What is your credit card ‘end game’ strategy?

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• Frenske says:

  13 Dec13 December 08:19

  My end game is to maximize the Virgin Black card I got just before the cancelled it. So hopefully by October I should have two upgrade tickets and enough points to fly to Caribbean.

• Elizabeth says:

  13 Dec13 December 08:24

  This might be a stupid question, but is it possible to hold 2 of the Lloyds Avios Rewards cards at once? My fiancé and I both have one each in our own names, but I’m looking at options for cards that we could use for joint expenses that we would pay off from a joint account. The fact that the Lloyds card comes with a MasterCard and has no foreign transaction fees means it would be a very useful joint card for us, because we normally travel together and not everywhere we shop takes Amex. It would be nice to put an end to the “whose card is this going on?” discussions. 😉

  • Andrew says:

    13 Dec13 December 08:33

    Credit cards are never in joint names. You can have an account with an “authorised user” though. Then just set up a DD that settles directly to your joint account.

    Better off layering the sign-up bonuses though. Maybe taking out a BA Amex each with the both DDs charging to the joint account? That’s unless you are aiming for a 2-4-1 voucher where splitting the spend wouldn’t help. Or one of you takes out a BA Amex with “authorised user” for domestic spend and the other takes out an f/x free Virgin Money Card with “authorised user” for international spend.

    • Elizabeth says:

      13 Dec13 December 08:48

      Thanks for replying, Andrew. Sorry, that’s what I meant – I’d apply for the second Lloyds card, which would be paid from the joint account, and add my fiancé as an authorised user.

      I agree that layering the sign-up bonuses would be better, and actually one of my concerns is that splitting our spending across three cards would mean we wouldn’t hit any spending targets! We might manage with the “joint” card though, because flights and hotels would go on there. I have the BA Amex this year because I’m putting as many wedding expenses as possible on it, but we wouldn’t normally spend enough to trigger the 2-4-1 voucher.

      • Genghis says:

        13 Dec13 December 10:03

        As a work around, getting a supplementary card for each of you on the other’s card might work to separate out “joint” expenses?

      • Elizabeth says:

        13 Dec13 December 12:59

        Thanks for replying, Genghis (for some reason there’s no reply button on your post, so I’m having to use the one on mine…) I’m not sure if I understand what you’re suggesting, though – if we both get supplementary cards for each other’s accounts, does that not still mean that one person will be paying for the whole purchase and the other person has to pay back their share?

        I guess one option might be for me to keep my BA Amex as my card for my individual spending (downgrading to the free card after the wedding), and adding my fiancé to my Lloyds card, changing the DD for this to come out of a joint account. He then keeps his Lloyds card for his individual spending, and I just have to find a card for my individual non-Amex spend. We wouldn’t get any sign-up bonuses this way, but it would probably be the simplest option.

      • Genghis says:

        13 Dec13 December 14:42

        Yes. You’d still have to repay each other but at least the joint expenses would be segregated on the statement.

  • the real harry1 says:

    13 Dec13 December 08:46

    Have you thought about getting Halifax Clarity MC? no fees & also gives free foreign use ie perfect exchange rate & no ATM fees, you can fund your ATM withdrawals same day to avoid interest (not that the interest is particularly worrying)

    so a main cardholder with the other as supp gives you that joint card, no points but you have other cards for that

    • Worzel says:

      13 Dec13 December 09:02

      +1.

    • Elizabeth says:

      13 Dec13 December 13:05

      Thanks for replying, Harry. I have considered that card, but it seems a shame to not earn any Avios on joint purchases when we can earn them with the Lloyds cards. I also have a Monzo card that I can use if I need to withdraw cash abroad (we always take some currency with us so the £200 monthly limit on free withdrawals isn’t a problem). I think the simplest option might be what I suggested in my post to Genghis above.

• Graham Walsh says:

  13 Dec13 December 08:39

  Just a thought, to churn Amex Plat the only option is dump the points to Avios or Virgin I guess as holding the ARCC still counts as holding an Amex card, so not possible to apply again in 6 months

  • mark2 says:

    13 Dec13 December 08:53

    True; this is a disadvantage if you want to keep your options open. There are other destinations for MR points e.g. SPG, Hilton.

  • Rob says:

    13 Dec13 December 10:05

    Correct. ARCC is only for you if you don’t want to pay the fees on Gold or Plat but still want to keep your MR account open. It doesn’t start the 6 month clock.

• Phil says:

  13 Dec13 December 09:09

  Rob, in my mind many people are put off owning an AMEX card due to lack of acceptance, but at the low earnings rate on the Tesco card, it’s still always better to have AMEX.

  The reason being that you can still buy your food shopping and most other large purchases with an AMEX, getting you at least 1 Avios per £. If you lose out on 0.15 Avios because you can’t buy a packet of Polo Mints at your local newsagent… meh.

  • Alan says:

    13 Dec13 December 10:46

    Agree. There is a misconception that AMEX isn’t accepted very widely. The big 4 supermarkets all take it (along with their petrol stations) as does Amazon and a lot of online retailers take Paypal which you can hook up to your AMEX card.
    In a routine month well over half of our spending goes on AMEX. The Visa/MC cards don’t get used much at all.

    • Andrew says:

      13 Dec13 December 10:57

      Even Poundland accepts it – and is cheaper for Toblerone than any Airport offer.

    • Anna says:

      13 Dec13 December 10:58

      Agree! My MasterCard only gets any regular use at Lidl, and that’s because they offer far better value on a range of products that the big 4 just can’t, or don’t want to match.

• Scottydoggiom says:

  13 Dec13 December 09:12

  OT .
  If i have Marriott Gold status from holding the Amex Platinum , i believe this comes with breakfast for 2 ? What if im staying 2 adults 2 kids , do you still have to pay for the kids breakfasts ?
  Its the Marriott at Gatwick airport , i looked on their website and it said £14.95 per person for breakfast , doesn’t say a different price for kids . Don’t fancy paying £30 for 2 kids to eat rice crispies and toast

  • ankomonkey says:

    13 Dec13 December 10:37

    I think it depends on hotel. I have had free breakfast for 4 (2 adults and 2 children) as a Marriott Gold, but I think it’s up to each hotel rather than a standard approach to give it to all room bookings of over 2 people.

  • wally1976 says:

    13 Dec13 December 21:59

    If you’re referring to the Courtyard Marriott at LGW, gold members aren’t entitled to free breakfast at Courtyards at all unfortunately. We stayed there (2A + 2C too) in the summer both before and after our hols – on the way out we did Number 1 lounge for breakfast (and Grain Store for inflight food) and on the way back we walked to McDonalds for breakfast (we won’t be walking there again though; it’s not far but not recommended unless you have a death-wish!).

• Joshua S says:

  13 Dec13 December 09:22

  Hi all,

  BA cancelled my flight from Milan to London on Sunday, claiming “bad weather conditions”, rebooking me onto next day’s flight. Am I eligible for EU261 compensation?

  Thanks

  • Steve says:

    13 Dec13 December 09:44

    Think ‘weather conditions’ are one of those factors that fall outside the scope of EU261

    • Joshua S says:

      13 Dec13 December 09:49

      Well, other flights did make it to London though .. it was only BA that decided to cancel everything, I guess due to the fact that airplanes could not leave London to come to Milan to pick us up.

      • Aeronaut says:

        14 Dec14 December 09:11

        Aeroplanes nor airplanes, please!

    • The_real_a says:

      13 Dec13 December 11:00

      Well. BA claims knock on disruption is excluded from compensation. This is not true. The rule is if your flight COULD have been run by the provision of a spare aircraft then its EU compensation.

      • the real harry1 says:

        13 Dec13 December 11:06

        yep but BA are never going to concede on this without a fight

        advice seems to be avoid CEDR & go straight to MCOL after you get a ‘deadlock’ letter from BA (ie ‘our position on this is not going to change’)

        if you don’t start MCOL proceedings, you are just going to get BA saying it was bad weather/ extraordinary circs

        I think @ Joshua is highly unlikely to succeed, though – because for him that was a genuine bad weather event on the Sunday itself

        delays and cancellations from Monday & Tuesday are much more likely to get a result

  • Mike says:

    13 Dec13 December 09:53

    Grey area but look at the FT forum as there was a discussion about this just the other day. One or two recent stated cases that involved deicing of planes. They also have a duty of care re your overnight expenses (e.g. £200 for the hotel)

    https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1882179-de-icing-really-considered-extraordinary-circumstances.html

• the real harry1 says:

  13 Dec13 December 09:25

  Does anyone know offhand if the green corporate Amex cards come with any kind of spend target/ bonus when first issued? I know it’s unlikely but you never know…my wife just got one

  rang Amex last night and forgot to ask, now she’s out

  • George says:

    13 Dec13 December 09:45

    Sadly there is no signup bonus on any of the Green corporate cards (local or forex). There is also no defined upgrade bonus for moving up the tier, but if you gently press at the CS teams via secure message, they’ll normally offer 10k points or so to upgrade.

    • the real harry1 says:

      13 Dec13 December 11:01

      thanks – thought so

      just looked up the 3 corporate cards & it says the annual fee is £45 for her card, which I guess her company is paying

      strangely, the Amex CS guy last night said that if my wife actually wants to collect MR points on this card, she’ll have to pay another £36 pa & the points won’t start accumulating until she signs up to that – does that sound right?

      so one of the benefits of holding Amex (MR points) isn’t a benefit as advertised https://business.americanexpress.com/uk/corporate-card – though the Amex guy did say my wife’s company had authorised cardholders to collect points in their own right

      all very odd to my mind, I never bothered much to actively gather MR points when I had a green card some 20 years ago, but the points still accumulated on a fairly healthy corporate spend and I ended up with nearly 100K Virgin miles when I handed back the card & had to stash the points somewhere or lose them

      • George says:

        13 Dec13 December 12:22

        I’m not sure – we’ve got Platinums (but small business not corp) and I remember reading that Green can earn MR but only if you enrol – I know the foreign currency cards get 1 year of complimentary enrolment, whatever that is. I guess the company may have elected not to ‘pay’ for MR access for employees, but has allowed them to do it themselves?

  • Scallder says:

    13 Dec13 December 18:16

    Harry – the £36 charge does sound right. I used to work for one of the big accountancy firms (albeit i left 4 years ago) and we had corporate cards but had to enrol for MR and pay the £36 fee.

    In the end I just ended up putting all my work expenses on my personal VA Black card as they didnt seem too fussed if we didnt use the corporate card, even though it was official policy to do so…

    • the real harry1 says:

      13 Dec13 December 18:28

      thanks for confirming

      I think my wife might struggle with that! I said last night to just pay the £36 and stick it in as an expense – no chance, says she

      she will probably now put absolutely everything company-related through on that green card (which is a massive shame!) so we might as well pay it ourselves & get the points

      strange company in some respects, they have a useless travel agency (that they’re supposed to use 100%) with costs way higher than the going rate

• Mike J says:

  13 Dec13 December 09:31

  Slight OT but does anyone know how long it takes for the MR points to credit after you refer somebody for an AMEX? Also, does the person referred need to trigger the signup bonus or simply receive the card?

  • Dave H says:

    13 Dec13 December 09:40

    I referred my daughter last month, my points arrived in 5 days and before she received her card.

  • Anna says:

    13 Dec13 December 10:49

    We’ve had them post within a week, but also after 6 weeks with different referrals, there doesn.t seem to be a standard interval. If you speak to Amex they will just tell you that it takes “up to” 60 days, or whatever is in the Ts & Cs.

  • Manya says:

    13 Dec13 December 11:08

    I was on the phone to Amex for a similar query. Up to 30 days is what the rep told me.

    • Rob says:

      13 Dec13 December 11:16

      Nonsense. Will post within 48 hours from being accepted.

      • Steve says:

        13 Dec13 December 14:32

        I got it every time in 1-2 days after card being accepted

  • fivebobbill says:

    13 Dec13 December 11:14

    Mike, so long as the person you refer uses the link you send them from MR then the whole process is automatic. I have made 4 referrals this year for various cards, and on each the bonus points have appeared on my account withing a week (before the other person has received their card).
    This all assumes of course that the person you refer has been successful in their application, although 2 of my referrals got a *we are unable to make a decision at this time, we’ll be in touch* notice… and I got my bonus points before they were even informed they were successful!

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