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HfP ‘Credit Cards’ page updated for September 2016 – what are the best deals?

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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

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It’s time for our monthly round up of what is coming and what is going in the world of UK airline and hotel credit card sign-up deals

Our updated directory of all 25 UK travel credit cards can be found by clicking the ‘Credit Cards’ tab at the top of the site or – for email, Flipboard, Apple News or mobile readers – by clicking here.  This article is a summary of the recent changes.

UK Rewards credit and charge cards

What’s new?

Enhanced sign-up bonuses are back but only with the two usual suspects – British Airways and Virgin.

The issuers of the other 20+ cards on the market continue to sit on their hands, which is not entirely surprising as they are probably losing money at the moment following the cap on interchange fees last December.

The only card which may see a sign-up bonus launched is the new Tesco Premium Mastercard.  It has been trialling a targetted 5,000 Clubcard points bonus

The big recent news, however, was the announcement that the bmi Diamond Club credit cards, issued by MBNA, are to close on 30th September (article).  This is a big blow as they are far more generous than any cards currently available.  My Mastercard earns me 2.5 Avios per £1, albeit with a £60 annual fee.

If you have a Diamond Club card, you should look at this article I wrote on the best alternative Visa and MasterCard products for you.


Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Comments (86)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Mr Dee says:

    OT: Did anyone receive the 500 points for booking a virgin train ticket back in July?

    • Graeme says:

      nope I think this one is subject to overhead line problems which are causing something of a delay…

      • Mr Dee says:

        Don’t know about ‘overhead line problems’ but I thought the bonus was supposed to be paid by 31/8/16 and there was a large uptake on the article here, be interested to know if anyone has seen/heard anything.

        • Graeme says:

          It was due on that day, and has been mentioned in a number of previous threads, and as far as I am aware no one has received anything as yet.

          • harry says:

            diddly

            not got my Accor conference organiser’s bonus yet, I’ve a good mind to move my conference to Marriott 🙂

        • Graeme says:

          Oh and if you have travelled on a Virgin East Coast train in the past week you would have appreciated my reference to overhead line delays..

          • Mr Dee says:

            Not been on the trains recently just booked the ticket for the points or the missing points 🙂

    • Genghis says:

      The miles have just posted to my account.

  • Rob says:

    Thanks, looks good.

  • Harry says:

    OT- has anyone had any luck getting the £140 fees waived off on the AMEX Gold card – after the first free year – specifically if you have spent over 15000 pounds in the year triggering the 10000 MR bonus points. Just wanted to check if there is any benefit in speaking to AMEX on this to see if they will waive off the yearly fees. thanks.

    • Roger says:

      If that does not work why don’t you get 10000 Miles, Upgrade to Platinum and get extra 20000 miles as fees should/could be used towards platinum and then cancel?

      • Harry says:

        Thanks Roger. I am not sure if you get the extra 20000 miles by upgrading to the AMEX platinum from gold card. I thought that was only for new members. If you do then yes that’s probably a better approach as you could cancel after a month and retain all benefits for a year.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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