What rewards credit card should I get? (spending £2k soon and amex not accepted)

TheLondoner

Hi,

I'm going abroad in august/Sep and my spending will include approx £900 flights and £1400 on a tour package trekking thing where they don't have amex listed as a payment method. 

I was thinking of being savvy this time and get a dedicated card for the points/rewards rather than waste it using my halifax clarify with no benefits at all!

Any suggestions on what would be the best way to utilise this £2k spend for maximum rewards? 

Also, if you're going to recommend a card with an annual fee, please let me know if I can still get the benefit of the card and cancel the card before the year is up to get around paying the annual fee. Thanks!

lr1277

What kind of rewards are you looking for?

Vouchers for shopping at your usual supermarket

Travel related rewards? Hotel and/or airline? Are you ok being tied to one hotel or airline?

Many years ago, I looked at where I spent my money. My biggest expendiure after rent was the supermarket shop. So I got the credit card from tthat supermarket. Worked out well for me. I also got reward points when I spent anywhere else other than that supermarket.

lr1277

Suggest you look at the Head for Points (HfP) website.

Once there, read the articles and the forms. Both specific areas or the daily general chat. You will find useful information in all.

Once at the home page of the site, near the top are headings. One of which is Credit cards. Click on this and there are articles about various points earning cards.

Seems to be you are limited to either Barclaycardl which rewards you with Avios and the Virgin credit card. Both have a free version and a paid for version. Obviously the paid for version has a higher earning rate per pound spent and greater rewards.

If choosing one of these, you need to decide where you want to fly in future. BA flies to many more places than Virgin. I think there is also a way of converting Avios to nectar points through the BA Executive Club.

Suggest you read the articles on HfP.

TheLondoner

lr1277 said:

What kind of rewards are you looking for?

Vouchers for shopping at your usual supermarket

Travel related rewards? Hotel and/or airline? Are you ok being tied to one hotel or airline?

Many years ago, I looked at where I spent my money. My biggest expendiure after rent was the supermarket shop. So I got the credit card from tthat supermarket. Worked out well for me. I also got reward points when I spent anywhere else other than that supermarket.

not too fussed - whatever is the best value for money - either amazon vouchers, argos vouchers, curry's vouchers, or supermarket vouchers. I don't really understand avios points/airmiles so probably avoid those, unless someone can explain how best to utilise those? I just logged in to singapore airlines website and couldn't figure out how to use my airlines so gave up!

Thanks

km1500

Have you thought of a Chase current account - not points but 1% cashback ? Also of course a debit card, not a credit card

grumbler

km1500 said:

Have you thought of a Chase current account - not points but 1% cashback ? 

And no fees abroad.

MrFrugalFever

This really will depend on what you would like to achieve in terms of rewards as mentioned above. If you are not confident enough on the usage and working arrangements of Avios then potentially a straight up cashback CC or DC could be the answer. If looking at Cashback CC then Barclaycard Rewards is 0.25% and FX fee free too. Chase is 1% and FX fee free but a Debit Card.

Sainsburys Nectar points CC has worsened in terms of the benefits (not the 1 nectar point per £1 spent anymore) but nonetheless still a good contender.

Whatever you decide, checkout TOPCASHBACK website first as you could bag a bit of extra cashback by applying!

lr1277

TheLondoner said:

lr1277 said:

What kind of rewards are you looking for?

Vouchers for shopping at your usual supermarket

Travel related rewards? Hotel and/or airline? Are you ok being tied to one hotel or airline?

Many years ago, I looked at where I spent my money. My biggest expendiure after rent was the supermarket shop. So I got the credit card from tthat supermarket. Worked out well for me. I also got reward points when I spent anywhere else other than that supermarket.

not too fussed - whatever is the best value for money - either amazon vouchers, argos vouchers, curry's vouchers, or supermarket vouchers. I don't really understand avios points/airmiles so probably avoid those, unless someone can explain how best to utilise those? I just logged in to singapore airlines website and couldn't figure out how to use my airlines so gave up!

Thanks

I am not really knowledgeable about supermarket cards and you don't say which supermarket you would prefer to have shopping discounted.

Tesco has a card - don't know the benefits. I did read something about rewards stopping in June, but not sure about that and if you are interested you need to investigate further.

Sainsburys has a card from which you can collect nectar points. You can also collect nectar points at other places like ebay and BP petrol stations I think. You can then spend the nectar points at any of those 3 retailers, or others perhaps.

I had the John Lewis card as I shopped at Waitrose. That still exists.

There is currently a bonus if you apply for a Barclaycard, but I think the closing date might be imminent. The sign up bonus (SUB) is 25000 avios for the paid card. To get this, you have to spend £3k within 3 months. More details at the Barclaycard site or the HfP site. Or there is the free card with a lower SUB.

If you want to understand avios etc look at the HfP site. There are a number of articles that explain the various rewards schemes.

Beware of 2 things:

Your total credit limit across all your cards as compared to your salary. Each card provider has their own decision making process, but some may not give you a useable limit if they think your credit exposure is too high. You could try each card's eligibility checker (and not a generic checker) to see if you might get a card. Some suggest not having your total credit available more than a third of your salary. I have heard of some people having much higher relative limits, but these are generally provided by Amex. The days of easy credit are gone.

Also for Visa and Mastercard the rewards aren't super becase of the fee levels set by government that a card company can use to pay for rewards. Amex has higher rewards because their fees are higher.

TheBanker

Just a thought... if you are getting a new card, look for one that has a 0% offer on purchases. Then you can put the money in a savings account until the card needs to be paid off. This is likely to be more profitable than any cashback/points you can earn (although some cards will allow both). 

Not worth doing if you are likely to need to apply for other credit (e.g. a mortgage) during the period or if carrying a debt for 12 months is likely to cause problems. Make sure you make the minimum payments to avoid the 0% deal being cancelled. Do your own research, etc. Make sure you diarise to pay off before the deal ends otherwise the interest will be eye-watering.

Just an example and not a recommendation - the Tesco Purchases Credit Card (https://www.tescobank.com/credit-cards/) offers 0% on purchases for up to 14 months, plus you get some clubcard points.

I've just put a £2k purchase on a credit card offering 0% on purchases for 15 months. The £2k I would have used otherwise is now in a fixed term deposit account. It will mature before the credit card debt has to be repaid. In the mean time I can make the minimum monthly payments from my regular income (but if not I could have kept enough of the £2k to cover the monthly payments in an easy access account). I'll make about £90 in interest, but some of this will be taxed as it will take me over my personal savings allowance when combined with other savings.  

TheLondoner

It all seemed like too much hassle so i gave up and just paid with my clarity card! Thanks all for the replies!

jbrassy

Appreciate you have now paid for the holiday, but thought I'd add my thoughts for future reference.

Firstly, it is right to pay for the holiday on a credit card rather than a debit card as you get the added S75 protection. 

Then the question becomes whether you are paying for the holiday in pounds or a foreign currency. 

If you're paying in a foreign currency, the only CC which offers rewards with no foreign exchange fees is the Barclaycard Rewards (0.25% cashback), so this is the obvious choice. You'd have got £5.75 cashback if you'd paid using this card. This isn't a lot, but it can rack up if you also use it while on holiday. 

If you're paying in pounds, then there's more choice. If you just want cashback, then Barclaycard Rewards is still your best bet. However, if you want airline points (Avios etc), then I believe the Barclaycard Avios cards are the best (worth looking at the Head for Points website for more info on those). The other alternative is a supermarket credit card which pays Clubcard / Nectar / Asda points. It all really depends on what you value the most.