Maximising card rewards

Marchitiello

If I may add a couple of points on the Amex “The Platinum” card (the £575 version, ex Chargecard):

As others have said, it is a great product for traveller and those that enjoy an above average experience when “leisuring”, even when still being a MoneySavingExpert within that context.

It currently comes with £300 dining credit (£150 in the UK and £150 abroad), £100 Harvey Nichols credit (agreed, not great as HN prices are even more inflated than Harrods, Selfridges or Fortnum & Mason - I spend mine on Wines). So if these were things that you would spend your money on anyway, it basically leaves you with £175 net cost. With this, again as far as it suits your lifestyle, you get:

-Priority Pass membership and Amex Lounge Membership for Airports and other travel lounges around the World
- Hotel Elite Membership at Marriott, Hilton, Meliá and Radisson, which easily can make up for few ££ worth of value between rooms upgrades, free breakfast or F&B credit etc (Marriott has also a great Price Match scheme with fewer restriction than the competition).
- Car Rental Elite Membership with Avis and Hertz (and by status match with other companies): this has been the most valuable benefits for me this year, allowing me cheap booking and getting upgrades at collection, often 2 categories up (instead of the regular 1 category) and on a couple of occasions even 4 categories up. This has been worth around £500 for me this year alone.
- Comprensive Family Travel Insurance, which include Car Rental insurance that would cover those huge excesses you may get for renting in Europe even when you have to take up the compulsory Basic Insurance. 
- Airport Fast attack access at some airports around Europe, in particular some of the major ones in Italy.
- access to Amex FHR which carries extra benefits, although if you know a travel
concierge service, you may be able to get similar or better benefits and pricing via them 

finally, with sign up bonuses, friends referral, offers etc, can offer great ways of racking up Amex MR points (I do about 90,000 per year in referral only) as well as saving some extra cash (spend x get £10 back or similar at Sainsbury's, M&S, Morrison, Esso and BP). 

So, yes, it may not suit everyone, but for those with the right lifestyle whilst still cautious about spending and value, it is a really great card.

RiderOnTheStorm

Thanks for the comments and feedback.

I will be paying off the amount in full every time before any interest kicks in and I am not planning any other purchases with the card (unless something big crops up eg car repairs or the need for a mega holiday).

My initial thoughts were for the Amex Nectar and Tesco cards just so I can easily accumulate the respective points, without too much worry but I guess my concerns were over missing deals located within some of the rewards features, like the previous commentator (upgrades etc)

Did think about the Chase account as I could just transfer money into it and reap the cashback rewards. Guess I just need to figure out whether cash(back) is king or whether building up reward points is better and more rewarding/profitable. 

WillPS

RiderOnTheStorm said:

Thanks for the comments and feedback.

I will be paying off the amount in full every time before any interest kicks in and I am not planning any other purchases with the card (unless something big crops up eg car repairs or the need for a mega holiday).

My initial thoughts were for the Amex Nectar and Tesco cards just so I can easily accumulate the respective points, without too much worry but I guess my concerns were over missing deals located within some of the rewards features, like the previous commentator (upgrades etc)

Did think about the Chase account as I could just transfer money into it and reap the cashback rewards. Guess I just need to figure out whether cash(back) is king or whether building up reward points is better and more rewarding/profitable. 

1% is very hard to beat to be honest. If the £1500 monthly limit or merchant restrictions don't constrain you, Chase is, IMHO, a no-brainer.

Tesco's cards are shamefully poor now unfortunately. The 'everywhere else' rate of 1 pt per £8 works out as just 0.125% (presuming all your spend is in £8 chunks, which it wont be) or 0.25% if you can find a reward partner offering a genuine 2x face value redemption (remembering that you can't use offer codes or what not in conjunctiontion with them). Even the 'Tesco spend' rate of 1 pt per £4 works out as just 0.25%/0.5% (again assuming all your spend is in exact £4 chunks, which again it wont be). All of these rates are easily beaten.

The one thing the Tesco card has going for it is the ability to unlock a higher rate of 1 pt per litre of fuel; normal clubcards only get 1 pt per 2 litres - but the exact same can be achieved with a Tesco Clubcard Pay+ card and you don't need to pay with these cards either, they just need to be the card used as a Clubcard.