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Still having trouble getting Lloyds to award your credit card sign-up Avios?

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Back in July, I published this long post about the problems that Head for Points readers have had getting Lloyds Bank to give them the credit card sign-up bonus they were due.

To summarise, the recent promotion involved spending £500 per month on your card for the first three months.  You would then receive a 20,000 Avios bonus.  However, Lloyds was arbitrarily defining ‘month’ based on the date you were accepted for the card, which was NOT the date you applies and NOT the statement month.  The best bit is that it was impossible to find out, even if you called them, what dates they were working to!

Lloyds Avios

I was just contacted by another reader who had been refused his 20,000 Avios, despite spending over £500 in each of his first 3 statement periods.  He then took his complaint to the ombudsman.

These facts came out during the subsequent discussions with Lloyds, who assigned a manager to liaise with the HFP reader:

Lloyds admitted that this promotion was ‘ill-thought out’ and ‘badly enacted’

‘Heads are rolling’ within Lloyds over the implementation of this promotion

The outcome of the ombudsmans intervention was:

Full receipt of the 20,000 Avios points

“Not insubstantial” financial compensation on top

So, if you have not received your 20,000 Avios points from the Lloyds Premier Duo credit cards promotion, I strongly suggest that you escalate your complaint.

Send a final complaint letter to Lloyds, warning them that you will escalate the complaint if it is not resolved within x weeks.  After that point, file your complaint.  (Contact details for the ombudsman are in the literature that Lloyds sent you with your card.)  My understanding is that Lloyds is fined £500 as soon as the ombudsman receives your letter – this covers the cost of the service – and they are then obliged to act.

(To see our complete list of all current credit card bonuses, click here to visit our ‘Credit Cards Update’ page or use the link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

Lloyds Avios Rewards

Comments (21)

  • Dudeabides says:
    23 Nov23 November 07:26

    I was refused the bonus as they said i needed to spend only on the Amex card, spend on the Mastercard wouldn’t count towards the bonus. This is where i done the bulk of the spending during the 3 month’s.

  • sandgrounder says:
    23 Nov23 November 07:35

    I applied towards the end of the offer period. I called and I was told the ‘opening date’ which started the promotional spend month. I also spent all of the 500 in one go on the same day of each month. I should get the bonus three statements after the promotional spend period- my statement day is the 4th so we shall see what happens in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed!

  • thesaver79 says:
    23 Nov23 November 07:46

    Is there anyone that has received the bonus without having to complain or escalate it?

    • Rich says:
      23 Nov23 November 07:58

      Yes. It arrived for me with the points from my third statement. No issues at all.

    • Simon says:
      23 Nov23 November 08:38

      I applied in May and the bonus points appeared on my October statement as I manual adjustment, I hadn’t complained or escalated though.

      If you are waiting for bonus points to arrive make sure you spend at least £1 a month on your card, I believe you need to generate a statement for any bonus points to be added.

    • Stephen says:
      23 Nov23 November 08:45

      Yep, my bonus miles were also received OK, with no intervention from me (surprisingly – I was ready for a fight!)

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
    23 Nov23 November 08:01

    A bit picky, but the £500 FOS bill that they will pick up is not a ‘fine’. It’s a fee levvied regardless of the merit of the case.

  • NohoMan says:
    23 Nov23 November 09:25

    They wrote to me explaining whi I didn’t get it. I had spent enough in each statement period. I closed my account in disgust. Is the above option open to me still?

    Many thanks

    • Raffles says:
      23 Nov23 November 09:41

      Yes, should be. You haven’t signed anything saying that you accept full and final settlement of anything.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      23 Nov23 November 18:07

      FOS will take your complaint almost unconditionally (for example they will take a complaint even if you never had the product that’s the subject of the complaint).

  • totisaver says:
    23 Nov23 November 11:26

    I applied for the card, got the points 3 months after i had completed the 3 months of £500 spend. I then asked to close the account and asked for a refund – they gave me back the £50 membership fee.

  • Londonbus says:
    23 Nov23 November 13:20

    I had the fee free cards. Spent over £900 on Amex in each of the first two months and £680+ in the the third. No 15,000 bonus.

    I’ve called Lloyds three times and have now raised a formal complaint with them. They aren’t clear on the opening approach – the 40/30/30 days for online vs 30/30/30 for branch appl. My complaint is:
    * They did not tell me the opening date when I got the card.
    * They did not have clarity therefore in terms of periods (including the mystical 40 days)
    * I can evidence spend within the billing cycles which is over £500 per cycle on Amex.

    I am pressing for the bonus. I’m not seeking any financial compensation beyond that – I just want the bonus.

    Customer services to call me back Mon or Tue. If they don’t call I will write to them setting this out (and their previous non-returned calls) and push they if they don’t resolve the issue in appropriate timescales I shall go to the Ombudsman.

    • Me says:
      24 Nov24 November 14:21

      When did the *40*/30/30 days come about? That means almost all my second month spend has happened within the first month!

      Can anyone provide a copy of the T&Cs that point to this?

      • Rob says:
        24 Nov24 November 15:02

        No. That’s the point. Lloyds had a secret set of rules for this promotion which no-one ever sees, and which count from a starting date they will never tell you. That is why it was almost impossible to earn the sign-up bonus, unless you were putting huge chunks of money through the card every week and thus were assured of having spent £500 however they chose to define each period.

        • Me says:
          24 Nov24 November 16:44

          Thanks – I was hoping to get some kind of written confirmation of this 40 day malarkey – *even if it’s only secondhand confirmation*.

          I can then use that if they deny my bonus points.

          I’ve just put a £500 spend through today on the basis of the 40 day (instead of my earlier purchases that were based on the 30 day rule. Still awaiting the third month to start which could either be now, or next week…

    • Londonbus says:
      29 Nov29 November 12:41

      The outcome:

      The complaint handler at Lloyds agreed that I should have had the avios. She couldn’t give them to me directly so Lloyds are giving me the full retail price of them (£205) plus £50 for aggro. They offered to pay reasonable telephone costs – but as I called on the mobile (where I have more minutes than I can use) I didn’t ask for these.

      Tips:
      * Be polite but firm. Lloyds have screwed up but it isn’t the fault of the person on the other end.
      * Be clear on what you want. I asked for Avios or a deadlock letter I could take to the Ombudsman.
      * Be clear on what your grounds are. Mine were that Lloyds could not be clear on spend periods and that I had achieved the relevant monthly thresholds (£500) on the relevant card (Amex).

  • Bob says:
    23 Nov23 November 16:24

    Applied for this card for my Wife and have just got the 3rd statement this week & have spent more than enough, so how long does anyone reckon it should take to get the bonus (or start arguing) also thought i’d apply for the new lloyds card (£24) just for the overseas benefit (& double points for 6 months) no issues as yet just a question as to wether or not they will still give double Avios abroad after the 6 month promotional period?

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