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

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• RussellH says:

  6 Mar6 March 10:51

  Just got a letter from Barclaycard telling me that my IHG Barclaycard will die on 25 April. More precisely they will stop giving me any IHG points after that. Apparently I can continue to use the card until my shiny new Platinum Barclaycard arrives, which appears to have identical Ts+Cs, except no IHG points. Surely they could at least have bothered to make some token improvement to the offer?

  They say I can change to any other type of Barclaycard Visa, but I already have the Hilton one.

  Given that they have stopped shoving cash in my direction each time they make a mess of issuing the correct number of IHG points, I shall not miss the card that much – I just have to get the IHG MasterCard out of the drawer.

  • nick says:

    6 Mar6 March 11:38

    That’s a pity. I am aware that Barclaycard move people from their closed portfolios to a “live” credit card occasionally, but when they do it they would normally check that the card that you are being moved to is at least as good as the one they are retiring.

    With the degradation of the BA product and the (admittedly very rare) issues with downgrades on 241 vouchers I have decided to finally ditch the BAPP and I was going to move all of my expenditure to by Barclaycard IHG. If they are closing that then I guess I will have to apply for the Creation version.

    • Justin says:

      6 Mar6 March 12:17

      What about the free night certificate then? I am in the middle of the year right now and working towards the £10,000 goal… This sounds a bit unfair…?

      • Brighton Belle says:

        6 Mar6 March 12:42

        +1

      • nick says:

        6 Mar6 March 12:46

        I totally agree and will be complaining loudly if there is not some adequate compo for shifting me on to another card. I am not sure how much more I need to spend to get my free night voucher, but if I am close to earning it I will be very unhappy. I also expect a full refund of the £99 fee.

        • RussellH says:

          6 Mar6 March 17:09

          I only have a free card. I try to steer well clear of paid-for cards, unless they are offering something really special.

          eg end of last year I realised I needed a lot of SPG points. Got the sign-up bonus in 6 or 7 weeks and then cancelled, so did not cost a lot, but I cannot see a paid-for Visa or Mastercard ever working for me. Others will find things work out differently I imagine?

      • Alan says:

        6 Mar6 March 13:43

        You’ll definitely be able to get the £99 fee back, however I’d push for much more – you’d put spend on the card that you wouldn’t otherwise have done and I think they should recompense you for that.

  • Pid says:

    6 Mar6 March 13:24

    Luckily already earned the fee night and new year starts in Apr so not lost anything. However, real shame as I liked the fact you got the free night as soon as you earned it. I also noticed that they were giving the additional points on foreign grabs a tons made through supercard which was an added bonus us as no fx fees. Will have to get the creation card so that I can keep the ihg points coming for non amex spend. Not worried about plat status as my spire has been extended until end 18 after just renewing ambassador 🙂

    • John says:

      6 Mar6 March 21:38

      You don’t get any foreign spending points when you spend on supercard with the IHG barclaycard.

    • Mark E says:

      6 Mar6 March 23:33

      You are in a similar situation to me. My card anniversary is April and I’ve already earn and used my free night. With Barclaycard I would have hoped to have had my next free night available to use by about November. I will probably switch to creation but I won’t see my free night until March 2018

• Jame67 says:

  6 Mar6 March 11:22

  Just cancelled my Lloyds card this morning. The inability to squeeze much value out of BA redemptions that are useful to me combined with the deteriorating products and services they offer have finally broken this camels back. I cannot see this changing so long as great value revenue flights in premium cabins are available. I will continue collecting avios but in a more secondary and passive way for use on the odd RFS or other airline partners.such that my hobby is no longer avios-driven. For the moment I will be focussing on my Hilton card and my hobby will become Honors-driven as that is where I perceive my loyalty (or should that be points collecting?) is most valued and rewarded at this time.

• Lostantipod says:

  6 Mar6 March 12:56

  A timely update , as I have today received a letter from Barclays telling me that they are ending their association with IHG , and my Premium Visa card will be closed from 20 April. Good job I just racked up my free night (I normally have until 5 July to do so) or I would be rather annoyed.

  • Lostantipod says:

    6 Mar6 March 12:58

    Sorry didn’t see the identical post above. FAQs say £99 will be refunded pro-rata.

    • Alan says:

      6 Mar6 March 13:44

      Given the loss of any spend towards the voucher I’d push for a lot more than that. Actually someone who was 10 months in has much more to lose than someone who is only 1 month into their new collection year!

      • Leo says:

        6 Mar6 March 20:04

        What would you ask for?

        • Alan says:

          6 Mar6 March 23:17

          If you’re significantly towards your spend target with insufficient time to reach it I’d push for the cash equivalent. I’ve had decent compensation for lesser things from Barclaycard in the past! To just say they’ll refund the fee pro-rata is insufficient in my view given they’re not just taking away months of remaining service (when it would be fine), but not allowing you hit your target.

          Of course if they’re going to stop the system anyway then nothing to stop you booking a fully-flex hotel in advance to trigger the voucher then cancel down the line when it has become a Barclaycard card with no benefits anyway…

• j harvey says:

  6 Mar6 March 13:08

  I have had a letter today to say IHG barclaycard club visa card is being closed on 25 April.
  Will the same happen with the Hilton I wonder?

  • Alan says:

    6 Mar6 March 13:46

    Although it could, presumably this has been driven more by the Barclaycard contract with IHG expiring after it was awarded to Creation last year…

    • RussellH says:

      6 Mar6 March 17:14

      IHG have been running a MasterCard promotion for some months now (maybe it has recently expired??) with significant discounts for w/e stays, so it looks to me as though IHG wanted to go with MasterCard rather than Visa, with this being the reason for the non-renewal of the Barclaycard contract.

      I would imagine that Hilton will be a completely separate issue.

      • Lenin says:

        6 Mar6 March 17:57

        The link for the 30% IHG/MC discount is working again as of today. But the Courtyard at GLA is still cheaper 🙂

      • Rob says:

        6 Mar6 March 18:06

        That’s not the reason. Barclays walked away – which implies they may also walk away from the Hilton deal when that ends. 0.3% interchange etc.

        • John says:

          6 Mar6 March 21:40

          I applied for the Hilton card last week and received it

        • RussellH says:

          6 Mar6 March 21:57

          If that is the case, then Barclays / Lloyds / WorldPay etc are having their cake and eating it with smaller businesses.

          No doubt the likes of Tesco, Boots etc are able to force down the amount they pay for accepting card payments as a result of the interchange cap, but there was a big article in Travel Trade Gazette a couple of weeks ago about how many travel businesses are seeing their card acceptance fees rise to 3% or more. That is 2.7% straight to a different, but related part of the card businesses.

        • Joe says:

          7 Mar7 March 07:27

          I do wonder how Creation is able to afford the same rewards structure as the Barclaycard (well, with the rounding down of points) – does IHG just make the points affordable enough to Creation to make it economical?

          I also wonder how the free night is funded – will IHG charge Creation for it or fund it themselves (on the basis Creation have bought a lot of points off IHG for you, or just to make the card attractive so you carry it in your wallet)? I guess if it’s the later, Creation could find a bunch of the points based on the annual fee and forex fees. If it’s the former, I wonder how much they charge them – if you use it at a hotel that’s less than 95% full then it only really costs IHG about $35 doesn’t it, whereas if the hotel is at least 95% full it will cost them way more at average daily rate.

• Matt Brown says:

  6 Mar6 March 13:16

  I am just about to cancel my amex gold after receiving my 9000 referral points and get my prorata fee refund. Has anyone been able to upgrade to platinum recently and get the ‘new member’ spend offer?

  • Tracy says:

    6 Mar6 March 14:39

    I asked yesterday via direct message and was told you would only get bonus upgrade points if you had received an email offering a bonus….

• Ben says:

  6 Mar6 March 13:25

  Are there any differences in the benefits between the personal and business versions of the Amex Platinum? Thanks

  • Genghis says:

    6 Mar6 March 13:42

    Insurance seems to be a key area

    • Rob says:

      6 Mar6 March 15:57

      Insurance covers you to 80 and is stronger (no need to pay for stuff on an Amex). Priority Pass is worse – you don’t get a free guest. Hotel status cards offered are different.

      I did a review of Business Platinum here – https://headforpoints.com/2016/06/20/american-express-platinum-business-card-uk-review-2/

      • Wayne Phillips says:

        6 Mar6 March 17:35

        120 day insurance policy vs 90 on the personal platinum was key for me.

• Relaxo says:

  6 Mar6 March 16:05

  Anyone had any success with 3K bonus points posting for Virgin white card? Does this show up on mbna statement or go directly to virgin account? My partner applied using my referral link but annoyingly MBNA emailed me with a different referal link a day later. Ive saved both links for documentary evidence but hoping the old link has still tracked.

  • Relaxo says:

    6 Mar6 March 21:41

    I.e. Bonus points for referrals

• rams1981 says:

  6 Mar6 March 16:30

  OT SPG 500 bonus points for registering to get benefits through their new partnership with Emirates. Targeted apparently. Anyone else get it?

  • mark2 says:

    6 Mar6 March 16:44

    sadly not!

  • Lawro says:

    6 Mar6 March 17:41

    Yup got that one of my accounts too.

  • Sergeant Major says:

    6 Mar6 March 18:00

    Yes, I got it

  • Tracy says:

    6 Mar6 March 19:33

    Where do you find this offer?

    • h1tvd says:

      6 Mar6 March 19:44

      It’s ok, figured out where it should be and guess I’m not targeted. Just get a regular offer to register but no bonus points.

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