Bits: 3000 miles in 33 schemes with a hotel booking, buy the new £50 coin at face value

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• RIccati says:

  3 Dec3 December 04:47

  Rocketmiles, a clone of Kaligo!? Rob!

  • Brian says:

    3 Dec3 December 08:01

    Was writing that one of the conditions for Kaligo to sponsor the recent competition, Rob? :))

    • Rob says:

      3 Dec3 December 08:54

      I would like to cover Rocketmiles more but, despite sponsoring a competition last year, they are not very forthcoming in terms of news on new offers etc. Anything I write about them I have dug out myself or been sent by a reader.

      PointsHound is even worse, I don’t even have a contact there.

  • Rob says:

    3 Dec3 December 09:00

    I know that! However, as HFP readers are more familiar with Kaligo, it made sense to write it that way.

    The Rocketmiles guys did well, selling it for $20m after a couple of years. I should probably ask for shares in Kaligo given the volume of business I send them …..

    Setting up one of these is fairly easy – hotels come from just a couple of suppliers, the software is off the shelf (which is why Rocketmiles looks like Kaligo), the airlines are happy to promote you for free to their email list as it means they sell more miles …..

    • Brian says:

      3 Dec3 December 09:09

      You mean, Kaligo looks like Rocketmiles… :))

    • Richard says:

      3 Dec3 December 11:56

      Think about it, Rob – if someone else now set up a website just like HfP, how would you feel about being called a “clone” of them? It’s good to be concise, but it’s even more important to be accurate 🙂 …especially when you need to tread the fine line between giving trustworthy editorial recommendations, and running promotions which feature a particular company.

• Sandgrounder says:

  3 Dec3 December 05:28

  According to Crunchbase:
  Kaligo founded 1st June 2013.
  Rocketmiles founded 1st November 2012.

• Idrive says:

  3 Dec3 December 06:57

  I booked with Rocketmiles in October when there was a promo first booking 4000AA for £10 more than official Amelia rate. Went very smoothly and miles posted within a few days.

• Liz says:

  3 Dec3 December 07:19

  OT OMG I just got status matched from my Spire Elite to HH Diamond Elite ! I was hoping for Gold and was amazed to get Diamond. A result!

  • Sandgrounder says:

    3 Dec3 December 07:22

    Great news! I am waiting for my match to be processed, fingers crossed for the same result.

  • Leo says:

    3 Dec3 December 07:34

    Me too as I mentioned yesterday.

  • James67 says:

    3 Dec3 December 10:56

    Just off the phone with them Declined at three separate ATMs in Bangkok today. It was same last Saturday. MBNA say no issues with them, supercard agent on Saturday told me it was due to a timrout error at atms, I think more likely an error at supercard. The worst news is I have just checked my mbna account and one of the declined transactions has gone through and been charged at almost £250. I will not be using it again until issue is resolved to my satisfaction.

• Liz says:

  3 Dec3 December 08:42

  OT tried using my Supercard yesterday in Munich linked to my Virgin Visa card but was rejected twice – anyone else having problems with it. So much for saving on FX fees!

  • Rob says:

    3 Dec3 December 08:45

    If you do more than a few transactions it seems to be blocked by the card issuer as they look a bit dodgy. It is the most frustrating part of the card.

  • Andrew says:

    3 Dec3 December 08:49

    Mine was rejected every single time I tried to use it in Italy a few months ago. Totally pointless if it can’t be relied upon

  • n says:

    3 Dec3 December 09:28

    Also some retailers don’t accept prepaid visa cards, which is what the supercard looks like to the retailer.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    3 Dec3 December 09:30

    I had issues in Germany yesterday as well. Card machine was responding ‘system failure’ rather than declined auth though so no idea what’s up.

    • Danny says:

      3 Dec3 December 09:47

      Hey….same here in Thailand…just error message..not even declined.

      Nor sure this is worth the agro…. Virgin visa card earns 500 miles on £1k overseas spend…. reckon it’s time to rely on the clarity. …

      Just my pennies worth

  • Nigel says:

    3 Dec3 December 09:39

    I’ve had varying sucess with this card so I always take a backup solution.
    Good when it works, frustrating when it doesn’t.

    It is still in BETA testing supposedly…

  • Gulz says:

    3 Dec3 December 09:42

    I got my Supercard (linked to Virgin Black Visa) rejected four times in the last two weeks. Twice for cash withdrawal in India, once for purchase in India, and once for purchase in USD online. Having said that, I’ve made more than 15 other transactions successfully in the same period. Looks like these rejections happen at random

    • Gulz says:

      3 Dec3 December 09:44

      Oh, and I must add, after the purchase in India was rejected, I noted that the Supercard was automatically ‘turned off’ in the app. I had to turn it back on to continue transacting.

  • Doug says:

    3 Dec3 December 10:12

    I’ve got rejected in Greece over the past days, they told me that this is due to change of address. I have changed house recently so I believed in that.

  • roberto says:

    3 Dec3 December 10:52

    Me too. Supercard was a superdud in Spain yesterday and refused to work all day. I spoke to them and they said they would get back to me.. Thus far they have not.

  • JPR says:

    3 Dec3 December 11:01

    On a recent journey to the US (via Gothenburg & Helsinki) my Supercard was rejected in all 3 countries at a variety of ATMs and stores. CS suggestion was that I switched back to Tesco Mastercard as the donor card rather than the Diamond Club or Hilton Barclaycard. Not tried it since my wife confiscated it after countless embarrassing rejections in the US.

• Phil says:

  3 Dec3 December 09:45

  Wow – Britannia is looking very foxy on that coin! 😉

  • Basil Brush says:

    3 Dec3 December 10:03

    She looks nothing of the sort!

    • Danksy says:

      3 Dec3 December 17:09

      Harry Brush? Worzel Brush? Worzel?

• Trevor says:

  3 Dec3 December 10:14

  I’ve bought ‘face value’ coins before. So much for face value; so much for ‘legal tender’ – can’t get them accepted anywhere, not even at Bank of England. Unless it’s a coin of value that is already in circulation, you have a 110% guaranteed outlet for them or you’re a collector, I’d steer very clear.

  • harry says:

    3 Dec3 December 11:45

    But ‘legal tender’ does not have the meaning in law that you assume. Look it up…

• Chris says:

  3 Dec3 December 10:45

  Ditto – neither HSBC nor Natwest in South Kensington will take Royal Mint coins.

  Does anyone know anywhere in this part of London that definitely does take them? I have a £100 coin sitting in my drawer gathering dust…

  • Tim Pike says:

    3 Dec3 December 10:55

    HSBC Bishopsgate accepted the £100 coins from me, took a while (about an hour of checking and phone calls etc.) and they were obliged to inform me that they might be worth more in Silver than their face value, (I wish), but they took them off me and credited them to my account immediately. The Royal mint Website stresses on the £50 offering that these are legal tender. I went for them and they have been dispatched, so I will attempt to pay them in next week and will be happy to let you know if how I get on.

  • Andrew says:

    3 Dec3 December 11:38

    Supposedly you’re able to pay with commemorative coins at post offices in exchange for ‘goods and services’. Never tried it myself though

  • YL says:

    3 Dec3 December 15:30

    I haven’t tried it this year, as it was a bit of hassle last time I tried. However, the HSBC at Covent Garden did accept my £25 coins last year.
    Other branches just told me they cannot take it, but the branch at Covent a garden was very helpful, they made a couple calls to check and eventually let me deposit the coins to my account. The waiting time for my 2x £25 was about 30 minutes…

    • Brian says:

      3 Dec3 December 20:06

      Yes, it’s clearly not worth the bother! If you need to meet a spending target, buy a supermarket gift card – easier to use and no aggro.

      • CV3V says:

        3 Dec3 December 20:30

        Exactly, rather bizarrely i was able to buy a £50 Mark and Spencer gift card in Tesco today, getting the 150 bonus club card points. I can now go spend the card at Tesco’s competition!

        • mark2 says:

          3 Dec3 December 21:50

          Too true.
          I used to buy 3V cards from Tesco and use them to buy Waitrose vouchers

        • Erico1875 says:

          3 Dec3 December 22:52

          Tescos profit on the M+S gift card will probably be more than M+S’s.
          I hope you put in 2 magazine vouchers for the 200 extra CCpoints

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