All MBNA airline credit cards withdrawn – what are your alternatives?

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

• Simon Cross says:

  8 Nov8 November 04:14

  Will Brexit mean that UK issued credit cards no longer be subject to the 0.3 percent interchange cap and therefore will airline loyalty cards return?

  • Guesswho2000 says:

    8 Nov8 November 04:20

    Very unlikely that it’ll be reversed. Similar has occurred here in Australia, so it’s not just a Europe thing (although obviously it’s not EU legislation at work here!).

    • Paul says:

      8 Nov8 November 06:21

      1/3rd withdrawn and BAs dominance of the U.K. market rises significantly. Bad news all round.

  • Nick says:

    8 Nov8 November 06:50

    It was the British who pushed for this rule within the EU, so even without the GRB there is near certainty that it would stay.

    Remember that the government is trying to protect consumers overall, rather than a very niche group of miles collectors. On balance – annoying though it is for both us and the credit/finance lobby – I think it’s the right thing to do.

    • John says:

      8 Nov8 November 07:17

      I don’t think capping interchange fees is helpful per se.

      I agree with banning card surcharges for consumers, and the rest can be sorted out by the market.

      • Rob says:

        8 Nov8 November 08:47

        As there was a duopoly on interchange, the market was not working.

    • W says:

      8 Nov8 November 07:33

      Agreed especially given the BoE reported rise in minimum monthly payments on credit and rising households debts.

    • Alan says:

      8 Nov8 November 07:55

      Although given this is only a component of the cost that smaller retailers end up paying it doesn’t yet appear to be making any positive difference to consumers.

      • Rob says:

        8 Nov8 November 08:45

        Of course it does. Changing prices is expensive – shops hate it. So you do leave it as long as possible. No idiot reprices stock daily as electricity goes up or the cashier gets a pay rise etc.

      • Genghis says:

        8 Nov8 November 09:13

        But there have been multiple comments here from small retailers about the card providers not passing on any of the savings to the small retailers?

      • Alan says:

        8 Nov8 November 23:07

        I don’t follow, Rob – of course I wouldn’t expect them to reprice daily but if they’re not seeing any reduction in costs then there’s nothing for them to reprice anyway! Sure Tesco, ASDA, etc. will see a drop but I’m talking about the vast majority of other retailers who will still be stuck paying many multiples of the interchange rate.

        • Rob says:

          8 Nov8 November 23:12

          I reckon if you look at the dynamics of a small shop there isn’t much to reduce. The terminals aren’t cheap. I don’t know how many sales visits are required to set up and manage an account. The overheads may be disproportionately high already compared to the card volume your local hardware shop or butcher is putting through.

• Lux says:

  8 Nov8 November 04:16

  Wow. Ouch. Damn, that’s a big blow. Might be time to head for HSBC Premier card.

  My Emirates Elite card is due for renewal this month so will see if I’m charged the fee and allowed to continue.

• Guesswho2000 says:

  8 Nov8 November 04:22

  This is a shame, and I’m hoping the AAdvantage card stays live for existing customers for a while at least, I’m using it every month to keep my miles alive for 18 months. Not a lot of earning options in Australia, bar SPG, which could itself be gone eventually.

  • David says:

    8 Nov8 November 04:52

    At least any activity does the trick in terms of keeping AA miles alive.

    With Miles & More unless you have the card product (or status) your miles are on a fix expiry – regardless of activity. That is very troubling development for non-intensive earners of them in the UK.
    I’d hope for a M&M relaunch (perhaps with creation?).
    Otherwise, perhaps they could do a deal with Amex, removing miles expiry for people who link a Plat account or something (and become a MR conversion partner).

    • Sol says:

      8 Nov8 November 06:45

      I really hope none of these are picked up by Creation. They are terrible at running credit organisations and I’ve had nothing but trouble (missing points, rubbish statements, poor service, poor website, card declined overseas etc…). Worth reading the trustpilot reviews and I back the fact they get 1 star. .

      • Fenny says:

        8 Nov8 November 21:34

        I’ve only had half a dozen transactions on my Creation account, which was enough to make me never use it again. I only got it to pay a specific transaction, which I completely failed to get through their system. I shall only keep it for the IHG status.

    • Rich says:

      8 Nov8 November 10:25

      Yes, a bit of a bugger. A monthly transaction on the MBNA cards (via Curve) was the only thing keeping my M&M balance alive. Will probably have to cash these out into an Amazon voucher now unless some other method comes along quickly.

  • Hingeless says:

    8 Nov8 November 09:05

    Why bother collecting AA miles in oz, I find Asia miles are the easiest to collect via a credit card and can be used on AA and all other one world airlines

    • guesswho2000 says:

      8 Nov8 November 10:39

      I’ve already got a load of them sat there, and can (and have) redeem on FJ from time to time. It’s still not a bad programme in terms of redemptions, though it used to be much better. Whether I’d start collecting now (unless I was flying between AU-US regularly) is another matter.

      I had the AA card years ago, when the 35k signup bonus was offered. Also, when I was UK based, I used to have AAdvantage Platinum, at the time the 100% bonus on discount Y meant I got ~40k miles from every return trip LHR-SIN-MEL at the back of the plane. And LHR-DXB-MEL on QF was 80k each way in First as a redemption.

    • Alan says:

      8 Nov8 November 23:09

      Etihad redemptions was the main reason for the folks I knew collecting them when I was there. One of them even got me to buy miles and do a redemption for him as the pricing was so good!

• David says:

  8 Nov8 November 04:44

  Another – at least potentially – linked event is Lloyds Bank acquiring MBNA.
  Obviously, this is not as significant a driver as the Amex driven changes, but we don’t know what their long term plans, or perhaps what their ‘revised’ long term plans are.

  (I’m thinking in terms of the pulling of the AA card so soon after relaunch).

  Now some further thoughts:
  Lloyds of course have the Avios card (as you mention). While I’m sure IAG and/or BA could have a very good bidding war if they did want to switch to a non-Amex card product (as per IB recently), but it would certainly be possible to have some kind of exclusivity of airline partnership clause at play.
  Either already existing (and thereby preventing the folding of the AA card into Lloyds, or as part of Lloyds seeking to keep an Avios card product.

• Lee says:

  8 Nov8 November 04:49

  I’ve just taken a 4 year money transfer from my AA Amex card with MBNA so I suspect it will be around for a while.

  Got a large chunk of money at a ridiculous low rate.

  As I never had a visa with it I only have the Amex.

  • David says:

    8 Nov8 November 04:56

    The card account product can remain active for as long as MBNA wish, but they can transition it away from being linked to an airline FF scheme, etc very easily.

    Most recent example being when bmi diamond club credit cards finally closed, MBNA just issued new cards with generic MBNA branding. The card product itself remains unchanged, what benefits you get with it change (such as earning FF miles).

    • HAM76 says:

      9 Nov9 November 21:01

      That’s what Barclay’s did with the BA card in Germany…. Everything remained indentical including the price. One would just not get any miles nor a 241 voucher, anymore.

• John says:

  8 Nov8 November 05:12

  So are the Lloyds Avios cards going to be pulled too?

  • W says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:36

    Yeah can you clarify. I was confused by the bit that says Lloyds no longer issue Amex. Certainly not pulled from the website and looks like business as usual.

    So for now best direct earning is the piss poor Lloyds Avios MasterCard. For those that don’t qualify for this exclusive HSBC thing.

  • Rob says:

    8 Nov8 November 08:49

    At some point

    • W says:

      8 Nov8 November 10:32

      So we could be left with just BA, Amex direct and Virgin Money?

      • Rob says:

        8 Nov8 November 12:52

        Creation and possibly NewDay (who do the Amazon, House of Fraser cards but have little travel exposure apart from the TUI card) may fill the gap. These are very lean businesses whose overhead structure can probably support the new industry dynamics.

• Polly says:

  8 Nov8 November 05:23

  Rob,

  Slight edit required. Make sure you add in World Elite to the 2nd HSBC MasterCard tho, or folks will think they earn 1 mile per £ on the premier MC. Thanks…

• Paul says:

  8 Nov8 November 05:30

  I missed the news about the Virgin cards going to Virgin Money. Any details on the benefits/earning rates on these new cards?

  • Genghis says:

    8 Nov8 November 05:58

    Not yet released

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