Credit cards - anything to look for?

[TW]Fox;25446932 said:
No it's not, Amex exchange rates are inferior to Mastercard/Visa, the latter offer exchange rates almost identical to the current spot rate, Amex do not. Presumably Amex load the rate in the same way many credit card firms who offer Mastercard/Visa cards do.
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It got better exchange rates than cash machines and visa on a recent Italy trip.

It's a matter of pence versus the very best anyway and I prefer the airmiles over the faff of another card for a slightly lower exchange rate.
 
Simon said:
It got better exchange rates than cash machines and visa on a recent Italy trip.
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Because the card issuer of your Visa would have loaded the exchange rate for both purchases and card purchases.

Visa/Mastercard have an excellent exchange rate, better than any other rate a tourist will get. Some card issuers will then load it themselves, so avoid those, but the fact remains, the stock Visa/Mastercard rate is superior to the rate Amex will offer irrespective of the country you are in. There are cards which do not tamper with the rate Mastercard/Visa offer.

It's a matter of pence versus the very best anyway and I prefer the airmiles over the faff of another card for a slightly lower exchange rate.
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I'm sure you do prefer the airmiles but the bonus's you refer to are unachievable for most people. You mentioned the Companion Voucher. You must spend £20,000 in one billing year to get that. You like the airmiles, Amex like the fact you like the airmiles too because for normal spend you earn 1 Avios for every £1 you spend.

15,000 Avios gets you a return flight to Rome - though you still have to pay the fees. So if you wanted 2 of you to got to Rome with your airmiles make sure you spend £20,000 on your Amex in one year :D

It only works if you can rack up loads of Avios through promotional new-card offers, or by putting huge amounts of business spend on it, etc etc. For day to day average person use its just pointless and those benefits you crave meaningless.
 
£10k for companion. I have the £150 one, other benefit is 1.5 airmiles per £1

I have 200,000 miles and almost gold status from work trips. I plan to use companion vouchers for a bit more than a trip to Rome:p

For the OP it's a recommendation as all stuff like fuel and petrol will get decent air miles if your after those. Otherwise I guess a Santander 1-2-3 card?
 
Recently got my first CC, chose an RBS YourPoints card as was with RBS already and it was a free card with YourPoints (Which is effectively cachback if you use the points for vouchers).

I did apply for the Santander 123 account as I use about £300 of Diesel a month and they do 3% of fuel, but they declined me as I'd never had a card before, thus the benefits of getting a card from a bank you're already known too!
 
Simon said:
I have 200,000 miles
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Which is loads but it obviously hasn't acrued through normal spend on your Amex has it, unless you spent £133k on the card, therefore for people looking for a first credit card an Amex is unlikely to be much, if any, use. Infact they usually have quite tough credit criteria anyway so as a first card he probably wouldnt even GET an Amex. He's only 19 and hasn't had one before.

Amex can make sense as part of a whole portfolio of cards, but not as your first credit card which is what this thread is really about.
 
Going to re-apply for my first one through Halifax after next payday. Hopefully i've been at this address, in this job etc etc long enough that I get accepted as last time I tried everything was a bit hectic and I had a lot of small things going against me apparently. (impossible to get into debt if you aren't already in some..?)

Is there much of a choice between the All in One or the 17 Month Purchase ones from Halifax as a first CC? Or is there a better one I should try for even though my current account is with Halifax?
 
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Skillmister said:
Going to re-apply for my first one through Halifax after next payday. Hopefully i've been at this address, in this job etc etc long enough that I get accepted as last time I tried everything was a bit hectic and I had a lot of small things going against me apparently. (impossible to get into debt if you aren't already in some..?)

Is there much of a choice between the All in One or the 17 Month Purchase ones from Halifax as a first CC?
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Do you ever go abroad, if so, get a Clarity instead, more useful.
 
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