Four easy ways to hit your credit card sign-up bonus spending target

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• Only 15 days to hit my £3k spending says:

  23 Feb23 February 09:02

  Anyone has experience using betfair deposit via paypal? I am aware there is a 2% fee but thought I would:
  1) deposit funds to betfair via paypal with account linked to Amex credit card
  2) link my paypal account to my bank account
  3) withdraw funds from betfair back to paypal

  • Kelvin says:

    23 Feb23 February 09:55

    Looks like this is turning into a manufactured spend thread, rather than a ‘bring your spend forward’ thread!

  • lucinda says:

    23 Feb23 February 10:08

    Wld amex treat this as a cash transaction tho? So poss fees/interest.
    Could withdraw from betfair straight to bank a/c to stop paypal getting fussy?

    • Only 15 days to hit my £3k spending says:

      23 Feb23 February 10:25

      @Kelvin: lol!
      @lucinda:
      I am pretty sure any payment done via Paypal is considered as en expense not cash advance.
      Due to anti-money laundering regulation, think Betfair only allows you to withdraw from the same source you deposited the money from, up to the amount deposited.

  • Lady London says:

    23 Feb23 February 15:42

    If you do anything like that you are messing with a gambling site. Gambling companies are highly regulated. Possibly gambling is the only type of business that could be more tightly scrutinised than the banks and personally I wouldn’t mess with any gambling site. I’d also avoid anything that looks like money laundering which this looks like. Doesn’t matter that it’s not, the site and possibly paypal as well will shut you down. Paypal is difficult to deal with in such circumstances and not good to upset if you would prefer to keep using their service either. Personally I wouldn’t go near this one.

    Just my two pence worth.

• Susan says:

  23 Feb23 February 11:09

  Lots of interesting options – I’m boring and just buy Amazon gift vouchers then use these during the year for normal purchases / birthdays /Christmas.

• Andrew says:

  23 Feb23 February 12:53

  For those travelling in London, you can pre pay and stack up your weekly/monthly travel cards in advance.

  For Amex Rewards they also go through with the travel bonus, and if applicable, the first year bonus as well, so earn up to triple MR points.

• James says:

  23 Feb23 February 13:06

  Slightly noob question and it’s stated in Raffles’ post, but can someone confirm that if I buy more than £500 of Euro in cash (i.e. not TC’s) on my BA Premium, it’s treated as a purchase?

  • TimS says:

    23 Feb23 February 14:43

    Assuming you are buying it from the Amex travelmoneynow website then yes.

    If you are buying it from another regular forex site, no. Then it would be treated as a cash advance.

    • James says:

      23 Feb23 February 15:25

      Yes, via Amex travelmoney, thanks for the confirmation!

• Pug106 says:

  23 Feb23 February 15:10

  So, if I find out whether Lloyds take TCs, I could potentially buy £1,000 worth and pay them into bank account. Could someone confirm for me please?

  TIA

• James67 says:

  23 Feb23 February 15:19

  Currency route probably not an option for first time applicants. When I tried this a couple of years back I was unsuccessful, a call to CS reveayled I did not have a cash facility which was necessary, and that as a new card holder I had to apply for it but I had to wait 6 months. If I apply for it on my BA card will it then come automatically with any new cards I apply for? If it is necessay to apply for cash facility on each card then this is not a means to hit spending targets

• James67 says:

  23 Feb23 February 15:38

  I have hit £1000 targets in one go several times by crediting my property managment fee account for a whole year In advance. With instant access savings rates as they are I didn’t lode much and hitting the target was painless.

• Singing Dwarf says:

  23 Feb23 February 15:42

  Raffles – have you ever considered an article on the travel insurance aspect when booking flights and/or hotels through points redemptions?

  Most travel insurance policies will not cover you for a flight that we booked through a points redemption – although the hotel would be covered, if it was paid for in currency rather than rewards points. If the hotel too were paid for using rewards points, that would not be covered either, in the event that you had to cancel the trip due to illness, etc.

  I appreciate that some rewards tickets can be cancelled or rebooked – with fees and usually at least 24 hours in advance. If one were to miss the flight, due to a motorway closure or similar, one would potentially forfeit the points used to book the flights and/or hotel – standard travel insurance not covering the value of, or the points themselves – even if the event leading to the delay was covered by the policy.

  There are some insurance providers who will cover points – or at least some of their value. They may even be interested in offering a small commission 😉

  • mark2 says:

    23 Feb23 February 16:23

    If you have a LLoyds Platinum current account which costs £17 per month you get travel insurance up to age 80. Insurance of Avios is included.
    You also get AA Breakdown, mobile phone insurance, card protection etc.

    • Worzel says:

      23 Feb23 February 16:41

      Mark,
      Avios, phone, AA, cards, etc(?) appear to be protected.
      However, the travel insurance appears to be restricted to Europe and the UK and travel/medical insurance up to age is provided only without any medical condition?

      • Worzel says:

        23 Feb23 February 16:47

        Correction:
        …travel/medical insurance up to age “80” is provided only without any medical condition?

        • Worzel says:

          23 Feb23 February 18:00

          Mark,
          Thank you for your polite correction-apologies to you and other readers, Worz.

  • Rob says:

    23 Feb23 February 16:40

    It would make a great article but the truth is I don’t know much about it. The idea of trawling through the small print of 20 travel insurance policies, most of which won’t mention miles one way or the other, is not great!

    Even with Amex Platinum, it is not fully clear if paying the taxes with your Platinum would satisfy the condition to have fully paid for your flight with the card – although I’m sure it would have come up by now if they caused trouble.

    As you say, the ability to cancel BA reward flights up to 24 hours before departure and most hotel redemptions up to the date of travel means that you don’t carry much risk.

    • Jonathan says:

      23 Feb23 February 16:55

      The Amex gold flight delay terms have updated this: flight has to be fully paid on the card in cash, OR paid by air miles, with the air miles generated from MR transfers from the card. Taxes have to still be paid on the card.

      • Worzel says:

        23 Feb23 February 17:14

        Lots of “wriggle room” there Jonathan1

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