What are the best credit card deals for May 2017?

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• rick says:

  9 May9 May 07:03

  OT-Amex Platinum Hotel Status

  Applied as a supplementary card holder for hotel status upgrade. Didn’t happen yet after 3 weeks or more.
  Applied last week again as a main card holder (His-n-Her card!), SPG status has come through within less than a week (3/4 days max).

  • Rob says:

    9 May9 May 08:28

    Did Hilton for my wife recently and it was processed within 48 hours.

  • Ro says:

    9 May9 May 15:47

    Applied for mine 4 weeks ago and nothing :-/

    • Rob says:

      9 May9 May 16:28

      Did you give them existing account numbers or ask them to create accounts? If you asked them to create accounts then you are asking for trouble because some schemes don’t send a card until you’ve had a stay and you don’t know your number until they send a card ….! You’d need to look out for some sort of welcome email.

      I did Melia last week and it took 4-5 days and, as I said, my wife’s Hilton took 2 days. This was upgrading existing accounts.

• Talay says:

  9 May9 May 07:20

  We have 2 x BAPP and I noticed a 2.99% for 12 months spend promotion on my wife’s card but not on mine (with significantly higher credit limit).

  Asked Amex to match and they are “investigating”.

  Never seen such before and Amex haven’t done balance transfers for donkeys years I believe. Perhaps a shift in the wind over at Amex Towers ?

  • Louise says:

    9 May9 May 10:24

    I had this offer two months ago. I was surprised. A quick google and it appears it has popped up over the years

• The Original Nick says:

  9 May9 May 07:28

  Last night I manged to redeem my 4th Hilton free night voucher from the Hilton Honors Barclaycard. And once again got a very good deal. The Conrad, Algarve and tagged on another night using points.

  • Gareth says:

    9 May9 May 07:41

    Have you churned to get this 4th free night? If so how long did you leave it between?

    • The Original Nick says:

      9 May9 May 07:45

      I have been churning the card since 2012. Leave it for a minimum of 6 months. That’s my advice anyway. If you have a partner, apply at the same time and then you can get a nice weekend away.

• Marknewstart says:

  9 May9 May 08:07

  Going to apply for a platinum already have SPG and a nectar is it still ok to apply or do I need to cancel one?

  • Andrew* says:

    9 May9 May 08:15

    Received wisdom is two credit and two charge cards I think…

    • Rob says:

      9 May9 May 08:29

      You’ll be fine, unless Amex thinks your income is incompatible with 3 cards. They are more stringent with charge cards as Amex needs to be sure you can pay it all off immediately.

      • Marknewstart says:

        9 May9 May 09:30

        Thanks Rob

• mark2 says:

  9 May9 May 08:38

  You can’t use Connect with an Amex issued card.
  Not sure whether they will add an offer. Probably depends on who you get on the phone when you ring etc.

• Thomas says:

  9 May9 May 09:34

  Slightly OT:

  I had Amex Platinum and obtained all of the hotel statuses that went with it.

  I then referred my OH to it, I hold the supplementary card on her account.

  I now want to cancel to restart my clock, but don’t want to lose the hotel statuses. How do I go about regaining them based on my holding of the supp card? Is there a way, or do it manually by emailing them individually?

  • Alan says:

    9 May9 May 09:37

    Your status will continue until the end of membership reset for that card – 31/12 for many, 31/3 for Hilton. You can reapply at any time (via your partner’s a/c) once your a supp, to relink the card and hotel to keep status going.

• Geoff says:

  9 May9 May 10:20

  Rob – looking to follow your advice about having a BAPP card each. My partner already has a supplementary card on my BAPP account, does that count as her having a BAPP card for the purposes of preventing her getting the sign-up bonus for a BAPP card in her own name?

  • Alan says:

    9 May9 May 10:24

    No

  • MarkH says:

    9 May9 May 10:26

    No it doesn’t. She can apply for her own card and then add you as a supplementary card holder.

    • Geoff says:

      9 May9 May 11:08

      So she should still get the 25k points? Can I refer-a friend her?

      • Geoff says:

        9 May9 May 12:37

        Bit more than 1k if I get 9k too as the referrer?

      • Genghis says:

        9 May9 May 13:05

        In your case best to refer you partner.

        My last statement was for getting the card first before any “internal referrals”

      • Geoff says:

        10 May10 May 11:01

        Referral email sent, apparently, but she’s not receiving it.

        • Alan says:

          10 May10 May 13:20

          Remeber with Amex you can always copy the referral link and send it through an alternate route (e.g. Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, etc.)

      • Genghis says:

        10 May10 May 18:35

        I always use the referral link copy and pasted into a new tab. V easy.

• Will J says:

  9 May9 May 12:45

  Hi,

  Slightly on topic. I held the British Airways Amex card (free) for 6 months, then realised that my spend was going to hit the £10k limit on the BAPP shorlty, so phoned and upgraded.

  I was charged the full yearly £195, I was under the impression it was pro-rata’d so was expecting it to be half that. Anyone have any exprience of this?

  Cheers

  • Trev says:

    9 May9 May 13:03

    You’ve paid for a year from the point of upgrading (as if you took out a new card) the pro-rata comes in if you cancel/downgrade it before 12 months are up

    • Will J says:

      9 May9 May 20:04

      Thanks Trev, makes sense.

      • Polly says:

        10 May10 May 05:12

        Will J, once you have banked your 241 in your baec ac, you can then downgrade to free again, but do it on line, so you don’t get asked any awkward questions as to why? It will just ask you to input your current BAPP no and it transfers back down no prob.

        Or if you have a partner, then refer them for the BAPP. But don’t downgrade again or cancel, until your referral bonus is banked and transferred out to your baec. You will then get your pro rata refund, when you either downgrade or cancel. Do this annually, it works fine.

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