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Bits: Lloyds credit card referral madness, possible 5000 free Avios, Amex FX promo

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News in brief:

Lloyds hits a new low in credit card referral behaviour

If you have ever tried to refer a friend for the Lloyds Avios Rewards credit cards, you will know that it is only slightly more fun than having a tooth extracted without anaesthetic.

I recently heard from three readers who I had referred who had just received their referral links – six to seven months after I had requested them.  After the first one of these was reported I actually raised it with Avios who gave me a reader-specific explanation …. but then I heard about the 2nd one …. and the 3rd one …..

Even on the rare event that a referral link turns up, don’t count your chickens.

Another reader just got in touch to say that Lloyds has refused his 4,500 Avios referal bonus.  The reason?  Apparently, back in 2007, he had held a different Lloyds credit card for a short period although it is nearly a decade since he cancelled it.  On this basis he is apparently not a ‘new’ customer of Lloyds and therefore he does not qualify for the ‘refer a friend’ bonus!

It is clearly only a matter of time before anyone who has ever used a Lloyds ATM to withdraw cash is also told that they are also a Lloyds ‘customers’ and can’t have a bonus either ….

Potential chance of 5,000 free Avios from Royal Air Maroc

Let me state up front that I am very negative about the chances of this actually working out.  Readers keep emailing it to me, however, so I decided to publish it and you can make your own call as to whether you want to bother.

Royal Air Maroc, the national airline of Morocco, is currently offering 5,000 free Safar Flyer miles if you open a family account.

This sounds utterly irrelevant, I admit.  However …. Royal Air Maroc is about to switch its reward currency to Avios as I wrote here.

This leads to a potential chain of events which could go like this:

Royal Air Maroc joins Avios (very likely)

The conversion rate of Safar Flyer miles to Avios is 1:1  (no idea if likely or not)

Royal Air Marco becomes a ‘Combine My Avios’ partner (not hugely likely in my view given that Meridiana is not in ‘Combine My Avios’ and you cannot move Flybe credit card ‘Spend & Fly’ points either)

You move your 5,000 free Safar Flyer miles into 5,000 Avios

I would not be betting my own money on all of the above things coming to pass, but if you want to give it a go you will find details of how to open your Safar Flyer family account on their website.

Royal Air Maroc

American Express FX promotion – bonus Avios for spending abroad

Finally, American Express sent certain British Airways Premium Plus cardholders a special offer yesterday.  It is not clear if the offer is targetted or not.

For all foreign spending done before 31st August, you will receive 3 bonus Avios for every £8 spent in foreign currency.

It is not clear from the wording if this is every £8 per transaction (which would be a con, as a £7.99 purchase would get no bonus) or on your cumulative foreign spending.

Assuming the latter, this still isn’t a great deal.  It would take your earning rate from 1.5 Avios points per £1 up to 1.875 Avios per £1.  Due to Amex’s 2.99% FX fee, you are paying 1.6p per Avios compared to using a 0% credit card.

Unless you are struggling to hit your £10,000 target to trigger your 2-4-1 voucher, you would be better off getting a ‘no FX fees’ credit card such as Lloyds Avios Rewards (review, £24 fee) or using a free Supercard (read more here) linked to any other reward MasterCard or Visa.

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earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 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

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You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

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

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (72)

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

  • JohnT says:
    15 Jul15 July 09:11

    Lloyds Avios from first statement have posted OK, but not the sign-up ones (yet).! Will keep an eye in case Avios setup a new account for that or something!

  • Genghis says:
    15 Jul15 July 09:14

    What does having a balance sitting on a credit card do to one’s credit score?

    • The_Real_A says:
      15 Jul15 July 09:58

      It reduces it – as the Pot of potential loan is reduced by your outstanding amount across cards.

    • Alan says:
      15 Jul15 July 11:11

      It’ll play a small factor in that there will be credit utilisation but as long as you are making the monthly repayments without a problem and aren’t pushing the limits on all you cards it shouldn’t cause too many issues. I’m not making any mortgage applications etc in the near future so I’m not too worried. Just got the Creation IHG card despite having that balance sitting there 🙂

      • the_real_a says:
        15 Jul15 July 18:00

        I disagree on “small factor”. It depends on the size of the balance Vs your overall potential credit amount. This was the single biggest factor with issues i had with my credit score. Despite clearing the balance every month, the amounts purchased each month were very large (expenses) and the credit agencies are updated on the statement generation date (so a large % of my potential credit was taken each month) – so best to clear the balance before the statement date if this is factor for you.

        • Alan says:
          16 Jul16 July 01:17

          Perhaps should have just said factor rather than small factor, all depends on percentage utilisation of credit – in my case the balance transfer onto Halifax is only about 20% of total credit so not really having much impact.

  • Seb says:
    15 Jul15 July 09:17

    Is there anyway for me to claim Avios and Tier Points on the Etihad Business Sale that is out at the moment? I vaguely remember reading it was possible in th past

    • Seb says:
      15 Jul15 July 11:12

      Ah yes that was it 🙁 can’t complain about the sale prices though!

      • Seb says:
        15 Jul15 July 12:35

        I’ve realised its airberlin miles I can get, does anyone have a referral to the airberlin scheme?

        • Andrew H says:
          15 Jul15 July 15:03

          I can refer you if you wish.

          • Andrew H says:
            15 Jul15 July 15:20

            Actually this might be a problem as the referral page has been taken down.

          • Andrew H says:
            15 Jul15 July 15:53

            Looks like the Air Berlin referral promo has been ended two weeks early. It was pretty generous. Maybe too generous and it was abused?

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
    15 Jul15 July 10:15

    I disagree. Avios is acting as a credit broker for Lloyds, so Lloyds are accountable for their conduct. The FCA has made it clear that regulated firms cannot evade responsibility through the use of third parties.

    • mark2 says:
      15 Jul15 July 12:33

      Probably true.
      I meant that you are more likely to get some sense out of Avios (always the optimist).

  • GORDON GRIMMER says:
    15 Jul15 July 11:20

    Folks, I am in the process of getting my Avios Household account deleted as Avios said i couldnt get the card if we had a household account.

  • Paul says:
    15 Jul15 July 11:43

    Completely OT post here, apologies.

    If I have a supplementary AMEX Gold card on my partner’s account am I eligible for the sign up bonus for opening a primary account of my own or does the supplementary card fall under the exclusion of “You will not be eligible for any Welcome Bonus award if you currently hold or have held any Membership Rewards enrolled American Express Card in the past six months.”

    TIA

    • harry says:
      15 Jul15 July 11:48

      you can still get the sign up bonus, no problem

      get your partner to refer you for 9000 points & 2000 extra for you

      • Paul says:
        15 Jul15 July 12:04

        Thanks. I had twigged the 2,000 referral already luckily (HfP did get the original referral)

        • harry says:
          15 Jul15 July 12:13

          you do understand that your partner refers you & gets 9000 Avios
          plus you get 22000 Avios instead of 20000?

  • Ammar says:
    15 Jul15 July 12:27

    Flying BHX to JFK with Finnair in a month in economy class O and – was thinking how to maximise points, had a look at where to credit.com, i get 25% miles flown if avios/IB, 50% with finnair and 100 with AA’s programme. Not a member of the latter two programmes.

    Any thoughts or clever ideas of where to redeem….
    Also any tips on maximising time to NYC with any offers/passes you recommend would be helpful

    Staying at IC Times SQaure, courtesy of points collection via hfp….thank you!

    P.S not sure how many miles it is with AA but could use for a ME flight in the future if I can find other ways to collect, but dont travel much to the USA, more east.

  • Nick M says:
    15 Jul15 July 14:09

    OT (FAO Harry)

    Please could somebody run through the procedure for stacking the Holiday Extra discounts?

    Also, is there any reason why Gatwick South shortstay won’t offer me a price for a weekend in October?

    Thanks!

    • harry says:
      15 Jul15 July 14:39

      Defined HE Amex page is holidayextras.co.uk/amex

      That’s what I do – 100% success on about 10 different statement credits so far

      • Nick M says:
        15 Jul15 July 15:38

        Brilliant, thanks a lot!

        • Nick M says:
          15 Jul15 July 21:26

          Thanks Harry – I’ve had the email confirmation… Weekend parking with meet & greet for less than the train ticket would cost

          • harry says:
            16 Jul16 July 10:33

            oh yeah I forgot to mention

            DriveFly (on HE) offer different prices for different LHR terminals. They even miss out T3 for some dates. You can’t change terminal on the HE online site, once booked (possibly by phone for a fee, though).

            But if you choose the cheapest option on your dates, at the wrong terminal, you can phone up DF & they’ll switch terminals for you free of charge.

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