Avios/Air Miles/Cash Back

Smith473

Hi
This is my 1st post, so please be kind....
I run a haulage business, and spend at least £250k a year on debit card for fuel.
I am looking at what other cards would be more beneficial, so as to earn something in return for myself?
Not sure which cards would be best? ie cash back, or Avious points cards?.
There is only myself, and my 10yr old daughter to think about.
We fly twice a year on holiday, once to Cyprus and a second holiday to anywhere that takes our fancy.
Any help and guidance would be greatly received.
Many thanks in advance.
Smith473

blindman

Smith473 wrote: »

Hi
This is my 1st post, so please be kind....
I run a haulage business, and spend at least £250k a year on debit card for fuel.
I am looking at what other cards would be more beneficial, so as to earn something in return for myself?
Not sure which cards would be best? ie cash back, or Avious points cards?.
There is only myself, and my 10yr old daughter to think about.
We fly twice a year on holiday, once to Cyprus and a second holiday to anywhere that takes our fancy.
Any help and guidance would be greatly received.
Many thanks in advance.
Smith473

There is a guide here you could read


Also has a calculator on how many rewards you could earn.

IMHO cash in hand is better than any FF points as you can then decide what to spend it on.

For AVIOS it would be better to get the BA AMEX CC and put all spending on that.

Headforpoints gives a good breakdown of CC' for airline and Hotel points.

AVIOS and others do NOT give you FREE flights nor are they always available so you have to think carefully if you go down this route.

pvt

If your spend is £250k pa on fuel you may struggle to get a CC with the credit limit of nearly £50,000 that you're going to need.

Also, many of these cards have earning caps which that amount of spend will exceed.

bigadaj

Margins tend to be very tight on fuel, will suppliers accept credit cards as well as credit cards.

With that throughout it would obviously be a business expense so require a non personal account possibly.

One thought that spring to mind with a debit card was clubcard points on a tesco account, which can then be converted to avios or other deals.

Smith473

Blindman
Many thanks, i will look at some of the cash back offers.
Regards
Smith473

Smith473

pvt
Thank you, i would look to try and pay the card off imidatly, and in doing so, hopefully, not require such a large credit limit.
Regards
Smith473

Smith473

bigadaj
Thank you, i will take a look at the Tesco card, and especially if it offers other rewards.
Regards
Smith473

philip1427

Hi there,

With this kind of spending on a CC you could get a lot of "free" cash or flights for your family.

Firstly I would suggest getting an Amex Gold charge card. This card has no pre set spending limit as long as pay back in full at the end of each month. At the moment you can earn 1 membership reward point per £ spent. These can be redeemed for flights, hotel stays, gift cards or cash back on statement purchases. However Amex is not as widely accepted as VISA or MasterCard but I do know BP and Shell garages accept Amex as a form of payment but smaller garages may not. Also Amex run a deal if you spend £2000 in the first three months they give you 20000 points as bonus which could get you two free flight to europe. Also a current amex cardholder can refer you and you get an extra 2000 point bonus. I am happy to do this for you. Just send me a private message.

If Amex isn't for you. I would suggest getting a Nationwide Select Visa card which gives you 0.5% cash back on all spending as well as fee free foreign transactions. This means you could get £1,250 back which would pay for your families flights to cyprus. Only downside is this is paid yearly whereas Amex points are credited monthly.

Hope this helps.

PS with 250,000 Amex points that's enough for around 10 flights to NYC!

MallyGirl

philip1427 wrote: »

Also a current amex cardholder can refer you and you get an extra 2000 point bonus. I am happy to do this for you. Just send me a private message.

Hi - it is against the board rules to invite PMs for referrals. There is a referrers thread for this:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=42

w211

I would go for the American Express British Airways Premium Plus card - I recently taken one out, and closed an American Express Platinum Charge card which I had for a while but can't justify the £450 annual charge.

The British Airways one does come with a £195 annual fee though, but if you spend £10,000 on a year (which you'll hit in two weeks!), you will get a 2 for 1 voucher, which means you'll get another ticket free when you redeem Avios for a flight - though you have to pay taxes for both people.

1.5 Avios per £1 spent = 375,000 Avios on your fuel spend alone in a year. 240,000 Avios will take you (and your daughter using the 2 for 1) First Class to the Far East, or 400,000 to Sydney. Just 20,000 Avios will get you to Cyprus in Business Class, and at the moment, you'll get a bonus of 25,000 Avios if you spend £3,000 in 3 months within opening your account.

Credit limit could be an issue, only solution is to pay and clear the balance, when you reach the limit, even before the bill comes.

If you happen to buy your fuel at Shell, and shop at Tesco, both their loyalty schemes you can transfer their points to Avios as well.

With your fuel spend, and assuming other expenses (personal as well a business - tyres, maintenance, etc?), you'll probably earn enough Avios to fly first class to Australia every year - no cashback card is going to beat that! - though you have to pay taxes for both people.

Though be aware, as mentioned, not all flights are available all the time, only a few seats per flight are released for Avios redemptions, though as you don't have anywhere specific in mind to fly to for your 2nd holiday, it shouldn't be a problem. BA flies 3 times a day to Larnaca, so finding reward seats shouldn't be a problem, but if so, you can still buy a full fare ticket, and redeem your Avios to reduce the cost (though you can't use the 2 for 1 voucher for this).

http://www.headforpoints.com/2016/10/28/british-airways-american-express-premium-plus-credit-card-review-2/ for more info.

Ben8282

Obviously you do not personally spend over £250,000 on fuel each year. This would be £685 per-day assuming you work 365 days a year. You must be re-fuelling several vehicles.
It's also difficult to believe that all this money is currently being spent on one single personal debit card. You can't possibly be present each time one of the vehicles is re-fueled and I can't imagine you have provided all your drivers with a debit card on your personal bank account. Incurring this expense on a debit card would also be quite damaging to your business cash flow.
You will not get a sufficient credit limit on a personal card for this.level of expense. Even if you did, do you intend to give every single driver a supplementary card on your personal account?The idea of incurring this level of expense (£685+ per-day) on a credit card with an insufficient credit limit and then paying 'immediately' is ridiculous.
You will need to look at business credit cards and/or business fuel cards for your business. Also I'm not sure about the accounts aspects of diverting over £250,000 pa of company funds to pay your personal credit card bills, irrespective of the fact that the money was being used to re-fuel your several vehicles.