Will the UK be the test market for the new Star Alliance credit card?

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

• Axel Heyst says:

  14 May14 May 08:06

  I was able to renew my KrisFlyer Gold this year, without flying Singapore by converting my HSBC reward points at 1 to 1 with a promo that counted for status at 5 to 1.

• Chrisasaurus says:

  14 May14 May 08:22

  On the Asda front, anyone know anything of Jaja? Heavy PE involvement, look to be trying to eat Newday’s lunch?

  • Owen Rudge says:

    14 May14 May 09:22

    Jaja took over the AA credit cards from
    Bank of Ireland – my FuelSave card is still going strong. Their web site/app was initially very poor compared with what had gone before, and is still somewhat glitchy, but has improved over time.

  • Froggee says:

    14 May14 May 09:31

    They took over the Post Office money credit card when Post Office exited and I can’t blame their efficiency in closing my account when I asked them to.

    • lumma says:

      14 May14 May 09:44

      The current post office cards seem to be more aimed at the poor credit market, saw a “purchases and balance transfer” card recently. 3 months 0% for both…

    • RussellH says:

      14 May14 May 10:38

      I still have my Jaja ex Post Office card, but apart from using it the once to activate it, it has just stayed in the drawer.

      • Steve S says:

        14 May14 May 20:51

        Had an offer on mine spend £100 get £15 back

• Ian says:

  14 May14 May 08:36

  I would say that Norway is more pro-credit cards than we are.

  • masaccio says:

    14 May14 May 09:00

    This geek had to check. Yup 66 million cards in the UK, 13 million in Norway. Populations 70 and 5 million respectively.

    UK a massively bigger market by numbers though. Another data point: 25% of payment cards in Germany are credit cards. When we lived there ages ago, many shops were cash only.

    • PMG says:

      14 May14 May 09:57

      On Germany, luckily the pandemic has meant more places now accept card…

      Still some places in the countryside that are cash only or have limits on paying by card but much better now 😊

      • RussellH says:

        14 May14 May 10:35

        Used to be that most places in Germany would accept a German debit card, which used the local girocard payment network. Even if V-pay (Visa) or Maestro (M-Card) branded too, that was only for foreign use.

        But things **are** changing. Many banks are now issuing standard Visa Debit cards (and I assume others are issuing Debit MasterCards) which are valid world wide (V-Pay was a Europe only product).

        I do not know if girocard has been would up – but my new German Visa Debit card does not have the girocard logo on it.

        • Distichon says:

          14 May14 May 10:43

          There was a report in German news that I read recently. Basically, girocard is struggling because they do not have their own international payment system. They piggy backed onto v-pay and maestro(?), but those are being discontinued, so girocard is in a bind. Apparently some banks are trying to spin up their own competing product for international or at least inter-European payments, but not even all German banks are interested, so I’m not sure this will go anywhere. I’d say the likeliest outcome is that giropay will die as it’s being replaced with debit cards.

        • Harrier25 says:

          14 May14 May 12:18

          Germany will only be accepting Rubles soon to allow them to pay for all that Russian gas! 😂

      • TJomes says:

        14 May14 May 19:15

        “The Pay Off: How Changing the Way We Pay Changes Everything” by Gottfried Leibbrandt (2021) is a good read about the past, present and future of payment, well-written for a non-specialist and full of interesting nuggets and anecdotes.

    • RussellH says:

      14 May14 May 10:53

      Surely one of the things that drives Credit card use in the UK is our unique S75 rights.
      Even though huge numbers of people are still totally unaware of them, I suspect that those who are aware will just about always use a credit card.

      • Rui N. says:

        14 May14 May 11:18

        S75 is not unique , a few other countries have something similar, notably the US. As you said, huge numbers of people have no idea about S75 (I’ve never met a single person that has heard about it), so it’s doubtful that’s the reason why the UK uses CCs so much.

      • JDB says:

        14 May14 May 12:32

        I think the main driver in the UK is unfortunately the desire to use the credit facility. That is much less common in other European countries whose citizens are historically more careful and dislike debt.

• masaccio says:

  14 May14 May 08:56

  If it gave 241 or similar I would jump on it. I often see Star Alliance cash fares for much less than One World for the leisure routes I want to fly. I will never fly enough for BA lifetime Gold so this could nudge me to switch alliance.

  • Ronster says:

    15 May15 May 16:24

    Good afternoon

    If this takes place then BA/Amex will have to look at offering 2-4-1 on all oneworld flights

    That would be a holy grail benefit.

    That and 0 fx charges and guaranteed silver/gold benefits dependent on spend.

    Regards

• NFH says:

  14 May14 May 09:31

  I believe that the new card will almost definitely be issued the UK by Cornèrcard UK to replace the dual Diners Club / Cornèrcard cards, which were discontinued just over a year ago. A replacement card by Cornèrcard UK has been in the pipeline for many months now, during which time Miles & More expiry dates have been extended several times for previous holders of the dual Diners Club / Cornèrcard cards.

  • CamFlyer says:

    14 May14 May 15:13

    My reaction was that it is also likely to be the U.K., as a large and wealthy market with no dominant *A carrier.

  • Andrew. says:

    14 May14 May 15:27

    Why not MBNA?

    They were the key partner with BMI in the old days. Given their experience with white labelled products across their own brands, I suspect they could have retail side of things ready within 24 hours of receiving the branding JPEGs.

    • Rob says:

      14 May14 May 19:22

      That post has been there since the old card closed – well, not true, it was amended later to become more vague – and I have heard nothing to believe that a launch is imminent.

• Peter says:

  14 May14 May 10:43

  Let’s hope it’s from creation :p

  • Clive O says:

    14 May14 May 15:23

    I do hope you’re joking re “Creation”!!!. I have had atrocious issues with their customer services. I’m so sorry Marriott chose them as their UK. I only have this and Bonvoy Amex because I have close to 750k AA miles and that’s the only way to transfer miles to keep the account alive. Roll on / bring back an American Airlines* backed credit card. (Yes I know there are probably better airlines but I am “locked in” to AAdvantage programme)

• Blair Waldorf Salad says:

  14 May14 May 11:08

  It’s dead on arrival if transfer times from card points to chosen scheme aren’t immediate. Who wants to price up a redemption via Krisflyer, wait a few days to find it no longer available, then have to transfer even more points out to try again with Miles&More

• mimx says:

  19 May19 May 08:14

  “Launching a Star Alliance credit card in Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland or Portugal would directly compete with products offered by a strong incumbent Star Alliance airline.”

  Not true for Poland. As of Jan 2022 Polish customers are unable to get any M&M card, as one bank dropped it in 2021 and Diners is leaving the market at the end of June.

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