What are the best credit card deals for February 2018? – plus a news round-up

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• Louie says:

  6 Feb6 February 10:04

  Does anyone know if there is any bonus at the moment for applying for a first supplementary card on the basic BA Amex? I think I’ve only seen reference to bonuses on supp cards on the BAPP, Plat and Gold cards.

• Jeremy says:

  6 Feb6 February 10:06

  What do we think the chances of the Gold to Platinum upgrade offer being increased are? I’m sitting on the Gold with a few months to go until the 10k bonus for £15k spend triggers, wondering whether to upgrade to Platinum now and forgo the 10k bonus (and probablycancel the Platinum in the not too distant future to get some annual fee back), or to wait for the 10k and then upgrade.

  • Genghis says:

    6 Feb6 February 16:01

    It’s more likely to disappear than increase IMO

  • Leo says:

    6 Feb6 February 19:35

    I agree with Genghis. Last year I waited for the 10K bonus and in the intervening 4 weeks they pulled the Platinum upgrade offer. It came back in a month or so but by then I had cancelled the Gold not knowing if the Plat offer would indeed return. Be warned. Some you win etc….

    • Jonny says:

      7 Feb7 February 06:55

      If you email them when the offer disappears they should still honour it. They did for me last year.

• Jeff says:

  6 Feb6 February 10:21

  I am in my 2nd year of Golf Pref.. I want to cancel and rejoin after 6m, but worried the sign up bonus wont be there anymore… also I will lose my GOLD offers and 2x/3x points via partners/travel sub-site

  What are my options to keep raising points? Can I take the Amex Gold Credit Card for 10k points? Can I take the Classic Card for 10k points?

  The main thing I would look for in the new card, is offers such as £50 off £200 travel or AMEX specific offers, anyone in the same spot?

  • Rob says:

    6 Feb6 February 10:52

    Try https://headforpoints.com/2017/10/17/american-express-rewards-credit-card-review/

  • Cate says:

    6 Feb6 February 18:52

    I have the basic one but rarely use it anymore to tell the truth. I do get complimented on it though. Offers seem to be the same so far.

    Keep in mind that MR points don’t pool. You need to speak to Amex who will link your current MR points to your new MR earning card if you are thinking of getting one of these cards.

• JP says:

  6 Feb6 February 10:35

  I should likes rejoining again after 6 months is going to be unlikely. However, you might as well get the Gold credit for 5000 and do the upgrade to Platinum for 20K for £1K spend first. Then use the Platinum to refer to another card(s) to get another 18K MR a time.

  • Polly says:

    6 Feb6 February 14:06

    That’s what I’m planning with my gold now, in a couple of months. But might speed it up just in case…have hit my 241 voucher this week so might cancel, but refer oh for his new bapp. He won’t get the spend bonus as not 6/12 since he cancelled. but l will get the 18k so it all helps.

• BlueHorizonUK says:

  6 Feb6 February 10:45

  Does anyone else find it annoying that Amex seem to treat this card with indifference compared to the US and even the Gold card?

  Forgetting about the signup bonus on the US cards but they get 5x for Airline spending and 5x for Amex Travel. Also $15 per month in Uber credit and best of all no Foreign Transaction Fees!!

  The UK card is quite pathetic in comparison. Even the UK Gold card is better in that you get 2x for Airline and Foreign Spend (but no fee free) and 3x for Amex Travel spend.

  Hope they are planning to fix this as it seems quite odd that the Gold has better earning than the Platinum.

  • BlueHorizonUK says:

    6 Feb6 February 10:46

    Apologies, this rant was about the Amex Platinum

  • Kiran says:

    6 Feb6 February 13:29

    No FX fee on US cards is common simply because so few Americans will ever put foreign spend on them. Completely different case in Europe as we visit far more foreign countries.

• Max says:

  6 Feb6 February 11:47

  Would you still consider the 99 quid fee worth paying for the IHG Premium card given the recent devaluations? I’m fed up with the way IHG have approached this tbh–they could have given at least a bit of advance notice… What’s your new valuation then of an IHG point?

  • Genghis says:

    6 Feb6 February 16:03

    I think so yes. My wife and I still have the cards. I’d say 0.4p

    • Rob says:

      6 Feb6 February 16:23

      Agreed. I generally worked in a 0.4p-0.5p range but now firmly at 0.4p. If you can spend the £10k then IHG Premium is still the best deal you’ll find, as long as you are travelling somewhere expensive to redeem the free night voucher.

    • Leo says:

      6 Feb6 February 19:26

      I was getting bored with Intercontinentals and the 70K hike was annoying I agree but then we finally got access to the Kimptons! If you want to go to the US there are now some much more interesting hotels to look at. I know you weren’t that keen on the Amsterdam one Rob but there are some good looking options in the States.

• Daniel says:

  6 Feb6 February 12:14

  I am seeing an offer on my Amex Gold account page to ‘upgrade to Platinum’ and earn 20,000 MR points.

  I don’t recall seeing or hearing about this before. Is it standard or a limited offer that i should jump on?

  • S says:

    6 Feb6 February 12:17

    It comes and goes.

  • Grimz says:

    6 Feb6 February 12:29

    Get on it 20k points for 1k spend! 18k referrals once you have card

    • Daniel says:

      6 Feb6 February 13:02

      Do they automatically cancel and refund the Gold card fee if i ‘upgrade’ like this, or is it treated as an additional card?

      • Alan says:

        6 Feb6 February 13:52

        I believe that it gets credited against the higher Platinum card fee

      • Sue says:

        6 Feb6 February 21:45

        Yes i did this recently. The gold fee was refunded pro rata and then couple weeks later the £450 was billed

• Jon says:

  6 Feb6 February 12:16

  Just looking at this afresh as I have a monthly employer’s HMRC payment that could go potentially go through Curve Debit Card for a significant spend (not to mention cashflow advantages). Anyone else had any luck with this? Do you think Curve would have any problem with doing this provided transaction limit is high enough?

  If this does work then I guess I’d want to use a long-term credit card dedicated for this purpose rather than churn (gotta pay the taxman on time every time and makes the accounting easy!). What would be the best suggestion for this? Would be around 4k/month spend.

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