Aqua Reward Card: Gone for good???????

Se1Lad

Pablo2010 wrote: »

There are other cards with commission-free purchases, like Nationwide Members card, Halifax Clarity...
There is no such thing like one perfect card, so having 2 or more makes sense.


Re. JL card - you don't need to shop in JL or Waitrose to get points

Though Aqua is the only card that is both commission free abroad, and also offer 0.5% cashback, unless I have missed something and you can suggest something better?

Gerry1

gjpowen wrote: »

Though Aqua is the only card that is both commission free abroad, and also offer 0.5% cashback, unless I have missed something and you can suggest something better?

The 118118Money card looks interesting. No cashback, but it has no foreign loading, no cash advance fees and it also has an interest free period that includes cash advances.

That would be very handy if you do want the simplicity of one card that's accepted everywhere but don't want all the hassle of having a second card for foreign purchases and a third for cash advances !

It beats the Halifax Clarity card which charges interest on cash advances from the date of withdrawal.

BigBlueSky

gjpowen wrote: »

Though Aqua is the only card that is both commission free abroad, and also offer 0.5% cashback, unless I have missed something and you can suggest something better?

Yes, as far as I am aware the Aqua Reward is the only card offering both free use abroad in addition to the 0.5% cashback.

I already have the card and always use it for all my foreign purchases.

demeter

I recommended Aqua Reward to a friend who was disappointed to find that it is no longer available. I've been using Aqua Reward as my main credit card since 2014 for UK and overseas spending in preference to a Barclaycard after that reduced the cashback to 0.5%. I'll continue using it but have gone back to the Barclaycard for some UK spending as it has a longer interest free period and I can use it with ApplePay for contactless payments over £30. Aqua Reward is not supported on ApplePay. To get ATM cash overseas I've been using a Nationwide FlexPlus account (have this mainly for the travel insurance) but as that no longer pays interest I opened a Starling bank account which pays some interest (0.5%),  has no fees, and works with ApplePay making it a good backup to the Aqua Reward when overseas. The John Lewis card looks ok for UK spending with cashback and also works with ApplePay.

chistery

Luckily I have the MBNA Horizons card, which comes with 0.5% cashback and no FX fees. No idea how they make money from it!

crumpet_man

Is it available for new customers?  I can't see it on their website so probably not.

chistery

No, they gave it to customers after closing their Amex cards.

guesswho2000

crumpet_man said:

Is it available for new customers?  I can't see it on their website so probably not.

No, the Horizon card is what people got when MBNA killed all their airline cards (American Airlines, Etihad, Emirates, United and Virgin Atlantic, although the latter has been relaunched by Virgin Money). I have two of them, identical other than the card numbers, as I held the AA and Etihad cards until the end.

There's 0.5% cashback, no forex or cash advance fees, so they make a loss on most transactions, but they do offer pretty good MT/BT offers (3.9% for 36 months, 0 fee), which is where they can make some money if people take them up.

ywlgy

For those of you who recently get the card, is it contactless card?

Gerry1

Yes, Aqua are one of the arrogant issuers who refuse to supply non contactless cards.  However, the problem is easily solved by punching a hole immediately above the last digit of the long number.