What are the best credit card sign-up deals for December 2019? – plus your news round-up

UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

Keep up to date with the latest UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

It is time for our regular round up of what is coming and what is going in the world of UK airline and hotel credit card sign-up deals.

Our directory of the 16 main UK travel credit and charge cards can be found by clicking the ‘Credit Cards’ tab at the top of the site or – for email, Flipboard, Apple News or mobile readers – by clicking here.

What was new in November?

Is HSBC Premier launching a 25% conversion bonus to Avios?

We may be about to see a new transfer bonus between HSBC Premier credit cards and British Airways Executive Club.

A HFP reader, ZW, found a PDF on the HSBC website.  It shows a 25% bonus on transfers made between 1st December and 31st December.  No readers reported seeing this on the HSBC website so far, however, so hold your horses until we are sure it is live.

American Express launched a new co-brand cashback card with health and life insurer Vitality

This was definitely the surprise of the month, since I had assumed that the EU interchange fee caps made new American Express co-brand cards unprofitable.  Amex is in discussions about how they should be regulated – given that Amex does not have ‘interchange’ due to its vertical integration – but there is no breakthrough so far.

And yet …. here we are.  Amex and Vitality have launched a new co-brand card.  The package is the same as the existing American Express cashback card BUT you will receive extra cashback on top from Vitality.  If you are a Vitality member then this card is very attractive.

You can find out more about the American Express Vitality credit card in our article here.

Curve Card to add a 1.5% fee to HMRC payments from 24th January

The big news last month, at least for HFP readers, was the decision by Curve Card to add a 1.5% fee for HMRC payments from 24th January.

(It has not been a good month for Curve, with this announcement being bungled and some very critical press comment appearing.)

Curve Card still has value if you make very large HMRC payments, however.  There will be no fees to Curve Metal cardholders, and the £150 annual fee is a small price to pay if you use your entire £50,000 Curve Card annual limit – which is what most people get – to make HMRC payments.  You can recharge this to a miles and points Visa or Mastercard, generating for example 75,000 free Virgin Flying Club miles via the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard.

You can read more about the Curve Card changes here.

Amex Business Platinum dropped its temporary 60,000 points refer-a-friend sign-up bonus

This was the most generous credit card sign-up bonus of the year – and, to be fair, it still is given that the standard bonus is 45,000 Membership Rewards points if you are referred.   You were paying a £595 annual fee, however, albeit with a pro-rata refund.

It is substantially easier to qualify for the sign-up bonus on the Platinum Business card than the personal Platinum card.  To get the bonus Membership Rewards points on signing up, you only need to have gone SIX MONTHS without any American Express card which earns Membership Rewards points.  The personal Platinum card now requires you to wait 24 months.

Full details of the card are in our Amex Business Platinum review here, although the bonus is now back at 45,000 points for a referral.

Free Avios if you live in Ireland

If you live in Ireland, you can earn 250 free Avios by linking any Visa card to your SuperValu Real Rewards account.

You will also earn double Avios on all future SuperValu shopping.  Full details are in this article.

Capital On Tap Avios-earning SME cards switched to Visa – and secretly improved

The Capital Club and On Tap Club cards, from Capital on Tap, aimed at small businesses and sole traders, are the first non-Amex payment for small businesses which let you earn Avios.  Whilst you may not have heard of Capital On Tap, it already has 50,000 customers for its existing ‘no rewards’ payment card.

The switch to a Visa credit card format has now happened.  All new applicants are receiving a Visa card.  Existing cardholders will receive one over the next few weeks.

There are two bits of Capital On Tap news I haven’t covered yet but will expand on in a few days:

The cards definitely work with Curve Card.  This means that you can link your Capital On Tap Visa card to Curve Card (read about Curve Card here) and use it to pay HMRC.  HMRC payments are free until 24th January for existing Curve Card holders.

Capital On Tap is combining its two card variants into one, with the best benefits of both.  The fee will be £99 and the cards will earn 1 Avios per £1.  This change has already happened but the company has not updated its website yet.  As soon as this happens, we will do a full article.

Capital on Tap has a special higher sign-up bonus for HFP readers which you can read about here.  I would delay your application until the new website is live however.  At the moment it advertises two Avios cards but you will receive the new hydrid which is better than both of the current offerings.

American Express still has a 30,000 point bonus on the DOLLAR / EURO versions of the Platinum card

Amex is running a sign-up bonus on its Dollar and Euro Platinum charge cards – 30,000 Membership Rewards points to be precise.

The good news is that you can get this bonus even if you already have a UK Platinum or Gold card.  The bad news is that this is a complicated product with poorer transfer rates to most airline schemes than the UK cards.  I wrote about the pros, cons and sweet spots in this article.

The Lufthansa payment card is giving away 1 million Miles & More miles

To promote the Lufthansa Miles & More payment cards (which I rate highly – you get 10,000 miles as a sign-up bonus until 31st December and 1.25 miles per £1 spent, see my review here), Affiniture is giving away 1 million Miles & More miles.

To be more precise, it is giving away 14 prizes of 75,000 Miles & More miles, which I’d value at £750+.  Lufthansa’s fabled First Class could be within your grasp ….. at least one-way.

Everyone who applies for the Miles & More payment cards before 31st December will be entered into the competition.  However, to comply with UK law, you can also enter without applying for the card.

Visit this page of the cards website and enter.  You must be an existing Miles & More member and you must be a UK resident.  The competition closes on 31st December.  Good luck.

Finally, whilst not directly related to miles and points, Head for Points is running an exclusive sign-up offer with Revolut.  Sign up via our link here and you do not have to pay the £4.99 delivery fee for the plastic card.  Read our full article first.

If you have your own small business, we also reviewed Revolut for Business – click here for details.  You can sign up here.

Further reading ….

During November, we updated our full series of UK credit and charge card reviews.  Click the links below to read each review:

• American Express Green review – no bonus
• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (Amex Gold) review – 10,000 points bonus
• American Express Platinum review – 30,000 points bonus
• American Express Rewards review – 5,000 points bonus
• British Airways American Express (BA Amex) review – 5,000 Avios bonus
• British Airways Premium Plus American Express review – 25,000 Avios bonus
• HSBC Premier Mastercard review – no bonus at present
• HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review – 40,000 points bonus
• IHG Rewards Club Mastercard review – 10,000 points bonus
• IHG Rewards Club Premium Mastercard review – 20,000 points bonus
• Miles & More Global Traveller cards review – 10,000 miles bonus
• Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG Amex) review – 30,000 Marriott points bonus
• Tesco Clubcard Mastercard review – no bonus
• Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard review – 5,000 miles bonus
• Virgin Atlantic Reward Plus Mastercard review – 15,000 miles bonus

You may also want to read our ‘Top 10’ series:

What are the top 10 reasons to get American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (Amex Gold)?

What are the top 10 reasons to get American Express Platinum (The Platinum Card)?

What are the top 10 reasons to get the American Express Rewards Credit Card?

What are the top 10 reasons to get the British Airways American Express (BA Amex)?

What are the top 10 reasons to get the British Airways American Express Premium Plus card?

What are the top 10 reasons to get the HSBC Premier Mastercard?

What are the top 10 reasons to get the HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard?

What are the top 10 reasons to get the free IHG Rewards Club credit card?

What are the top 10 reasons to get the Lufthansa Miles & More Diners Club and Mastercard?

What are the top 10 reasons to get the Marriott Bonvoy American Express credit card?

What are the top 10 reasons to get the Tesco Clubcard Mastercard credit card?

What are the top 10 reasons to get the Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard credit card?

What are the top 10 reasons to get the Virgin Atlantic Reward Plus Mastercard credit card?

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 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 February 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:

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.

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:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.