Reviewing our credit cards

Vampgirl

I'm reviewing our credit cards at the moment to see if I can make any improvements and I'd like run my reasoning past you - in case I've missed anything.

Between us we currently have (in order of preference of use):
- Amex Platinum: 1.25% cashback with £25 annual fee. We put enough through the card its worth having the fee-paying card rather than the free one
- MBNA Diamond Club: dual Amex & Visa which earns Avios. We only use the Visa - its our card for places which don't take Amex
- Post Office Platinum Mastercard: only used for personal spends on foreign travel as its fee free.

The Amex is working well for us and the Post Office card doesn't cost anything, but because we don't fly so much these days the Avios points from MBNA are less useful now and I'm hoping to find a better alternative for our non-Amex spend.

So I'm looking for:
- a cashback Visa or Mastercard
- no annual fee (because our spend on the card will make it difficult to get any payback)
- interest rate is not important (always pay cards off in full)
- no balance transfer needed

There don't seem to be too many cards around which meet my criteria though I did look at the AA Fuelsave card, but based on our 2015 average fuel spend, we'd only get around £10 more cashback on our fuel spend than we do using the Amex and I expect our commuting costs to reduce this year so it makes it borderline worth it. Also we don't shop/spend at M&S so that card won't be much use either.

Which, unless I've missed something, seems to point us towards the Halifax Clarity Rewards card. Based on our average non-Amex spend in 2015 the £5 per month cashback would work out at about 0.8%. Of course to get this card we'd need to switch a current account - but that's actually quite a good idea anyway: the Halifax Ultimate Reward account looks better value than our First Direct account with First Directory.

So my plan is to switch the FD account to Halifax and then apply for the Clarity Rewards card - can anyone see a hole in plan - something I haven't considered?

daveyjp

Asda do a cashback credit card, cash paid against outstanding balance.
John Lewis do a cashback card, 'cash' paid in JL vouchers a few times a year.

Dan83

I've got an asda credit card, 1% cash back on everything bought from asda/gorge inc fuel, 0.5% every where else. Every month the cash back is knocked off my bill, can't remember the interest rate, but if you pay in full every month that isn't a problem.

If you don't shop in asda, 0.5% isn't worth having (in my opinion). If you shop in tesco, get there credit card and get the club card points.

JimmyTheWig

Not quite what you are asking about, but have you looked at Stoozing?
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/stooze-cash-credit-cards

Vampgirl

Thanks - I wasn't aware of those but I've checked them now though and I don't think either will work for us either. We don't shop at Asda (and aren't likely to either) so earnings potential on that is pretty low. Besides Asda take Amex so the Amex card at 1.25% would beat the Asda card anyway. The John Lewis one looked more interesting (we do occasionally shop at Waitrose) but if I've worked it out correctly 1 point per £ works out at 1% cashback (which again is less than we already get on the Amex).

Vampgirl

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Not quite what you are asking about, but have you looked at Stoozing?
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/stooze-cash-credit-cards

Yep I had a quick look earlier and its maybe something I'll think about in the future.

cats2012

Tesco clubcard credit card? The points level seems really low but as the do "Boost" a few times a year they can gain 4 x their value. We just used £60 of clubcard points (essentially free in the first place) to get £120 off a laptop bought from Tesco.

Vampgirl

I did think about the Tesco card (I've had one in the past) but even with the boost it only works out at about 0.5% cashback (0.7% if I switch all our Tesco spend away from Amex) :-( It'd take us more than 4 years to earn £60 of points (compared to Halifax which would earn us £240 over the same 4 years as long as we meet the minimum spend). And to be honest we struggle to spend the points we already earn there - usually just convert them to Avios as there isn't usually anything else which we'd use.


Thanks for the input everyone - I think its clear that there's no amazing card out there I've missed, so I'll go ahead with the Halifax plan. I guess hoping that we could get good earnings on the backup card as well was probably too optimistic anyway ;-)

jiggy2

Vampgirl wrote: »

I did think about the Tesco card (I've had one in the past) but even with the boost it only works out at about 0.5% cashback (0.7% if I switch all our Tesco spend away from Amex) :-( It'd take us more than 4 years to earn £60 of points (compared to Halifax which would earn us £240 over the same 4 years as long as we meet the minimum spend). And to be honest we struggle to spend the points we already earn there - usually just convert them to Avios as there isn't usually anything else which we'd use.


Thanks for the input everyone - I think its clear that there's no amazing card out there I've missed, so I'll go ahead with the Halifax plan. I guess hoping that we could get good earnings on the backup card as well was probably too optimistic anyway ;-)

Depending on the type and quantum of your additional spend (i.e. whether it can be done contactless and below £30 each go) - would a TSB debit card work - 5% cashback. Unless you want credit card for interest free reasons.

Vampgirl

jiggy2 wrote: »

Depending on the type and quantum of your additional spend (i.e. whether it can be done contactless and below £30 each go) - would a TSB debit card work - 5% cashback. Unless you want credit card for interest free reasons.

I'd prefer a credit card rather than a debit card, but that one looks interesting from a current account point of view as it also pays interest. Its definitely one to think about - if I can convince hubby that he should carry yet another card around with him LOL