Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The three different types of loyalty credit cards I own

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18 months ago I ran this post on ‘What is your credit card ‘end game’ strategy?‘.  This was fundamentally about which cards you should, long term, end up keeping in your wallet and generated a lot of discussion.  I will run an updated version soon.

If you look at the full range of ‘miles and points’ credit cards, you can generally break them down into three categories:

UK Rewards credit and charge cards

  • The card you actually use day-to-day because of its good earning rate in a programme you value (which was the focus of the ‘end game’ post above)
  • The card you get purely for the sign-up bonus, and cancel soon afterwards
  • The card you keep for the ancillary benefits such as hotel status but do not use for daily spending

What is best for me may not be best for you. However, I thought it might be interesting to look at what is currently lurking in my wallet (or my desk drawer).

The day-to-day spending cards I use 

Until three weeks ago, this was the good old bmi Diamond Club Mastercard which has just been closed down.  I was very lucky to still have this card, which had not available to new applicants for about four years.  I got a whopping 2.5 Avios per £1 spent on it which made the £60 per year fee great value for money.  Paying the 0.38% credit card fee to HMRC when settling tax bills was always a pleasure knowing that I was buying Avios points for 0.15p each.

I have just replaced the bmi card with the Lufthansa Miles & More cards (review).  I will get one mile per £1 spent on the Visa card for the first six months and that will take me through the January tax bill.  The ONLY reason I got this card is that I have a soft spot for Lufthansa First Class which is a truly excellent product – here is my review of the First Class Terminal in Frankfurt.  Lufthansa First reward availability is only made available to its own Miles & More members unless you book at very short notice.

My British Airways Premium Plus American Express (review) 2-4-1 voucher has been triggered for the year, so that card is back in the desk drawer.  It will be coming back into the light in February when my new card year starts.

I also have, in both my own and my wife’s name, the IHG Rewards Club Black Visa card (this card is now called the Premium Mastercard, review).   As well as earning two IHG points per £1, we also both receive a ‘free night’ voucher for spending £10,000 each year.  We try to use these at a decent InterContinental somewhere.

For overseas spend, I currently have a Metro Bank debit card on the Head for Points bank account which has no FX fees in Europe.  My wife also has a Post Office Mastercard which has no FX fees anywhere.  A better choice would be the Lloyds Avios Rewards Card (review) as this has no FX fees and earns Avios.

If you don’t want to take out a separate credit card purely to use overseas, look at the free Curve and Supercard products.  Curve is currently paying you £5 to take out their card as I wrote here.

PS.  My wife also has a House of Fraser Mastercard.  It isn’t a bad product offering 0.5% cashback in House of Fraser vouchers.  It also has no fee.  She uses the BA Amex or – until cancelled – the bmi Mastercard for what she considers general household spending which I settle.  She charges her clothes, haircuts etc to the House of Fraser card and settles that herself.  We have never had a joint bank account but only because it seemed unnecessary.

The cards I got for the sign-up bonus

I am generally NOT an aggressive credit card churner, tending to open only one or two new accounts each year. This year, the offers have been particularly poor.

Before applying for the Miles & More card with its limited time 10,000 miles bonus, the last card we got was when my wife was sent a targetted 20,000 point bonus on the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express last Winter.

I am unsure whether I should get the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard.  I (article) already have a HSBC Premier current account so I qualify automatically.  £195 is a big fee but 40,000 Avios / Etihad / Singapore / Cathay Pacific miles is a big bonus.  My gut feeling is that I will wait until next year.

The cards I keep for ancillary benefits

For 17 years, this has been the American Express Platinum card (review) for me. I get my BA Premium Plus Amex fee-free for holding this (a benefit no longer offered to new applicants, unfortunately) which saves me £195, and I value the travel insurance, hotel statuses and other perks.

Note that I very rarely spend anything on my Platinum card, unless there is a promotion going on.  1 Membership Rewards point per £1 is pretty poor to be honest.

I will also probably keep the IHG Rewards Club Black and Lufthansa Miles & More cards even if I move my spending elsewhere.  My £99 fee for the IHG card buys me a free upgrade to IHG Rewards Club Platinum status.  IHG Rewards Club benefits are, to put it mildly, variable, with many hotels offering nothing at all.  Many do take it seriously with the occasional decent upgrade or gift.

The Lufthansa card stops my Miles & More miles from expiring as long as I use it once a month.  This is a very handy feature because Miles & More miles, for non-status members, have a ‘hard’ three year expiry from the date you earn them which cannot be extended.  I would move one of my monthly recurring charges onto the card and ensure the bill was paid by Direct Debit.

So, that is the current content of our credit card drawer.  How about you?


best travel rewards credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – November 2024 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 February 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

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 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

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

30,000 bonus points (TO 18 NOVEMBER) 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

30,000 points (TO 9TH DECEMBER) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

20,000 points (ONLY TO 9TH DECEMBER) 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

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

Get 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month* Read our full review

Comments (191)

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

  • Aliks says:

    For day to day usage, we use Amex if possible to chase our latest welcome bonus, and the HSBC World Elite Mastercard if Amex is refused.

    The HSBC card is actually a long term keeper as the Avios earning rate is the best for non Amex cards and the benefits are good:
    * Lounges worldwide,
    * iPass Wifi worldwide and
    * Decent travel insurance
    For overseas we use Lloyds Amex / Mastercard as we found that our Supercard almost never works.

  • Oliver East says:

    Spotify allows users to charge the monthly subscription to a CC.

  • Genghis says:

    I’m finding my savings rates collapsing – and no surprise. Santander going down to 1.5% from 3%, Nationwide to 1% from 5% (after first year) and TSB from 5% on £2k to 3% on £1.5k. I’ve therefore had to open quite a few regular savers recently to make a bit more.

    Even though I’m annoyed with Santander (fee up to £5 from £2 last year or so) and now the interest rate decrease, I still think it’s the best choice as our main account. Other accounts only pay interest up to £5k (which isn’t a high enough float for us).

    • Simon says:

      Having all spare cash linked to my Offset mortgage (if you have a mortgage!) the best savings rate I can find…

      • Genghis says:

        First time buyer last year and our LTV was too high for an offset account. I will certainly be looking into it when current mortgage comes up to expiry. Any ‘spare’ cash goes towards overpaying mortgage (indeed a good way of ‘saving’) but I want our ‘buffer’ to earn as much interest as possible too.

        • Travel Yoda says:

          I have used peer to peer lending, both zopa or RateSetter, as an alternative to savings account.

  • sprout7 says:

    Is it possible to refer a student (family member) for an amex card eg gold charge card or starwood card?
    They don’t have any income but I thought I read on a different thread that amex don’t now take income into account.
    Many thx

    • Genghis says:

      I believe there is no longer a prescriptive income requirement but there certainly ask for income (individual and household) and I presume use it in their assessment.

      • sprout7 says:

        Thanks for the reply.
        I think i’ll give it a go as the household income is relatively high and may swing it.

    • Mr Dee says:

      They take into account personal income which they will ask for when applying for the gold charge card

  • Roger* says:

    Oh dear.
    refleting = reflecting
    in helping = is helping
    0.5& CB = 0.5% CB

  • Lev441 says:

    I’m not really sure if I have an ‘end game’… But I have a decent spread of cards and avios/virgin miles with about a 60:40 ratio (avios:virgin) currently..

    – Amex Gold – about to upgrade to platinum as £15,000 annual spend bonus of 10k MR has just posted to my account. Was on the old card earning rates until quite recently so was getting 2MR per £1 for travel spend (which I spent a lot on). Spoke to Amex last week who offered me 15k bonus for upgrading to Platinum so i’m thinking about doing this soon.
    – Lloyds Avios – Have had this card since January, maxed out the 2.5 avios per £1 every month for the first six months and now use for when i’m away. It was a great card to have when I went to America and Canada for a month in the summer.
    – Virgin Black – Used the Premium economy upgrade vouchers in a reward seat sale for my summer trip to North America. Was over the moon about 24,500 miles for a PE seat on the new dreamliner.
    Also use the visa card for non amex spend which is about £2k a month and use the card to pay HMRC VAT, Corporation tax and personal tax as well as my student loan repayments.
    – BAPP – Applied a couple of weeks ago and just hit the £3k spend bonus. Aim to get to £10k by December so I can book my parents a trip to South Africa for their 35th Wedding anniversary using companion voucher.

    Considering the Nectar card offer of 40,000 nectar points for a £2,000 spend too but I may be stretching myself slightly on my other current targets!

    • Lev441 says:

      Ah – Should have mentioned that i’m doing it by being an additional cardholder with my mum as the main cardholder and will use the avios in our household account. I have the lions share of points and don’t mind putting them to good use!

      Luckily before I applied for the card I came across a similar situation on FT.

      Thanks for looking out for me though 🙂

      • Genghis says:

        Ah – I see. It’s alright. Should be a very nice anniversary present.

    • Grimz says:

      Any idea when the clock starts ticking again for the lloyds card? Iv just hit the 7k bonus in about 3 months and received the voucher in my Avios account. Is it a calendar year or do i have to wait longer than that?

  • RussellH says:

    Currently using Amex Gold for everything where possible, in order to get the 20 000 (+2 000) sign up bonus. That works for supermarkets, motor fuel, some hotels, but not much else.

    I have Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Lloyds Avios (free), Lufthansa and Virgin Visa / MC / Amex. The Lufthansa cards are ancient, were signed up for separately, with each getting an 8 000 bonus. Visa pays 1 mile, Amex 1.5, but most of the time they are just used to keep my Miles and More a/c alive.

    Marriott, Hilton and IHG all give me a bit of status and again, keep the accounts alive. Not using IHG at present as I have enough points there for the moment, wheras the Hilton ones seem to get used as fast I can get hold of them.

    The Virgin cards I got purely for the sign-up bonus (just before the currrent promotion came out), but I should hit 10 000 points on my Virgin a/c when the next card bill comes through. I shall convert them all to Hilton points and cancel the cards. I have never flown Virgin, and do not expect to at any time in the future, so that will work well for me. The Virgin points have come from e-Rewards and Virgin Trains.

    I have a PO MC for fee-free non GBP spending, but as I seldom travel outwith Europe and I still have two EUR bank accounts from my business days with significant amounts of cash in them, I cannot see it getting much use these days! I also get a Swiss old age pension credited to a Swiss a/c which pays for all of my spending there. My German Visa credit card currently allows free ATM use worldwide too (though NOT payments – yes, I know it is weird). A paid for version of the LLoyds Amex makes no sense to me.

    I have thought about the Platinum Amex as the travel insurance alone would be a brilliant deal if it worked, but as I read the small print it does not cover me for pre-existing conditions.

    It is fascinating to see how different things work for different people.

  • pointsarb says:

    Hi All,

    I use the SPG Amex now routinely for Amex spend owing to the 1:3 conversion to Marriott, SPG moments, and 20% bonus on airline transfers. I find this card to be one of the best out there for me.

    Dip in and out of BAPP, Virgin Black, PRG, and Plat too like the rest of you for the sign up bonuses too.

    I am thinking if I have made the right choice on my main visa/mc though. Currently using Creation’s IHG premium and will hot the £10k for the free IHG night very soon. Question is which visa/mc next to replace it?

    Thoughts anyone?

    Thanks!

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