Credit Cards - What do you use & what do you get?

Barclay card initial - £350 limit, balance- £0 - need to cancel it.
MBNA platinum - £2500 limit, balance - about £70
Barclay card platinum (used for long 0% balance transfer)- £4500 limit, balance - about 3k
 
Barclaycard - Cashback 6% for 3 months then 2% after on top 5 purchases - I use it for fuel and shopping, making an average £20 a month return.

Halifax Clarity - Zero fee for spending abroad.
 
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Amex corporate card for expenses, and reward points, this gets blasted with a good £2500 a month so nice amount of reward points.

Tesco credit card that's 0% for 12 months, and clubcard points. Use this for any relatively 'big' purchases that I want to pay off over time.

Just picked up a Santander 123 credit card for the cashback, this will be my monthly spender.

Haven't paid a penny of interest in years, win/win all round.
 
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Nationwide select - 18 months interest free and no fees on international purchases.

Santander Zero - Free international cash withdrawals.

Tesco Card - 12 month balance transfer at 0% with no transfer fee.
 
Halifax Clarity for spending abroad

Tesco credit card - got this last November to buy my F1 tickets for monaco this year on it, but paid them off more or less straight away anyway. Now just use the card for fuel (only one tank a month) so not sure if its even worth having this now. Might just cancel it unless there is any benefit to keeping it running
 
James_N said:
Tesco credit card - got this last November to buy my F1 tickets for monaco this year on it, but paid them off more or less straight away anyway. Now just use the card for fuel (only one tank a month) so not sure if its even worth having this now. Might just cancel it unless there is any benefit to keeping it running
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It's beneficial for your credit rating to keep it and it being unused. As a factor they take into account is the % of your available credit that you use, the lower the better, as it shows you are responsible with credit.
 
Lots of Avios offers flying around at the moment means that whilst the rewards look good on the face of it, actually redeeming a business class flight or upgrade can be a pain from what I've read. Should have about 100K by next year so would be nice to be able to use them on a trip to the USA or similar!
 
I use my Nationwide Select Credit Card. Get 0.5% cash back on purchases and no fees for using it abroad (not on cash). I also like the simplicity of having a credit card from the same bank as my current account.
 
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I have been looking at a credit card with AVIOS points as an alternative to my current standard card. I was hoping to build up points for a "trip of a lifetime" later down the line. Having read some articles on the matter I am slightly put off by the fact that a lot of the long haul flights you still have to pay taxes and sometimes that means it is hardly worth the effort as they are so high. Am I wrong?
 
daz said:
Lots of Avios offers flying around at the moment means that whilst the rewards look good on the face of it, actually redeeming a business class flight or upgrade can be a pain from what I've read. Should have about 100K by next year so would be nice to be able to use them on a trip to the USA or similar!
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I've not found this to be the case. You just have to know the system and when to attempt to upgrade etc. Most the people (bar me, balls) were upgraded for nothing at all to business on the way to Boston. They tend to chuck you up when you're silver/gold so they can re sell more econ/premium tickets. Upgrading with avios is best to do about 5-3 days before, calling them works best, I've found.
 
Halifax Clarity - Mainly becuase it offers the best exchange rate, and is free to use abroad.
I also get £5 a month if I spend >£300 as I have the Rewards Current Account.

I don't spend enough to justify the annual fees on other cashback cards...
 
daz said:
Lots of Avios offers flying around at the moment means that whilst the rewards look good on the face of it, actually redeeming a business class flight or upgrade can be a pain from what I've read. Should have about 100K by next year so would be nice to be able to use them on a trip to the USA or similar!
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It can be yeah, generally you need to have flexible dates and book well in advance! There are lots of tips and tricks on the flyertalk forums about this.


Captain Planet said:
I have been looking at a credit card with AVIOS points as an alternative to my current standard card. I was hoping to build up points for a "trip of a lifetime" later down the line. Having read some articles on the matter I am slightly put off by the fact that a lot of the long haul flights you still have to pay taxes and sometimes that means it is hardly worth the effort as they are so high. Am I wrong?
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This is true, at least for avios - I don't know about other airmiles programs.
You don't get a great deal using avios for an economy seat because as you say you still have to pay the taxes so use it on upgrades instead.
There's a good post on how it works:
http://www.headforpoints.com/2012/12/16/upgrade-using-avios-how-it-works/

Regarding the taxes, there's a trick to avoid paying some of this and it's perfectly legal.
The UK has higher flying taxes than most of Europe but that only applies if your journey begins in the UK so the trick is to start your journey in Europe - Amsterdam is a good choice as only a 40 min flight away.

Example:

Business class flight with BA from Heathrow to Hong Kong returning a week later.
£3195 return

Another flight with all the same details, but this time starting in Amsterdam and connecting through Heathrow so you end up being on the *same* plane as the flight above.
£1645 return

A saving of 1550 quid all because you started outside of the UK, now you do obviously have to get to Amsterdam, and probably an overnight stay, to take the first flight, but I'm sure one could manage that for less than 1550.

Now I chose Business class to give the best illustration of the difference, unfortunately you don't quite get the same savings with Economy, it is about £100 less but that's not enough to offset the cost of getting to Amsterdam.
 
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Natwest. All purchases. Paid off at the end of each month. No excepetions. :D The points collected are nice for the rare Amazon voucher.

Barclaycard. Used for the Money Pit aka My Car. It can be paid off in full whenever I chose, but it's less traumatic to do it gradually.

Very little else in terms of rewards, but both companies love chucking balance transfer offers at me. I don't think I've paid any actual interest in the last two or three years.
 
Luci said:
It can be yeah, generally you need to have flexible dates and book well in advance! There are lots of tips and tricks on the flyertalk forums about this.




This is true, at least for avios - I don't know about other airmiles programs.
You don't get a great deal using avios for an economy seat because as you say you still have to pay the taxes so use it on upgrades instead.
There's a good post on how it works:
http://www.headforpoints.com/2012/12/16/upgrade-using-avios-how-it-works/

Regarding the taxes, there's a trick to avoid paying some of this and it's perfectly legal.
The UK has higher flying taxes than most of Europe but that only applies if your journey begins in the UK so the trick is to start your journey in Europe - Amsterdam is a good choice as only a 40 min flight away.

Example:

Business class flight with BA from Heathrow to Hong Kong returning a week later.
£3195 return

Another flight with all the same details, but this time starting in Amsterdam and connecting through Heathrow so you end up being on the *same* plane as the flight above.
£1645 return

A saving of 1550 quid all because you started outside of the UK, now you do obviously have to get to Amsterdam, and probably an overnight stay, to take the first flight, but I'm sure one could manage that for less than 1550.

Now I chose Business class to give the best illustration of the difference, unfortunately you don't quite get the same savings with Economy, it is about £100 less but that's not enough to offset the cost of getting to Amsterdam.
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Good info, thanks! I mainly try and use them for upgrades, so book a premium ticket, use avios to get it to business etc. Or booking hotels and that with avios you don't pay any tax, so on a holiday you can wangle ways of making it as cheap as possible.
 
HSBC Mastercard, I buy everything on it and pay it off end of each month. Only really use it for the security.

MW
 
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