Avios and Barclays Premier agree a long-term points-earning partnership

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• Former Revolut business customer says:

  18 Feb18 February 09:26

  I would strongly advise against using a Revolut business account as a business’s only account. We opened one late last year, testing it sporadically for small transactions with a view to using it in future to receive large payments in other currencies from clients abroad. Revolut uses an automated process to identify money laundering and other account misuse, and at the beginning of January false positives caused the process to suspend our account, along with huge numbers of other customers according to reports in national newspapers. When I complained to Revolut, it responded by immediately closing the account without notice. Revolut even indicated to me in writing that closing accounts in response to complaints is routine for them. Unlike personal accounts for which Revolut must give two months’ notice of closure, Revolut’s T&Cs allow it to close business accounts with no notice at all. This could cause significant damage to a business, so Revolut business accounts are best avoided.

  • maccymac says:

    18 Feb18 February 11:28

    Good to know. Thank you.

  • Lady London says:

    18 Feb18 February 14:36

    Are there better reports about Starling?

    Would anyone have their only Business account in the cloud? I keep Metro Bank Business account. They open till 8pm every day including Saturday and Sunday. If you need to deal with a business-specific matter their business team is mostly Monday to Friday with some Saturday availability. On balance I am happy with them. However might think of supplementing them with Starling if reports are good for FX but never Revolut.

    • Alan says:

      20 Feb20 February 05:01

      Yep I’ve found Starling Business good and have it linked with Xero.

• Kenneth says:

  18 Feb18 February 09:47

  O.T. Has anyone managed to link their Capital OnTap Business Card to Revolut and do a top-up? The reason I ask is that, even if the top-up is considered a cash advance, COT charge interest by the day. On £1000, for instance, the interest per day is only 83p on my card.

  I can’t even register the card on Revolut. I have contacted COT and asked them to investigate. They told me Revolut was “restricted” company. They will get back to me.

  • Former Revolut business customer says:

    18 Feb18 February 10:05

    Revolut allows card top-ups only for the first deposit and it limits this to £250.

    • Kenneth says:

      18 Feb18 February 10:34

      That has not been the case up to now.

      • Former Revolut business customer says:

        18 Feb18 February 10:54

        It’s not the case on personal accounts, but it is the case on business accounts.

  • New Card says:

    18 Feb18 February 10:22

    COT block transactions to financial companies. From what I can tell, they are rigorous about this.

    • Kenneth says:

      18 Feb18 February 10:36

      I spoke to two agents at COT this morning. The second one seemed quite hopeful that this might be changed. After all, they are happy to lend you as much cash as you want. You can also transfer cash to your nominated bank.

      • New Card says:

        18 Feb18 February 10:47

        Changed generally or just for Revolut?

        • Kenneth says:

          18 Feb18 February 11:26

          Hole in the wall machines, transfer of cash to a bank account (including Revolut) providing it is the bank account you have nominated as your business bank, short term loan, etc.

  • Kenneth says:

    18 Feb18 February 11:41

    COT just got back to me by email. A very quick reply. This was their message: “Following our conversation i can confirm that we are unable to support Revoult at the moment as is flags as a restricted merchant.”

    • Lady London says:

      18 Feb18 February 14:17

      Perhaps this could be due to

      – Revolut becoming known for closing accounts in retaliation for receiving justified complaints from their customers
      – unacceptably high numbers of Revolut customers reporting that their Revolut account was blocked by Revolut for no good reason and without receiving any communication from Revolut?
      – Revolut not actioning or responding to issues for weeks or even months whilst having locked up large and small customer funds

      And Revolut has ambitions to become a bank? Does whichever regulator would approve this have to take such poor customer service into account?

      I’ve got a Revolut card. But there’s no way I would trust them by lodging any sum of money with Revolut that is substantial to me, perhaps not even for a split second….

• George K says:

  18 Feb18 February 10:15

  In a Premier market which HSBC is probably the best (due to their points-to-avios-earning Mastercard) I do wonder what could possibly be done by Barclays to compete with that. If this is another iteration of their blue rewards (which I would never sign up to), they can forget it.

  But disappointed that there was no offer for existing Barclays Premier customers though. I do believe that there was a mention for a voucher at some point, or did I dream it? (I certainly didn’t receive any comms from Barclays about it..) Did any existing customers get anything?

  • meta says:

    18 Feb18 February 20:17

    I’d value HSBC Premier points more because in addition they partner with Etihad/Singapore Airlines and Cathay which makes it somewhat flexible currency. Like Amex MR points, but on smaller scale. This is perhaps HSBC’s advantage. If anything, it’s good to diversify points accrual and not put everything into Avios.

• Daniel says:

  18 Feb18 February 10:24

  OT does using curve with IHG credit card in a US ihg hotel give 4 points? I heard rumors that it does. Don’t want to pay the foreign transaction fee, but still want to earn the bonus points though…

  • Michael says:

    18 Feb18 February 10:33

    No. Using Curve means the transaction is processed in the U.K regardless of where in the world the transaction occurs.

    • Kai says:

      18 Feb18 February 11:28

      It’s still a hotel spend, doesn’t matter what the currency is.

  • Rob says:

    18 Feb18 February 10:43

    No. You can’t have 0% FX fees and double points. Take the 0%!

    • TGLoyalty says:

      18 Feb18 February 13:25

      yep but its a hotel and any hotel posts 4/£1 in my experience 🙂

      • Lady London says:

        18 Feb18 February 14:38

        Hum. Wonder what else could be purchased that might fall under same MCC code.

  • Kai says:

    18 Feb18 February 11:23

    Yes, there’s a known bug with this card. Curve + Creation Premium = 4 points / £1 in any hotel (not just IHG) and no forex fee.

• Will P says:

  18 Feb18 February 10:38

  Do you think HSBC would close my World Elite credit card if I switched? Nothing else comes close in the non-Amex space.

  • memesweeper says:

    18 Feb18 February 18:22

    I don’t *know* but I am definitely not switching! Much better to find another account to switch from if you’re tempted to try Barclays IMO. Once you’ve passed the income and/or investment test for an HSBC Prem account a small life insurance policy will keep it alive, fee free — I don’t think you need to pay in your salary.

• Zone4a says:

  18 Feb18 February 10:59

  O/T

  Still on the Monese hangover. Are Post Office top-ups now restricted to cash only, or is it only credit cards that they’ve banned? Tried recently with a VISA/MC credit card and was unable to top up. Am wondering if there’s any point in trying with my Curve? (Was too embarrassed to pull out a 3rd card that occasion…)

  On another note, I’m assuming there are no ‘premiumplease’ type codes for Curve? giving 1 or 2 months of premium membership? The monthly £500 cap before FX fees kick in is also severely limiting my wizardry with spend…

  Thanks,

  Z

  • TGLoyalty says:

    18 Feb18 February 13:26

    All credit card regardless of issuer. Only few times I’ve tried Curve for anything at my local PO it wasn’t accepted no idea if its my PO or my card or Curve cards in general.

• Craig says:

  18 Feb18 February 11:01

  I’ve just completed an e-Rewards survey, obviously I can’t disclose too much details but it does look like this could be quite lucrative for those that qualify. The only downside would be losing the travel insurance for HSBC Premier but I’m sure I can work around that.

  • Rhys says:

    18 Feb18 February 11:25

    Interesting….do give us an email with anything you are able to disclose!

  • BJ says:

    18 Feb18 February 11:38

    So far you haven’t disclosed any Craig, and what’s keeping you 🙂

  • Craig says:

    18 Feb18 February 12:34

    Mainly there were so many options it’s difficult to be certain; the initial offering looked similar to the trial but with ongoing earnings. Avios for mortgages, loans, insurance etc.

    • BJ says:

      18 Feb18 February 13:07

      Ok thanks Craig, I don’t need any of those personally and as I mention earlier I think such will be expensive avios anyway. What I’d really like to see is another avios-earning debit card but too much to hope for I guess.

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        18 Feb18 February 14:26

        Keep in mind surveys are only for capturing data on ideas. I completed a survey for E rewards over a 1.5 years ago on ideas for banks current accounts with loads of FFL benefits for a monthly fee, not seen anything come to market for any of the 5x banks within the survey.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      18 Feb18 February 17:45

      Avios on mortgages/loans is so trivial (As Rob always says to be fair) compared to important stuff (rate, deposit requirement, fees, offsetting, flexibility, availability etc etc) that it’s irrelevant. The Avios earn would have to be ridiculously huge to even move the dial on a decision.

• Waddle says:

  18 Feb18 February 11:21

  What keeps me from switching from HSBC Premier is the fact that HSBC’s travel insurance includes pre-existing conditions for you and immediate family if you ring ahead and get pre-approval. This has proved more valuable than the Amex Plat one.

  • GeorgeJ says:

    18 Feb18 February 14:49

    Thats very useful to know as I get older and accumulate more conditions!

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