Credit Card Freebies Article Discussion Area

reclaimer_2

I've had the same problem and when I've looked for alternative ways of using them on diamond club's website the rewards are paltry. For example, your 160,000 miles will buy you £100 worth of shopping vouchers!

sanjeevm wrote: »

A word of warning for BMI's MasterCard:

I've had one now for about four years and the service that MBNA give (they run the card service) is first-class and cannot be faulted. HOWEVER, try spending your bmi miles and I’ve found so far it's proving to be impossible. I have over 160,000 miles that I'm trying to use, and on every single occasion of me trying to book reward flights with (a) bmi or (b) partner airlines, I find that they NEVER have any availability. Couple with that the fact that they can only search for available reward flights on a day-by-day basis and it becomes very impractical – their system does not allow them to be able to search for next available reward flights. I once spent over an hour on the phone to them and still couldn’t find any flights. I also have to say that their diamond club staff can be curt, verging on rude at times.

I intend to use-up my miles (somehow), and then cancel my diamond club membership. I also have an AMEX Virgin black card which is far better, and Virgin’s flying club is easier to use, and the miles are easier to spend!

I hope this helps

fivegoldstars

Can't seem to find this on here, so just giving it a shout out. Barclaycard are running a mailshot with a promotional code so that applicants for the new Goldfish get £50 and not £30 of vouchers. Might be worth mentioning if you apply by phone. Can't find the code right now but will try to post later.

esmerelda98

fivegoldstars wrote: »

Can't seem to find this on here, so just giving it a shout out. Barclaycard are running a mailshot with a promotional code so that applicants for the new Goldfish get £50 and not £30 of vouchers. Might be worth mentioning if you apply by phone. Can't find the code right now but will try to post later.

Can anyone confirm this and give any more details? I did a google search but couldn't find anything on this. I would have thought that such a deal would be well-publicised on this website, but you never know.
Thanks.

dp99

Had a quick scan of the threads and I dont think this has been mentioned:
The T&Cs seem to state that the free Airmiles must be used by end of March 2010. I think thats a bit limiting to be honest (and doesnt suit me personally). Does anyone have any different views on this?

Also regarding the £30 admin fee if you havent had airmiles credited in the last 12 months, I think this does not apply to new customers i.e. if getting the credit card means you become a new airmiles customer, so this is not a problem in my opinion. Best to clarify this with Airmiles customer service - my one experience of calling them (I am already a member) is that it took ages to get through the phone queue (around 40 minutes) but when I did get through they were very courteous and helpful.

geckofabulous

I took this out when the offer became available approximately 3 months ago, so when will I get my vouchers. I've followed the rules to the letter and they simply aren't giving up the goods it seems

Dwayne_Quest

Hi.

I have just applied for a CC and I had two choices for my profession: employed or student. I am a full time student, but I also have a job (part time during term and full time outside of term). I imagine they want me to put down student, but am I more likely to get accepted by clicking employed? How bad is it to do this? Are there repercussions?

Thank you.

LongTermLurker

I guess the majority of students could call themselves employed if they counted their part time work. I would have thought it fair to say you're principally a student - it'd be stretching the truth a bit to apply based on your part time job. Unless you're currently not studenting and want to claim you're a full time employee for the time being...

Depending on the card you've applied for, students get offered cards so I'd suggest you be honest. If you went into debt with your card there's the possibility that the CC company could shout "false representation".

CannyJock

You're both, so nothing wrong with putting down Employed and putting in your part-time income.

If you've got payslips and a P60 each year then you've got all the backup you need if it was ever queried.

chattychappy

sanjeevm wrote: »

HOWEVER, try spending your bmi miles and I’ve found so far it's proving to be impossible. I have over 160,000 miles that I'm trying to use, and on every single occasion of me trying to book reward flights with (a) bmi or (b) partner airlines, I find that they NEVER have any availability.

All airlines restrict availability of "award" flights and BMI are no worse than others. But there have been particular problems with their Indian call centre. BMI's scheme is particularly generous (eg the cash+rewards scheme, permitting singles and stopovers). Some flyers "abused" the scheme and contrived journeys that were against the principles/rules of the scheme (eg no doubling back). There was a clamp down and it became a bit of a mess. Also a number of people are booking flights right now because they have large balances and are concerned what will happen if BMI's Diamond Club gets merged with less generous Lufthansa's Miles&More. The place to look is the BMI forum within "flyertalk". (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/bmi-diamond-club-486/). Lots of advice about booking airmile flights. Also look up how to use the ANA website to check availability. In a nutshell you can join the ANA scheme free and use their website to check Star Alliance award availability yourself before calling BMI's call centre.

Certainly BMI is one of the best schemes around - especially if you combine spending on the credit card with Star Alliance paid-for travel (Thai, Singapore Airlines, etc.). If availability was so difficult they would lose their loyal frequent flyers - and keeping them is the whole point of these schemes. However it's true that you can't just get any flight just when you want it - and there have been particular problems with BMI in recent times.

Good luck.

PStaveley

BT has launched a freebie credit card which appears to offer a reward of 0.66%. The reward is actually 1p off your BT bill for every £1.50 of credit card expenditure.

Peter