Avios Master or Visa Credit Card (CC)

navstar5

Hi,

Looking for Master or Visa Avios CC with no annual fee. Currently have BA Amex but not accepted by all retailers.

Any recommendations?

Yawn

There isn't a stand alone Avios visa or MasterCard. Lloyds offers an Amex-MasterCard combo, but it is not worth taking out for the MasterCard alone because the rewards on that card are paltry.

Marchitiello

Worth considering that Lloyds Avios Amex will earn you 1.25 Avios per £1 spent and I believe the MasterCard is 1.25 for £5 spent ( not great but better then nothing unless you have Visa/MasterCard with better Rewards in other area). You can then transfer the Avios to your BA executive Club account if you wish, whilst the BA Amex (blue) only earn you 1 Avios per £1 spent. I have both and now only use the BA Amex when I avtually make a booking on BA (double miles).

Nick_C

I know you have said a card that doesn't have a fee, but I think you should consider getting one with a fee.

The Lloyds Avios card costs £24, but you get 1.25 points per pound on Amex spending, and this is doubled up to 2.5 Avios to the £ for the first six months.

I value Avios at 2/3rds of a penny, so if you spend more than £2400 total (£400 a month) on your Amex card in the first six months you are benefiting.

This card is especially useful as it has no loading fee for non sterling transactions. (I also have a BA Amex, but I don't use it for non sterling transactions as the fee is 2.75%).

The Lloyds Avios card also gives you an upgrade voucher if you spend £7000 in a year - very useful if you are travelling alone as you can get fly WT+ for the price of WT, or Club World for the price of WT+.

I wouldn't use the Mastercard that comes with the Lloyds Avios account. You only get 1.25 Avios on a £5 spend. You are better using a cashback card that gives 0.5%.

The Lloyds Avios account also offers interest free purchases for two years.

You would need to think about whether or not to cancel the card before the second year starts.

(If you are interested in getting the Lloyds card, they do a "refer a friend" deal. You and the person referring you each get 4,500 Avios. I would obviously be very happy to refer you, but this is not why I am recommending this card!)

I started off with the free BA card, but after 10 months I paid for the BA Premium Plus card. This now costs £190 a year, but if you spend £10,000 a year you get a two for one voucher which is valid for one return flight on BA and is valid for two years.

The only Avios card I know of that doesn't have a fee is the Tesco Clubcard Mastercard. You get 1 clubcard point (which converts to 2.4 Avios) for every £8 you spend. However, is for multipes of £8 in a single transaction. So spending £31.99 gets you 3 Clubcard points (7.2 Avios) but £32 gets you 4 points (9.6 Avios). You can automatically transfer from Clubcard to Avios or BA every 3 months.

Other reasons to consider the free Tesco card; there is a 1000 CC points bonus (2400 Avios) for signing up and using the card, and interest free purchases for 17 months.

Edit:-

To find out about special offers that can get you extra Avios, I would recommend having a look at http://www.headforpoints.com/

navstar5

Thanks All. I'll look into the Lloyds Avios Amex.

navstar5

Nick,

I just saw your post after I posted mine just now. Thanks.