Bits: want a job redeeming miles?, airberlin adds cheap US Avios routes, Curve raises $10m

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• Tom H says:

  17 Jul17 July 10:13

  OT: My Amex PRG 12 months is up at the start of August. I intend on waiting until the 10k MR bonus hits, and then cancelling. I also have the Gold Credit Card alongside it. Can I keep the credit card open (although to be honest, having hit the sign-up bonus on that, I don’t use it) and start the clock on my 6 month churn period on the PRG, or should I cancel both? Thanks!

  • Genghis says:

    17 Jul17 July 10:30

    To “start the clock” you’ll need to have not held a MR account in last six months (so need to cancel both).

    • Genghis says:

      17 Jul17 July 10:31

      Should actually read

      To “start the clock” you’ll need to not hold an MR account at all (so need to cancel both).

      Or to get another sign up bonus you’ll need to have not held a MR account in previous six months (so need to cancel both).

      • Tom H says:

        17 Jul17 July 10:49

        Thanks Genghis. I’ll cancel both then.

        Any recommendations for dealing with orphan points in the respective MR accounts (e.g. <500 balances)?

        • Genghis says:

          17 Jul17 July 10:54

          I do HH and then Nectar.
          Club Carlson also an option but I don’t collect them.

    • James A says:

      17 Jul17 July 18:55

      For what it’s worth when I cancelled my previous Amex gold my credit card stayed live and didn’t prevent me from opening a new gold charge card and getting the sign up bonus.

      • the real harry1 says:

        17 Jul17 July 19:01

        plenty of people have reported this but you are adding a significant risk that you won’t get the sign up bonus

        I guess you could do 1 a month if you felt like it, nothing ventured, nothing gained

        • Genghis says:

          17 Jul17 July 19:07

          It’d be a six months though wouldn’t it? Ie. You apply for Amex Gold, they say no points as you have the credit card. Cancel everything and wait 6 months. I push the rules but play within them. They’d have every right to refuse points if you don’t play by the rules.

  • mark2 says:

    17 Jul17 July 11:10

    does anyone know please whether the Platinum companion credit card is still available?

    • David says:

      17 Jul17 July 20:27

      I have one in my wallet right now. Had it for years though, so no guarantee it’s available to get for new.

  • Mzungu says:

    18 Jul18 July 14:45

    I asked this when I was on the phone recently – they (Amex) said that you can keep the Gold CC for £36pa and cancel the PRGC. I didn’t think to ask if that would prevent a future sign-up bonus, but I guess that it would.

• Mr Dee says:

  17 Jul17 July 11:33

  How about an update on how Curve is doing in numbers i.e. Members signed up and transaction processed if you have this information just out of curiosity 🙂

  Like curve for the free cash withdrawal, need more incentives to spend on the card in gbp though. Especially as many of us initially thought their reward program would be based on all spend not selected partners where there are already established ways to get better value than using curve. They are making be fee difference so if they had a kickback of even 0.5% uptake would be good.

  Currently though be only benefit is to save space on the wallet for visa and master cards which isn’t really that useful. Yes there is the foreign spend but at a 1% fee, there are better options.

  • Rob says:

    17 Jul17 July 12:01

    I don’t think it’s where they would have hoped, but the real driver will be the ‘official’ consumer version of the card which is getting ever nearer (and is why they came in to see us recently).

    Rather like Bink, whether it is ultimately ‘a solution in search of a problem’ remains to be seen.

    • JamesB says:

      17 Jul17 July 20:08

      I’ve not got curve yet but now thinking it’s £2400 a year to Lloyds amex or 2x £600 on virgin white churns via ATM so might give it a go. Any thoughts on whether best to jump now or wait for consumer card? Any idea how long I need to wait before reapplying for Lloyds amex? Thanks.

    • the real harry1 says:

      17 Jul17 July 20:12

      ha ha Bink that rings a bell lol

      they/ their market makers were certainly pretty good at rigging the market

      just reading (ie the book, guys) the Wolf of Wall St and very funny indeed plus illuminating

      I recommend it

      • Rob says:

        17 Jul17 July 21:15

        Bink has just raised a big pile of cash too …. they’re not going anywhere.

    • Mr Dee says:

      17 Jul17 July 22:41

      Good insight, will wait for the consumer card before I make a judgement on their long term success then.

      It is a pity that these companies don’t do research into what hfp readers would like before creating product. Yes I know the audience maybe limited but I am sure the type of product we would like would also appeal to the masses.

      • Rob says:

        17 Jul17 July 22:45

        The Henry Ford view – ‘if you’d asked people what they wanted, we would have got a faster horse’ – is the general maxim …..

        • Mr Dee says:

          18 Jul18 July 22:15

          Good point, I would not have thought of the Curve card :/

    • Steve says:

      18 Jul18 July 09:32

      I’ve never managed to have a transaction accepted with my Curve card, even with a variety of ‘source’ credit and debit cards! Never had that problem with the original Supercard trial (but do have more acceptance issues with the new supercard). It’s quite frustrating, but because I can just revert to the normal card I don’t have much incentive to contact support to find out what the problem is… I suspect that sort of thing will cause them to lose customers (or fail to secure them in the first place) without them getting the feedback they need to address the issues.

    • Aeronaut says:

      18 Jul18 July 22:08

      “A solution in search of a problem” is ultimately what Curve sounds like to me… but the investors listed in the article evidently seem to think otherwise

      • Mr Dee says:

        18 Jul18 July 22:17

        They could be hedging bets incase Curve is a success, so not to disrupt their other investments…

        • Rob says:

          18 Jul18 July 22:27

          You invest in 20 of these things, hopefully one goes well. And, if you’re trade, even the failures teach you a lot about things you can use in your own company.

          PSD2 is the big thing. If I go to another HFP meeting where this comes up I will scream. From January, all of your financial data is freely available once you tick a box. One app will show you all your balances in EVERY bank, your pension, your credit card bills, EVERYTHING. This is massively powerful and there are some well-funded start-ups ready to pounce.

          Curve has the background in manipulating spend data. What about if it merged with a PSD2 company which could, for example, go through ALL of your statements and tell you exactly how much you spend on food, coffee etc? That is pretty powerful stuff.

          These PSD2 companies will also become the new comparison sites. They know when your interest rates are out of line, and with one click they can open a new account for you at a different bank and move your money over.

          The company that really cracks this in terms of usability – and that is the deciding factor – will be worth billions because of all the payments it will get for account and card switching.

          Or Curve merges with Bink? There is a lot of commonality if they want to become a loyalty play.

          If you’re a young kid these days there is lots of cool stuff to be working on, although only a very small % ever make it. In general, staff turnover at these things is high, hours long and conditions rubbish. The Curve guys were shocked by the luxuriousness of our WeWork building and we’re not exactly living it up, at least compared to my City days.

        • Alan says:

          18 Jul18 July 22:36

          Very interesting. This article – https://www.evry.com/en/news/articles/psd2-the-directive-that-will-change-banking-as-we-know-it/ – provides some added info, esp interesting cross-border stuff. Really hope we’ll have a way of remaining part of this post-Brexit, esp given the number of Fintech businesses in the UK.

        • Mr Dee says:

          19 Jul19 July 19:20

          Very good insight there, now if only I had some idea how to get a piece of the pie 🙂

• mark2 says:

  17 Jul17 July 13:40

  OT
  I have just received the final 872 Virgin miles at 4 per £ on a Waitrose spend on the last day of the offer.

• Cate says:

  17 Jul17 July 13:49

  Slightly OT but as there’s a picture of Mastercard…..

  I have to do a few Intercontinentals and would like to take advantage of the 20% off for booking with Mastercard – but I don’t have one. So is the best way to get a prepaid Mastercard and use it for the bookings? If so which one as there’s a lot of prepaid cards.

  • johnny_c-l says:

    17 Jul17 July 16:07

    You could use Curve to charge back to an existing Visa, if you hold one?

    • Cate says:

      17 Jul17 July 19:09

      Thanks johnny_c_I but curve won’t let me open an account because I no longer have a smart phone.

  • the real harry1 says:

    17 Jul17 July 17:38

    sounds like you don’t have a Tesco M/C, I’d get that though I appreciate you want a quick solution ie prepaid

    anything on the supermarket card racks would be fine (if they do MC)

    • Cate says:

      17 Jul17 July 19:15

      True, we don’t have a Tesco M/C and given we a about to remortgage I don’t want anything stomping over our credit file. The avios prepaid card looks interesting as I could get a trickle of avios coming in but I don’t want a credit check as we are remortgaging. I’d be happy with just the card for bookings though as it will pay for itself soon enough.

      • the real harry1 says:

        17 Jul17 July 19:33

        RIP 3V 🙂

        though that was Visa

        • Cate says:

          17 Jul17 July 21:46

          Good point harry1 (as usual).

      • JamesB says:

        17 Jul17 July 20:20

        Have a look at CaxtonFX card. Used it as fall back prepaid for years, decent rates and good CS.

        • Cate says:

          17 Jul17 July 21:43

          Thanks for the tip JamesB, but it says in the T&C’s it does checks electronically which leaves it wide open to doing a credit search.

        • Rob says:

          17 Jul17 July 22:47

          Legally there has to be an electronic ID check I think, same as Amex has to do ID checks on supplementary cards.

• Charlie says:

  17 Jul17 July 14:27

  A quick O/T – how long does the priority pass take to arrive after Amex Platinum acceptance? Can I speed it up by applying online in any way?

  • Rob says:

    17 Jul17 July 14:59

    Don’t worry – the PP normally arrives BEFORE your Amex Plat card arrives!

    It comes automatically, unlike the hotel status cards which you need to manually order via americanexpress.co.uk/platinum

  • Lawro says:

    17 Jul17 July 14:59

    Often arrives before the card itself. Usually within a few days of acceptance.

    • Charlie says:

      17 Jul17 July 16:16

      Thank you both – I got the supplementary card for my dad as he and mum are off on travels in a couple of weeks, but haven’t been ready to apply for the Plat until now.

      • JamesB says:

        17 Jul17 July 20:28

        I thought I was in trouble when mine didn’t arrive in time for three weeks travels in Europe. Following advice from Alan and others I called up PP got my number and used that to register on the app and produce a digital card. I used this successfully eight times in three weeks at different locations and wasn’t once asked for the plastic card.

        • Alan says:

          18 Jul18 July 19:22

          Excellent 😀 Must say I never use the physical card now, the digital one works really well!

• Jonathan says:

  17 Jul17 July 14:57

  Genghis you asked that I report back on the D&D statement credit for a gift voucher. To confirm I have received the “You redeeemed your D&D London” generic email from Amex so it looks like it’ll go through.

  • Genghis says:

    17 Jul17 July 15:03

    Good stuff.

• Clive says:

  17 Jul17 July 18:09

  Wouldn’t mind a 40% bonus

  http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2017/07/17/40-transfer-bonus-british-airways-avios/

  • Harry Angstrom says:

    17 Jul17 July 21:29

    Yes, would be nice. Assume it’s US only?

    • Alan says:

      18 Jul18 July 19:24

      Yep 🙁 along with the massive sign-up bonuses there too. Thankfully most US customers are put off redeeming on BA due to the YQ surcharges – they have alternative options that are lower cost. Obviously not great for us having to pay these fake fees, but at least there’s a bit more availability as a result!

• Chris says:

  17 Jul17 July 18:37

  Anyone used a Lloyds upgrade voucher for open jaw, e.g. LHR – SFO, then JFK- LHR?

  • Alan says:

    18 Jul18 July 19:25

    Yep, not a problem at all – you just need to call. I had to call anyway as flying from EDI they can’t handle anything except straightforward London returns online (typical!), but at least their staff are pretty good. Fees go out straight away then points a few days later once voucher manually processed. I did EDI-LHR-ORD/YYZ-LHR-EDI without an issue.

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