Need a non Amex credit card-recommendations

boiali

Hello,
I have an amex gold rewards card. I use it in any place that accepts it without a fee. I have now decided to apply for another card to use in places that dont accept american express so that I dont have to use my debit card. Any recommendations?

I have looked at the Hhonors, barclaycard cashback card and amazon card (also heard of HOF) but cant figure out which one has best rewards. The santander 123 card is of no benefit to me as I use my amex in places that they offer cashback with. Obviously I will consider other recommendations....

I will be paying the card off in full every month.
I have no debts.
I have high savings.
I have a perfect credit history (I think).

Thank you all for your help.

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

MSE Article here.

[Deleted User]

You're not giving us much to go on. What do you want to get from the card? Are you interested in Hotel/Airline points or cash back?

What do you normally do with your Amex MR points? It may be best to find a Visa/MC that offers a similar reward scheme or perhaps one of the airline duo cards that offer both an Amex and a Visa card on the same account.

boiali

Thank you both for your replies,
I have read the article and none the wiser. I only started collecting MR points last year and so far I have over 70 000. we spent over £15000 in one year. I havent done anything with the points so far. I didn't get one of the airline cards as I could get better with the amex gold card plus it doesnt restrict me to any particular airline.

Might sound silly but I am looking for visa card that will give me more miles/points/cashback per pound at the end-ie when I redeem. I dont mind. We travel frequently thru the year (4-5 holidays/year) as a family (2+3) so I gather my points paying for tickets, car hire and hotels.

[Deleted User]

You don't have much choice with non-Amex cards. Your best bets for a Visa/Mastercard are probably:

The Hilton Honors Platinum Visa: You earn Hilton Points on this card and once you have spent £750 you get a free night at ANY hilton property worldwide. This can be worth quite a lot if you use it wisely at one of their fancy hotels. If you apply before 10th June you will receive an extra 10,000 Hilton points - you will have to search for the link for this sign up bonus though.

Priority Club Black Visa - (£99 annual fee). Gives you Priority Club (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn Express, Indigo, InterContinental hotels) Platinum Status while you hold the card. There is also a 40,000 points bonus offer knocking about but you will have to find a link.

And that's about it for purely VISA/MC. Another option is to apply for a Lloyds TSB Avios Duo card. You get an Amex and a Visa card linked to the same account. The points earning rate on the Visa is really poor but it's ok on the Amex. You could always get the free card, bag the 15,000 avios bonus and then cancel if you wanted to. You have to apply via the Avios website for the bonus. And unfortunately, the spend to qualify for the bonus (£500 a month for first three months I think) MUST be on the Amex!

Basically, if you want good loyalty cards, you are generally restricted to Amex. Visa and MC are just nowhere near as good. Do you really shop that many places that don't accept Amex? It's quite rare for me to find somewhere that doesn't.

[Deleted User]

One other option is the tesco card. The earning rate isn't great but it's better than most non amex cards. You could then convert the clubcard points to avios. I think the earning rate works out to about 0.6 avios per £1 spent.

JakeGreen

Barclaycard Cashback Card?

6% cashback for the first 3 months (on your 5 biggest monthly purchases)

Then 2% after that on your biggest 5 purchases each month. 0.5% for everything else.

It works well for me, I use the Santander 123 for fuel and the Barclaycard and AMEX for everything else.

DunPin

Aside from the HHonors Visa, Priority Club Visa and Lloyds Duo Avios, there is Barclaycard Cashback and Freedom cards (both Visa). If you're into airline mile collecting there is AAdvantage (Amex & Visa), Etihad Guest (Amex & Visa), Flybe (MasterCard) and the Virgin Atlantic (Amex & Visa).

Personally if I were you, I'd go for the HHonors card or the Virgin Atlantic card as both are of use to me although all said and done, Etihad Guest is also quite an attractive option albeit with limited flying locations once you have the miles.

At the end of the day you need to work out what you want from the card

boiali

many thanks for replies, I think I will go for the Hhilton card then get barclay card for my husband to diversify. I do spend a fair bit on non amex, like speciality foods etc. Actually I am paying my membership fee today and thats £390 and they dont accept amex, hubby's to be paid next week. So I am pretty sure we spend more than £6k pa non amex.

Jakegreen, thats interesting...We were given santander 123 credit card by a very persuasive woman when we opened our ISAs this year, never even opened coz I thought amex gold has better earning potential even on fuel!

[Deleted User]

boiali wrote: »

many thanks for replies, I think I will go for the Hhilton card then get barclay card for my husband to diversify. I do spend a fair bit on non amex, like speciality foods etc. Actually I am paying my membership fee today and thats £390 and they dont accept amex, hubby's to be paid next week. So I am pretty sure we spend more than £6k pa non amex.

Jakegreen, thats interesting...We were given santander 123 credit card by a very persuasive woman when we opened our ISAs this year, never even opened coz I thought amex gold has better earning potential even on fuel!

I believe that the Hilton card is a Barclaycard. Not sure of the rules but you may find that you can only have one of their cards at a time. In which case, get the Hilton one, spend £750 to bag the free night bonus and then cancel and get the cashback one! If you use the free night at a Conrad or Waldorf Astoria it should be worth £200-£300. My friend had this card recently and used his free night at the Hilton in Belfast - average cost probably around £80... :rotfl:

DunPin

Lazyloki wrote: »

I believe that the Hilton card is a Barclaycard. Not sure of the rules but you may find that you can only have one of their cards at a time.

I'm pretty sure you can hold more than one if you have the Hilton one and then a normal Barclaycard however you cannot have two Barclaycards if that makes sense