Order of cards to apply to maximise welcome bonus

[DestinationWDW]

Hi,

I don’t have any credit cards and think I may as well be earning virgin points on my daily spending, but after reading the site I fancy scooping up as many bonuses and repeating when I’m next eligible.

I read that the optimal order is:

start with either a Marriott Bonvoy, Nectar or one of the (less generous) Amex cashback cards follow up with either The Platinum Card or British Airways Premium Plus follow up with either The Platinum Card or British Airways Premium Plus (depending on which one you didn’t get in stage two)

Question is, if I am aiming for virgin points not BA avios, is this still valid?

Also interested how long after I apply for, say, the nectar one, can I leave it to apply for the platinum card please?

Thanks in advance

[BBbetter]

Ignore the nectar card, go for Marriott Amex as you can transfer the points to Virgin.
Then platinum as again those points can be sent to Virgin.
Get BAPP only if you’ll be flying one of the Avios airlines.

[DestinationWDW]

Thank you BBBetter, do you know the length of time I need to leave between collecting the Marriott Bonvoy bonus and signing up for the platinum amex please?

[nectar collector]

And you need to look at the Virgin Mastercard credit cards instead of the BA Amex ones if you are focusing on collecting Virgin points

https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/04/29/what-is-the-best-virgin-atlantic-credit-card-for-you-3/

[DestinationWDW]

Thanks nectar. I am really confused now.

I want to

1) scoop up relevant bonuses I’m eligible for, then cancel to wait until I’m eligible again

2) have a daily credit card to replace my debit card with

I now don’t know which to go for

[BBbetter]

Amex cards for 1

Virgin cards for 2.

There is no minimum or max length of time between cards. If you hit the sign up bonus in 2 months, id suggest give it another 2 months before you apply for platinum.

[nectar collector]

DestinationWDW wrote:

Thanks nectar. I am really confused now.

I want to

1) scoop up relevant bonuses I’m eligible for, then cancel to wait until I’m eligible again

2) have a daily credit card to replace my debit card with

I now don’t know which to go for

This other article gives more info about what you can get from holding one of the Virgin credit cards, which may help you decide if earning vouchers for travel on Virgin is what you want to do as well as earning miles/points as a start point.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/05/18/how-to-use-virgin-atlantic-credit-card-vouchers/

Since holding the Virgin mastercard card doesn’t have any interdependency with any of 5he Amex cards then you can decide on whether you want to get the free or paid for Virgin card without having to worry about whether you might want to apply for a Marriott and/or Platinum Amex too as another potential means of earning points that can be credited to Virgin, as well as the other costs/benefits of those cards.

As has also been noted, the takeover of Virgin Money by Nationwide Building Society may mean changes in due course to the Virgin credit cards.

[phantomchickenz]

DestinationWDW wrote:

Thank you BBBetter, do you know the length of time I need to leave between collecting the Marriott Bonvoy bonus and signing up for the platinum amex please?

You don’t need to leave any time. My wife got the Nectar, triggered SUB almost immediately, then got Platinum the following week.

[DestinationWDW]

Interesting point to leave it 2 months before applying for the platinum. Thank you for the tip.

Nectar: I see. The virgin MasterCard could be my new Amazon, groceries, takeaways, holidays card and it won’t matter what I do with the amex offers, I can just get both whenever. Got it. That’s really helpful, thanks. I couldn’t piece all this together without asking you experienced pointers.

[DestinationWDW]

I can’t work out what the advantage is of signing up to the Marriot Bonvoy Amex before the Platinum one is, can anyone enlighten me please?

[BBbetter]

If you flip the order, you won’t be eligible for signup bonus on Marriott card.
Plat makes you ineligible for sign up bonus on all personal cards except BAPP.

[DestinationWDW]

ah ha, right got it thanks

[ed_fly]

Do you have a specific reason to go for virgin points? I’d suggest you consider whether Avios is a better option.

[DestinationWDW]

Only that I normally fly to Orlando and the route is handy for me. I want to concentrate all points from all loyalty products into one scheme and thought virgin looks pretty good, I’ve also built up quite a few I’ve got already.

The only thing made me think about avios was aer lingus’ route to Orlando is convenient for me and they’ve started using avios.

[ed_fly]

I assume that you’re travelling out of Manchester?

[DestinationWDW]

Correct

[ekposh]

Aer Lingus also fly MAN-MCO but I agree VS offers more ex MAN