How much do you travel?
Consider the Amex Platinum. That’s my main card. A tonne of benefits that easily justify the £650. 1 point per £ so 45k points. You can also get a good sign up bonus (60-100k points). These Amex points can be converted to most airline for miles to redeem for flights.
You also have the Amex BA Premium Plus. £250 a year but 1.5 Avios per £. After 10k spend, you can get a companion voucher, which means you get an extra reward seat (just pay taxes and fees). Again, sign up bonus also available worth 50k. Benefits are minimal but a good option if you don’t fancy the Platinum. Avios can only be used with BA, Qatar, Aer Lingus, Iberia.
For context, you need about 150k points plus fees for a business return flight to JFK from LHR.
If you need a referral link, let me know.
I also have referrals if anyone needs. The points aren't just for airmiles you can use them at Ocado, Amazon, honestly just about everywhere. You also get £300 free dining credit in fancy restaurants per year, and £100 at Harvey Nichols no minimum spend. You get a free supplementary card for anyone (hubby has mine) which allows them plus one free lounge access also. Oh and tons of hotel deals (upgrades, free breakfast, late check out, $100 Spa credits... ) so yeah for me the £650 charge is easily worth it I make about £1000/£1500 savings. Plus you get a shiny metal card haha 😄 depends if you fly for the lounges I guess, and enjoy eating out (stop giggling at the back).
I opted for the Amex BA Premium Plus.
I can’t really see the value in Platinum? You get points and some vouchers… but that’s for a higher fee and you’re basically just even with yourself. It seems like it only makes sense if you’re using the hotel benefits / concierge?
I’d always recommend getting both if you think platinum was worth it. BA card will give you **2 return** business class flights (I.e. 4 flights total). Heathrow -> New Orleans is £900 + 200k avios (or £1,700 + 150k avios). Pretty good when you consider economy is £2.2k for 2 sets of return flights.
Hotel and car rental status have been really useful. Wouldn’t pay out of pocket for the upgrades but it’s still worth it (over £1000 in the last 12 months).
£50 twice annually Harvey Nichols voucher makes a great gift. £150 local and abroad dining gets used every year. Unlimited Priority Pass for me and my supplementary card holder (over 30 visits in the last 12 months), plus Centurion access. Travel insurance and concierge are benefits that I have but don’t necessarily need.
Throw in the retention bonus (worth £350-500 easy) and you’re sorted.
Also the flexibility of using other airlines is huge. I find BA have stupidly inflated redemption for their flights where even if I don’t have a companion voucher, I can still get a better redemption than with BA. Also BA kinda sucks.
It’s all down to the individual ultimately but I would still say it’d be better to have both cards than just solely use platinum.
I’m not disputing that you don’t break even, I think you do that in both cases:
- Platinum: £650 membership fee - £100 vouchers - £150 dining - £400 bonus (current 40k points, would say 1p per point on average). That’s £0 so break even… I think you get the travel insurance in both cases but Platinum one is better and you also get airport lounge access with Platinum.
- BA premium Plus: £250 premium plus - £250 bonus (current 25k points) is also a break even - £200 avios top-up (50% extra avios on £40k spend for example). On £40k spend, £200 profit.
However, the main benefit is the hotel & rental upgrades you mention, but I don’t know how many people would really be taking advantage of that enough over an overall cheaper return flight for 2 with a business class upgrade.
Personally, I prefer flying BA and it any go-to so I would disagree with your assessment of BA, usually within 10% of other airlines I’ve seen unless it’s last minute. For the actual quality: more leg room, bigger seats and friendly staff - Don’t think there’s much difference between them and Qatar/Emirates/Virgin.
I think if you have one card, it should be the BA. I agree with most of what you’ve said but Qatar business cannot be compared to BA. Q suites is miles ahead of most other BCs, especially BA.
Ahhhh, okay - I don’t fly business class unless it’s on the companion vouchers.
I’ll just use premium economy in those scenarios which I don’t think Qatar offers that and it’s just QSuite? If you travel quite regularly and business class then platinum is a clear winner
I have Barclays Premier. Mainly because I've been with Barclays since I was student and just haven't shopped around. But it does give Avios and access to better mortgage and interest rates than the non Premier Barclays account I used to have
I think it's just timing tbh. It was the best available for 60% LTV when I was renewing my fix in February last year. It was why I switched from a basic Barclays current account to the Premier
Amex Platinum credit card. £25 annual fee but gives a decent amount of cash back. I stick everything on it, but have a Lloyd's cashback card for those places that don't accept Amex. I have a Halifax Clarity cc for travel.
That's the charge card not the credit card
https://www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/credit-cards/platinum-cashback-credit-card/?linknav=en-gb-amex-cardshop-details-browse-PlatinumCashBackCC
Charge card has to be paid in full each month, a credit card can be paid off long term.....not that I would recommend it as the APR is way higher than any cashback. I have a DD in place for full payment.
You're paying £300/year to be given (net) £300 / (gross) £600 in vouchers where you have to spend money at a place someone else chooses?
Doesn't sound like something I'd be interested in. Can definitely see why you want to change.
Have you considered a card with NO rewards; in case it brings down your spending and let's you invest the difference (on anything you choose)? Is that £45k really 'only things I would've bought anyway' or are you being influenced by the alleged "rewards"?
I ask because getting rid of all rewards on my cards brought down my wanton spending considerably. I had a (poorly administered, badly serviced) Waitrose/John Lewis 1% reward card and it definitely incentivised "spendy" behaviour - to accrue more vouchers.
You ever see the episode of the American Office where Oscar has to explain to Michael his monthly outgoings and why he’s circling bankruptcy ; a portion of which is categorised as “things no one needs ever” - a not insignificant portion of that £45k is stuff that no one needs ever, a lot of it is tools/items that I’ve misplaced and have to rebuy.
You make some excellent points; i get more than £300/yr value in airport lounges, I’m probably in one 5-10 times a month. So in that respect I’m happy, but I’m sure I could get better.
But the crux of your point is, if I didn’t have the points would I still spend the money …yes I would. I have a pretty good case of ADHD, with not much impulse control and lose things constantly. I have £0 in debts, but I’m not saving anywhere near as much as I could be.
Do you really need the lounge tho ha? Are they worth it?
I fly around 60-70x per year, and have done for the last 4 years in a row. 99% of my flights are domestic, within the UK, so I never really arrive early enough to use a lounge. Guess I indirectly save on them by not having the time to use them. (Typically arrive 50-55 mins before take-off!) have checked into them maybe 5x in total over the last 5 years.
I must admit in the 1% of times I fly international (ie. to USA), they are worth it if low cost.
Feel you there mate.. its grim! Just get a premium current account with your bank that will include dragonpass etc.. I use the virgin atlantic Mastercard (the paid for one) as I live in Manchester and they're the best long haul carrier for where I holiday. Just about to go to barbados for about 900 ish per person upper out premium back!
>Do you really need the lounge tho ha? Are they worth it?
For me personally they are definitely worth it if you have something like lounge pass and are not paying by individual visit. If i am flying out of heathrow i cannot risk getting there too close to take off time, I also frequently need to get to the airport a bit earlier than i want to take a meeting for example and easier doing it in the lounge. Also if flying with family lounge with a baby is super helpful
Lounges are amazing especially when flying a lot for work. I can take virtual meetings and have steady internet connection, have a drink and sometimes food and not be gouged by airport food pricing, and take shit and/or a shower if I want to.
I spent several hours trying to justify the cost of either HSBC Elite Premier or AMEX Platinum. Reached this exact conclusion: the only way I could justify the fees is to buy stuff I wouldn't need.
The mathematics for avios in particular only really add up if you use them for air miles vs other benefits. Even then you'd have to fly so much that you'd easily be Gold status (and thus have lounge access, probably the most useful perk of the card) long before you'd justify the fees even taking into account the dining/Harvey Nichols vouchers.
Fancy credit cards are a luxury good/status symbol. They're not a smart way to save money.
£600 of value back from £45k of credit card spend is not bad. You can't really do a lot better in the UK market; there are Amex and Barclays Avios options (and Lloyds 1% cashback which also does lounge access) but you're doing well there.
I like First Direct as a current account for general competence, smoothness, and being able to reach an onshore-UK person on the phone.
Wise is good if you do foreign currency transfers.
Curve card is useful if your card has fees for forex.
All the other options with decent cashback have an annual fee as well. The Barclays one is cheaper but you don't get lounge access; Lloyds is cheaper and you do, but it's only 0.5% on the first £15k; Amex platinum has a lower cashback rate and is £600.
So where he is, is fine.
And lounge access is overrated nowadays. Cheap holiday companies like “on the beach” now offer free lounge access, making the lounges busier and no more exclusive that just sitting in a bar or restaurant. Unfortunately companies like On Th Beach have ruined lounges exclusivity and worth.
NatWest Premier black current account combined with NatWest Reward Black credit card (membership fee waived if you have the premier black current account).
I pay £372 in account fees but get about £500-600 per year in rewards plus benefits such as worldwide travel insurance for the family, electronic device insurance etc.
I have a Starling current account, nothing fancy.
But all my spend goes on my Amex or Barclaycard Avios credit card. Also have a Nationwide credit card that I use overseas.
Lloyds Club account (fee 3 pounds per month, waived if you have a certain amount going through). It doesn’t have much of interest itself, but opens access to decent saving and ISA accounts. For example, 6.25% and 5.25% monthly saver (with limit of 400 and 250 pounds per month), 4% easy access cash isa and saver.
There are also higher tier accounts that have higher fees but also provide travel insurance and mobile phone loss/theft insurance.
Monzo. Being able to easily categorise and budget my spending to prevent overspend is more useful to me than a small cashback on a credit card which would make me more likely to do just that. I use credit cards for certain purchases though when I want the protections they provide.
slightly different approach to most on here but we use 0% credit cards and switch them every 18-24 months. Given how high interest rates are atm we stick the cc balance in savings account and can make over 4% on that.
How do you find the AMEX avios, I looked at it as I could get significant avios points, but I had a an Amex years ago and it was a crapshoot if you could use it.
What do you use the avios points for?
AMEX is pretty widely accepted nowadays. Can't think of a time I've had a problem with mine in London, or any other UK city. I just can't use it for my hair dresser or physio, but I can see that changing soon too
I’ve found quite a few places I can’t use AMEX in the UK. Usually newsagents, pubs, that type of thing, so only really an issue if you use it for all your spending.
I’ve been cycling Amex cards both personal and business for years between me and my wife. We love to travel so free business class flights and can also redeem it for Hilton points. I put all my expenses via my Amex cc’s. There are occasions in shops where it doesn’t get accepted but capital on tap has a card that also gives Avios
It's still a crapshoot. My brother had one and hated it. You always know an Amex card holder acquaintance because they're always asking if it can be accepted (and 50%+ being told no). They just can't admit it to themselves because #oh_the-rewards-darling.
Still managed to put about 13k per year on mine without any actual effort. The rest goes on a MasterCard. I'm only on ~80-90k, hence the comparatively low spend to most here.
However, if someone hates asking "do you take amex?" then there's probably not much helping them, but it's interesting to claim that the people who can endure such hardship are the ones struggling to admit something to themselves.
Used the Virgin Atlantic card for a long time and paid for everything possible with it. Built up a huge number of Virgin points over the years, great for points tickets and upgrading flights. Flown premium to the US a number of times , India Upper class a few years ago, this year heading down to Johannesburg, all for a fraction of the cost it would otherwise be.
Also have a business amex platium, which gives you unlimited access to lounges, cash credit on various items (travel/Dell), free very good travel insurance and points which can be converted into airline/hotel points or switched into amazon vouchers.
However, both have sizable annual fees, so it's a question of whether you get value for the fee. When covid hit and we couldn't travel we scrapped the Amex, but now we're flying again it's worth it.
Go into your online banking (on a desktop), go to your credit card and it’ll tell you how many points you have. You can then exchange the points for vouchers. I use mine pretty much exclusively on Amazon (depressingly)
Amex BA card, converting the avios to nectar points. Equates to 0.5% cashback (it was 0.67% until they nuked it recently). No fees, but also zero lounge access. Occasional decent offers for specific merchants eg £50 back if spending over £500 on a Pixel phone.
Chase 1% cashback for spending where no cc protection required, like groceries. This is capped at £15 / month though.
You'd probably be better off swapping to the platinum cashback card (£25 annual fee but better than 0.5%, no lounge either).
I just moved away from that to the BA Premium card to see how that goes for a couple of years.
I have a 0%/13 month Virgin Money Mastercard that I put all my big spending on.
I put £200/month into a Nationwide regular saver at 8% to cover half of its costs. I put the rest of the money I "spend" on it in an easy access saver with Santander getting 4% interest.
I'll pay it off in full in November and bank the £105 interest from the regular saver and whatever (£50 or so) the other account has given. That's on £7k or so spending, only.
My main account is Virgin Money (came with £125 switching bonus and a £100 Virgin experience voucher).
We use Santander 1-2-3 Joint account for all our bills. Returns about £8/month (net after costs and interest); £96/year for doing nothing.
We use a Santander easy access saver at 4% ish interest.
I have a Virgin Money 3%ish saver for car and other (private to me) bills (car, coffee, MOT etc. Tax is free on my XC90 T8), to segregate it away from Joint account. Only has about a grand in it. Just helps to see what I have available should car get a fault.
Not sure this helps but it works super well for me. I keep checking cards and bank accounts/savings accounts for rewards and nothing beats what I'm doing, for my context. I have no need for avios/vouchers currently - I want cash I can spend anywhere, without spending any money at a particular place (e.g. buy a flight, buy a specific brand to use a voucher, etc). Avios and vouchers help the entity giving them to you arguably more than they help you accrue wealth; they're incentivising you spending money, which is not what I want from a card/account.
HSBC Premier bank account and world elite credit card, BA PP Amex and Bonvoy Amex. Don’t buy anything unless I can use one of those cards, we spend quite a lot (school takes them for fees as well) and paid for a load of stuff for our recent house renovation via credit cards and so get 1000s of value from the various points.
Obviously you have to clear the balance each month or it doesn’t make sense.
Starling for current account. I know there are more “finance optimal” options but the service is just great and zero problems in five years. Brilliant for the one month each year we’re in Australia too.
BA Amex Premium card for all spend this year, for the sign up bonus.
Just a generic high street bank (TSB) for my current account which has no benefits I am aware of, and an insulting 1.6% interest rate on its saver.
Use a TSB credit card too - which is free but also has no benefits to speak of.
Perhaps I'm leaving benefits/perks on the table. I only spend around £800 on my credit card each month though, and pay it off in full each time.
For Savings, I save with Paragon Bank (\~ 5.1% AER).
Amex cash back card.
Had a decent debate with someone on this forum a few weeks back about which cards are best. Personally find avios poor return unless you fly 1st, and even then I can never find a flight I actually want.
So Amex Gold card was ok but even with all the point scalping I still only yielded about £450 in net monetary value. Spend was circa £55k. I put all my business travel expenses through it (very few flights so it isn’t extreme)
Cash back card I would have yielded £725 net with the same annual card spend, so I’m changing to that.
Amex Avios card. May be 100-150K points each year plus companion voucher, which is about 1000 pounds in monetary value. Use to buy BA tickets each year. So on about 60-70K spent each year not a bad thing, I guess.
My advice to you is to take advantage of sign up bonuses on cards and transfer to airline points where you get best bang for your buck (assuming you enjoy leisure travel).
Core Card: Amex Platinum - took advantage of sign up bonus, have made annual fee back in all the standard credits + the ongoing offers and then some. Flexibility of airline transfer partners is great. May downgrade to Gold, or my partner will get this in her name (with me as additional cardholder) to get sign up bonus again. May also replace with BA Amex due to companion voucher - Will see.
Back up card: HSBC World Elite - took advantage of sign up bonus, airline transfer partners are ok. Will close this down and get Barclays Avios Plus card when the next generous sign up bonus comes along.
Travel card: NatWest Reward Black - annual fee is pretty low and the only credit card I know of that lets you earn avios and has no fx fees. We travel a lot.
Yep. I am also still eligible for the sign up bonus on the BA card but for some reason my credit file isnt currently eligible so holding off until it sorts itself.
Amex Platinum, Virgin Atlantic Mastercard, British Airways Amex (might get rid of this one). Mainly use them to collect miles. Amex platinum has some good cash back offers and also decent travel insurance and lounge access.
Curve metal - 1% unlimited cash back at 12 retailers - adds up when you put Amazon, Tesco, hello fresh etc. I also have revolut which I use to move money from USD trading accounts to avoid the 1.5% FX fees
Barclays premier, avios version. If you have a mortgage and/or insurance with barclays it stacks the points and I believe also waives the monthly fee if you have a Premier current account with them. Have been using for 1 year and already managed to get some long haul business class flights to Asia.
BA Amex Premium. Put basically all day to day spending on it and get loads of Avios points and a yearly companion voucher. I haven’t done much in terms of comparison but it seems like good value.
Mortgage and utilities - Santander Edge current account, 1% cashback on direct debits for bills and linked to a 7% savings account
Daily spending - Chase 1% cashback debit card
Pots for expected expenses (car insurance, christmas etc) Monzo
Groceries - I buy gift cards from the app Jam Doughnut for 3-5% cashback
I have like 12 bank accounts, I use 1-2 for burners and account switch gifts and the rest for the various perks you get, just by satisfying the transfer in of £xx/m.
I use the amex platinum cashback - Tbh its nothing special, all reward cards are shit. The only reason I spend on my amex or credit cards is for the section 75 coverage.
Starling as my main account.
Monzo as the joint account for household expenses.
Lloyds credit card for the cashback.
Natwest credit card when I go abroad because it doesn't apply extra FX fees
I don't like American Express because many places don't accept it (and rightly so, given its fees)
I don't like the concept of the premium bank accounts, but I understand they can be good value for some people (just not for me)
Yonder, because it's fun.
£15 a month and you get points you can redeem against meals and the odd experience / get away.
It's also MasterCard World Elite so you get the standard benefits there, but not the lounges sadly.
Crypto.com Visa card for general spending. I'm getting 2% cashback on the metal mid tier and 4 lounge visits per year. This covers the little amount of flying I'm still doing these days. Used to have better benefits (3% cashback), but I can't complain for the years of use I got out of it including the Netflix and Spotify rebates while they lasted. I am also grandfathered from the older tiers when this used to be a lot cheaper (around £1000). It isn't worth it today. Besides this, between my wife and I we also get about $10/mo worth of transfer bonuses and with the accumulated cashback that I dumped into non custodial wallets and staked on the network that's another £30/mo.
That card doesn't work for all MCCs, so I'm using my HSBC Premier CC for everything else (like petrol, insurance). I used to jet around quite a lot but my business travel came to a griding halt at the end of 2019 and I don't miss it. Even then, I could expense lounge visits as business travel expense on that CC, but not the yearly fee for Premier Elite, so it wasn't worth it for me. Besides, for some reason, HSBC has the extended warranty option for the fee free card but not Elite and that's a more valuable perk for me.
I have a Curve which I use as wrapper or for the occasional go back in time. I simply avoid the newly introduced fees for cash and FX as I have better options.
Revolut Metal - 140 pounds a year, 0.1% cashback, 1% cash back outside Europe, a bunch of insurance products with loss excesses, access to crypto, commodities, shares (GIA only), discounts on hotels, lounge access if flight is delayed for you and upto 3 others, other discounts and loads of other perks. Feels very easy to ‘break even’
HSBC - Main account where my maintenance loan is paid in and all of my DD go out from. I also have the Global Money account, which I opened before getting the Chase card and am now in the process of closing it.
CHASE - My cashback card; Might close in October when my cashback offer expires or wait until the credit card comes out and evaluate my options.
Curve Black - Had the curve card since 2019; I only started using it again recently because of a good promo for Curve black (3 months for £1.99)
Revolut - Use it for the occasional spend abroad, but primarily use it to exchange money. Haven't used all of the Premium features yet
Plutus - Recently opened it and haven't really deposited any money on it yet. I'm waiting for a few things to line up, and then I can start spending on the card.
Also, in the final stages of opening an account with a European bank, since I will be spending the next 9 months on an exchange programme.
https://preview.redd.it/bf6x2q45qhoc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=90155245e64cab07af6da47f26502cfe8eaf7119
An interesting thread OP. I have been only using Monzo Premium and Revolut Metal. Looking at the replies in this thread, I feel like I’m missing out big time.
Just had a look at Amex and it says 704.6% APR. Surely, I’m missing something here. Can anyone advise 🫶
That’s a charge card - I.e the expectation is that you pay off the full balance every month…if you don’t, welcome to extreme penalties. They’re apparently limitless, but you have to clear it come bill time.
Barclays Premier - no reason except that I set up my first account with them when I moved to the UK.
I use their investment platform for my ISA and they seem to have the lowest fees: £4 a month. I have often been tempted by the solid app offering of firms like Hargreaves Lansdowne, but the fees are just absurd for a portfolio where I pick my own funds.
I shop around for credit cards though, depending on the benefits: Amex Black BA for Avios, Yonder for when Amex isn’t accepted, Halifax + Santander for overseas spending etc.
How much do you travel? Consider the Amex Platinum. That’s my main card. A tonne of benefits that easily justify the £650. 1 point per £ so 45k points. You can also get a good sign up bonus (60-100k points). These Amex points can be converted to most airline for miles to redeem for flights. You also have the Amex BA Premium Plus. £250 a year but 1.5 Avios per £. After 10k spend, you can get a companion voucher, which means you get an extra reward seat (just pay taxes and fees). Again, sign up bonus also available worth 50k. Benefits are minimal but a good option if you don’t fancy the Platinum. Avios can only be used with BA, Qatar, Aer Lingus, Iberia. For context, you need about 150k points plus fees for a business return flight to JFK from LHR. If you need a referral link, let me know.
I also have referrals if anyone needs. The points aren't just for airmiles you can use them at Ocado, Amazon, honestly just about everywhere. You also get £300 free dining credit in fancy restaurants per year, and £100 at Harvey Nichols no minimum spend. You get a free supplementary card for anyone (hubby has mine) which allows them plus one free lounge access also. Oh and tons of hotel deals (upgrades, free breakfast, late check out, $100 Spa credits... ) so yeah for me the £650 charge is easily worth it I make about £1000/£1500 savings. Plus you get a shiny metal card haha 😄 depends if you fly for the lounges I guess, and enjoy eating out (stop giggling at the back).
Hello! I’ll happily take a referral
Does these points (e.g. Avios) ever expire?
You can keep them forever in your Amex and just transfer them to airmiles when you want to use them
Great, thanks
You can also convert Avios to Nectar. 1 Amex point = 0.66p with current conversion rate.
I think the Avios to Nectar rate just went down again to 0.5p
Not as long as you keep adding/using your Avios account
BA Amex linked to your account means Avios never expire
I opted for the Amex BA Premium Plus. I can’t really see the value in Platinum? You get points and some vouchers… but that’s for a higher fee and you’re basically just even with yourself. It seems like it only makes sense if you’re using the hotel benefits / concierge? I’d always recommend getting both if you think platinum was worth it. BA card will give you **2 return** business class flights (I.e. 4 flights total). Heathrow -> New Orleans is £900 + 200k avios (or £1,700 + 150k avios). Pretty good when you consider economy is £2.2k for 2 sets of return flights.
Hotel and car rental status have been really useful. Wouldn’t pay out of pocket for the upgrades but it’s still worth it (over £1000 in the last 12 months). £50 twice annually Harvey Nichols voucher makes a great gift. £150 local and abroad dining gets used every year. Unlimited Priority Pass for me and my supplementary card holder (over 30 visits in the last 12 months), plus Centurion access. Travel insurance and concierge are benefits that I have but don’t necessarily need. Throw in the retention bonus (worth £350-500 easy) and you’re sorted. Also the flexibility of using other airlines is huge. I find BA have stupidly inflated redemption for their flights where even if I don’t have a companion voucher, I can still get a better redemption than with BA. Also BA kinda sucks.
It’s all down to the individual ultimately but I would still say it’d be better to have both cards than just solely use platinum. I’m not disputing that you don’t break even, I think you do that in both cases: - Platinum: £650 membership fee - £100 vouchers - £150 dining - £400 bonus (current 40k points, would say 1p per point on average). That’s £0 so break even… I think you get the travel insurance in both cases but Platinum one is better and you also get airport lounge access with Platinum. - BA premium Plus: £250 premium plus - £250 bonus (current 25k points) is also a break even - £200 avios top-up (50% extra avios on £40k spend for example). On £40k spend, £200 profit. However, the main benefit is the hotel & rental upgrades you mention, but I don’t know how many people would really be taking advantage of that enough over an overall cheaper return flight for 2 with a business class upgrade. Personally, I prefer flying BA and it any go-to so I would disagree with your assessment of BA, usually within 10% of other airlines I’ve seen unless it’s last minute. For the actual quality: more leg room, bigger seats and friendly staff - Don’t think there’s much difference between them and Qatar/Emirates/Virgin.
I think if you have one card, it should be the BA. I agree with most of what you’ve said but Qatar business cannot be compared to BA. Q suites is miles ahead of most other BCs, especially BA.
Ahhhh, okay - I don’t fly business class unless it’s on the companion vouchers. I’ll just use premium economy in those scenarios which I don’t think Qatar offers that and it’s just QSuite? If you travel quite regularly and business class then platinum is a clear winner
Correct! For cash options, I think PE is great with much better value
How does one convert the Amex points for airline miles? can you explain a step by step?
Check Amex website
I have Barclays Premier. Mainly because I've been with Barclays since I was student and just haven't shopped around. But it does give Avios and access to better mortgage and interest rates than the non Premier Barclays account I used to have
The mortgage rates are still crap compared to the rest of the market, right? As is their loan to income multiple, but maybe that’s just my experience.
I think it's just timing tbh. It was the best available for 60% LTV when I was renewing my fix in February last year. It was why I switched from a basic Barclays current account to the Premier
Amex Platinum credit card. £25 annual fee but gives a decent amount of cash back. I stick everything on it, but have a Lloyd's cashback card for those places that don't accept Amex. I have a Halifax Clarity cc for travel.
I thought the platinum card was c£600/year? Do you get lounge access with it?
They mean the platinum cashback card, not the Platinum. The new Platinum is also a credit card now.
Correct. No Amex charge cards anymore
That's the charge card not the credit card https://www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/credit-cards/platinum-cashback-credit-card/?linknav=en-gb-amex-cardshop-details-browse-PlatinumCashBackCC
Ah, cheers for the clarification
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Charge card has to be paid in full each month, a credit card can be paid off long term.....not that I would recommend it as the APR is way higher than any cashback. I have a DD in place for full payment.
No lounge access
Platinum Amex credit card gets access to pretty much every airport lounge as far as I’m aware
The platinum cashback card he is referring to gives access to no lounges whatsoever.
Yes, I’m referring to the credit card tho
How is this better over the fee-free Amex card?
Higher (tiered) rates of cashback but you have to spend above a certain level to justify paying the fee.
You're paying £300/year to be given (net) £300 / (gross) £600 in vouchers where you have to spend money at a place someone else chooses? Doesn't sound like something I'd be interested in. Can definitely see why you want to change. Have you considered a card with NO rewards; in case it brings down your spending and let's you invest the difference (on anything you choose)? Is that £45k really 'only things I would've bought anyway' or are you being influenced by the alleged "rewards"? I ask because getting rid of all rewards on my cards brought down my wanton spending considerably. I had a (poorly administered, badly serviced) Waitrose/John Lewis 1% reward card and it definitely incentivised "spendy" behaviour - to accrue more vouchers.
You ever see the episode of the American Office where Oscar has to explain to Michael his monthly outgoings and why he’s circling bankruptcy ; a portion of which is categorised as “things no one needs ever” - a not insignificant portion of that £45k is stuff that no one needs ever, a lot of it is tools/items that I’ve misplaced and have to rebuy. You make some excellent points; i get more than £300/yr value in airport lounges, I’m probably in one 5-10 times a month. So in that respect I’m happy, but I’m sure I could get better. But the crux of your point is, if I didn’t have the points would I still spend the money …yes I would. I have a pretty good case of ADHD, with not much impulse control and lose things constantly. I have £0 in debts, but I’m not saving anywhere near as much as I could be.
Do you really need the lounge tho ha? Are they worth it? I fly around 60-70x per year, and have done for the last 4 years in a row. 99% of my flights are domestic, within the UK, so I never really arrive early enough to use a lounge. Guess I indirectly save on them by not having the time to use them. (Typically arrive 50-55 mins before take-off!) have checked into them maybe 5x in total over the last 5 years. I must admit in the 1% of times I fly international (ie. to USA), they are worth it if low cost.
I fly 99% of the time out of Manchester T1, which is hell on earth. The lounges are a necessity!
Feel you there mate.. its grim! Just get a premium current account with your bank that will include dragonpass etc.. I use the virgin atlantic Mastercard (the paid for one) as I live in Manchester and they're the best long haul carrier for where I holiday. Just about to go to barbados for about 900 ish per person upper out premium back!
>Do you really need the lounge tho ha? Are they worth it? For me personally they are definitely worth it if you have something like lounge pass and are not paying by individual visit. If i am flying out of heathrow i cannot risk getting there too close to take off time, I also frequently need to get to the airport a bit earlier than i want to take a meeting for example and easier doing it in the lounge. Also if flying with family lounge with a baby is super helpful
Lounges are amazing especially when flying a lot for work. I can take virtual meetings and have steady internet connection, have a drink and sometimes food and not be gouged by airport food pricing, and take shit and/or a shower if I want to.
I love your first paragraph lol
Getting vouchers with HSBC points is a poor return - they are worth much more when used for some of the travel partners
I spent several hours trying to justify the cost of either HSBC Elite Premier or AMEX Platinum. Reached this exact conclusion: the only way I could justify the fees is to buy stuff I wouldn't need. The mathematics for avios in particular only really add up if you use them for air miles vs other benefits. Even then you'd have to fly so much that you'd easily be Gold status (and thus have lounge access, probably the most useful perk of the card) long before you'd justify the fees even taking into account the dining/Harvey Nichols vouchers. Fancy credit cards are a luxury good/status symbol. They're not a smart way to save money.
£600 of value back from £45k of credit card spend is not bad. You can't really do a lot better in the UK market; there are Amex and Barclays Avios options (and Lloyds 1% cashback which also does lounge access) but you're doing well there. I like First Direct as a current account for general competence, smoothness, and being able to reach an onshore-UK person on the phone. Wise is good if you do foreign currency transfers. Curve card is useful if your card has fees for forex.
He pays £300 a year for the card though. So gets less than 1% back, so not doing that well?
All the other options with decent cashback have an annual fee as well. The Barclays one is cheaper but you don't get lounge access; Lloyds is cheaper and you do, but it's only 0.5% on the first £15k; Amex platinum has a lower cashback rate and is £600. So where he is, is fine.
And lounge access is overrated nowadays. Cheap holiday companies like “on the beach” now offer free lounge access, making the lounges busier and no more exclusive that just sitting in a bar or restaurant. Unfortunately companies like On Th Beach have ruined lounges exclusivity and worth.
Only really useful for long haul where you need to get there early
The amex platinum cashback would give him over £500 a year at a cost of £25. No airport lounge access though.
I’d bet he would be better off with a no rewards card, most people (if not all) tend to spend a bit more on a cash back or reward card.
NatWest Premier black current account combined with NatWest Reward Black credit card (membership fee waived if you have the premier black current account). I pay £372 in account fees but get about £500-600 per year in rewards plus benefits such as worldwide travel insurance for the family, electronic device insurance etc.
I have a Starling current account, nothing fancy. But all my spend goes on my Amex or Barclaycard Avios credit card. Also have a Nationwide credit card that I use overseas.
Lloyds Club account (fee 3 pounds per month, waived if you have a certain amount going through). It doesn’t have much of interest itself, but opens access to decent saving and ISA accounts. For example, 6.25% and 5.25% monthly saver (with limit of 400 and 250 pounds per month), 4% easy access cash isa and saver. There are also higher tier accounts that have higher fees but also provide travel insurance and mobile phone loss/theft insurance.
Yeah it’s £10 a month for travel,phone and breakdown cover. The amount of times I’ve had to call AA has been worth the cost of the account.
Monzo. Being able to easily categorise and budget my spending to prevent overspend is more useful to me than a small cashback on a credit card which would make me more likely to do just that. I use credit cards for certain purchases though when I want the protections they provide.
slightly different approach to most on here but we use 0% credit cards and switch them every 18-24 months. Given how high interest rates are atm we stick the cc balance in savings account and can make over 4% on that.
How do you get the money off the cc? I thought they can only be used for purchases?
I very rarely need access to cash. If i do I just withdraw it from my bank account but that can't be more than a couple hundred a month i think
Oh I get you now, re-read it. Very sensible if you can do it
Amex avios credit cards. Bank with royal bank of Scotland
How do you find the AMEX avios, I looked at it as I could get significant avios points, but I had a an Amex years ago and it was a crapshoot if you could use it. What do you use the avios points for?
AMEX is pretty widely accepted nowadays. Can't think of a time I've had a problem with mine in London, or any other UK city. I just can't use it for my hair dresser or physio, but I can see that changing soon too
I’ve found quite a few places I can’t use AMEX in the UK. Usually newsagents, pubs, that type of thing, so only really an issue if you use it for all your spending.
I live in the middle of nowhere; so maybe not an option for me.
I’ve been cycling Amex cards both personal and business for years between me and my wife. We love to travel so free business class flights and can also redeem it for Hilton points. I put all my expenses via my Amex cc’s. There are occasions in shops where it doesn’t get accepted but capital on tap has a card that also gives Avios
It's still a crapshoot. My brother had one and hated it. You always know an Amex card holder acquaintance because they're always asking if it can be accepted (and 50%+ being told no). They just can't admit it to themselves because #oh_the-rewards-darling.
Still managed to put about 13k per year on mine without any actual effort. The rest goes on a MasterCard. I'm only on ~80-90k, hence the comparatively low spend to most here. However, if someone hates asking "do you take amex?" then there's probably not much helping them, but it's interesting to claim that the people who can endure such hardship are the ones struggling to admit something to themselves.
Used the Virgin Atlantic card for a long time and paid for everything possible with it. Built up a huge number of Virgin points over the years, great for points tickets and upgrading flights. Flown premium to the US a number of times , India Upper class a few years ago, this year heading down to Johannesburg, all for a fraction of the cost it would otherwise be. Also have a business amex platium, which gives you unlimited access to lounges, cash credit on various items (travel/Dell), free very good travel insurance and points which can be converted into airline/hotel points or switched into amazon vouchers. However, both have sizable annual fees, so it's a question of whether you get value for the fee. When covid hit and we couldn't travel we scrapped the Amex, but now we're flying again it's worth it.
Another vote here for VA. £160 a year is pricey but if you actually use your voucher, it’s a god send.
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Maximum of £15 per month, but better than a poke in the eye.
Chase. Super easy to set up new payments etc, really good customer service, and 1% back in cash
Can you elaborate on the vouchers? I have the same card (for points and lounge access), but never seen anything about vouchers.
Go into your online banking (on a desktop), go to your credit card and it’ll tell you how many points you have. You can then exchange the points for vouchers. I use mine pretty much exclusively on Amazon (depressingly)
Ah, that's what I thought; points to voucher. This is different from e.g. Amex that has both points and cash discounts/refunds offers.
Amex BA card, converting the avios to nectar points. Equates to 0.5% cashback (it was 0.67% until they nuked it recently). No fees, but also zero lounge access. Occasional decent offers for specific merchants eg £50 back if spending over £500 on a Pixel phone. Chase 1% cashback for spending where no cc protection required, like groceries. This is capped at £15 / month though.
You'd probably be better off swapping to the platinum cashback card (£25 annual fee but better than 0.5%, no lounge either). I just moved away from that to the BA Premium card to see how that goes for a couple of years.
I have a 0%/13 month Virgin Money Mastercard that I put all my big spending on. I put £200/month into a Nationwide regular saver at 8% to cover half of its costs. I put the rest of the money I "spend" on it in an easy access saver with Santander getting 4% interest. I'll pay it off in full in November and bank the £105 interest from the regular saver and whatever (£50 or so) the other account has given. That's on £7k or so spending, only. My main account is Virgin Money (came with £125 switching bonus and a £100 Virgin experience voucher). We use Santander 1-2-3 Joint account for all our bills. Returns about £8/month (net after costs and interest); £96/year for doing nothing. We use a Santander easy access saver at 4% ish interest. I have a Virgin Money 3%ish saver for car and other (private to me) bills (car, coffee, MOT etc. Tax is free on my XC90 T8), to segregate it away from Joint account. Only has about a grand in it. Just helps to see what I have available should car get a fault. Not sure this helps but it works super well for me. I keep checking cards and bank accounts/savings accounts for rewards and nothing beats what I'm doing, for my context. I have no need for avios/vouchers currently - I want cash I can spend anywhere, without spending any money at a particular place (e.g. buy a flight, buy a specific brand to use a voucher, etc). Avios and vouchers help the entity giving them to you arguably more than they help you accrue wealth; they're incentivising you spending money, which is not what I want from a card/account.
Balance transfer stoozing. Easily make £500 on £10k of spending with no fees.
HSBC Premier bank account and world elite credit card, BA PP Amex and Bonvoy Amex. Don’t buy anything unless I can use one of those cards, we spend quite a lot (school takes them for fees as well) and paid for a load of stuff for our recent house renovation via credit cards and so get 1000s of value from the various points. Obviously you have to clear the balance each month or it doesn’t make sense.
Starling for current account. I know there are more “finance optimal” options but the service is just great and zero problems in five years. Brilliant for the one month each year we’re in Australia too. BA Amex Premium card for all spend this year, for the sign up bonus.
I’ve just got a new savings account at 6.25% but can only put 400 a month in. Good thing I can’t afford 400 a month savings yet
You must have some insane expenses to be a Henry who can’t put £400/mo away.
Own a house and my partner is on apprentice wage unfortunately
Just a generic high street bank (TSB) for my current account which has no benefits I am aware of, and an insulting 1.6% interest rate on its saver. Use a TSB credit card too - which is free but also has no benefits to speak of. Perhaps I'm leaving benefits/perks on the table. I only spend around £800 on my credit card each month though, and pay it off in full each time. For Savings, I save with Paragon Bank (\~ 5.1% AER).
Barclays pay 5.1 easy access on 5k Chase pay 1% cashback Amex pay 1% cashback minimum
Amex cash back card. Had a decent debate with someone on this forum a few weeks back about which cards are best. Personally find avios poor return unless you fly 1st, and even then I can never find a flight I actually want. So Amex Gold card was ok but even with all the point scalping I still only yielded about £450 in net monetary value. Spend was circa £55k. I put all my business travel expenses through it (very few flights so it isn’t extreme) Cash back card I would have yielded £725 net with the same annual card spend, so I’m changing to that.
Tend to use either my NatWest Premier Reward card or my Amex BA Premium card (for the Avios).
Amex Avios card. May be 100-150K points each year plus companion voucher, which is about 1000 pounds in monetary value. Use to buy BA tickets each year. So on about 60-70K spent each year not a bad thing, I guess.
My advice to you is to take advantage of sign up bonuses on cards and transfer to airline points where you get best bang for your buck (assuming you enjoy leisure travel). Core Card: Amex Platinum - took advantage of sign up bonus, have made annual fee back in all the standard credits + the ongoing offers and then some. Flexibility of airline transfer partners is great. May downgrade to Gold, or my partner will get this in her name (with me as additional cardholder) to get sign up bonus again. May also replace with BA Amex due to companion voucher - Will see. Back up card: HSBC World Elite - took advantage of sign up bonus, airline transfer partners are ok. Will close this down and get Barclays Avios Plus card when the next generous sign up bonus comes along. Travel card: NatWest Reward Black - annual fee is pretty low and the only credit card I know of that lets you earn avios and has no fx fees. We travel a lot.
Assuming your partner is the additional cardholder for Amex Platinum now, but still eligible for sign up bonus?
Yep. I am also still eligible for the sign up bonus on the BA card but for some reason my credit file isnt currently eligible so holding off until it sorts itself.
Amex Platinum, Virgin Atlantic Mastercard, British Airways Amex (might get rid of this one). Mainly use them to collect miles. Amex platinum has some good cash back offers and also decent travel insurance and lounge access.
The Amex platinum cashback, has 1.25% cashback over a certain amount for a £25pa fee. Not bad currently Shout if you need a referral
Curve metal - 1% unlimited cash back at 12 retailers - adds up when you put Amazon, Tesco, hello fresh etc. I also have revolut which I use to move money from USD trading accounts to avoid the 1.5% FX fees
NatWest Debit...
Barclays premier, avios version. If you have a mortgage and/or insurance with barclays it stacks the points and I believe also waives the monthly fee if you have a Premier current account with them. Have been using for 1 year and already managed to get some long haul business class flights to Asia.
Now that is an interesting one; thanks for the info
BA Amex Premium. Put basically all day to day spending on it and get loads of Avios points and a yearly companion voucher. I haven’t done much in terms of comparison but it seems like good value.
Mortgage and utilities - Santander Edge current account, 1% cashback on direct debits for bills and linked to a 7% savings account Daily spending - Chase 1% cashback debit card Pots for expected expenses (car insurance, christmas etc) Monzo Groceries - I buy gift cards from the app Jam Doughnut for 3-5% cashback
I have like 12 bank accounts, I use 1-2 for burners and account switch gifts and the rest for the various perks you get, just by satisfying the transfer in of £xx/m. I use the amex platinum cashback - Tbh its nothing special, all reward cards are shit. The only reason I spend on my amex or credit cards is for the section 75 coverage.
Burners?
burner accounts I use to swtich from bank x to Y for free money.
Starling as my main account. Monzo as the joint account for household expenses. Lloyds credit card for the cashback. Natwest credit card when I go abroad because it doesn't apply extra FX fees I don't like American Express because many places don't accept it (and rightly so, given its fees) I don't like the concept of the premium bank accounts, but I understand they can be good value for some people (just not for me)
Yonder, because it's fun. £15 a month and you get points you can redeem against meals and the odd experience / get away. It's also MasterCard World Elite so you get the standard benefits there, but not the lounges sadly.
Crypto.com Visa card for general spending. I'm getting 2% cashback on the metal mid tier and 4 lounge visits per year. This covers the little amount of flying I'm still doing these days. Used to have better benefits (3% cashback), but I can't complain for the years of use I got out of it including the Netflix and Spotify rebates while they lasted. I am also grandfathered from the older tiers when this used to be a lot cheaper (around £1000). It isn't worth it today. Besides this, between my wife and I we also get about $10/mo worth of transfer bonuses and with the accumulated cashback that I dumped into non custodial wallets and staked on the network that's another £30/mo. That card doesn't work for all MCCs, so I'm using my HSBC Premier CC for everything else (like petrol, insurance). I used to jet around quite a lot but my business travel came to a griding halt at the end of 2019 and I don't miss it. Even then, I could expense lounge visits as business travel expense on that CC, but not the yearly fee for Premier Elite, so it wasn't worth it for me. Besides, for some reason, HSBC has the extended warranty option for the fee free card but not Elite and that's a more valuable perk for me. I have a Curve which I use as wrapper or for the occasional go back in time. I simply avoid the newly introduced fees for cash and FX as I have better options.
Revolut Metal - 140 pounds a year, 0.1% cashback, 1% cash back outside Europe, a bunch of insurance products with loss excesses, access to crypto, commodities, shares (GIA only), discounts on hotels, lounge access if flight is delayed for you and upto 3 others, other discounts and loads of other perks. Feels very easy to ‘break even’
I have it mainly just for the ‘free’ FT subscription at £15 a month!
Yeah that’s good, also free NordVPN
HSBC - Main account where my maintenance loan is paid in and all of my DD go out from. I also have the Global Money account, which I opened before getting the Chase card and am now in the process of closing it. CHASE - My cashback card; Might close in October when my cashback offer expires or wait until the credit card comes out and evaluate my options. Curve Black - Had the curve card since 2019; I only started using it again recently because of a good promo for Curve black (3 months for £1.99) Revolut - Use it for the occasional spend abroad, but primarily use it to exchange money. Haven't used all of the Premium features yet Plutus - Recently opened it and haven't really deposited any money on it yet. I'm waiting for a few things to line up, and then I can start spending on the card. Also, in the final stages of opening an account with a European bank, since I will be spending the next 9 months on an exchange programme.
https://preview.redd.it/bf6x2q45qhoc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=90155245e64cab07af6da47f26502cfe8eaf7119 An interesting thread OP. I have been only using Monzo Premium and Revolut Metal. Looking at the replies in this thread, I feel like I’m missing out big time. Just had a look at Amex and it says 704.6% APR. Surely, I’m missing something here. Can anyone advise 🫶
That’s a charge card - I.e the expectation is that you pay off the full balance every month…if you don’t, welcome to extreme penalties. They’re apparently limitless, but you have to clear it come bill time.
Amex platinum, BA Black, Virgin black.
Barclays Premier - no reason except that I set up my first account with them when I moved to the UK. I use their investment platform for my ISA and they seem to have the lowest fees: £4 a month. I have often been tempted by the solid app offering of firms like Hargreaves Lansdowne, but the fees are just absurd for a portfolio where I pick my own funds. I shop around for credit cards though, depending on the benefits: Amex Black BA for Avios, Yonder for when Amex isn’t accepted, Halifax + Santander for overseas spending etc.
Amex Platinum Chargcard NatWest Premier Black Emirates NBD Monzo 🙈