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Why are some Lloyds Avios cardholders not receiving any points?

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Regular readers will know that I hold the Lloyds Bank credit card operation in contempt.  It regularly manages to achieve levels of incompetence which other banks simply couldn’t match if they tried.

Who else, for example, would take five days to send out ‘refer a friend’ emails after you request them?  Fewer than 1 in 3 people who I refer for the Lloyds Avios cards actually manage to receive the email and receive the bonus points (my Amex strike rate is 80%).  

Who else would freeze your credit card on suspicion of money laundering because your spouse paid your bill from their bank account (as happened to me)?

Unfortunately, the Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card remains an excellent product.  It is the only credit card in Britain to offer reward points (of any kind) alongside 0% foreign exchange fees.  The Avios upgrade voucher you receive for spending £7,000 – which can be across the Amex and the MasterCard – is also a great deal for a solo traveller who might find the British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher useless.

So, as I say, I keep recommending the card regardless.

And yet …..

There is a group of cardholders – it isn’t clear how large, but many are HfP readers – who have never received a single Avios point from their Lloyds Avios credit card.

I have been receiving these complaints from readers for well over a year.  To be honest I didn’t take them too seriously at first because IT cock-ups with data transfer of points are a fairly regular event.  And, in any event, how hard would it be for Lloyds to manually send Avios a list of accounts and the points due?

And yet, when pressurised, Lloyds can do it.  What a surprise.

This is what happened to a reader recently:

Opened a Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card account

Received no Avios at all after 10 weeks

Lodged a complaint, told it would take 12 weeks to resolve!

Waited 4 weeks, lodged another complaint threatening a referral to the Ombudsman

Missing Avios arrived 4 days later

So, pressure works.  This reader also referred his wife for her own card.  After two months, she had received no Avios.  She complained and was told by Lloyds that it would take 26 WEEKS for them to credit her the missing points.

The good news is that Lloyds is now offering a defined piece of compensation.

If you are missing Avios points, you should contact Lloyds and say that you need them for an imminent booking.  Magically, the Avios will appear.  Lloyds will also pay you £150 in compensation.

Don’t expect any missing Avios to appear without intervention.  What is interesting, from all of the different cases I have seen, is that no-one has ever been told what the problem actually is, and customers who question the bank are told that even they don’t know.

As I said, that’s Lloyds for you.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (168)

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

  • Tariq says:
    30 Apr30 April 09:36

    Avios seem particularly good at opening new accounts rather than allocating incoming credits to correct existing accounts. This happened with a Clubcard transfer for me despite all the demographic details being correct.

    • John says:
      30 Apr30 April 11:37

      Yes, I don’t understand why they can’t just let you enter your avios account number when redeeming your clubcard points

      • Alan says:
        30 Apr30 April 12:51

        Agreed, it’s a stupid system. Thankfully Avios.com online chat are pretty good at merging accounts.

  • Mike says:
    30 Apr30 April 09:42

    Lloyds picked up fraud on my mastercard very quickly and replaced the card, then a week later they cancelled my amex card “By mistake”. They reopened it, which reset my member since date, and now Avios aren’t posting, it even says 0 Avios earned on my statement. I was told it could take 26 weeks to resolve too as it’s a manual process and someone has to go through and work it all out by hand!

    Nearly missed out on the Avios superboost, but managed to transfer some points from Tesco to complete it.

    I will phone back and ask for compensation on Tue I think.

  • What's the Point says:
    30 Apr30 April 09:43

    My only issue was in Lloyds opening up a second Avios account for me, but I resolved that quite quickly via Avios and shut down my original one.
    Points have always posted fine from day one, and I am sorry to hear other people have not had the same experience.

  • Arun T says:
    30 Apr30 April 09:44

    Seems I’m one of the lucky ones – referral email received a few hours after requesting it, and card worked flawlessly since! It’s a great card when it does work!

    In fact have rather unintendedly almost triggered the Avios upgrade voucher through higher than expected spend….need to find a use for it now!

    • Alan says:
      30 Apr30 April 12:54

      Yes I wish you could pick when you receive the voucher – I’m actually quite liking the Creation IHG one not triggering until then end of the year as I can happily spend on the card without having to worry about triggering the voucher too early!

      • Genghis says:
        30 Apr30 April 13:51

        The Creation voucher is more predictable but I’m impatient and would rather have it now so I can spend it!

        • Alan says:
          30 Apr30 April 13:53

          Haha yes – would be nice to have the choice, when you don’t need it then it’s annoying to be losing validity on it.

  • Julie Kalama says:
    30 Apr30 April 09:50

    Took me 4 months and repeated phone calls – they just kept blaming Avios.

  • Paul says:
    30 Apr30 April 10:03

    I have had countless amount of times of referring someone for this card and neither of us receiving the 4500 avios. However, what has irritated me most about this card was when I spotted fraudulent activity on the card. Someone in India had tried to use it multiple times to top up a local sim card. I spoke to Lloyds who kindly gave me back the money and sent a new credit card i thought that was problem solved. However, what they failed to tell me at the time was that the direct debit i had in place was no longer applicable and i would need to set up a new direct debit for the new card. I subsequently had a missed payment and a mark on my credit score. When i called Lloyds to explain what happened they refused to remove it. Not best pleased !!!

    • the_real_a says:
      30 Apr30 April 11:32

      You should raise an ombudsman complaint on this for sure.

      • Paul says:
        2 May2 May 12:31

        thanks real a, the more I think about it the more that makes sense to raise one

  • Scott says:
    30 Apr30 April 10:15

    Just phoned Lloyds about two referrals that have never appeared. They said to phone avios which contradicts what is says in the article? They claim to have nothing to do with the referral scheme. Any ideas? Thanks

    • Rob says:
      30 Apr30 April 11:33

      Contact Avios with the name, email and Avios number of your referrer.

      • Scott says:
        30 Apr30 April 12:13

        Thanks. And you mention the £150 compensation? Is that something avios liase with Lloyds over?

        • Rob says:
          30 Apr30 April 13:51

          Lloyds is paying it. Only complaints to Lloyds trigger it, Avios is not involved.

        • Alan says:
          30 Apr30 April 13:55

          Avios certainly aren’t going to pay you compensation. If the only issue is referral bonus then I wouldn’t expect anything more than receiving the missing points. If ongoing poor service issues with Lloyds then you need to take that up with them as a formal complaint.

  • Mikeact says:
    30 Apr30 April 10:17

    I guess I must be lucky..at the end of three months ‘down under’, no problems at all and only used these two cards, (with/without Supercard/Curve) Shame more places don’t accept Amex,and when they do, stand by for up to 4% surcharge.

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

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