Lloyds Avios card

northwalesd

Just received a letter that from 1 Jun 2021 the rewards scheme for this card is changing from Avios to cashback - sadly only 0.25% up to and including £4000 spend, 0.5% for anything oveer £4k. Cashback paid yearly in January. New cards being issued by end of July

dcfc67

Move to an AMEX gold card, spend 3K in first 3 months get 20000 avios, other avios cards available with Sainsburys (nectar) or British Airways 

jbrassy

dcfc67 said:

Move to an AMEX gold card, spend 3K in first 3 months get 20000 avios, other avios cards available with Sainsburys (nectar) or British Airways 

Might want to double check that you can get the introductory bonus offer as Amex have clamped down on people switching between cards to keep getting intro offers.

Even so, it is still probably worth switching given those rates of cashback can easily be beaten by the Amex Platinum cashback and Amex Everyday cashback cards. 

northwalesd

Avios card of little use to me (I think I used my Lloyd's card once last year , and that was by 'accident') as I don't travel.

jbrassy

northwalesd said:

Avios card of little use to me (I think I used my Lloyd's card once last year , and that was by 'accident') as I don't travel.

In that case, I would switch to the Amex Platinum cashback card. It pays 1% cashback on all spending up to £10,000 across the year and 1.25% cashback for all spending above £10,000. It has a £25 annual fee, but as long as you spend over £5000 a year on it, you will still benefit. 

If you spend less than £5000, then get the Amex Everyday cashback card which pays 0.5% cashback for spending up to £5000 and 1% cashback above this with no annual fee.

You may also want to consider Barclaycard Rewards for those instances where the shop doesn't accept Amex. This pays 0.25% cashback and the card has no fee.

ratechaser

jbrassy said:

northwalesd said:

Avios card of little use to me (I think I used my Lloyd's card once last year , and that was by 'accident') as I don't travel.

In that case, I would switch to the Amex Platinum cashback card. It pays 1% cashback on all spending up to £10,000 across the year and 1.25% cashback for all spending above £10,000. It has a £25 annual fee, but as long as you spend over £5000 a year on it, you will still benefit. 

If you spend less than £5000, then get the Amex Everyday cashback card which pays 0.5% cashback for spending up to £5000 and 1% cashback above this with no annual fee.

You may also want to consider Barclaycard Rewards for those instances where the shop doesn't accept Amex. This pays 0.25% cashback and the card has no fee.

Agreed, ever since CapitalOne ditched their £120/year MasterCard that paid 2% cashback (happy days...), the Amex platinum cashback card has been my favourite. Lots more places take Amex these day as well, including some unusual ones like discount supermarkets...

Anyway, it's netted me ~£500/year regularly, plus there are some decent retailer offers you can stack on top. I might switch to an Avios card in a few years when I'm retired and can travel more, but the simplicity of a cash reward still appeals for now...

northwalesd

Thanks, I'm not currently in the market for a new card, and already have a Barclaycard.

chris_850

New to switching here, is switching easy?

Ever had any problems with the process?

Chris

ratechaser

northwalesd said:

Thanks, I'm not currently in the market for a new card, and already have a Barclaycard.

Well it's entirely your choice of course, but worth considering that there are definitely better options out there than the one it looks like you're going to be getting from Lloyds in future!

dcfc67

Avios points can be transferred into nectar which may be of use if you shop at Sainsburys or Argos

However

dcfc67 said:

Avios points can be transferred into nectar which may be of use if you shop at Sainsburys or Argos

Well they could be, but BA has lost all details of my so-called Executive Club account created when Avios was transferred over in 2018. I have all the emails and notifications. Like the OP, I too received the letter from Lloyds Bank, they repeated again the BA Executive Club membership number, but BA are resolute it dosn't exist despite me querying then complaining that I wasn't able to access my account to see what was there and to transfer to Nectar: 'they know nothing - they're from Barcelona'. I'd get more success talking to a compost heap. Fortunately I had run down my Avios points a couple of months before the 2018 transfer, so I've abandoned whatever's remaining.

What is so galling, I'd actually registered the new account as requested by Lloyds, received a pin passcode and all that right at the beginning, so something had got set up. Never could access it though. I hate it more than you can imagine when a dumb organistion insists I hadn't registered. It's the Post Officer Horizon syndrome - computer says no: but it's the computer that's at fault, dummies.