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

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• Waribai says:

  1 Oct1 October 05:41

  I’ve got the Marriott card. I haven’t seen any extraneous curve charges on it as of yet. Have you?

  • Waribai says:

    1 Oct1 October 06:49

    Ok, not too worried about that at the moment. I thought that would be the scenario for the first year i.e. numerous hiccups. Hence we don’t have SPG ccs at the moment. The Marriott credit card is still working nicely though and is a good earner.
    As long as they don’t start to charge curve cash transaction fees. I got slapped with a nasty one from tesco when trying to pass a marriott creation monthly bill through there using curve. I would complain to customer service but doubt they care!

• Nick says:

  1 Oct1 October 06:10

  Re the IHG Rewards Club Premium Mastercard, can someone please advise if the £10K spend for the annual stay voucher is based on the calendar year, or the 12 months from the date of taking out the card? I assume it’s the latter, but would appreciate confirmation.Thanks!

  • Genghis says:

    1 Oct1 October 06:21

    The latter

    • Nick says:

      1 Oct1 October 16:08

      Cheers for the helpful replies Genghis and others!
      Nick

  • TGLoyalty says:

    1 Oct1 October 08:07

    The card has a very good spend tracker too so you know exactly how much until you hit the target

    • Max says:

      1 Oct1 October 09:25

      Do you get the free night voucher as you hit target or only 12 month after getting the card?

      • Genghis says:

        1 Oct1 October 09:58

        Just after card anniversary.

      • KevMc says:

        1 Oct1 October 10:01

        It will be credited to your IHG account on the generation of your first statement after your anniversary (assuming you have met the spend requirement)

    • Benylin says:

      1 Oct1 October 10:57

      What’s the tactic to get the free night and avoid the 2nd year £99 charge?

      • Genghis says:

        1 Oct1 October 11:03

        There was a HFP article on this. Search the site.

      • KevMc says:

        1 Oct1 October 12:09

        At £99/year for a free night voucher which would be worth £250+, have you considered keeping it?

        I have just received mine for this year, and was going to use it at the IC in London for May Bank holiday weekend, where rooms are currently £400 (for a pre-paid rate!) …I have, however, decided to wait to see if I can use it for the same night in the new Kimpton property when it opens. I suspect, being a Bank Holiday, that it will be similarly priced. £99 well spent in my view.

• BJ says:

  1 Oct1 October 06:33

  An impressive effort this month at making news out of no news 🙂 It’s still a better start to my day than the fake news that seems to dominate our national front pages.

  • Sussex Bantam says:

    1 Oct1 October 09:10

    Lol – this month’s news is that there is no news…

• Anna says:

  1 Oct1 October 06:46

  Does the 0% on FX on Curve include buying foreign currency? I’ve been using it linked to the Lloyds card for this so far but presume Lloyds will start charging for this when their changes are implemented.

  • Waribai says:

    1 Oct1 October 06:53

    Curve will charge you 0% but the rest is up to your credit card provider. I’ve been stung with a £150 bill this month from Tesco for curve spend on financial services

    • Alan says:

      1 Oct1 October 15:31

      Have you tried going Back in Time on all the transactions and asking Tesco to refund the fees? Would probably be worth a go.

      • Waribai says:

        1 Oct1 October 23:27

        I can’t as it’s over £1k!

• Shoestring says:

  1 Oct1 October 06:50

  O/T did anybody get their Virgin Life Ins points yet?
  https://headforpoints.com/2018/06/23/tcs-updated-10000-virgin-flying-club-miles-virgin-money-life-insurance-10-month/

  • Genghis says:

    1 Oct1 October 07:03

    Isn’t it 6 monthly payments and then they post?

    • BJ says:

      1 Oct1 October 07:11

      Yes, 6 months. Not expecting them until January.

    • Shoestring says:

      1 Oct1 October 07:29

      [If you cancel your Policy within the first 12 months, we reserve the right to deduct the Flying Club miles from your Flying Club account.]

      Current T&Cs – was that in the original T&Cs? Anybody get a screenshot?

      • Shoestring says:

        1 Oct1 October 07:31

        Oh! Answering my own question: there was no such clause in the original T&Cs & yes, I *DID* take a screenshot of it.

  • KevMc says:

    1 Oct1 October 10:02

    My 4th DD’s came out for both myself and my wife today, so 2 more payments to go…then I seem to recall it said it would take 60 days from then, so not expecting them until February

    • Scallder says:

      1 Oct1 October 12:05

      Yes T&Cs say within 60 days from 6th monthly payment. Dec 1st is my 6th (although this month was the first one actually taken), so have put a reminder in for 60 days from then!

  • Alan says:

    1 Oct1 October 15:31

    Six months of payments first.

• Brighton Belle says:

  1 Oct1 October 07:37

  My wallet is getting slimmer by the month. With no new card applications I am worried my credit score will peak at unreasonably sensible levels.

• Mike L says:

  1 Oct1 October 07:57

  Am I correct in saying if you cancel the Amex rewards gold charge card just before the anniversary date and take out the Amex gold credit card there is no annual fee for another year ?

  • Tilly71 says:

    1 Oct1 October 08:02

    How about EY lounge at LHR to close soon, surely no smoke without fire!

    • Rob says:

      1 Oct1 October 08:29

      EY is thinking of adding a 4th flight (non A380) so I’d consider that unlikely.

      • FlyUpTop says:

        1 Oct1 October 09:49

        Reported over in FT in its own thread , supposed to have come from a staff member of the lounge and its being taken over by No.1.
        Is that Paris new route? I received an insta msg today on.

  • Shoestring says:

    1 Oct1 October 08:07

    @ Mike L – sure, they are different cards and the membership is not seen by Amex as continuous.

    But don’t be afraid of keeping the Amex charge card long enough to bank the £15K spend bonus (10,000 MR points) – you’ll only end up paying about £17 or so fee, making very cheap points – fee is refunded pro rata)

    • TGLoyalty says:

      1 Oct1 October 08:11

      Plus if you can hit the spend target quickly why not upgrade to platinum first 20k points for £40 or so. At the same time if you can refer yourself for an SPG card or even just a platinum cash back card you can bank another 18K

      • Shoestring says:

        1 Oct1 October 08:16

        Yep with Plat you can make 5 referrals @ 18K a pop, so the £450 fee suddenly becomes perfectly accetable plus you get free lounge pass entry x2 + guest = 4

      • AndyF says:

        1 Oct1 October 12:23

        If you hit the 15k spend target and still have another 6 months until renewal. If you upgrade to the platinum, does the 10k renewal bonus points hit as soon as you upgrade (as long as you hit the spend threshold of course)?

        Or do you upgrade to get the platinum get the upgrade bonus points and then downgrade back to the gold and wait the year out? for the 10k points renewal bonus?
        Thanks

  • TGLoyalty says:

    1 Oct1 October 08:09

    Yep no annual fee as two different products. Wait 6 months to trigger the sign up bonus though

    • Rob says:

      1 Oct1 October 08:29

      …. only if you want to empty your MR account. If your bigger concern is keeping your points unconverted inside MR then what you propose makes sense. Anika did this recently.

      • BJ says:

        1 Oct1 October 12:18

        An even bigger concern is keeping ones OH on-board to maximise churn/referral strategies.

      • Moose says:

        1 Oct1 October 12:19

        If one were to start tomorrow with a clean slate, what would be recommended card strategy? I can squeeze about £2.5k spend per month on an AMEX. Don’t travel too much at the mo as kids are small, so not sure AMEX Plat or BA Plat advantages (Priority Pass, 241 voucher etc) make sense, just looking to build up points. Thx

        • Rob says:

          1 Oct1 October 12:24

          If you’re not doing much, I’d start with a free Amex Gold. Refer your wife at some point, then cancel yours, then wait 6 months to reapply, then cancel hers etc. You’ll never pay and you’ll rack up points quickly.

          Perhaps slot in the odd Starwood sign-up bonus or even BA PP Amex bonus (you can cancel for pro-rata fee refunds later) when you have enough unallocated spend.

      • Genghis says:

        1 Oct1 October 12:29

        @Moose Plat and BAPP can be useful for building up points quickly with sign up bonuses and referrals from Plat.

      • Moose says:

        1 Oct1 October 12:45

        Thanks Rob / Genghis. As the wife and I cancel & churn a Gold AMEX for example, in the 6 months down time before we reapply for our own cards do we each need to make ourselves a supplementary card so that we have 2 cards and can both be spending at the same time? Or will we only have 1 main card at a time?

    • Mark says:

      1 Oct1 October 13:10

      @Moose the 6 month limit is for the card in your name only, supp cards dont count. The wife and I have one active card at any time with a supp card on that account to help reach the target. Over the course of a year we have been churning 2 amex plats and an SPG card each with sign up bonuses and referrals for both. We don’t normally churn the BA card but keep a blue one open throughout the year to use between churning on other cards and when we hit the £10k spend for the 241 we upgrade, trigger the voucher and downgrade again.

      • Moose says:

        1 Oct1 October 23:05

        Thanks Mark!

• Crafty says:

  1 Oct1 October 08:38

  I would highly recommend NOT using Curve for the purpose that this website promotes: “You can now use Curve Card to turn ANY Visa or Mastercard into a 0% FX fees card, and you still receive miles and points from that card. Simply pay with Curve, which will recharge the transaction in £ as a purchase to any linked Visa or Mastercard.”

  I did so, following the instructions of this website, to settle several restaurant bills in Spain last week. Now on checking my Creation statement I have been charged, on each occasion, a supplementary £5.00 (!) identified as “Travelex”. So the purported “0% FX fees” appears to be a nonsense.

  I have queried the transactions with Creation and if no suitable response is forthcoming will make a complaint to Curve.

  I am very disappointed that HFP gave inaccurate advice and I have lost out from it.

  • Howard says:

    1 Oct1 October 08:44

    I think you will find that Rob gave a Curve warning about using the Curve card based on the new terms and conditions.

    My Curve card is linked to a Virgin Card and no issues in Spain or Gibraltar last week.

    • Genghis says:

      1 Oct1 October 10:02

      There was no warning about using Curve for purchases.

      • Rob says:

        1 Oct1 October 11:20

        If you’ve got a problem with a PURCHASE then take it up with Curve, because that should never be an issue. That’s the whole point of Curve after all.

        You may, as someone noted, have set the app wrongly and told Curve that Creation is a Euro card. That would account for it.

      • Lynx says:

        1 Oct1 October 11:42

        If I remember correctly, the 2.99% currency conversion charge is rolled into the same line as the base charge. Even if it’s shown separately, it seems highly unlikely that each bill would be exactly the correct amount to give a £5 charge (2.99% doesn’t tend to give you nice round numbers very often).
        Therefore, it seems this must be a cash handling fee (which is the greater of £5 or 3%). In that case, I can only think of 2 scenarios:
        1. The restaurant(s) or Curve have incorrectly coded the transaction as a cash advance. I can’t imagine Curve would be doing that, and it seems unlikely that the restaurant(s) would do so, but I guess it’s possible.
        2. The OP used Curve to withdraw cash to then pay the bill.

      • Crafty says:

        1 Oct1 October 15:53

        I will go to Curve then. As below, I have not been withdrawing cash nor have I set the underlying currency incorrectly.

        Given the recent feedback about their terrible customer service, I am not holding my breath!

  • Max says:

    1 Oct1 October 09:21

    So looks like avoid using Curve with Creation and Tesco cards!

    Seems like Rob needs to do a follow up article.

    There is someone from Curve that reads these replies – it would be nice given the amount of free publicity that they get that they would respond directly.

    Curve is looking very dodgy right now.

    • Crafty says:

      1 Oct1 October 09:44

      If Curve->Creation is not an option for HMRC, what’s next best? Does Tesco debit card to HMRC earn points?

      • Jonathan says:

        1 Oct1 October 15:04

        I paid my PAYE last week on an IHG card absolutely fine. Why do you say it’s not an option?

        • Rob says:

          1 Oct1 October 15:29

          People have been trying large sums, seeing it fail and then claiming it is ‘dead’. It isn’t. It just appears to be restricted to the daily cash advance limit on your underlying card.

    • Rob says:

      1 Oct1 October 11:21

      Creation is fine. I have done ATM withdrawals on my Marriott card and no fees are showing.

      • FlyingChris says:

        1 Oct1 October 18:29

        So with Curve & Creation paying HMRC (and the like) is limited to the cash advance limits (e.g. £300) but not the cash fees?

  • Chris says:

    1 Oct1 October 09:51

    Well first off Rob doesn’t run Curve so what he writes, as an outsider, is his understanding. He didn’t set out to mislead you and I wouldn’t have called what you have quoted ‘advice’ in any case.

    The Curve piece did rather whiff of advertorial, which is why I think there’s a spotlight on the information it contained especially if people are losing out financially as a result. But let’s not suggest that what Rob wrote was done in anything less then good faith because I think we all agree he’s a good guy and won’t have set out to mislead anyone.

    On another point it actually seems it’s Creation who are the common denominator in all this (ignoring Tesco which is rubbish anyway) – maybe just stop using Creation along with Curve?

    • Genghis says:

      1 Oct1 October 10:04

      I think Rob is a bit more than an outsider given he says how close he is to the CEO and has 1-2-1s with him.

      • Rob says:

        1 Oct1 October 11:19

        But you can the same about pretty much every UK based loyalty programme where I know the CEO and senior staff …

    • dishonest john says:

      1 Oct1 October 11:00

      I though creation was still working ok for withdrawing cash.

      It’s known that Tesco were the ones who were hot on shutting down this Curve with charges ages, although they seem to have relented a little they are the ones to avoid. The best deal was the fee IHG card as 2 points per pound and free night voucher, this is what everyone jumped on

  • KevMc says:

    1 Oct1 October 10:05

    Sounds like you may have/had the underlying card currency set to EUR instead of GBP?

    • Crafty says:

      1 Oct1 October 15:51

      No.

  • the_real_a says:

    1 Oct1 October 13:57

    £5 fee on creation is for “Cash Withdrawals” – are you sure these charges do not relate to ATM`s? Even with the currency set incorrectly in the app, its seems implausible it could cause this charge.

    • the_real_a says:

      1 Oct1 October 14:10

      Actually 3% with minimum charge of £5

    • Crafty says:

      1 Oct1 October 15:51

      Yes, I’m sure. I didn’t use ATMs, I used the card to pay restaurant bills.

  • Mans says:

    1 Oct1 October 17:32

    Well was it robs fault or yours?

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