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Bits: Radisson sale, Park Inn sale, £15 Amazon voucher with Azimo currency transfer

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News in brief:

Radisson Blu launches 2016 weekends sale with 30% off

Taking a hint from the current Hilton Weekends sale, Radisson has launched a new offer for 2016.

You can save up to 30% on weekend breaks at Radisson Blu hotels in the UK and Ireland for stays before 31st August.  All rooms booked under this offer include breakfast.

The last day to book is 31st January.

Full details can be found here.

Radisson Blu logo

Park Inn sale offers 40% discounts

Park Inn is offering an identical deal to Radisson, except with discounts of up to 40%.

Again, all rooms include breakfast.  You can book for weekends until the end of August, with bookings to be made before the end of January.

The booking page is here.

Both Radisson and Park Inn will earn you points in the Club Carlson loyalty scheme – American Express Platinum cardholders will be able to benefit from their Club Carlson Gold status.

£15 Amazon gift certificate with first Azimo currency transfer

Finally, if you need to send some money abroad this Christmas, online money transfer group Azimo is offering a £15 Amazon gift certificate for new customers.

You need to use voucher code AZIMOGIFT when processing your transfer.

Azimo is especially good value for sending money to more ‘obscure’ countries which other online transfer firms do not cover.  For mainstream transactions, compare their prices with TransferWise who are their main competitior.

The promotion is not featured on their website.  In order for the AZIMOGIFT code to be accepted, you need to meet the following criteria:

  • Be a new customer
  • Excludes SWIFT, mobile top up, transfers made with a credit card and transfers from Euro to Euro or GBP to GBP
  • Minimum £15 transfer required
  • Amazon voucher will be sent within 60 days

The Azimo site is here.

Comments (28)

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

  • Nigel says:

    Park Inn link is not working for me.

  • harry1 says:

    If SWIFT is excluded on the Azimo deal, how else can I send money from UK to my foreign bank account? (ie with Azimo, GBP to non-GBP currency)

    • Alan says:

      You should still be able to transfer using IBAN. SWIFT is the quicker (more expensive) payment option.

      • harry1 says:

        O that makes s3ense, we usually provide both details to HIFX

        • Alan says:

          They require SWIFT for USD transfers it appears, but EUR can be done via direct transfer (using IBAN) or via SWIFT.

      • David says:

        IBAN is simply a standardised number format, not a payment routing method. While people are commonly aware of SWIFT BIC codes for institutions, SWIFT is more than that as it is an actual messaging system. Many payments using IBANs are carried in SWIFT massages.
        Their distinction (and exclusion of SWIFT) could actually just mean that they are excluding payments only specified with the SWIFT BIC and account number, as there is more manual work to do in formatting. With the IBAN, a lot more can be automated more reliably, even if carried in swift messages.

        • Alan says:

          Thanks, David – that makes sense – in particular that they’d be looked to exclude methods requiring greater manual intervention to keep their costs down.

    • harry1 says:

      Well, all is probably OK. They don’t seem to think bank-to-bank transfer is the same as SWIFT (odd, that), so I guess my wife & I will both give it a go later when we have more time, got the rellies coming round later & guess who’s cooking? 🙂

      Raffles, with your bank background, if they’re not using SWIFT, wjhat method of UK—> foreign bank a/c do you think they might be using?

      • Rob says:

        No idea, that was never my specialised subject!

      • David says:

        I wonder if what they actually mean is payments where the recipient is given with only a SWIFT BIC and local account number, given that will easily have the potential for more manual work / repairs, than someone giving an IBAN.
        Even if the payments do actually get carried as a swift messages.

        Regarding bank to bank, it could be where they have local points of presence or other capability to insert into domestic payments systems.

  • Liz says:

    OT: I’ve received my SPG credit card and spending to hit the £2000 target for the bonus. How does the conversion work if you go over the £2000 spend by a few pounds. Can you only convert is round 1000 pts eg if I spend £2050 would I be able to transfer the 20000 pts plus the 5000 bonus plus the 2050 pts for the credit card spend?

    • Rob says:

      Amex converts everything to SPG and SPG lets you convert odd amounts to Avios IIRC so nothing is lost.

      • Liz says:

        OK thanks Rob!

        • Lawro says:

          OT sorry: With the IHG Premium Visa, how long does it take for your IHG status to be upgraded to Platinum? Secondly, are barclaycard similar to Amex in that points that you earn post (to Barclaycard account) shortly after spend hits the account?

          • Rob says:

            They are a bit slow but I have never heard of anyone failing to get their status upgraded.

            You should be hoping it doesn’t happen until January as there is a chance it will last until the end of 2017 in the case (eg all of current year and rest of following year).

          • Liz says:

            The IHG points go into your IHG account about 3 weeks after your statement. At least mine do. Statement date 6th – appear in my account about 23rd.

          • Lawro says:

            Thanks. Liz, what I meant actually was the section that says points earned…does that update through the month and then pass across to IHG or do you only see how many you have once they arrive at IHG?
            Sorry if the question isn’t clear.

          • Leo says:

            Same here Liz exactly. @Lawro it’s pretty much guess work till they go over to your account in my experience. Liz asked a similar question asking about how points are calculated a while back.

          • Liz says:

            I’ve finally got my IHG pts sussed! You need to wait till they post to your IHG account to work out what is classed as x4 spend and what is x2 spend. Mine is all correct. Just hit my first £10000 target and redeemed my first free night. Decided to keep this card at renewal in March. I like the IHG scheme.

          • Rob says:

            As a package it works well, I agree. If you spend £10k you get 20k points, which offset the fee. Plat status and the free night are a generous bonus on top and worth at least 2.5 per cent of your spend.

          • KevL says:

            The 23rd might be a fixed day for them. My statement date is the 16th and my points hit the account around the 23rd.

          • Simon says:

            23rd here as well both for IHG and Hilton points from BarclayCard.

  • zapasowe1 says:

    Do we know when the Azimo £15 Amazon credit promo expires?

  • @mkcol says:

    Well that’s the niece & nephew in Oslo’s Xmas cash taken care of. Exchange rate seemed perfectly fair to me & only a £1 fee….which with the above offer code was wiped out, however no mention anywhere of an Amazon gift card.

  • SoloFlyer says:

    Not sure if been covered in other topics but couldn’t see it! With Azimo it lets you use a credit card would this come off as a cash advance on the credit card? If not it could be a good way to manufacture spend on your credit card!

    • @mkcol says:

      I would expect your credit card to treat it as a cash advance. Even if not Azimo themselves charge 2.99%

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