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Get yourself an 18 carat gold debit card

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The Royal Mint has unveiled the world’s first 18 carat gold payment card, aimed at:

“those who value high quality luxury items that make a statement.”

And, unsurprisingly, it looks quite funky as you can see above (click to enlarge).  You’ll notice that your signature is laser engraved into the front.

Raris Royal Mint gold debit card

It comes with Mastercard World Elite benefits, such as Lounge Key airport lounge access – albeit you can get the same benefits with a £15 per month Curve Metal card.

You can find out more on the Royal Mint website here.  What it doesn’t tell you is that the fee for the card is £18,750.  It is also a debit card, not a credit card, so you won’t earn any points when you use it.

On the upside, there are no foreign exchange fees and, as it is a debit card, anyone can get one ….. well, anyone happy to pay the £18,750 fee.

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earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Category

General

Comments (141)

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

  • M Corrêa says:
    13 Oct13 October 08:35

    Not contactless. Deal breaker for me

  • Jonathan says:
    13 Oct13 October 09:00

    There’s people around who quite happily pay the sky high fees for the Amex Centurion account, and Coutts have a very high threshold before basic banking with them becomes free.

    The world of banking for elite individuals is quite literally limitless

  • Paul says:
    13 Oct13 October 09:00

    O/T has anyone received their replacement Capital On Tap Visa yet? I understood the current Mastercards were meant to stop working at the end of October but I’ve yet to receive a replacement. Maybe their timescales have changed?

    • Czechoslovakia says:
      13 Oct13 October 10:40

      Not got my replacement either, not that I was planning on using it going forward….

  • Benylin says:
    13 Oct13 October 09:25

    OT: NowTV, do they always have the free 7 day trial ongoing? Signed up to it yesterday, doesn’t seem to hard to churn it…

    • N says:
      13 Oct13 October 12:35

      AFAIK you need a different card to churn rather than only a new email

    • Nick_C says:
      13 Oct13 October 13:13

      When you cancel Now TV they will give you a good price to stay with them. I’m currently paying £3.60 a month. Was as low as £2.64 last year. When the deals run out (after six months usually) take a break then start again with a gift card – 2 months for £10 (less 10% with the Morrison’s Amex offer).

  • Frankie says:
    13 Oct13 October 10:08

    General comment/query as BITs.
    Is anyone having trouble using their amex 2 4 1 for reward flights on the BA website? I’ve been trying for a week and keep getting an error message after I have selected my flights and get to the ‘journey summary’ screen. The ‘continue’ button on the bottom right hand side is greyed out, and underneath where it says ‘Total Price’ a message says ‘Sorry there is a problem with booking this journey online. Try selecting other flights’ so I can’t proceed.
    The error doesn’t occur if I try to book the avios flights without redeeming the 2 4 1 voucher. I’m having the same problem in the BA iphone app. I get a message that’s repeated three times saying ‘There was a problem with you request please try again later’
    Any help or guidance great appreciated

    • roberto says:
      13 Oct13 October 10:12

      As all ways, try a different browser, delete cookies and reboot. The site has been awful this week -failing that call up and explain , you should not get charged the off line fee.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        13 Oct13 October 11:10

        Yep sounds like a website issue. Use the phone and insist you won’t be paying any phone fees as website isn’t working if they try charging you it.

        • Kaz says:
          16 Oct16 October 22:42

          Yup, happened to me too – first i thought it was only linked to certain flights but deleting cookies or booking incognito sometimes helps!

  • maccymac says:
    13 Oct13 October 10:40

    OT: I got a good deal flying to Orlando on VA. It’s giving me an option to boost my miles on the flight as previously written about on HfP. I usually fly BA/avios, can I buy the miles and transfer/gift them to my brother who flies Virgin a lot more than I do as don’t really have use for them otherwise? TIA

    • Rob says:
      13 Oct13 October 10:47

      No. You can book a flight for him off your account, but that’s it.

      • maccymac says:
        13 Oct13 October 11:15

        Good to know. Thanks for the advice! Much appreciated.

        • Ronaldo says:
          13 Oct13 October 21:53

          Really? Surely if you can’t gift miles to a family member whats the point of the of the gift\transfer option on the virgin website.
          Surely a non-commercial transfer to a family member is not in the same league as shady companies reselling the miles?

    • TripRep says:
      13 Oct13 October 11:54

      Maccymac – out of interest what’s the details of the MCO deal, cost, which class and when?

  • RussellH says:
    13 Oct13 October 11:20

    As this is bits…

    Friends of mine who used to run a hotel themselves and thought they were aware of all the tricks that people sometimes stay: they had a weekend at an fairly expensive (and until recently well reviewed, but now under new (mis-)management) establishment in the Cotswolds. The breakfast menu stated “Coffee served in a cafetiere”.
    Read it carefully – this was exactly what it was – stale bulk-made filter coffee poured into a cafetiere for serving – and quite disgusting, apparently.

  • The Original Nick says:
    13 Oct13 October 12:02

    There was some talk on Radio 4 this week on taxing FF.

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

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