Important dates for your diary – offers about to close which you shouldn’t miss (December 2017)

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• Nick M says:

  24 Dec24 December 07:57

  OT – IHG credit card

  Has anybody applied for this recently? How long did it take for the card to come through? – I’ve been meaning to get it for a while to pay my tax bill but may have left it too late… is 2 weeks (with all the bank hols) a realistic possibility?

  • JamesB says:

    24 Dec24 December 08:24

    Going by previous comments it’s a bit of a lottery whether we get it at all. I am holding off until start of new year to apply for the fee card to maximise status duration. Most cards excluding amex seem to take 10-14 days at the best of times so I think even if you are lucky to get accepted it might be pushing it a bit.

  • Rob says:

    24 Dec24 December 09:40

    It would arrive but if you wanted to make a large payment you would need to speak to their security people in advance. More than £2-3k per transaction starts a panic for us although I knew others find it easier.

    • Genghis says:

      24 Dec24 December 09:59

      I never had any problems with a £7k purchase a few months ago and didn’t contact them in advance

      • aliks says:

        24 Dec24 December 10:33

        The only problems we have with large payments are caused by the Creation website not updating for days – or even weeks. This can make it difficult to work out how much to pay against the monthly statement. Get it wrong and you face a stiff penalty charge.

        The only reliable indicator of payments appears to be the amount of credit remaining.

      • Roger says:

        24 Dec24 December 10:49

        +1
        I have made large (5k+) transaction in one go without any problem.

      • Mr Dee says:

        24 Dec24 December 23:58

        The 2-3k limit seems to be with HMRC payments rather than other purchases in my experience.

        • Rob says:

          25 Dec25 December 12:38

          I got £4k through my wife’s Creation IHG card last night in a test, which was a good sign. Tempted to see if I can requalify her for Spire by 13th January for 2019!

    • Leo says:

      24 Dec24 December 13:44

      I’ve been ok paying tax and VAT. Probably jinxed myself now!

  • the_real_a says:

    24 Dec24 December 13:16

    Expect a low credit limit. I have 4 Creation cards, each with £3-5k limits – about 10% of the limit on my other cards.

    • Rob says:

      24 Dec24 December 16:01

      Odd. My wife got £12k the other week on IHG Premium which is line with her other cards. Still peanuts compared to her City salary but credit limits as % of salary seem to fall away sharply as your earnings rise. No-one was offering me six figure credit limits back in my ‘Partner in a major City firm’ days.

    • mark2 says:

      25 Dec25 December 10:54

      My wife’s new card has a limit of £12,000 and our main income is state pensions.
      I shall immediately reduce it.

  • Nick M says:

    24 Dec24 December 20:23

    Thanks everyone! Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas

• Brighton Belle says:

  24 Dec24 December 08:19

  Mine was quick, about a week but you need to get your application and card done pronto to hit HMRC’s cutofff. For me the card generates the best return for everyday MasterCard spending. I should get Spire status thanks to HMRC spend but that’s only worth a few drinks. I am running out of cards to hit a spend bonus. It seems such a lost opportunity. I completely failed to get the missus into his n hers churning. She thinks I need therapy and would gladly lie on a Gatwick runway to stop CO2 emissions.

  • the real harry1 says:

    24 Dec24 December 08:33

    my wife is also a conscientious objector, she understands that spend should be directed at certain cards but now refuses point blank to get new cards in her name

    • Genghis says:

      24 Dec24 December 08:43

      My wife finds it all quite funny that I can get cards in her name without any interaction from her but Amex insist on speaking to her to cancel.

      • guesswho2000 says:

        24 Dec24 December 09:50

        That’s my only stumbling block, cancelling! The Mrs gets slightly annoyed when I advise her she needs to call yet another bank/card co. to cancel a card she didn’t even know she held! Doesn’t complain when she’s sipping on champagne in bed at 40,000ft though…

        • Rob says:

          24 Dec24 December 16:05

          I cancel my wife’s cards, and indeed my own, by post. She doesn’t even need to sign the letter as they don’t know what her signature is like anyway.

      • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

        24 Dec24 December 09:55

        Your wife can cancel her Amex card by writing to them. No need to pick up the phone.

      • Genghis says:

        24 Dec24 December 10:00

        @andrewseftel I am aware of that but that would cost an extra few quid in fees

      • Delbert says:

        24 Dec24 December 14:20

        I’ve had no problem cancelling my wife’s cards on Amex live chat. They do try to steer me to phoning their agents but I just insist on cancelling there an then.

      • Anna says:

        24 Dec24 December 19:08

        But of a late reply, Ghengis, but in our house “we” cancel by via online chat, no actual speaking takes place…

      • Mr Dee says:

        25 Dec25 December 00:00

        You can cancel via live chat just tell them you don’t want their retention deal.

      • Nicklaus says:

        25 Dec25 December 10:04

        Can the amex main cardholder use the supplementary cards (that are in the name of the spouse?), but linked to the main account?

        Is there an official amex position on this, particularly during the shop small period?

        • Rob says:

          25 Dec25 December 12:34

          ‘Use’ in what sense? As no-one bothers to look at the name on the card these days, due to chip and pin, it doesn’t matter. All the minimum spends on my wife’s cards are done by me, using a card with her name on the front – no-one checks.

      • Nicklaus says:

        25 Dec25 December 21:43

        Thanks for the quick reply Raffles

        My question is whether there are any terms or conditions from Amex barring the main holder from using a supplementary card (in someone’s else’s name. Ie a spouse or parent) that is linked to the main card account?

        • Rob says:

          25 Dec25 December 22:21

          I’m not entirely sure what point you are trying to make? There may well be refund issues if you make a transaction with a card in someone else’s name and the retailer subsequently goes bust and you need to make a claim. There is almost certainly some ‘catch all’ wording in the Amex documentation about ‘ensuring the security of the card’ or whatever that you could argue stops you using a card not in your name. It may even be technically fraud somehow. I doubt anyone has ever spent a second thinking about it though.

          Being old enough to have spent 80% of my adult life with signature strips – which don’t let you spend on your partners card when they are not there – I find chip and pin very handy for this hobby.

      • Genghis says:

        26 Dec26 December 08:38

        The only time I use my wife’s cards are when I’m on the shop small crawl. Never had any issues.

        For general spend, we always get supp cards on application so I can direct spend to where needed as I do most of the ‘procurement’. Bur remember Amex don’t do any name checks on online spend either.

• Dom says:

  24 Dec24 December 08:48

  Isn’t the triple avios Hilton deal running until the end of January?

  • Rob says:

    24 Dec24 December 09:37

    Will check, but rings a bell ….

• Rupert says:

  24 Dec24 December 09:47

  QQ on the Hilton CC – is there anywhere you can fnd out your total spend to date to hit the Gold benefit (£10k).

  I can’t see it online, and the call centre was useless!

  • guesswho2000 says:

    24 Dec24 December 09:52

    You can do it manually by adding it up from your statements :oP

    But in all seriousness, no, unless you can find someone useful at the call centre (easier said than done with Barclaycard, from my experience, unless you’re calling to canx!). The website (hhonorscard.co.uk, before it was properly integrated into “my barclaycard”) used to have a handy counter, I don’t know why they can’t implement it again, we can’t be the only ones who would find it useful!

    • RussellH says:

      24 Dec24 December 12:23

      The probable reason for the non-implementation was, I suspect, that the integration went completely pear-shaped – my words to a Barclaycard CS supervisor, to which she added her agreement. I assume that she had checked that the call was not being recorded before agreeing though, or perhaps she had already given her notice.
      🙂

  • Genghis says:

    24 Dec24 December 09:55

    Adding up cash paid to Barclaycard with a few adjustments at the end for stuff not yet paid for should work. Don’t use the debits and credits balances as refunds are normally treated as separate items rather than a simple reversal

• JamesB says:

  24 Dec24 December 13:59

  OT: Does anybody have the amex platinum upgrade link they could post please?

  • Genghis says:

    24 Dec24 December 14:19

    https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/content/platinum-charge/upgrade/

    • JamesB says:

      24 Dec24 December 14:58

      Thanks from my dad 🙂

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