Best Visa or Mastercard?

Mach1000

Currently the best credit card deals are listed as being Amex cards - but I have always found the downside with these is that they are not widely accepted.

Does anyone have any suggestions/advice about the best Visa or Mastercard deals on offer at the moment? I have a Santander 123 card which I am about to cancel with the looming cut in the payback system as I would barely cover the monthly fee from February next year when the changes come into force.

[Deleted User]

Depends what you're after - points, cash, BT, purchases offers, Air Miles...

weijing

best mastercard:
HSBC World Elite
need a premier account to apply and a £190 fee (with really good sign up bonus)
it comes with loungekey (unlimited) and i-pass
and 2 points for every £1 (2 HSBC points = 1 avios or other airline mile)

Yawn

I'm a big fan of the Lloyds Duo Avios cards, which offers both an Amex (with 1.25 points per pound spent) and a not particularly generous MasterCard. Spending £7,000 on both combined gets you a return flight upgrade though, plus there are no FX fees...

darkidoe

weijing wrote: »

best mastercard:
HSBC World Elite
need a premier account to apply and a £190 fee (with really good sign up bonus)
it comes with loungekey (unlimited) and i-pass
and 2 points for every £1 (2 HSBC points = 1 avios or other airline mile)

How do you justify the £190 fee??

PeacefulWaters

darkidoe wrote: »

How do you justify the £190 fee??

£195.
40,000 points for an initial £2k spend, doubled if you get to spend 12k in the first 12 months. Plus 24,000 points for an ongoing £12k spend. So a total of 52,000 Avios that I'd value at c£350 but have the potential to be leverage for far better value such as a BA business class redemption to the Middle East or east coast USA. Other airline schemes available.

Free airport lounge access on presentation of the bank card.

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/credit-cards/hsbc-premier-world-elite-credit-card

Marchitiello

Yawn wrote: »

I'm a big fan of the Lloyds Duo Avios cards, which offers both an Amex (with 1.25 points per pound spent) and a not particularly generous MasterCard. Spending £7,000 on both combined gets you a return flight upgrade though, plus there are no FX fees...

Second that. I signed up with the double Avios on Amex spend bonus for the first 6 months as well and I am also about to receive my second Upgrade voucher in less then a year so I can use it next summer with the wife.

Marchitiello

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

£195.
40,000 points for an initial £2k spend, doubled if you get to spend 12k in the first 12 months. Plus 24,000 points for an ongoing £12k spend. So a total of 52,000 Avios that I'd value at c£350 but have the potential to be leverage for far better value such as a BA business class redemption to the Middle East or east coast USA. Other airline schemes available.

Free airport lounge access on presentation of the bank card.

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/credit-cards/hsbc-premier-world-elite-credit-card

I also think this is a great card, but all a bit irrelevant as it has restricted availability to HSBC Premier Account holders, which in turn to qualify for such an account, you have further restriction.

weijing

Marchitiello wrote: »

I also think this is a great card, but all a bit irrelevant as it has restricted availability to HSBC Premier Account holders, which in turn to qualify for such an account, you have further restriction.

You don't have to have 50K saving with HSBC. you can simply pay your salary in to HSBC then have any "investment" account

HSBC Premier is available without a monthly account fee if you meet any of the following criteria:
have savings or investments of at least £50,000 with HSBC in the UK; or
have an individual annual income of at least £100,000 and one of the following products with HSBC in the UK:
- a mortgage;
- an investment, life insurance or protection product;
Or, qualify for HSBC Premier in another country.

Marchitiello

weijing wrote: »

You don't have to have 50K saving with HSBC. you can simply pay your salary in to HSBC then have any "investment" account

But the way I read that is that you still need £100k salary plus an investment product, so pretty much restricted