MSE News: Aqua axes 3% cashback credit card – should you ditch and switch?

Herbalus

michaels wrote: »

I have a refund this month so need to respend that amount in the next 2 days to make sure I get the full £100. My annual spend is probably well over 3600 because of this to make sure I get the full cashback.

Well, considering £0.48 is the cashback from £16, I might as well go out and buy a £20 giftcard for something. That should sort it!

aleph_0

lisyloo wrote: »

That's your choice and it's a perfectly valid point.
I'm sure you'll get it but I think it could take quite a few weeks - why would they hurry?
Personally it's not worth my time chasing them up and having it on my mental "to do" list for weeks for £1.

Whilst I'm not sure they would "hurry", the longer they take, the more likely it is they'll get frustrated calls, complaints, all of which cost money to deal with. So, if I was them, I would send the cheques out relatively quickly (ideally, accompanying the final statement, to save on postage).

lisyloo

So, if I was them

I fully understand your logic.
There are still reasons why it might not happen for example it's often not practical for companies to hire staff just for a single peak event, instead customers just have to put up with delays, because it's too expensive to recuit and train people for a one-off event.

I really hope you do all get your cheques as quickly as possibly. I'm just making my life easy even if I do lose £1 cashback.

blitzboy

michaels wrote: »

They cunningly calculate the cashback as a runnin gtotal which stops going up once you hit £100 then if you get some refunds these are deducted from the £100 and of course they pay out in £5 increments so potentially if your loast transaction in the month was a £1 refund you would only get £95 cashback :mad: I have a refund this month so need to respend that amount in the next 2 days to make sure I get the full £100. My annual spend is probably well over 3600 because of this to make sure I get the full cashback.

Yeh I had that too and what made it worse was it was a refund of a transaction that shouldn't even have taken place! It was a duplicate of a transaction taken then previous month! So I had to spend another £21 on the card this month even though I reached the £100 cashback limit in November.

marks7389

blitzboy wrote: »

Yeh I had that too and what made it worse was it was a refund of a transaction that shouldn't even have taken place! It was a duplicate of a transaction taken then previous month! So I had to spend another £21 on the card this month even though I reached the £100 cashback limit in November.

On the basis of the terms and conditions they sent for the replacement card (and assuming they are pretty much the same as the 3% card), I think that could be reasonably challenged.

It says the maximum cashback you can earn in a year is £100, and that if you receive a refund for a purchase on which you earned cashback they will deduct the cashback accrued on that purchase.

A bit of an odd mix of the terms 'earn' and 'accrue' but to me that says you should continue to accrue cashback on intervening purchases if a subsequent refund would otherwise take your overall earnings below the £100 limit.

I would imagine this is an 'accident on purpose' design of the system... sharp practice and shows the extent to which they will avoid honouring the deal.

PrisonerCellBlockH

Has anyone had £0 cashback on their latest statement? I spent £715 and no cashback (total accrued £85). Last month received only £4 on £462 spend. Phone call could give me no reason even after speaking to manager. Promised a phone call back on Monday with resolution, of course this never happened.

Nath4n

D-day has arrived. RIP Aqua reward 3%. We will remember you.

Aquamania

PrisonerCellBlockH wrote: »

Has anyone had £0 cashback on their latest statement? I spent £715 and no cashback (total accrued £85). Last month received only £4 on £462 spend. Phone call could give me no reason even after speaking to manager. Promised a phone call back on Monday with resolution, of course this never happened.

Not me.

My December statement had the correct cashback on it.
Also had my January statement and that too has the correct cashback on it.

Now waiting to see how they finalise the account as additional spend (and so cashback accrual) needs to be tallied.

Jemma-T

Well, 24 January 2014 and I have no idea if I still have a valid account.

I applied for a new account and the old one still appears online but no information about any new status or T&Cs.

Not a very good way to run a business.

Herbalus

Jemma-T wrote: »

Not a very good way to run a business.

I doubt anyone ever thought they were good at running a business...