Amex/american express

[Gibbo]

Got myself a Platinum cashback credit card back in 2007 for two reasons:
- I wanted to buy a $10,000 supercharger kit from USA for my Mustang at time
- It had an introductory special cash back rate, can't remember what it was, maybe around 5% and they gave me like a £12,000 credit limit of the bat.

Supercharger kit was ordered, credit card paid off, cashback claimed.

Still have the card today, I find the service fantastic, I had fraudulent activity once which they spotted before me, they contacted me, I confirmed it was not me, the money was refunded within 24hrs and I had a new card in the post a couple days later.

The cashback on it now is much lower but its still a nice reward because its cashback for spending and sometimes the offers they give you discounts on are great too, highly recommend, just spend only what you can afford to repay.

 

[Rotty]

I have that one too but find the rewards on the Gold or BA to be better for me

 

[Martynt74]

Just as a heads up. Not sure who you guys bank with but Barclays Premier is offering 25,000 avios points for signing up

Probably not *quite* as good as the HSBC account but if you add the Travel Plus pack you get 6 lounge passes which i've not seen elsewhere.

 

[Rotty]

saw that yesterday and was considering it, problem I have is I use several current accounts and it would need me to use this as primary

 

[Martynt74]

saw that yesterday and was considering it, problem I have is I use several current accounts and it would need me to use this as primary

You've dodged a bullet, every step of this application has been a nightmare to the point i've given up and am just leaving my account open and dormant.

Opened a joint account, clicked next and was told the application was complete - I hadn't entered any info for my wife

Got an email about switching and was told i needed to go into a brand with ID to complete the switch.

Rang up to give details of my wife - Got told we both needed to go into a branch with ID to convert it into a joint account

Rang up to cancel as all the local branches seem to have been closed. Only to be told i need to go into a branch with ID to close the account to reduce fraud. Yet it's perfectly possible to open an account without going into branch!


It's no wonder they're having to offer decent signup bonuses because compared to FD it's been a nightmare with long wait times on the phone. Not particularly what i'd expect from a "premier" account.

 

[weringo]

Also signed up. Account open but then the website crashed when I was trying to switch. Can't find how to switch now as the link came up as part of the application process so gonna have to give them a call which I'm not looking forward to. Once I've got my avios I'll be going elsewhere I think

 

[Dolly]

I use the BA card, mostly for the 2 for 1 flights - managed to get us business class to Antigua last year and planning a trip with the husband to Grenada next year, again 2 for 1 business class. The points also bring down the cost of the flight quite significantly.

Only downside is availability of flights - I’ve found this website to be quite useful https://rewardflightfinder.com/.

 

[tlrBeta]

I use the BA card, mostly for the 2 for 1 flights - managed to get us business class to Antigua last year and planning a trip with the husband to Grenada next year, again 2 for 1 business class. The points also bring down the cost of the flight quite significantly.

Only downside is availability of flights - I’ve found this website to be quite useful https://rewardflightfinder.com/.

I can't imagine you do this frequently though, unless you travel a lot and build avios that way?

I have been fortunate to use it once for a return trip to Japan in business, 150k of avios points. However once I stopped travelling with work, I just haven't continued to build the points the same way and have since just gone to the normal blue BA Amex.

 

[Ahleckz]

I use the BA card, mostly for the 2 for 1 flights - managed to get us business class to Antigua last year and planning a trip with the husband to Grenada next year, again 2 for 1 business class. The points also bring down the cost of the flight quite significantly.

Only downside is availability of flights - I’ve found this website to be quite useful https://rewardflightfinder.com/.

What spend are you putting through it per year?

 

[Basher]

I can't imagine you do this frequently though, unless you travel a lot and build avios that way?

I have been fortunate to use it once for a return trip to Japan in business, 150k of avios points. However once I stopped travelling with work, I just haven't continued to build the points the same way and have since just gone to the normal blue BA Amex.

Same with me, we used it once to fly First to Rio, then had 2 Companion Vouchers that expired as with spend alone, it's not enough to get anywhere exciting.

 

[Karl]

RE: claiming rewards until after the renewal, I used to have a gold rewards card years ago which gave me cashback, plus redeemable points on vouchers or whatever in their online shop-type thing, and I claimed all of that before cancelling the card prior to its renewal date.

I've now got a platinum cashback card, which I'm going to do the same thing on, then when I've cancelled, the wife will be signing up instead.

 

[tlrBeta]

What spend are you putting through it per year?

It isn't based on spend though as mentioned by Basher.

I could spend the £10k (fairly easy now given all major supermarkets take it - including Aldi) on the card to get the companion voucher, the point is that I won't be building enough avios to make the fee worthwhile!

The voucher is only worthwhile in business long haul and above, anything less and you may as well just pay for flights, as after taxes it will be about equal.

 

[Dolly]

What spend are you putting through it per year?

I think you have to spend £10k per year to qualify for the companion voucher. We just put all of our spending through it and clear each month. Works out anywhere between £1k-£2.5k per month depending on time of year / holidays etc. We did well when we bought my husband’s motorbike as Ducati took Amex so got an extra £8k worth of points. The spend each month all adds up as Avios points so every month my BA account goes up by 3000-6000 Avios which I can then also use against the flights. It’s worthwhile for us just for the flights - extra Avios can be used for hotel stays but we haven’t used that yet.

Edit: I’ve just looked and we get around 140,000 Avios points a year (inc bonus points added).

 

[Dolly]

I can't imagine you do this frequently though, unless you travel a lot and build avios that way?

I have been fortunate to use it once for a return trip to Japan in business, 150k of avios points. However once I stopped travelling with work, I just haven't continued to build the points the same way and have since just gone to the normal blue BA Amex.

We’d probably fly long haul every 12-18 months for a holiday and so it’s worthwhile for us as we save c.£5k on the flights by using the companion voucher. We build Avios monthly (albeit not a lot) and we also try to use the Amex for big one off purchases to get the extra points as well.

 

[tlrBeta]

We’d probably fly long haul every 12-18 months for a holiday and so it’s worthwhile for us as we save c.£5k on the flights by using the companion voucher. We build Avios monthly (albeit not a lot) and we also try to use the Amex for big one off purchases to get the extra points as well.

You're building 140k of points a year just on expenditure?

Ignoring the one off bonuses that's an average of over £7.5k a month on the card.. yikes.

I guess you can double stack, e.g. Tesco clubcard, but I am nowhere near that spend.

Clearly im not playing the game well enough.

 

[Dolly]

You're building 140k of points a year just on expenditure?

Ignoring the one off bonuses that's an average of over £7.5k a month on the card.. yikes.

I guess you can double stack, e.g. Tesco clubcard, but I am nowhere near that spend.

Clearly im not playing the game well enough.

God no, definitely don’t spend anywhere near that much per month! As I said, we got a tranche of bonus points and we’ve used it for one off purchases as well - husband’s motorbike, booking holiday/flights etc.

 

[Rotty]

Edit: I’ve just looked and we get around 140,000 Avios points a year (inc bonus points added).

I've done similar this year, maybe a little more and 100K too

You need to know the tricks

 

[sb89]

I've been looking at the Platinum Everyday card and I have a question about the cashback.

After the first three months of Cardmembership you’ll earn up to 1% cashback, depending on how much you spend on the Card:

• Spend £0 to £5,000 and receive 0.5% cashback on purchases
• Spend over £5,000 and receive 1% cashback on purchases

So if I spent 6k, does this mean

• I get 0.5% on 5k then 1% on 1k?
• Or 1% on 6k?

 

[Martynt74]

I've been looking at the Platinum Everyday card and I have a question about the cashback.



So if I spent 6k, does this mean

• I get 0.5% on 5k then 1% on 1k?
• Or 1% on 6k?

Pretty sure its 0.5% on the first 5k and then 1% on anything above that.

If you spend enough it might be worth looking at the £25 fee cashback card. £6k would be the point that it becomes worthwhile i believe

 

[theone8181]

So since starting this thread, I'm now at 148 quid cashback although until I've had the card a year I won't know how much I'll make. Quite different to my samtander card, which I was making 3 quid a month off. Glad I went for the 25 quid card now, I've found there's only a few shops that don't take it and they tend to be small (apart from Screwfix which surprised me).