Best credit card for expenses?

evoke

I currently have an British Airways American Express card that I use for expenses. The benefit I get is BA miles on my expenditure. I spend around £20,000 per year on it.

However, I can't stand BA as an airline and avoid then at all costs these days!

So, which credit card has more useful benefits given my expenditure? I don't need things like travel insurance as that is provided for me by my employer. I'm more interested in hard cash or discounts in High Street stores and things like that.

lisyloo

Egg money is 1% cashback (I think the limit is £20K but you might want to check).
There is a £1 per month fee but that's drawfed by your cashback.
The also include missed event cover (e.g. concerts), purchase protection and extended warranty.
Not major things, but can come in handy.
The £200 cashback is the main draw.

Capitalone have a similar card. 1% cashback. £18 fee.

I'd personally go with egg, but do check the cashback limit to get up toda te info.

dzug1

Bear in mind that if your employer is picky (and some are) the benefits actually belong to him

chattychappy

If you were interested in other airline awards, Amex Chargecard always used to be very good. A few years since I used it (mainly because of the loading on foreign spend), so may not be as good as it was. Their membership rewards scheme enabled you to transfer points to a number of airline schemes. I got a business class return from London City to Asia via Paris with Air France out of expenses spend. Basically they can finance it because typically they take more off the poor retailers.

I had the Platinum card - which came with a hefty fee. But it did include travel insurance, airport lounge access etc. So that may not work out for you - I think the same "rewards" scheme was available on "lesser" cards - but in true Amex spirit you then had to pay for "enrolment".

evoke

My employer is fine about how I settle my expenses. I give up much of the working week working away from home so don't see my friends and family until weekends. Given what I give up for my employer, my employer is relaxed about whether I use my Corporate AmEx card or my own personal credit card.

The cards with fees are a no-no for me. At least with my current BA AmEx (the lowest tiered one) I don't pay to use it so the BA Miles benefit me directly.

I have considered a BMI AmEX as I can use BMI Miles to book a flight with any Star Alliance member and even Virgin (the latter I imagine most people don't know about - you have to call up BMI and ask to book a flight with Virgin).

chattychappy

dzug1 wrote: »

Bear in mind that if your employer is picky (and some are) the benefits actually belong to him

Do you have a recent authority for this? As far as I know, this is still legally uncertain in the UK. (Unless of course it's set out as such in your employment contract/staff handbook etc.) The last I heard was that the employer probably has no claim (in the UK).

chattychappy

evoke wrote: »

I have considered a BMI AmEX as I can use BMI Miles to book a flight with any Star Alliance member and even Virgin

Yep - but you do know that BMI is merging with Lufthansa and BMI's Diamond Club will be merged with LH's Miles&More? There are some very active threads about this on https://www.flyertalk.com (see the sticky at the top of http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/bmi-diamond-club-486/)

dzug1

chattychappy wrote: »

Do you have a recent authority for this? As far as I know, this is still legally uncertain in the UK. (Unless of course it's set out as such in your employment contract/staff handbook etc.) The last I heard was that the employer probably has no claim (in the UK).

Not recent, no.

benroles

I am in a similar position with the expenses. So to maximise the benefit for me I have an Egg card (1% per year up tp £200 bonus). This year I've augmented it with the Platinum Amex (no annual charge). This gives 5% up to £100 (first three months) but after that is variable depending on annual spend (min cashback 0.25%). ]

As such, I've milked the Amex bonus and am sitting at £104 there and then switched to Egg where I'm at £160 for the current cashback year (almost at the end of the year).

I've also got an MBNA rewards / points card that gives points for expenditure. These can be spent in the MBNA shop for goodies (or cash). I don't think the exchange rate is that great though.

And don't forget to book all those flights and hotels through TopCashBack or similar - that's another few hundred in the bag.

I seriously make back about £400 in goodies thanks to expenses. BUT remember to pay the card etc. off immediately / get those expense claims in. If you get hit with interest any bonus is wiped out and then some.

B.

lisyloo

Bear in mind that if your employer is picky (and some are) the benefits actually belong to him

The kind of job where people spend £20K in expenses is likely to be the kind of job where people are making big sacrifices e.g. being away from home for extended periods, travelling on weekends etc.
I really cannot see any such employer being that picky.

But I'd be interested to know if anyone has any info on the income tax posistion.
Does it count as "income" or is it a "benefits"?
Again I can't see the inland revenue being interested in this as the amounts are tiny for most people, but I'd be interested if anyone knows.

richard734

I use my Tesco card for expenses, I dont want teh hassle of a company card and you have to love those points