Lloyds Choice Rewards card withdrawn?

Ben8282

From the Lloyds website it appears that another amex/mc duo card, this time the Lloyds Choice Rewards card, has been withdrawn.

Dobbibill

It disappeared a few weeks ago - hopefully they've pulled it to replace it with something better/more rewarding soon.

System

Dobbibill wrote: »

It disappeared a few weeks ago - hopefully they've pulled it to replace it with something better/more rewarding soon.

Doubt it - Amex are discontinuing third party agreements and the Visa/MasterCard interchange fees are capped at 0.3%

20aday

I have one of these cards and am using it as much as possible before Lloyds decide to end the rewards programme a la NatWest/RBS.

WillPS

20aday wrote: »

I have one of these cards and am using it as much as possible before Lloyds decide to end the rewards programme a la NatWest/RBS.

Natwest MyRewards is still around?

20aday

WillPS wrote: »

Natwest MyRewards is still around?

Sorry I should've said NatWest's Your Points programme which fell victim to the EU Interchange ruling.

Ben8282

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Doubt it - Amex are discontinuing third party agreements and the Visa/MasterCard interchange fees are capped at 0.3%

Do you think that the third party agreements are being discontinued only in respect of new accounts or do you think that all existing third party AMEX cards will soon be discontinued and/or replaced with mastercard/visa only?

bigadaj

Ben8282 wrote: »

Do you think that the third party agreements are being discontinued only in respect of new accounts or do you think that all existing third party AMEX cards will soon be discontinued and/or replaced with mastercard/visa only?

I thought in most cases the Amex link was being retained but the benefits were being much reduced.

This would make commercial sense for Amex as they are less affected by the issue around interchange fees and so can continue to offer better cash back, rewards etc to cardholders than the other networks.

Whether this means they are more expensive for retailers and so are less widely accepted is of course a slightly separate issue.

greenorange

Make the most of the Lloyds Avios Duo card. It's next on the chop list, along with MBNA's Virgin Atlantic credit card at the end of the year.

zerog

bigadaj wrote: »

I thought in most cases the Amex link was being retained but the benefits were being much reduced.

This would make commercial sense for Amex as they are less affected by the issue around interchange fees and so can continue to offer better cash back, rewards etc to cardholders than the other networks.

Amex is affected by the EU interchange fee cap wherever there is another party involved with the card, e.g. Lloyds.

Even the Nectar credit card will soon be subject to the fee cap, in a decision from the EU that defies understanding (Amex pays money to Nectar to buy points!)

The only cards that would be exempt are Amex's directly issued Amex charge cards.

Expect to see improved rewards on co-branded Amexes but with much higher annual fees, or the removal of co-branded Amexes.

System

As other's have alluded to all co-branded Amex cards are subject to the interchange fee cap - these can be issued by other banks or by Amex themselves (e.g. BA Amex)

It's my understanding that Amex are effectively phasing out third party issuers such as MBNA/Lloyds. The higher interchange fees were Amex's USP AFAIK.