).

      Yes, having a very old credit card helps. More so, an old current account — lenders like a show of a custom.

      • RIccati says:

        25 Sep25 September 22:39

        P.S. It terms of going above 30% of credit limit — lenders will be able to see if there are any promotional BT on your account and might choose to treat them more leniently than ‘normal’ credit card debt.

      • John says:

        25 Sep25 September 22:50

        Different companies, different policies – and at different times. It’s perfectly possible to be turned down for a card if the issuer fears you won’t use it to borrow much, especially if they’ve suddenly decided to accept greater risk in return for the possibility of more income and – hopefully – profit.

        A credit history showing low utilisation and full monthly balance pay off is pretty unattractive to many issuers, especially with the new EU cap on interchange fees.

        I’ve a feeling someone with existing card limit utilisation percentages below 30 will soon find it harder to get cards from the likes of cap1, Barclays, Aqua, provident etc than someone with higher balances and even a few missed payments. Especially if there are rewards attached to the cards.

        Time and eventual interest rate rises will tell.

        • Alan says:

          25 Sep25 September 23:39

          Agreed, I found I had a much higher rejection rate when applying previously for IHG or Hilton (compared to a zero rejection rate with Amex or MBNA) – I could only surmise that they felt I wasn’t going to earn them anything in fees!

        • RIccati says:

          26 Sep26 September 04:19

          — It’s perfectly possible to be turned down for a card if the issuer fears you won’t use it to borrow much

          It’s perfectly possible but not perfectly fine. Only lenders that specialise in sub-prime or near practise this. Barclaycard, Aqua, Capital One, etc. Call it a predatory lending.

          Generally the better your credit quality — the lender is happy to take you on board.

          — A credit history showing low utilisation and full monthly balance pay off is pretty unattractive to many issuers

          This is quite a speculation and can be dangerous. Lenders usually offer outright credit limits of 5-7k per card that can be perceived very high. This allows them to lock-in a customer — two-three cards with such limits and fourth lender will deny. Often you have to call and reduce the credit limit.

          30% utilisation comes from these numbers, 7k*30% = £2,100 — think what should be a monthly income to put this spending through the card (barring ‘manufactured spending’) and then, what should be gross salary to do this on a couple of cards?

          A missed payment is a NO NO. It must be at least a year old and will blemish your credit record for six years. I’ve seen mortgage applications declined outright because of a missed payment that is 2-3 years old.

        • Jason says:

          26 Sep26 September 15:51

          I had a missed payment on a tesco credit card, for about 3 weeks, until I realised I’d missed the payment when I received another statement from them showing no payment.
          Turns out they have a problem with their credit card app and I’m getting 2 statements because the card number changed when I had some fraudulent use on the card. It’s still not fixed but I know which statement to use now.
          All the charges and fees were refunded but I wonder if that will stay on my file for 6 years.
          Fortunately the cards I seem to use most, Amex, seem to approve my applications, although I can’t remember if I’ve done one since the tesco incident.
          Fortunately I won’t be using my card much from November, should I cancel or drop credit limit down to £500, it’s the old card 1 point per £2 spend.

• RIccati says:

  25 Sep25 September 17:25

  — I wonder are barclays declining people due to already having a card from them AFTER doing a credit search ?

  I had exactly the same impression. After an application, the website offered to create an online banking profile (and gave the same message as for approved application back in April). The credit scoring was done and it seems application passed their lending criteria.

  But subsequently, I found out that the application was cancelled.

• Mick says:

  25 Sep25 September 17:37

  O/T. does BA have a daily update to their Off peak chart … Looking to book an award seat on the 29th of Sep for next Sep ??

  Any help would be appreciated

• John says:

  25 Sep25 September 19:14

  Wouldn’t worry about it. One search will have negligible consequences (or maybe none at all, as there are three credit ref agencies in the UK – experian, equifax and call – and most companies will only use one, so the search won’t be recorded by the other two).

  If the publicity from the people flogging alleged credit scores has spooked you though, you can do “soft” indicative applications with Cap 1 or through Money Saving Expert etc which will give you a mostly accurate idea of which type of cards you’ll be accepted for at any one time, but without generating a search record.

  • RIccati says:

    25 Sep25 September 22:16

    To sort out the myths,

    All UK financial credit providers hit Experian and might hit Equifax/other.

    One search alone does not make a dent but every next search within a short period likely to have an increasingly negative weight.

    How short — defined by lenders themselves internally.

• polly says:

  26 Sep26 September 07:39

  Put in a dummy booking that’s how I get it.

• AndrewA says:

  27 Sep27 September 09:12

  I received the IHG Visa card yesterday whilst still holding a barclaycard Platinum Visa although I did half the credit limit before applying. I didn’t get approved straight away so was a bit surprised when it just arrived in the post. I have already managed 4 stays this month so have 2 x free nights to use, hopefully in New York next year. The 40,000 sign up bonus will help me towards a third night.
  All this through subscribing to your emails so thanks for all the info.

• Thomas Jackson says:

  27 Sep27 September 10:15

  Is the hilton free night offer churnable? If I cancel now, will I be able (under current rules of course) be able to get another one in 6 months or so?

  • Rob says:

    27 Sep27 September 11:06

    There is no stated rule but, yes, people have successfully reapplied after 6 months.

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