What are the best credit card sign-up deals for June 2020? – 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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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.

Let’s be honest …. if you’re sitting around at home with nothing to do, there are worse ways to pass the day than getting your credit card portfolio in order!

We have also included a round-up of all of the loyalty credit card news from the last month.

Our directory of the 15 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 May?

American Express Platinum offered £100 to all cardholders

If you need proof that reading HfP pays off in hard cash, this is it.

Last Thursday, Amex rolled out a £100 statement credit deal across Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Deliveroo and Apple.  Spend £100 and get £100 back.  What’s not to like?!  You don’t even need to spend the full £100 to get your rebate – you are repaid in chunks, transaction by transaction, as you go along.

For about 8 hours on Thursday, Amex was letting you register supplementary cards too.  If you signed up as soon as our article appeared, you could have banked up to £600 if you had five supplementary cards in issue.  Unfortunately Amex soon realised what they had done and stopped new registrations on supplementary cards.  Apologies to our email readers, who missed out on this as Amex had already pulled it by the time the emailed version appeared.

For clarity, the £100 IS paying out on supplementary cards if you registered them in time.  My wife spent £71 in Waitrose on 29th May and a £71 credit appeared on 31st May.

If you haven’t registered, you will find this offer on your PRIMARY Platinum card under the ‘Offers’ section.

Remember too that American Express is still offering 15,000 to 20,000 points as a retention bonus to holders of The Platinum Card who ring up to cancel.

It isn’t being offered to everyone, but your odds are very good as long as your call is answered by the Brighton call centre.  This means calling during UK office hours.  If it sounds as if the person who answers is working outside the UK, ask to be transferred to a UK-based agent.

Our article on American Express retention bonuses for Platinum cardholders is here.  If you read the comments, some holders of Amex Gold have also had success.

….. and up to £500 to Business Platinum cardholders

Holders of American Express Business Platinum have a similar selection of cashback offers.  These are technically worth up to £500 although I doubt many people will claim the lot.

You get:

£150 to spend at Dell (£150 cashback on a purchase of £150+)

£200 to spend at Currys PC World, Carphone Warehouse, Google Store or O2 Business (10 x £20 cashback on purchases of £20+)

£150 to spend at FedEx (6 x £25 cashback on purchases of £25+)

Our full article on the American Express Business Platinum cashback deals is here.  It includes links to a few Currys PC World items which cost around £20.

…. as well as a £250 discount on their renewal fee

American Express also announced a £250 credit towards the annual fee for Business Platinum cardholders.

If you have already renewed during 2020, the credit will appear very shortly if it hasn’t already.

If your renewal date is still to come, it will appear a few weeks after you are charged.

This offer does not benefit anyone who signed up for the card in 2020, as you won’t have a renewal date during this calendar year.

Don’t forget the two other offers open to Platinum cardholders

American Express has two other ‘open to all’ offers for holders of The Platinum Card which – unlike the 20,000 points retention offer – do not require you to ring up their call centre and beg.

The first offer is double points on all American Express Platinum spending until 20th July – see here.

This immediately makes the card the most generous miles and points card in the UK.  You would be earning 2 Avios per £1, 2 Virgin Flying Club miles per £1, 3 Marriott Bonvoy points per £1, 4 Hilton Honors points per £1 etc depending on how you converted them.

The second offer is being able to redeem Membership Rewards points for 0.9p of statement credit – see here.  This is VERY attractive and something you should consider.  Again, it runs until 20th July.

If you are squeezed for money at the moment, there is no shame in redeeming your Membership Rewards points for 0.9p cash and potentially buying Avios later (at a similar rate of around 1p to 1.1p when a sale is on) when your personal situation is clearer.

Virgin Atlantic dropped the sign-up bonus on its free credit card

Virgin Atlantic has removed the 5,000 miles sign-up bonus on its free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard credit card.

It’s not fully clear why, but if you read the latest Virgin Money financial statements it states that the business is currently prioritising its existing customers, many of whom are asking for payment holidays, ahead of chasing new business.

There is still a 15,000 miles sign-up bonus on the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard, which has a £160 annual fee.

The removal of the bonus from the free card makes the paid card more attractive.  Before, you were looking at paying £160 for an additional 10,000 miles bonus.  Now, your £160 gets you 15,000 more miles than the free card (as the free card no longer has a bonus) which – together with the excellent 1.5 miles per £1 earning rate – makes it a good package, at least for the first year.

You can apply for either of the Virgin Atlantic cards here.

American Express Gold is still running a special sign-up bonus

Until 29th June 2020, the sign-up bonus on Amex Gold is doubled to 20,000 points.   You need to spend £3,000 in six months to receive it.

You can apply for the card here.

20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points would convert into:

• 20,000 Avios
• 20,000 Virgin Flying Club miles
• 40,000 Hilton Honors points
• 60,000 Radisson Rewards points
• 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
• 1,666 Club Eurostar points

…… amongst other things.

If you have never held a personal American Express card before, you will definitely get the bonus.

You WILL receive the 20,000 bonus points if you have not held a personal American Express card in the previous 24 months.  Cards issued by MBNA or Lloyds Bank do not count.  You WILL receive the sign-up bonus if you have a Corporate or Business American Express card via your job, even if you receive Membership Rewards points from it.

You WILL receive the bonus if you are only a supplementary cardholder on someone else’s American Express card. As far as Amex is concerned, the card belongs to the primarily cardholder and does not make you an ‘existing cardholder’.

If you do not qualify for the bonus, you can still apply.  You still receive the other card benefits, including the two free airport lounge passes and ‘no fee in the first year’.

We wrote this article on the 20,000 points bonus on Amex Gold and all of the benefits of getting the card.

You can apply for American Express Preferred Rewards Gold here.

PS.  The picture above is of the new METAL Amex Gold card which is slowly rolling out across Europe.  It is NOT available in the UK yet, so if you apply now you will get the old-style version.  There is no date yet for a UK launch that I am aware of.

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 of the American Express International Currency Cards in this article.

Further reading ….

We ran the following credit card articles during the last month:

ONE MONTH LEFT: Amex Gold has a 20,000 point bonus and you have six months to earn it – should you apply?

Up to £500 of freebies for American Express Business Platinum cardholders – but what should you get?

Here’s a £100 gift for American Express Platinum cardholders

Virgin Atlantic is removing the sign-up bonus from its free Virgin Reward credit card

Why Fine Hotels & Resorts is one of the best American Express Platinum benefits

Get American Express cashback at Selfridges

REVIEW: Is BA Accelerating Business Amex or Capital On Tap Business Rewards the best Avios credit card?

Review: is the British Airways Accelerating Business American Express credit card worth getting?

Review: Get 10,500 Avios with the Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa credit card!

Amex Rewards Credit Card (ARCC): a way to keep your Amex Membership Rewards points alive when cancelling a card

American Express gives £250 to all Business Platinum cardholders

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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.