Aqua Reward Credit Card - 3% cashback up to £100/year

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Haha I honestly think they give each department a different name each day... kind of like a guessing game. It's the 'security department' that I always get transferred through to, who said they 100% have nothing to do with it!


I got told the department that deals with this has no external number/email etc. Fair enough, working in finance I know certain department details will be strictly internal use only, but then a letter sent out appears to have a direct number for this mystery team - confused!

Everyone I speak to gives me a different answer anyway. The only thing they all seem to agree on is it's strictly against the t&cs to pre-load (clearly scripted, hence why I'm certain the card will eventually be closed),

They say there was a note initially on my account saying do not discuss with cardholder over the phone. It's only when I kept on that a manager discussed it with me and their policy is not to as it's fraud related - so I said their policy is bizarre since it isn't fraud - and he's broken their own policy by discussing it with me and confirming that it is indeed to do with the credit balance! (Generally in finance fraud notes mean you can't confirm a single thing - even if the customer guessed spot on).

Don't worry about the money, you will get it back. There is absolutely no way they have any grounds to hold the money. You may have to jump through some more hoops and prove it's legitimate etc if they want to drag their feet, but a complaint to FoS should hurry them up.

I did love the line at the bottom of the letter... if, by the time you get this letter, your account is no longer in credit.... you are still obliged to make payments under your credit agreement :rotfl: Shame!

It's not even the cashback/frozen funds which concerns me, or even the silly policies & procedures regarding so called AML legislation - it's the dreadful attitude almost every person I spoke to, especially the manager! If there was actual fraud on my card I'd be pretty worried having the ones I dealt with on my side!

Accept I broke the terms (took a gamble really, and if I hadn't have been in credit on statement day it would've all been fine....), but their handling is awful. I told them I know people only signed up because I told them to (to improve their credit rating/bag cashback, but some only have the non-CB card) - did make a point in saying if they keep on I'll have to start recommending Capital One instead - who have always given me excellent customer service.

Might make them think twice... or not!

antonio1

guesswho2000 wrote: »

Agreed, even though I'm one of those moaning about the terrible limit! Limit or not, neither my Halifax Clarity or Nationwide Select pay any cashback on foreign spend, so Aqua wins by miles there, especially with 3%!

Isn't it the case that with both Aqua and Halifax Clarity CC, overseas currency retail purchases count towards cashback accrual? Both are load free, the only difference is the cashback accrual amount. Halifax confirmed to me it counts for them, just not cash withdrawals.

pooch

I'm sure someone posted this before, but I just wanted to clarify the position about cashback.

As you probably know, cashback is paid annually and is rounded down to the nearest £5.

There were suggestions that if you earned £99.99 cashback in a year, this would be rounded down to £95 and you would lose out on the £4.99 (representing a transaction total of over £163)

Well I can confirm any remaining cashback earned after the annual loyalty award (as they call it) is deducted, is carried forward to the following month/year

boobbby

pooch wrote: »

I'm sure someone posted this before, but I just wanted to clarify the position about cashback.

As you probably know, cashback is paid annually and is rounded down to the nearest £5.

There were suggestions that if you earned £99.99 cashback in a year, this would be rounded down to £95 and you would lose out on the £4.99 (representing a transaction total of over £163)

Well I can confirm any remaining cashback earned after the annual loyalty award (as they call it) is deducted, is carried forward to the following month/year

see also 1787

blitzboy

pooch wrote: »

I'm sure someone posted this before, but I just wanted to clarify the position about cashback.

As you probably know, cashback is paid annually and is rounded down to the nearest £5.

There were suggestions that if you earned £99.99 cashback in a year, this would be rounded down to £95 and you would lose out on the £4.99 (representing a transaction total of over £163)

Well I can confirm any remaining cashback earned after the annual loyalty award (as they call it) is deducted, is carried forward to the following month/year

You don't loose it, but it does count towards next year's £100 limit meaning you can only earn £95.01 next year to add to the £4.99 carried over.

tunedfortrash

Worth remembering this when using the card:

If you ever exceed your credit limit or fail to ever make the minimum payment, you will lose all cashback you have earned and will not be eligible for future cashback until the anniversary of your account, where it will restart from zero.

I knew I was close to the limit, but thought I was around £5 below it. So when the bill came to £2ish in the shop, I put it on the card. To be sure I hadn't exceeded the limit, I checked internet banking immediately afterwards and it turned out I had gone £1 over limit. I instantly transferred funds to the card to rectify this but it was too late. Aqua charged me £12 and I lost the £40 in cash back that I had painstakingly accumulated over the first few months (always being careful to avoid the limit, but wanting to spend as much as possible to get the cash back).

My card was £1 over limit for a matter of minutes and I got penalised so they really are waiting to pounce at the first opportunity.

boobbby

tunedfortrash wrote: »

Worth remembering this when using the card:

If you ever exceed your credit limit or fail to ever make the minimum payment, you will lose all cashback you have earned and will not be eligible for future cashback until the anniversary of your account, where it will restart from zero.

I knew I was close to the limit, but thought I was around £5 below it. So when the bill came to £2ish in the shop, I put it on the card. To be sure I hadn't exceeded the limit, I checked internet banking immediately afterwards and it turned out I had gone £1 over limit. I instantly transferred funds to the card to rectify this but it was too late. Aqua charged me £12 and I lost the £40 in cash back that I had painstakingly accumulated over the first few months (always being careful to avoid the limit, but wanting to spend as much as possible to get the cash back).

My card was £1 over limit for a matter of minutes and I got penalised so they really are waiting to pounce at the first opportunity.

It is just a computer programme that follows the rules. Well worth getting in touch by message or telephone to explain as you have nothing to lose.

dov

My mother went over the limit by mistake and she got refunded and is still accuring cashback.

Atidi

tunedfortrash wrote: »

Worth remembering this when using the card:

If you ever exceed your credit limit or fail to ever make the minimum payment, you will lose all cashback you have earned and will not be eligible for future cashback until the anniversary of your account, where it will restart from zero.

I knew I was close to the limit, but thought I was around £5 below it. So when the bill came to £2ish in the shop, I put it on the card. To be sure I hadn't exceeded the limit, I checked internet banking immediately afterwards and it turned out I had gone £1 over limit. I instantly transferred funds to the card to rectify this but it was too late. Aqua charged me £12 and I lost the £40 in cash back that I had painstakingly accumulated over the first few months (always being careful to avoid the limit, but wanting to spend as much as possible to get the cash back).

My card was £1 over limit for a matter of minutes and I got penalised so they really are waiting to pounce at the first opportunity.

Welcome to MSE!

A shame you didn't check before you defaulted.

You knew you were close to your limit, (and closer than you thought if a £2 spend sent you over! :eek:) and you appeared to have the funds available to pay back at least some of what you had already previously spent.

Lots of people on here have posted about making interim payments mid-month due to the often low credit limits Aqua give with their rewards card.

If you'd have made a payment before you defaulted, particularly by FP, then you probably would have avoided the £12 default charge and the loss of any accrued cashback (or possible future cashback for the rest of the year).

Who spends £2 on a credit card anyway? :eek: I think it costs the retailer at least 50p for such a transaction, hence why many small retailers have signs up saying no card payments below £5.

Mr_K

The problem with this card is the low credit limit. £650 - means having to keep checking the balance, to make sure I don't go over it. On other cards my limits are several thousand and not something to I need to worry about/keep constantly track of. I suspect the low limit is a trap to get extra revenue.

There is a new 4% cashback card for fuel/supermarket shopping ( https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4807086) . tbh not sure I can be bothered as its likely to have the same low limit issue.