Review: MBNA’s Horizon Visa credit card – the UK’s best credit card for travelling

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• Mike says:

  31 May31 May 05:54

  Any reason why you can’t make a faster payment to your credit card as soon as you take money out of a foreign cash machine?
  I vaguely remember new rules whereby the most expensive debt is cleared first, and thus would this avoid any interest?

  • Nick Burch says:

    31 May31 May 06:01

    That won’t work if you’re also spending on the card. The most expensive debt is cleared first, not pending debt which will become expensive….

    If you’re only taking cash out, paying immediately will work fine. If you’re also spending, you’ll need to wait 2-3 days for the cash transaction to come through and stop being pending, then send it. (Timeline based on what I see with my Halifax Clarity)

  • the real harry1 says:

    31 May31 May 06:03

    No reason whatsoever – this is the way to avoid all fees/ charges on Halifax Clarity when you withdraw cash @ ATM abroad. You can even pre-fund the a/c by a day or so though strictly speaking this is against the T&Cs.

    Having said that, my wife took out £250 or so here (place in the sun) before Easter, behind my back so I didn’t get to know about it (or forgot, in possible truth 🙂 ) until the statement dropped on the floor when we got back – the interest was only a couple of quid so nothing to worry about.

    • the real harry1 says:

      31 May31 May 06:23

      https://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/clarity-card/

      Halifax are giving you £20 to take out a Clarity card (free card, perfect exchange rate & fee-free ATM withdrawals abroad being the key benefits).

      • RussellH says:

        31 May31 May 11:20

        The £20 seems to take a long time to come through, but it still paid for decent sized cocktails for 4 at the roof-top bar of El Corte Inglès in Madrid, which I class as a win.

    • MDA says:

      31 May31 May 06:28

      Funding your account takes a few days to reflect so it shouldnt make a difference if you know your going to withdraw the next day

      • Genghis says:

        31 May31 May 07:58

        I find the easiest way is to make the withdrawal and then make a payment to true up difference between available credit and credit limit. Then once posts, make another payment of a few pence etc or be in credit. Not done it for ages though as prefer Starling these days for ATM use.

  • Craig says:

    31 May31 May 10:13

    This was the reason I took out a Tandem card, I only use it for ATM withdrawals and fund the card immediately. I ended up with a balance of 36p the other month because of fluctuating exchange rates. As and when MBNA release this to the masses I might be tempted to change.

  • The_real_a says:

    31 May31 May 12:43

    I always put the card in credit before i leave on a trip. No interest accrues whatsoever. Despite many people claiming issues, ive done this for 20 years on most card providers and never had an issue. TECHINCALY you not covered for s75 in this case so buyer beware.

• ChrisC says:

  31 May31 May 05:56

  I think it would be worth me having this card.

  Yes I was wedded to the Virgin MBNA Amex for the VS miles but my travel and spend patterns have changed and I’m about to cash in my miles on a redemption that will clear out my account and the miles I earn in the last couple of months until it closes will just sit their until I earn through flying.

  No foreign exchange fees is a good benefit and will make booking ex-EU even more economic.

  I await my ‘please stay’ offer letter with eager anticipation!

  • ChrisC says:

    31 May31 May 06:00

    Assuming of course that they extend this to holders of the VS Amex

    • Alan says:

      31 May31 May 14:41

      They have – just about to make a post on that front!

• Daniel says:

  31 May31 May 06:06

  Tandem have been pretty generous with their limits, I received 5 figures when I applied no questions asked.

  • the real harry1 says:

    31 May31 May 06:10

    SPG gave my wife & me (separate cards) ludicrously high credit limits on our latest cards 🙂

    I’d probably get those limits reduced if I planned on us being long-term keepers.

• Jamie says:

  31 May31 May 06:30

  Rob, if as you have previously predicted, the Lloyds Avios card is closed down, MBNA may find it can change the benefits of the Horizon card to make it profitable. Could that be why they’re encouraging card holders to stay…cheaper to retain now than win over later.

• PGW says:

  31 May31 May 06:34

  I’ve had the letter about my AAdvantage card closing on 28 July and becoming the Horizon card. I was actually about to close the AA card in advance of the change but I see more reasons to keep it than to close it now the new card details have been published. As I see it I have nothing to lose by doing so.

• callum says:

  31 May31 May 06:57

  While the “up to” 0.5% is often mentioned almost as an aside in the Tesco reviews (and now here), with my pattern of spending it will make quite a bit difference. I make frequent, small purchases and so many transactions would get 0% and many would get close to 0.25%. Definitely well worth it for the bigger purchases though – and MUCH better than the Tesco equivalent of 1 point per £8.

• xmenlongshot says:

  31 May31 May 06:58

  Rob, would be interesting to get your view on the Horizon card vs the Lloyds Amex (as long as that one exists)

  • Doug M says:

    31 May31 May 07:20

    Possible difference in exchange rates too minimal to calculate. £24 Lloyds fee, against 1.25 miles per £ on Amex, and 0.5p on Horizon. So each £ on Amex is .75p to the good over Horizon assuming Avios 1p valuation. Therefore you need to spend at least £3,200/year on Amex to be ahead. Probably less as the £2 chunks on the Horizon will reduce the .5% cash back, especially if you make multiply small transactions rather than fewer big ones. You also need to consider if you like cash or Avios more.

    • the real harry1 says:

      31 May31 May 07:32

      Won’t most people take 2-4-1 or flight upgrade into account when comparing? That surely being the major motivation for using the Lloyds card?

      Ongoing spend benefits vs spend benefits is the least important thing to compare, methinks 🙂

      • Doug M says:

        31 May31 May 07:42

        241 is a BA Amex thing, entirely different. How do you value a Lloyds upgrade voucher? I just did the sums on the question asked, I think the obvious comparison thing in these card is the 0% exchange fee of foreign transactions. Personal opinion is Lloyds Amex all day, upgrade voucher for more value to me. Also in terms of just ‘feel good’ a pot of Avios to do something with is much better than £2 or £3 a month in cash back. But if you don’t spend £7K a year to get the voucher, don’t want/use the voucher, spend less than £3K year, then Horizon probably make more sense.

      • callum says:

        31 May31 May 07:57

        My average saving with the Lloyds upgrade voucher has been 78,000 Avios. While I don’t strictly value business class redemptions at 1p per Avios as I generally fly discount economy, those redemptions were such good value I’d happily value the voucher at £780 in those cases!

      • the real harry1 says:

        31 May31 May 07:58

        My blooper 2-4-1!

        Yep, pointlessness for me of going for the upgrade voucher (RFS Europe only flights for us) rules out Lloyds, can’t see the point in paying £24, spending £7000, yes getting a few points – when all I’d be doing is getting lounge access and a couple of drinks on board etc when I prefer an exit seat anyway 🙂

        They did run a decent promotion some 10 years ago that gave us a free return flight (via avios.com) to the place in the sun for taking out a card, which I used. Then I saw that was a one-off with no repeats allowed so cancelled.

      • Doug M says:

        31 May31 May 12:18

        No sweat on the 241, usually it’s me confusing things. I used a Lloyds voucher on an RFS flight, saved 9,000 Avios, but still better than it expiring. The old CE vs ET debate can run all day, I’m not wedded to either, agree exit rows pretty nice and mostly available as a Gold. CE for me is mostly if I have, or think I might have, 2 checked bags repositioning at the end of an Ex-EU, which as a Gold I think I might have anyway, I’m usually confused and cautious.
        The thing with all these vouchers is they’re restrictive in what you can get, as you’d expect I suppose. But a LH redemption paying £500+ in fees still seems bad value to me compared to getting a great £1K revenue fare, earning some Avios, and getting the TP to keep status for the cheapo ET flights around Europe. Obviously you need to mix and match all the sources of payment to your circumstances.

    • lev441 says:

      31 May31 May 13:41

      Best value using the upgrade voucher on routes that use the exBMI a321’s – Last flight I booked I saved myself 50,000 avios which was pretty great.

• will says:

  31 May31 May 07:42

  “Some people are being offered a cash incentive to retain this card until October!”

  This seems like an unnecessary bonus! We get £55 for doing nothing? That was based off being a frequent user of the new AA card. Doubt my other 11 MBNA airline cards will prove so generous but fingers crossed!!

  • lev441 says:

    31 May31 May 13:43

    Unfortunately i didn’t get this extra bonus – maybe my £120,000k annual spend in 2017 lost them money!

    • Rob says:

      31 May31 May 14:09

      Obviously it did, given they got max £360 in interchange and bought you over 100k miles …..

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