US vs EU vs UK Hilton Card deals

[Kinzhal]

In UK compared to the States. No Aspire or Surpass cards. No direct credit card pathway to diamond status. No cash back for flight purchases. No statement credit. No free night reward. Earn up to 4 (rather than 14x) points on eligible purchases.

In Austria for example, for 72€ per year you get instant Gold Status, and 1 HH for every euro spent in country. 40 nights to get diamond, instead of 60 nights. 5 bonus nights for every 5000€ (max 40 nights). Travel insurance. Free withdrawals and foreign fees.

The recent Currensea card, gives you gold status for £150 a year and you get 1.5 Hilton Honors points for every £1 spent in country. The foreign fees and withdrawal perk is capped at £500 per month, otherwise you pay fees.

Sorry for my naivety but why such a bad deal for UK folks?

[n1368585]

The UK offering (the recent Hilton Debit card) is a complete waste of time to anyone except those who perhaps want gold status on the cheap.

I’m 4 years diamond so the gold benefit is irrelevant to me but that fact you can’t even use it to pay your monthly cc bills is ludicrous.

So any earned points (other than the paltry SUB offered) would be mostly on day to day spend – and how many people out there seriously do day to day spend on a debit card?

[can2]

In general the answer is credit card interchange cap, which is %0.3 for credit cards and %0.2 for debits. It makes it difficult for reward cards to survive.

Austria is an odd case. The country has only 17 Hiltons, 7 of which are SLHs. Perhaps they are trying harder there. Not sure.

Someone would correct me if I got the figures wrong.

[JDB]

@Kinzhal – I’m not sure there is much point comparing cards across countries as the markets are each so different. The US bears no comparison with Europe as there are huge fees in the system that enable providers to offer outsize benefits.

In Europe fees are capped but the UK is nevertheless by far the most dynamic and generous reward card market partly because there are providers who have access to cheap funding and/or can cross subsidise loss leading credit cards in the hope of attracting other business.

JP Morgan/Chase is thus far only offering plain vanilla products.

The new HH card is a debit card because for a new entrant to raise the funding to support a credit card, build the credit card infrastructure, offer customer service, s75 and to pay good rewards out of capped fees is just not a profitable proposition.

@n1368585 – why is it “ludicrous” that you can’t earn rewards paying your credit card bills with the HH card?

[Kinzhal]

JDB wrote:

@Kinzhal – I’m not sure there is much point comparing cards across countries as the markets are each so different. The US bears no comparison with Europe as there are huge fees in the system that enable providers to offer outsize benefits.

In Europe fees are capped but the UK is nevertheless by far the most dynamic and generous reward card market partly because there are providers who have access to cheap funding and/or can cross subsidise loss leading credit cards in the hope of attracting other business.

JP Morgan/Chase is thus far only offering plain vanilla products.

The new HH card is a debit card because for a new entrant to raise the funding to support a credit card, build the credit card infrastructure, offer customer service, s75 and to pay good rewards out of capped fees is just not a profitable proposition.

@n1368585 – why is it “ludicrous” that you can’t earn rewards paying your credit card bills with the HH card?

There’s a point comparing cards because at the end of the day, you’ve not talked up benefits of the UK Hilton Debit Card. I earn less for the same job description in the UK, yet you expect me to understand paying more for less benefits on a rewards card? When you book Hilton hotels with point, no one asks where you points got obtained.

Hilton Cards in Germany, Austria, Japan, South Korea etc have better offers/incentives for less money.

I don’t seem to get you…

[BBbetter]

Start a petition to remove the cap on interchange fee.