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Are these the possible changes to the Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card?

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On Monday I ran a piece about why I thought the Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card could not continue in its current form.

I was then handily emailed some draft marketing documentation currently being used as part of some market research.  This shows a Lloyds Avios Rewards Card that would be different to the one we have today:

the American Express card has gone, either because the Amex licence has ended (which is going to happen in the medium term) or Amex has agreed a deal with Avios to be the sole American Express issuer of Avios points in the UK

the earning rate on the Mastercard is improved, from 0.25 Avios to 0.3 Avios per £1

the annual fee remains at £24

The future of the upgrade voucher and the 0% foreign exchange fees was not clear.  I don’t believe that the latter is sustainable.

If this turned out to be the finished relaunched product, my recommendation would be entirely driven by whether the upgrade voucher and FX benefits remained.

After all, the Tesco Clubcard Mastercard offers the same 0.3 Avios per £1 – albeit impacted by rounding down – and has no annual fee and has the benefit of diversification.  If Avios devalues again, you can use your Clubcard vouchers elsewhere.

You would need to spend £800 abroad on your Lloyds card before the foreign exchange fee saving would overtake the £24 annual fee.  However, you could link the Tesco card to Supercard or Curve to remove or reduce that 3% fee anyway so the FX fee should not be the driving factor.

If this new card does turn out to be the one that is launched, it may be the upgrade voucher (or lack of it) which swings your decision.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (81)

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

  • Duncan says:
    13 Jan13 January 03:33

    Well, if that’s the card that launches, it wouldn’t be of any interest to me. I’d use my Nationwide Select CC with Supercard to get the 0.5% cash back.

    Hopefully whatever changes are made will take time to filter down to existing cardholders. I’m getting plenty of use from the Amex part of the card on my current holiday in Texas. It would be a shame to lose it!

  • Nick says:
    13 Jan13 January 04:25

    It’ll be a shame as this product is good for those solo travellers. Best I start spending a bit more on my Amex card and get as close to the £7k spend for the upgrade voucher then ditch.

  • krys_k says:
    13 Jan13 January 04:27

    What’s the future looking like for the premier card? I’m thinking that it might be pulled any day if this is the way we are going.

    • Rob says:
      13 Jan13 January 08:12

      Er, it already has been pulled!

      And the TSB cards.

      • krys_k says:
        13 Jan13 January 09:49

        Quite right. I should have been more specific…pulled for existing holders (I know I sound like a shrill on this site, but I get three vouchers per year for just £15k spend, which is ementtly achiavble since it also includes spend on MasterCard).

        • the_real_a says:
          13 Jan13 January 14:19

          Wow i missed out on this one then. 3 vouchers for 1 class BA upgrades? I though these were limited to 1 per year.

          • krys_k says:
            13 Jan13 January 15:41

            I have a family avios account and as there are three of us with this card, it equals three vouchers.

          • Genghis says:
            13 Jan13 January 15:46

            But for £140 x 3 = £540 in card fees? Aren’t you better off with the £24 version and hitting the upgrade voucher at £7k spend? The extra £6k spend would save you £468 (540 – 3×24) in card fees. You could even see if as being 468/6k = 7.8% cash back?
            Or are my numbers wrong?

          • the_real_a says:
            13 Jan13 January 16:27

            ah ok thanks

        • Brian W says:
          13 Jan13 January 14:26

          I have had the Lloyds branded Premier Duo cards for years (well before the whole TSB thing) with an annual fee of £50 and I get a two for one voucher when I hit £15k each year (only valid for 1 year but we still manage to time it so we can use with our Amex ones). But I only get a maximum of one voucher in any anniversary year, how do you get three?? Years back befrore I had a BAPP I used it for lots of business spend and the annual statement showed £49k that year and I still only got one voucher. Are we talking about the same card here? £50 annual fee, Amex earns 1.25 Avios/£1?

  • The Original Nick says:
    13 Jan13 January 07:00

    So, do others like me need to be looking at using their unused upgrade voucher asap?

  • Martin says:
    13 Jan13 January 07:01

    If that’s the future then we’ll be cancelling ours. Our driver for retaining is the avios on Amex use coupled with the zero fx charges, if one part of that drops then this card is of no use to us. The upgrade voucher is of no interest, we didn’t use the first one we got and probably won’t use the current one.

  • James67 says:
    13 Jan13 January 07:09

    Where would we stand if they changed to a new card without a voucher and we were part way through earning a voucher on the current card?

    • Genghis says:
      13 Jan13 January 07:50

      Breach of contract?

    • Alan says:
      17 Jan17 January 18:04

      I can see them refunding the annual fee but not sure they’d do more than that – hopefully if pulled they’d let everyone see out their existing year though.

  • The Original Nick says:
    13 Jan13 January 07:14

    Or, those who have a valid voucher, redeem it now for Dec/Jan, they change the card so there’s no voucher and then we cancel? Would all the Avios go back to your Avios account?

    • Alan says:
      17 Jan17 January 18:06

      The voucher isn’t refundable already – they do let you change the date though, I believe.

  • Charlie says:
    13 Jan13 January 07:21

    Rob can you send me a referral for the card please? I will sign up now whilst there’s still a voucher on offer

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