Is the Tandem Money cashback credit card worth £5.99 per month?

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• L Allen says:

  9 Jan9 January 09:01

  I’m going to Tirana in March, I may check the hotel out!

  • Peter K says:

    9 Jan9 January 09:45

    Have fun Lily!

  • AndyL says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:33

    If you can get a booking at Mullixhiu. “Slow” food, local, nicely done

• Andrew says:

  9 Jan9 January 09:57

  Bits:- British Airways Carnet/Option Town

  I’ve done the obvious thing and emailed OptionTown, but they’ve responded without answering the question…

  I’m thinking about buying a 9 return over 12 month LHR-EDI (30 day) BA Carnet with Option Town (mentioned recently by Rob). It seems good value. But sometimes I drive up to Perthshire for a break, but fly back to London for a few days in the middle of the holiday.

  Anyone know if the OptionTown Carnets can be booked in reverse? Ie they work for both LHR to EDI returns and EDI to LHR returns.

  • Lady London says:

    9 Jan9 January 10:10

    IIRC without looking it up carnet covers both directions. Its quoted as journeys not return journeys so I would expect to use them singly. Would you kindly post when you get it confirmed?

    • Andrew says:

      9 Jan9 January 10:18

      It is indeed sold as Journeys, but it’s clear from the terms that they do need to be booked as an out/back pair.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    9 Jan9 January 12:26

    I often buy NCL-LHR ones. You can definitely book them in any order but they need to be booked as a return.

    Sometimes I do NCL-LHR-NCL and other times I do LHR-NCL-LHR. This is not a problem.

    I have the ‘freedom option’ that lets me book fully flexible tickets right up to 4 hours before departure. I can alter my return flight any time with this one. With the other packages that require advance booking I don’t believe you can change the return after flying the outward.

• RussellH says:

  9 Jan9 January 10:24

  UK tour operators to Germany were always pleased to find themselves put up in Maritim Hotels during the Germany Travel Mart and other educationals. A general feeling that the service was at least one notch above other chains.
  The UK sales team were also very friendly and supportive.

• Waribai says:

  9 Jan9 January 10:37

  Just missed out on tickets. Let me try this evening! OT….I just called Amex Plat Insurance to check whether the insurance covered ski equipment. Interestingly, she said it would provided that the flights or the hotel had been paid for on my AMEX plat. I remember though that Rob mentioned Amex had gone back on that stipulation?

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:29

    Some bits of the insurance still require some form of Amex payment – you need to read the policy.

    • Waribai says:

      9 Jan9 January 14:52

      Thanks. Yes, I mistakenly thought it was still like the old days. So it seems personal possessions requires payment with the card………

• RussellH says:

  9 Jan9 January 10:38

  I think I may have seen something about this posted here before, but never really commented on.

  On my first Virgin Atlantic Credit card statement it clearly says:-
  “Important information about using your card abroad
  From 15 December 2019, we’re changing how you’re charged when you use your card or withdraw cash in any of the 31 countries of the European Economic Area (EEA). When you pay for something in Euros, Swedish Kronor or Romanian Lei, we won’t charge you a Non-Sterling Transaction Fee.

  When you take money out in those currencies from a cash machine in the EEA, you won’t have to pay a Non-Sterling Transaction Fee either – but you will still need to pay a Cash Advance fee.”

  So, for the Eurozone, Sweden and Romania, there is now a travel rewards card that is free to use! I am curious as to how this is paid for, though! I would be surprised to learn that the Clydesdale Bank (who issue the card) has significant income in EUR, RON or SEK that it needs to offset?

  • AlexT says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:17

    Not publicized, but works in BGN too, so I assume it works in any EEA currency, not just the three listed explicitly.

  • Dev says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:18

    All thanks to the EU Payment Services Directive legislation, with more to come for the benefit of consumers.

    Once we sail off into the arms of anyone else willing to have us as best friends, in accordance with current government policies I’m avoiding saying that Br word, then no doubt our legislation will diverge at some point of time from EU legislation.

    Enjoy it while you can 🙂

  • Harry T says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:27

    I’m still fairly sure this is a trap and will continue to use Curve (which has a much better app and free cash withdrawals up to £200). I think Virgin will just add another type of fee and call it by a different name.

    • jc says:

      9 Jan9 January 18:50

      The main difference is on weekends, Curve will apply a 0.5% surcharge above the Mastercard rate and Virgin won’t. Sure Virgin might introduce a new “fee” in future, but that’ll take MINIMUM one month

  • Rob says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:28

    I think you’re about to see another fee introduced which isn’t called a fee but still costs you 3%.

• Benilyn says:

  9 Jan9 January 10:40

  OT: 5.5hr stopover in AUH with Etihad. Any tips for what to do? I have dufry lounge passes ready as backup. Anyone seen any good Careem discount codes, someone mentioned to me they were doing free pick ups from the airport. Aim is to keep costs low. Been 10x+ to AUH/DBX so done most touristy things. A spa or something could be a shout.

• Heran says:

  9 Jan9 January 10:47

  1.5% interest rate is good but if you have children, you can open children’s accounts that easily beat this rate (all easy access; you still controls the money): Virgin Money Young Saver 2.2% up to £25,000 (per child), 3% Nationwide Future Saver up to £5000 (per child) etc. If you can wait your money a little longer, moneybox from Investec offers 95 Day Notice Savings Account at a rate of 1.65%.

  • Andy says:

    9 Jan9 January 11:50

    Is it worth getting a child to take advantage of the savings rates?

    • EwanG says:

      9 Jan9 January 12:49

      Don’t ask that, it’ll start that whole climate debate again!

      • The Original David says:

        9 Jan9 January 13:45

        Is it any more onerous to get a “child” for a bank account than it is to get a “pet” for an insurance policy?

        • Shoestring says:

          9 Jan9 January 13:54

          Halifax current a/c opening – they wanted to see the kids in person – the actual a/c opening took 2 mins online, the meeting in branch 5 mins – but you need a passport/ ID & a real kid

• Craig says:

  9 Jan9 January 11:30

  OT: AerClub collect on card worked nicely for Odeon, took about 4 days for the Avios to appear in the account.

  • Polly says:

    9 Jan9 January 16:39

    Didn’t know, how does that work, we use odeon quite often, but dread dealing w aerclub.

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