HfP ‘Credit Cards’ page updated for March 2017 – what are the best deals this month?

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• BrianDT says:

  6 Mar6 March 06:48

  Just for information. On February 14th, I called Amex Gold from Heathrow, asking if they could send a replacement card to a forwarding address I gave them, for my pickup in Christchurch N Z. “No problem”.Here we are, March 6th and no sign of it. Called to complain, and assured it is on it’s way. Pretty bad service in my opinion, and if it ever arrives I will cancel it on my return home. Not impressed.

  • Brighton Belle says:

    6 Mar6 March 08:22

    Amex customer support is supposedly legendary. A Gold application for my partner went wrong because we couldn’t satisfy their identity checks and got into a muddle about the requirements AFTER they sent us the card. We sent 2 sets of passport + address info to the fraud team and they never replied. After 6 months of trying we threw in the towel. A recorded delivery letter to the Brighton HQ closing the account out was never replied to either despite asking explicitly for written confirmation. This is the worst customer service I have received from a financial company in many years. I can see Amex HQ from my house. How hard can it be to poke the elephant?

    • Andrew says:

      6 Mar6 March 11:53

      Why didn’t you pop round?

      I’ve always found that “doorstepping” a head-office (or even the homes of company directors) to be very effective.

      • Brighton Belle says:

        6 Mar6 March 17:50

        HaHa. Brighton Police Station is 100m from their reception. I wouldn’t even have time to drink their welcome coffee before being escorted away by a nice man. They wouldn’t even need to send a white van.

        • the real harry1 says:

          6 Mar6 March 18:02

          You’re not meant to bring the shooters 🙂

          #you’reonlysupposedtoblowthebloodydoorsoff!

    • Steve says:

      6 Mar6 March 21:40

      I swear I’ve heard this Amex Brighton story before or am I dreaming it!?

• Simon Barlow says:

  6 Mar6 March 07:13

  With the current issues with BA 2-4-1, is there a comparison with this and collecting virgin miles? Especially as Havana is a far easier option on virgin than BA?

  • Anon says:

    6 Mar6 March 11:06

    No direct equivalent, given the bad rep BAPP AMEX has at present, Virgin- would do well to issue one.

    Their Prem Econ upgrade voucher is good value with the Black card.

    • Simon Barlow says:

      6 Mar6 March 19:30

      Thanks

• Roger says:

  6 Mar6 March 07:23

  Rob,

  I will be paying £2k or so Council Tax within a month (Possibly in two traches of £1k each depending upon Card offer).
  Currently contemplating getting white VA card with 10k miles on £1K spend.
  My council charges flat £2 fee for CC payment irrespective of the amount paid, so even full £2k payment in one go will only cost £2 extra.
  Amex (even via Paypoint) is not an option. Payzone is but looks like most stores will not accept Amex.

  Unless any other better offer comes up within next couple of week I will have no option but to take plunge and apply for White VA card and use Visa card for payment as that will count towards £1k spend.
  Is there any seasonal offer from MBNA or other card providers that you are aware of which may come up with better sign up bonus offers?

  • Rob says:

    6 Mar6 March 09:05

    No offers in the pipeline that I know about, from anyone.

  • Roger says:

    6 Mar6 March 13:02

    Not sure, I agree with 0.5% value.
    For a start 10K miles, valued at 0.5p will mean 5% return on £1k spend.

  • mark2 says:

    6 Mar6 March 15:59

    Why are you paying the whole amount at the beginning of the year?
    pay each month on a card and wait for a good offer.

    • Genghis says:

      6 Mar6 March 16:02

      +1. I’ll only be paying a few months of 17/18 initially. When do my next churns early summer I will then prob just pay off the balance and may even ‘accidentally’ overpay.

  • Polly says:

    8 Mar8 March 09:38

    Roger, have you called up your council to obtain a bill with a bar code? Or ask them if they will issue you with pay point cards? Most co ops accept Amex these days so you could just pay via that route with no fees at all. That’s what l do with ctx, utilities everything except SKY sadly. So at least it takes the pain a bit out of our bill paying. Takes me 10 mins a month. EE by phone. You might have to hunt around your area to find one that accepts Amex tho.

• Tom says:

  6 Mar6 March 07:47

  I have a question hopefully someone has the experience to answer.

  Almost 6 months ago (07/09/16) I requested on the Amex online messaging facility for my BA free card to be cancelled. That afternoon I received a reply from Amex confirming the card was cancelled and that I just needed to pay off the final balance, which I did in the following days. The card still appears in my account but says the account has been cancelled, so I assume this is not an issue.

  I am looking to apply for the BA PP card in the coming days – my question is at which point does the 6 month period kick in? I’m keen not to miss out on the bonus because I apply a few days early!

  • Vish says:

    6 Mar6 March 08:02

    I would just contact AMEX online asking if you apply now will you still get a bonus. I’ve done this in the past and they’ve always answered with the appropriate answer.

  • roberto says:

    6 Mar6 March 09:26

    The card will remain online in your amex account even once cancelled until you remove it in the card management section.

  • Mike says:

    6 Mar6 March 09:32

    I would prefer not to see cancelled cards on my account. I’ve had 2 Amex gold cards now and after receiving my new lounge club card I was refused entry to the Edinburgh lounge a couple of weeks ago. Transpires they had paired the new lounge club card against my old Amex (cancelled) gold account = expired lounge club account . This was eventually resolved but something to watch out for should you churn the Amex gold every 6 months.

• Winston Smith says:

  6 Mar6 March 07:53

  Quick note for future reference about the higher bonuses on the BA Amex cards which expired last month. I applied for one the day before the deadline, but the card was not approved until after the deadline. I did not receive the higher bonus. Next time it comes around, I’ll apply a bit earlier!

  • Alan says:

    6 Mar6 March 07:58

    Did you contact them about this? I’d have thought they would honour the bonus in effect at the time you applied…

    • Winston Smith says:

      6 Mar6 March 08:44

      Yes, they said it’s the approval date that is relevant, not when you applied.

      • Alan says:

        6 Mar6 March 09:06

        Damn, I would have hoped for better from them.

        • Rob says:

          6 Mar6 March 09:08

          I would make a FOS complaint, on the grounds that you have no control over whether you are accepted immediately or not and Amex advertises a specific closing date.

      • HIDeHi says:

        6 Mar6 March 12:34

        I would not accept this. If you apply for something under an offer and they delay processing your application until after the offer is over, that is not your fault.

        TBH I feel like this may be a miscommunication here as Amex are the last financial company I would expect to behave like this. They normally give you more leeway than you deserve, rather than the other way around.

        • HIDeHi says:

          6 Mar6 March 12:35

          It might just be a system error and you got through to a lazy or incompetent agent. Send them an email through their online portal, I find the replies there to usually be pretty helpful.

      • Eli Gold says:

        6 Mar6 March 14:16

        I find that if you do enough wining to amex you usually come out with some points. it always pays to complain

• rams1981 says:

  6 Mar6 March 09:26

  Rob, any reason you don’t value 10% off the expedia hotel bookings with the HSBC card?

  • AndyR says:

    6 Mar6 March 10:32

    I guess because there is often a 10% discount code available anyway?

    • Rob says:

      6 Mar6 March 12:03

      Yes, it almost certainly doesn’t stack with anything else.

  • Alex W says:

    7 Mar7 March 01:06

    Read the article. It says you have to book via a special link.

• miles says:

  6 Mar6 March 10:42

  just had a letter from Barclays they are pulling out from earning points from IHG as from the 20th of april , bang out of the blue , I have bookings for end of april and may booked on that card , so now going to have to Apply for the IHG mastercard , what apain !!!

  • Dougie Forde says:

    6 Mar6 March 11:15

    Presumably this will mean no more automatic status with IHG?

    • Rob says:

      6 Mar6 March 11:59

      Unless you switch to the Creation card!

      • Peter Cashen says:

        6 Mar6 March 23:07

        How long will we retain the status offered with IHG visa?

• Stephen says:

  6 Mar6 March 09:43

  Does anyone know yet what churn period will be accepted by MBNA for the Virgin cards under the new rules? I cancelled my previous Black card last May, and would like to take advantage of the current offer, but no point if I won’t get any bonus and end up resetting the clock. (I have a white card now as well, but that shouldn’t affect the black one?)

  • Genghis says:

    6 Mar6 March 13:38

    There is no published ‘clock’. Give it a go. Having the white does not affect getting the black (in terms of the card itself but perhaps due to credit limits. I had to reduce Black limit when reapplied for the White last year).

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