Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Can you re-apply for the Lloyds Avios card via TSB and get a second sign-up bonus?

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

Assuming that their advertising campaign has worked, UK readers will be in no doubt that Lloyds Bank has split off 600 of its branches to form a new bank, TSB (albeit using a brand that Lloyds acquired some years ago).

Since November 2011, Lloyds TSB, as it was, has been the issuer of the official avios.com credit card.  They were also the issuer of the Air Miles credit card for a period, since winning the contract from NatWest.

I had assumed that the ‘new’ Lloyds Bank would become the issuer of the Avios credit cards. 

It seems I was wrong, as you can see from this picture:

TSB Avios cards

Now, the small print says:

The TSB Avios American Express Card is issued and administered by TSB pursuant to a licence from American Express”

And TSB, legally, is not part of Lloyds Bank anymore.  It actually uses the banking licence of the old Bank of Scotland (now Lloyds TSB Scotland).  Lloyds Bank uses a different banking licence.

This is important because the Avios credit cards have a strict ‘one sign-up bonus EVER’ rule.  However, is the TSB card actually a ‘new’ card?  It is issued by TSB, not Lloyds.  Can you therefore get another sign-up bonus by applying for this card, if you have already had and cancelled the Lloyds version?

The answer, of course, is “we don’t know”.  However, I am tempted to apply for one as an experiment and see what happens.  The alternative is to wait until TSB is sold off next year, although by then I get a feeling that they will not be offering the Avios cards any longer.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous 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

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

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (35)

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

  • Neil says:

    I wondered this too – but more because I have a rubbish credit limit with them and they’re not overly entertaining when I ask them for more..so a TSB Avios would go nicely alongside. Everything has been copied from Lloyds initially so it’s perfectly logical to assume things will change as they find their feet.

  • squillion says:

    Sorry Raffles – I reckon you have 2 hopes: Bob Hope & no hope 😉

    When the 600 TSB branches are hived off, that’d be different. No harm in trying I suppose.

    • Rob says:

      Technically nothing changes after the hive off, though, as it will retain the same banking licence (ie Bank of Scotland).

      • Chris says:

        Actually it’s the LloydsTSB Scotland license. BOS license is separate and retained by Lloyds Banking Group.

        In the past my Avios bonus was actually rejected by Avios because I’d had an Airmiles bonus in the past – so I guess whether any new bonuses are available may depend on whether they are given by Avios or the bank.

  • Stephen says:

    Still waiting for a reaponse to my application from 13 days ago…

    • John says:

      Call them up, but if you had been accepted you should have received the card already.

  • Alex says:

    I’ve had a look at the new TSB website and the only sign up bonus they appear to have is 1500 Avios for every £1000 of balance transfer. Nothing about extra Avios for any minimum spend.

  • Wozza2404 says:

    Doesn’t seem to be any sign up bonus at the moment?

    • Rob says:

      No, need to wait and see what turns up. The bonus is only on the avios.com site.

      However, the current bonus ends 15th September so something should change next week.

      • Geoggy says:

        I’ve never looked at these cards because I thought the avios bonus was linked to booking a hotel?

        • Rob says:

          That was the old bonus. The current bonus, available until 15th, is a straight dump of Avios into your account.

  • Sam says:

    So, i’m with Lloyds – until tomorrow – and my account is being turned into a TSB account, including my Avios cards. In the first instance i’m glad TSB will have AVIOS cards (was unsure what would happen) but now pondering whether to cancel the cards and re-order under TSB. Or close accounts and switch to Lloyds. Rather confusingly I never got an Avios sign up bonus in the first place as i’ve always been with Lloyds, and never used to card about Avios. But now I do – so unsure of what to do?

    • John says:

      You could try applying for the Lloyds only Avios card now, as if you never got a bonus, you may be still be eligible for it.

      • callum says:

        Apparently its not relevant whether you’ve had a bonus before. If you’ve had the card before then no bonus – though I applied anyway just in case it goes through.

        It did seem overly harsh. I was told I’m ineligible for the bonus as I’d been accepted before, even though I never actually got the card in the end!

  • danksy says:

    I’ve lost all faith in Lloyds TSB credit cards.

    Me and Mrs Danksy got one back in March for the avios bonus.

    Due to my card taking 3 weeks to arrive I didn’t get the first months spend target! Neither was i able to access my online account (their customer services were adamant that you needed a current account with them). After 6 weeks I cut it up and cancelled (and kissed goodbye to the £50 fee).

    Mrs Danksy had more luck in that her online banking worked ‘out of the box’ she had no current account either!!! But she was given a ridiculously low credit limit of £1,200 which meant it was near impossible to trigger the bonus payment. Consequently she went over her credit limit a few times (cue £12 a time charge) – most credit cards would just stop the card from working, and their customer services were unwilling to even give a modest increase. This is strange since we are a high earning household !!

    So she has been using the card since March and as far as I can see she did everything to trigger the bonus avios, but so far nothing has appeared in her Avios account. I will not have anything more to do with them !!

    Of course your mileage might vary!

    • Trevor says:

      Others’ mileage may indeed vary, tho I doubt by much. I and the Mrs have both had plenty of issues in the past which has led to many painful phone calls and finally card cancellation, tho I did get a £100 credit for all the problems faced and did get the bonus posted, along with a transfer bonus offer that was also running. But with LTSB, there are always issues and bad service, and I wouldn’t recommend them again, specially when the bonus is questionable for a previous customer.

      The credit limit given to Mrs was also ridiculous and I had to make trips to the bank to deposit cash to keep our spend going to enable a bonus trigger. All in all, a pain you know where! The T&Cs do state though that if you do go over your (or rather, “their enforced and ridiculous “) credit limit, then all bonuses will be forfeited, and they refuse to review your limit for at least 6months by which time it’s too late. So unlucky for you – don’t hold your breath as you won’t get it.

    • John says:

      Lloyds does have has silly algorithms for calculating credit limits, but £1200 is the standard limit.

      If you go over it’s nobody’s fault but your own… no card will stop transactions if you go over by a little bit, they’d rather get the £12 fee!

      And didn’t you only need to spend £500 each month to get the bonus even in March? If the limit was £500 then that would be difficult.

  • Sarah says:

    I’m still waiting to get my bonus avios credited. I contact Lloyds TSB who told me I would have to take it up with Avios. Avios tell me it’s up to Lloyds TSB to pay it, and that I have to wait for up to 90 days from triggering the bonus – so potentially it can take 6 months to get these points. Frankly the whole process has been so painful I don’t think I’d recommend it to anyone unless they’re desperate for a credit card bonus (and don’t mind a 6 month wait to get it)

    • Martyn says:

      I’m in exactly the same boat, definitely qualified for the points, but losing hope of ever seeing them to be honest.

      Even if I could reapply, the chances of me doing so would be a big fat zero.

      • Craig says:

        I have exactly the same issue. They are totally inept. Every time I chase up these points, Lloyds have no idea about the offer ‘as it’s not their area’ and palm me off to Avios who can’t answer as they don’t have access to Lloyds account information. Lloyds aren’t even capable of confirming whether I achieved the bonus regardless of whether it is yet to be posted. Avios just give the same answer each time, you have to wait 90 days. I don’t anticipate it magically appearing on my account on the 90th day.

        Prepare for a fight Lloyds.

        • Simon says:

          Your comments have saved me a phone call, thanks. I’m in the same position waiting for the bonus, thought it might go across with my 4th statement, looks like I’ll have to wait 90 days before chasing it up.

          Wish I’d waited to see if they did another 12.5 Avios per pound promo instead of applying for this one now.

          • David says:

            There is a department within Lloyds that can check whether you have qualified for the bonus. Unfortunately I don’t have their number immediately to hand, but recommend you ring customer services and ask to be connected with “the team within Lloyds that deal with Avios queries”. I was able to get a straightforward answer out of them.

          • Trevor says:

            These are the various numbers I’ve used int he past to contact them and sort out points. Hope useful to someone:

            Airmiles Duo: 0845 606 2175
            Airmiles Points: 0845 606 2177 – M-F 0800-1800
            Airmiles Duo Card Services: 020 7481 2570 / 0845 450 4465 – M-F 0800-2000

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

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.