Any cards that are really worth it these days?

Malkytheheed

Sadly the UK is about the worst place in the world for Credit Card perks. In the US you can get a plethora of cards with 3, 5% cashback, double cashback, miles, hotel stays etc.

Sandtree

Malkytheheed said:

Sadly the UK is about the worst place in the world for Credit Card perks. In the US you can get a plethora of cards with 3, 5% cashback, double cashback, miles, hotel stays etc.

Thats because they issue a lot of cards on Visa Infiniti etc which have massive fees for merchants to accept but merchants in the USA can choose to decline to accept certain cards or pass the card fees on to the customer. 

In the UK, and europe, fees have been capped, merchants cannot differentiate pricing by payment method for private customers etc so less money being generated to pass on to customers are rewards.

Mickey666

Sandtree said:

Malkytheheed said:

Sadly the UK is about the worst place in the world for Credit Card perks. In the US you can get a plethora of cards with 3, 5% cashback, double cashback, miles, hotel stays etc.

Thats because they issue a lot of cards on Visa Infiniti etc which have massive fees for merchants to accept but merchants in the USA can choose to decline to accept certain cards or pass the card fees on to the customer. 

In the UK, and europe, fees have been capped, merchants cannot differentiate pricing by payment method for private customers etc so less money being generated to pass on to customers are rewards.

Exactly.   I’m not up to date with Amex merchant fees but they used to be among the highest and was why many places would not accept Amex cards.  My advice to anyone with an Amex card is to also have a Visa or MasterCard as Amex is the only card I’ve ever had refused by a merchant . . . Which is not ideal when it’s the only card you have, especially when travelling.

phillw

born_again said:

If you are already paying your spending off in full each month, then given the interest rates on savings the gain of say a 20 month 0% deal is hardly worth it.

0% purchase cards are good to smooth out spending, there are a couple of regular savers that just about make it cost effective.
If you have enough money that you don't need to worry about car repairs, new boiler etc then it's probably not worth the hassle.

Sandtree

Mickey666 said:
Exactly.   I’m not up to date with Amex merchant fees but they used to be among the highest and was why many places would not accept Amex cards.  My advice to anyone with an Amex card is to also have a Visa or MasterCard as Amex is the only card I’ve ever had refused by a merchant . . . Which is not ideal when it’s the only card you have, especially when travelling.

Even before the caps on the interchange fees came in AmEx had already lowered its fees considerably.

AmEx has moved into a bit of weird space in recent years... its massively more mainstream in the UK than it used to be, helped in part by the Lloyds merchant banking services and others adding AmEx to their services. 

Certainly in London its old established small/medium size companies that are the remaining ones that arent likely to accept it... large companies bar a few notable exceptions have accepted it for years... smaller new companies are using things like iZettle, Square and PayPal instead of traditional merchant services and these all accept AmEx and so its your cornershop with a traditional card machine that are the only ones that routinely still dont accept it but then our local cornershop has gone to the wall since a co-op  and a sainsburys local both opened in the area and both take Amex.

VXman

I got my Amex card in September and am already over £140 cashback and this is just normal everyday spending. Most major retailers accept it. I even got a unexpected £5 off a sandwich and coffee in a local cafe the other day. (small business promotion).

Also  Paypal linked to Amex thing is worth it is you do go to a shop that doesn't accept it but does take Paypal.

phillw

VXman said:

I got my Amex card in September and am already over £140 cashback and this is just normal everyday spending.

Either you get 100% cashback or you have a different definition of "normal everyday spending" to me.
What rate are you getting?

Sandtree

phillw said:

VXman said:

I got my Amex card in September and am already over £140 cashback and this is just normal everyday spending.

Either you get 100% cashback or you have a different definition of "normal everyday spending" to me.
What rate are you getting?

Id say neither are hinting at “normal”, the average household certainly spends a lote more than £140 over 3 months considering food, transport, clothes etc

floppydisk1

phillw said:

VXman said:

I got my Amex card in September and am already over £140 cashback and this is just normal everyday spending.

Either you get 100% cashback or you have a different definition of "normal everyday spending" to me.
What rate are you getting?

Phillw I think Amex gives 5 % cash back first 3 or even 6 months up to £ 100 or £125  or something similar, so first £ 100 of cash back is hitting £ 2k which is not that much if you buy say new appliances, new telly or something similar through amex card.... I think I hit £ 110 cash back in 6 weeks ( new washing machine and oven ) then it went really slow up to £ 5k spend ( on  0.5 % cash back ) after 5k it doubles to 1% so starting to go up a wee bit quicker. I had  £ 110 cash back in 6 weeks and  £170 at the year's end ....  Sadly 5 % cash back is only first few months  sweetener and not every year.

northwalesd

floppydisk1 said:
Phillw I think Amex gives 5 % cash back first 3 or even 6 months up to £ 100 or £125  or something similar, so first £ 100 of cash back is hitting £ 2k which is not that much if you buy say new appliances, new telly or something similar through amex card.... I think I hit £ 110 cash back in 6 weeks ( new washing machine and oven ) then it went really slow up to £ 5k spend ( on  0.5 % cash back ) after 5k it doubles to 1% so starting to go up a wee bit quicker. I had  £ 110 cash back in 6 weeks and  £170 at the year's end ....  Sadly 5 % cash back is only first few months  sweetener and not every year.

But that's hardly 'normal everyday spending'. So yes, worth it if you have large purchases in the pipeline.