Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The three different types of loyalty credit cards I own

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

18 months ago I ran this post on ‘What is your credit card ‘end game’ strategy?‘.  This was fundamentally about which cards you should, long term, end up keeping in your wallet and generated a lot of discussion.  I will run an updated version soon.

If you look at the full range of ‘miles and points’ credit cards, you can generally break them down into three categories:

UK Rewards credit and charge cards

  • The card you actually use day-to-day because of its good earning rate in a programme you value (which was the focus of the ‘end game’ post above)
  • The card you get purely for the sign-up bonus, and cancel soon afterwards
  • The card you keep for the ancillary benefits such as hotel status but do not use for daily spending

What is best for me may not be best for you. However, I thought it might be interesting to look at what is currently lurking in my wallet (or my desk drawer).

The day-to-day spending cards I use 

Until three weeks ago, this was the good old bmi Diamond Club Mastercard which has just been closed down.  I was very lucky to still have this card, which had not available to new applicants for about four years.  I got a whopping 2.5 Avios per £1 spent on it which made the £60 per year fee great value for money.  Paying the 0.38% credit card fee to HMRC when settling tax bills was always a pleasure knowing that I was buying Avios points for 0.15p each.

I have just replaced the bmi card with the Lufthansa Miles & More cards (review).  I will get one mile per £1 spent on the Visa card for the first six months and that will take me through the January tax bill.  The ONLY reason I got this card is that I have a soft spot for Lufthansa First Class which is a truly excellent product – here is my review of the First Class Terminal in Frankfurt.  Lufthansa First reward availability is only made available to its own Miles & More members unless you book at very short notice.

My British Airways Premium Plus American Express (review) 2-4-1 voucher has been triggered for the year, so that card is back in the desk drawer.  It will be coming back into the light in February when my new card year starts.

I also have, in both my own and my wife’s name, the IHG Rewards Club Black Visa card (this card is now called the Premium Mastercard, review).   As well as earning two IHG points per £1, we also both receive a ‘free night’ voucher for spending £10,000 each year.  We try to use these at a decent InterContinental somewhere.

For overseas spend, I currently have a Metro Bank debit card on the Head for Points bank account which has no FX fees in Europe.  My wife also has a Post Office Mastercard which has no FX fees anywhere.  A better choice would be the Lloyds Avios Rewards Card (review) as this has no FX fees and earns Avios.

If you don’t want to take out a separate credit card purely to use overseas, look at the free Curve and Supercard products.  Curve is currently paying you £5 to take out their card as I wrote here.

PS.  My wife also has a House of Fraser Mastercard.  It isn’t a bad product offering 0.5% cashback in House of Fraser vouchers.  It also has no fee.  She uses the BA Amex or – until cancelled – the bmi Mastercard for what she considers general household spending which I settle.  She charges her clothes, haircuts etc to the House of Fraser card and settles that herself.  We have never had a joint bank account but only because it seemed unnecessary.

The cards I got for the sign-up bonus

I am generally NOT an aggressive credit card churner, tending to open only one or two new accounts each year. This year, the offers have been particularly poor.

Before applying for the Miles & More card with its limited time 10,000 miles bonus, the last card we got was when my wife was sent a targetted 20,000 point bonus on the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express last Winter.

I am unsure whether I should get the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard.  I (article) already have a HSBC Premier current account so I qualify automatically.  £195 is a big fee but 40,000 Avios / Etihad / Singapore / Cathay Pacific miles is a big bonus.  My gut feeling is that I will wait until next year.

The cards I keep for ancillary benefits

For 17 years, this has been the American Express Platinum card (review) for me. I get my BA Premium Plus Amex fee-free for holding this (a benefit no longer offered to new applicants, unfortunately) which saves me £195, and I value the travel insurance, hotel statuses and other perks.

Note that I very rarely spend anything on my Platinum card, unless there is a promotion going on.  1 Membership Rewards point per £1 is pretty poor to be honest.

I will also probably keep the IHG Rewards Club Black and Lufthansa Miles & More cards even if I move my spending elsewhere.  My £99 fee for the IHG card buys me a free upgrade to IHG Rewards Club Platinum status.  IHG Rewards Club benefits are, to put it mildly, variable, with many hotels offering nothing at all.  Many do take it seriously with the occasional decent upgrade or gift.

The Lufthansa card stops my Miles & More miles from expiring as long as I use it once a month.  This is a very handy feature because Miles & More miles, for non-status members, have a ‘hard’ three year expiry from the date you earn them which cannot be extended.  I would move one of my monthly recurring charges onto the card and ensure the bill was paid by Direct Debit.

So, that is the current content of our credit card drawer.  How about 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:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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

Category

American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express, HSBC Premier Mastercard, IHG One Rewards, Lufthansa and Miles & More

Comments (194)

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

  • Mr Dee says:
    24 Oct24 October 07:58

    Surprised to see you have the Metro Bank debit card as not heard you mention it before, its a very good backup card incase there are no opportunities to use fx free cards when in Europe for cash withdrawals.

    • Genghis says:
      24 Oct24 October 08:05

      I’ve still got mine but not used it for a few years so decided last week to sacrifice the account through a current account switch to earn a few quid.

      • Rob says:
        24 Oct24 October 08:11

        I only opened the account a couple of months ago. Up to that point all HFP money went through my personal account which was getting a bit silly. One of a series of changes behind the scenes recently as I attempt to reconcile the scale of HFP in 2016 with the fairly ramshackle structuring behind it.

        Metro has been very good. For a small business I recommend them – no transaction fees as long as you keep £5k in the account and only do a modest number of transactions. Debit card has no FX fees in Europe, branches are open 7 days.

        • Genghis says:
          24 Oct24 October 08:16

          Do all HfP payments go through your personal credit cards? That’s how my wife operates our limited company then pays herself back.

          You need to do a bit more cc churning and get Anika to accept wages via PayPal linked to your churning cards?

          • Rob says:
            24 Oct24 October 08:55

            Oh yes, I never actually use the Metro Bank debit card unless I happen to be travelling and need a 0% card!

            In a trick I should have started doing years ago, I now use my Amex Plat EXCLUSIVELY for business spending (which isn’t much, frankly) and then write off the £450 fee.

          • Rob says:
            24 Oct24 October 09:26

            On top of the travel advice which is obviously why I come here, I do also love the honest and real insight into the evolution of your hobby site into a fully fledged small media outlet. It is refreshing to have someone be so honest about things they did/didn’t do as we watch you on your way to global domination 🙂

          • Renwaldo says:
            24 Oct24 October 10:26

            Seconded. it’s great to read about all the travel/card advice but the insight you often give in comments about your business are genuinely interesting as well, as you grow in size (and hopefully revenue!)

        • Mr Dee says:
          24 Oct24 October 13:48

          Yes I like Metrobank and not had any problems for the time I have had my accounts, I don’t use the debit card since having the Lloyds cards for transactions but probably would use it for cash in Europe while it lasts.

  • Ian says:
    24 Oct24 October 08:21

    My problem is that I collect credit cards. Do not like cancelling them. My oldest must be 30 years.

    It is good to have around 33% owing on cards at any time. So will tend to borrow money cheaply this way and reinvest that money elsewhere.

    Happy though to charge either our Amex or Hilton card on day to day spending. We triggered the voucher in 2 months on my wife’s card and will do it as quick on mine. So 8 months will just be avois earning.

  • Mike says:
    24 Oct24 October 08:24

    Good article Rob as we can all learn something from each other. Currently have 2 X BAPP cards between us. Both of us have just earned our 241 vouchers in the last couple of weeks, so the cards will be put in the drawer for a couple of months. Now have 4 X 241 vouchers on our accounts and with the kids now 21 and 18, I need to rethink our strategy as I’m not using so many nowadays. The £195 fee is also a factor we need to consider. The kids are off doing the Magaluf thing at the moment and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I cancelled our 2 X Amex preferred gold rewards cards in March before the fee kicked in but it’s time to reapply for those again. Also have the Tesco MasterCard but as indicated, earning rates are not so good. The 2 gold cards should yield us another 58,000 Avios, 2 X 20k plus the referral bonuses. It’s ok having the 241’s but it’s the huge amounts of Avios you need to use them to good effect that’s the issue. Currently have around 400k Avios in our household account at the moment, so have the potential to book some nice reward flights for just the 2 of us. The Lego article was interesting but I don’t think I’ll be trying it !

    • Lorcancoyle says:
      24 Oct24 October 08:57

      I just sorted my one birthday present and two Christmas presents with the Lego offer – admittedly one might be Christmas 2017! Now waiting on a decent bonus offer as my stash of £250 in points / vouchers start expiring in February…

      • Genghis says:
        24 Oct24 October 09:35

        If say you have a £50 Tesco clubcard voucher, you can convert £2.50 to BAEC and then get 4750 Tesco points returned as change (effectively resetting the clock on expiry). Note though that refunded points count towards the 30k per quarter limit.

        • Rob says:
          24 Oct24 October 09:56

          This is technically against the rules (they specifically say that doing this may lead to loss of the whole voucher) but I have never seen it imposed. You should be aware though.

          • Genghis says:
            24 Oct24 October 09:57

            Thanks Rob. I wasn’t aware of that. I shall be a bit more careful in future.

          • mark2 says:
            24 Oct24 October 12:04

            The change also disappears until the end of the quarter

          • Alan says:
            24 Oct24 October 23:52

            Agree it’s in the rules but annoying when they sometimes send in them in big vouchers like £50 – I’ve redeemed these a few times and change has thankfully always come back. If it didn’t I’d challenge them on it though given they pick the denominations they issue them in.

  • RJSC says:
    24 Oct24 October 08:26

    For overseas spending (particularly USD and EUR) Revolut is worth a look, technically a debit card but no fees and great exchange rates

  • Alice says:
    24 Oct24 October 08:27

    Thanks for the post – it’s made me realise I need to streamline mine! I currently have the BAPP, HSBC World Elite, Amex PR and M&S MasterCard. I need to cancel the latter-I only use it in M&S and don’t spend nearly enough there, especially when the rewards are so poor anyway-I’d be better off spending it on other cards. The WE will be my daily spending card once I’ve triggered this year’s companion voucher on the BAPP, and I also need to cancel my PR – does the Lounge Pass still work for the full year? Also working to get to the 2K spend on my partner’s PR card then will fall back on just the BAPP and WE. I don’t have a hotel status card as haven’t felt like I’ve needed one yet. I’ve always shied away from the Amex Platinum because of the fee but might actually go off to read the review again…this is how bad I am at streamlining!

  • Lorcancoyle says:
    24 Oct24 October 08:54

    I’m currently using
    – SPG Amex: recent convert to SPG Moments (using Rob’s referral code)
    – Amex Gold: will be downgrading in a few months given new SPG focus, but will see how I go with the Amex offers for a while (may justify keeping if I keep getting better ones than on SPG card), will actually have a use for lounge club in Quito and Las Vegas in December, just after the new membership year starts (and I have triggered the spend requirement for bonus points post renewal already)
    – Santander 123: had a sweet deal on foreign spend, but about to shift to £3 a month fee so I may drop soon
    – Monzo: new Fintech bank, basically a preloaded debit card and app with no FX fees and free UK/foreign cash withdrawals (I dropped Supercard after the trial when the permanent offer brought in fees for this…)

    I dropped BA Amex a few years ago as wasn’t going to use the 241 that much (used once I think), and also dropped Hilton card when I reached GGL with BA (which gave me Diamond status). A return to BA Amex for a sign-up bonus, Virgin or IHG are probably my next steps, though nothing imminent. If Monzo shifts their offering I may need to revisit which card I use for foreign trips too at some point – recent trip to Indonesia was frustrating having to use a normal UK debit card for cash withdrawals as their ATMs aren’t chip and pin, and Monzo is still trailing functionality to temporarily activate magstripe withdrawals

    • Axel Heyst says:
      24 Oct24 October 10:09

      The Indonesian ATM’s that withdraw Rp. 100,000 notes are chip and pin e.g. Bank BCA and Mandiri.

      The only place I haven’t had any problems with old Supercard and Curve was Indonesia which I think is because all their card machines and ATM’s use GPRS as opposed to land lines for authorisation.

  • Jon says:
    24 Oct24 October 09:15

    Cards I currently have:

    – SPG Amex – Use this for everyday spending
    – Marriott – Marriott is my main programme, so use this where they don’t take Amex

    Other cards:

    – AMEX Gold Charge Card (no longer use this now I can convert SPG points to Marriott at better rate)
    – Curve and Supercard – linked to my Marriott card
    – Virgin Atlantic White – owned for several years, not used for a while
    – BA free card – not used after hitting sign-up bonus
    – IHG card – not used for several years – keeping it keeps me Gold (or Platinum?) – IHG is my backup hotel programme

    I guess I should really cancel most of the cards – although my credit rating is good, and don’t see much downside in keeping them open. I can’t be bothered with the hassle of churning (e.g. Virgin to get new sign-up bonus).

    I’m going travelling for a few months shortly, so will be cancelling my Gold card and SPG Amex, and just use Supercard / Curve linked to Marriott Rewards card.

    Interesting read.

  • Rob says:
    24 Oct24 October 09:30

    One feature I never see anyone talk to on the Platinum Amex is the Boingo wifi account. Does everyone else use it? For me it is one of the best features, especially when in a country with a different script (Arabia, China etc…) You can connect to wifi just about anywhere without needing to log in or watch sponsored videos or visit random sites etc…
    Definitly one of the best benefits and it was completely unexpected when I signed up wich probably made it feel even better.

    • Rob says:
      24 Oct24 October 09:57

      Boingo, in theory, was withdrawn in March at least for UK cardholders. It does that you can still sign up though.

      • Fenny says:
        24 Oct24 October 17:29

        I have a boingo account, but cancelled my card earlier this year. Any chance the wifi will still work? At least many airports have free wifi these days and I can usually find places with free wifi when I’m travelling.

      • Rob says:
        25 Oct25 October 05:59

        Really? I signed up in June and they contacted me about it. Hope it doesn’t go anywhere as it is great.

    • guesswho2000 says:
      24 Oct24 October 11:41

      I use this, every now and again – it’s been very useful at times, but I don’t value it, as I wouldn’t pay for it if I didn’t get it with the Amex.

      • Rob says:
        25 Oct25 October 06:12

        Which I guess backs up what many people are saying. If a benefit is worth having entirely depends on your circumstances. To me Wi-Fi tends to be my top priority, I pretty much go to lounges for the Wi-Fi rather than the food/drink/space in BCN which is my main airport the lounge uses the free public Wi-Fi which is patchy at best so the boingo is great. But that’s what makes this hobby so interesting, we all have different views and values on what we get – otherwise we would all have the same. 🙂

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? EARN POINTS WORTH 10,500 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!