Good British Airways credit cards launch in Europe – why aren’t fintech firms entering the UK?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Mike says:

  10 Dec10 December 07:24

  Will the 0.3% interchange fee cap remain for the UK post BREXIT ?

  • Andrew says:

    10 Dec10 December 07:34

    Yes. All EU law is being written into UK law and we’ll have more important things to worry about after leaving than changing this. That’s before you even get into the fact that the UK was the main proponent of the cap in the first place.

• Mark says:

  10 Dec10 December 07:26

  One thing I have been thinking about is my wife is due to set up her own Ltd company. She will pay quite a lot on disbursements and I was wondering if this has to be done via a “company” credit card or if she can use her own (i.e. linked to miles – advance payment by the client first of course! 🙂 ). Is there an article on optermising mileage for small businesses e.g. on-business, VAT? Tax? etc. ? I know I have read snippets over the years, but I don’t think there is one article on this topic

  • Ian M says:

    10 Dec10 December 07:43

    I use personal credit cards for my Ltd company spend. It’s not a problem. I keep them separate them. I don’t make personal spend on the cards I use for the company.

  • Rob says:

    10 Dec10 December 08:19

    In theory it is a directors loan. What I recommend is that, on the accounting year end date, there is no money due from the company to her. This means you don’t need all the accounting notes.

• Thywillbedone says:

  10 Dec10 December 07:27

  O/T:
  Anyone know how long it is taking IHG/Creation to approve new applications for the Premium card? I have sometimes had address matching issues on applications and have called a couple of times to check on progress (applied over a week ago) – but the customer service people I speak to can’t get through to the underwriting teams to check on why my application has been referred for “further checks”. I know they allow themselves 10 days to process an application with decision in the post. I gather Creation customer service is very weak to begin with.

  • Lumma says:

    10 Dec10 December 20:51

    It’s been a while since I opened my card with them but I seem to remember getting a few texts from them about my application before I heard anything by post or email (random stuff like “your new pin is on its way”), so no news could be bad news if you gave them a mobile number

• Yawn says:

  10 Dec10 December 07:41

  If the Italians can have a BA card, why can’t we have an Air France/KLM one? 🙁 I reckon many more (regional) Brits use KLM than Italians use BA!

• Sam says:

  10 Dec10 December 07:54

  Is anyone more intrigued by the 10% discount on all BA flights? For many on this forum, myself included, it would make sense to pay to have the card…. just for this!

  • Rhys says:

    10 Dec10 December 09:34

    I was just thinking this. It really depends on whether that 10% applies to the full ticket price (including taxes and fees) or just the actual “fare” which is often less than 30% of what you pay. Will see if Rob knows…

    • Stu N says:

      10 Dec10 December 09:55

      When RBS travel service did 10% off, it was the fare component only that was discounted. You’d save maybe a fiver on a £150 economy return as the fare component was so small.

      You had to phone to book which was a hassle, having a travel agent in there was a hassle for changes and you were also giving up the 3 Avios/ £ you’d have got for paying with BA Amex as you had to pay with an RBS product.

      So in reality, not a great perk.

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  10 Dec10 December 07:57

  “The only block to launching credit cards is the capital for your loan book, which lenders appear to be very nervous of providing to start-ups”

  This is, as you go on to say, a pretty big barrier to entry.

  • Rob says:

    10 Dec10 December 08:17

    In a world where your pension fund is buying bonds with NEGATIVE yields (eg buying bonds which return less than par at maturity but are 100% secure) it shouldn’t be.

    Any of us involved in the City know that there is money for virtually anything these days if you can guve a return better than zero.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      10 Dec10 December 08:59

      Rob, like you I too worked in the city (although I was a Derivatives Trader) but I find your statement superficial.

      First, a negative yield does not mean that the bond fails to pay par at maturity although at maturity your return may be less depending upon price paid and yield earned. I’d also question the 100% secure comment.

      Second, to pick up on your example, a lot of pension funds are restricted in what they can hold. This is why subprime, when the took the junk and got it rated in tranches (again) including Investment Grade, went through the roof because all of a sudden people who couldn’t buy junk now could. They got their yield uplift, bonuses, and the rest as they say is history.

      If you truly believe your comment then the article should be adjusted to read that the only block to launching…. is easily surmountable because there is money for anything yielding 0.01% these days. If you can then tap your contacts and get a loan book ready to go then it’s time to stop HfP and start earning serious money with a hell of a good multiple upon sale. I seem to recall that ao.com (£568mm market cap) was started as a bet. Perhaps this is just the incentive you need.

      • Rob says:

        10 Dec10 December 09:09

        The founder of this niche card business I am talking to has the same background as me (private equity). I don’t need the grief at 48 though and I’m not really so bothered about the money at this point either.

        The article is correct because I know how long it took this company to get a 3-digit revolving loan book. It shouldn’t be that hard though.

• James says:

  10 Dec10 December 08:18

  My folks have a house in France and French bank accounts but are not French citizens and are resident in the UK. Are they able to get these French credit cards ? The info in the French Plat Amex also made me wonder.

  If I opened a French bank account linked to that address would I be able to also ?
  Not sure I want to, just exploring options !

  Oh, and if you already have the UK versions would that prevent you from getting the foreign versions ? Or the sign up bonus from them ?

  • Nick Burch says:

    10 Dec10 December 09:31

    Have you ever tried getting a French bank account? It’s not easy even if you actually live there…

    Plan on several appointments, near fluent French, bringing a “dossier” of documents, coming back with extra ones they hadn’t mentioned you’d need, and needing to “pop into your branch” fairly often in the first few months to get letters, cards, login codes etc

    • Andy says:

      10 Dec10 December 10:59

      Makes the level of bureaucracy in China look like a system of efficiency

    • RussellH says:

      10 Dec10 December 16:56

      Have the French increased their banking formalities recently?

      I used to have a French bank account, opened before 1990s, so in Francs, not Euro.

      At the time, The Royal Bank of Scotland had arrangements with banks in half a dozen mailnland European countries offering instantaneous cash transfers between a/cs and support in openinmg accounts with their scheme partners. I had already opened accounts in Germany + Belgium, just by walking in off the street. My contact person in my local Royal Bank branch did tell me that that was typically fine in Belgium, but she would definitely have advised against my trying the same in France, so I let them do it. The a/c was with CCF, subsequently taken over by HSBC. I never had any real problems with the a/c, Carte Bleu appeared in the post, the only identity document required was a passport.
      Other things such as login codes, a hardware token for internet banking etc all arrived by post, just as in the UK.
      I closed the account in 2011, I think, as the cost of running it became too high, plus it was by then as straightforward to pay business partners in France from either Belgium or Germany as it was using a local a/c.
      I do speak passable French now (it was much worse back then, though). I dealt with the Belgian bank in German, having deliberately chosen one in a small town in the Ostkantone (the mainly German-speaking part of Liège province).

  • Adam says:

    10 Dec10 December 09:31

    I can only answer for the Vueling cards (Which I worked on) You are able to get them as long as you have a French Bank Account. There is no requirement to be French or to live in the country a certain amount of time. There will also be no issue if you have the BA Amex as that is by Amex and the Italian and French cards are with Credit Agricole.

    • Shoestring says:

      10 Dec10 December 10:17

      Yep I used to have a French current a/c with Credit Agricole when I worked there for a year. I don’t remember it being that difficult to set up (it was a while back!) – was it just my carte de sejour & proof of address?

      • Polly says:

        10 Dec10 December 14:46

        Years ago, l had a BNP account when working on in Paris…wasn’t a hassle then, 30 yrs plus ago!
        Finally started shop small, and got £50 COOK gift vouchers, owner was quite scathing then l put my 5 cards through, she said “it’s even nicer here when you only pay half price for your food” . Said she had people coming from all over to buy them..many cook shops are not participating…as individually owned l think. Still, it’s a bargain…

• Londoner says:

  10 Dec10 December 08:20

  Denmark has a mastercard with an annual fee of £ 35, currently 9.000 in sign up bonus and 15 Avios per £ 12 on general spend, 20 per £ 12 on BA.
  It even comes with travel insurance and the fee is half in the first year.

  Quite impressive too.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.