Richard

A supp on what? Gold?

If you’ve had no Amex cards in your name for the last two years, the maximisation route is this:

1 – Nectar or Marriott
2 – Platinum or BA Premium Plus
3 – Platinum or BA Premium Plus

This is only way to get 3 bonuses.

If you get Gold (and I don’t see why you would given the 60k bonus on Platinum at the moment) then you can still get BA Premium Plus later. I doubt you’ll see a 70k offer again though – this was BA going rogue.

1. Sign up for the Amex Gold Card now – spend 3k to get 20 000 points and convert to Avios.

2. In addition to this, keep an eye out for a BA Amex Premium Plus Card welcome offer, spend 3k and receive the (additional – see above point) welcome bonus offer. I know there was a recent offer of 70 000 Avios so may be waiting some time for a new one.

Regards,
Richard

Clemente

Most people who have Platinum don’t spend on it, they just keep it for the benefits and direct spend elsewhere. I know I do.

Vio

Correct. You could get the Platinum bonus or the BA Premium Plus bonus though (assumning you’ve had no other Amex’s in the last 2 years).

After that, yes, Barclays it is.

Harrier25

Thank you. I will ask the question on the chat thread and see if anyone more helpful and less sarcastic responds. There may be some useful data points out there!

RussellH

isn’t revolut better than wise? at least you get fee free transfers between currencies for the first 1k per month.

Raj

Neither. You’d need to cancel and wait 24 months.

However you can get the Platinum bonus now, no need to cancel your BA card.

RussellH

He should’ve lost it and then gone out to find a little more excitement when spending abroad. Halifax Clarity should’ve been left, long forgotten in the last decade.

Mayfair Mike

Why do people here even bother with Halifax Clarity? It’s just a boring run of the mill credit card with very few benefits.

David H

Well, that’s kinda like asking, how long is a piece of string.

Mike A

An allegation of discrimination by Amex against retired people (if based on the protected characteristic of age) is a very serious one and almost certainly misconceived. The simple fact is that the criteria for credit have been tightened by most providers over the past 12 months; nobody of any age should necessarily expect to have applications accepted in the way they were previously. I’m not sure that having had various Amex cards over the last 12 years (with the implication that some are now closed) necessarily counts in your favour.

Rob

Which is exactly where the algorithms fail, they discriminate against someone that’s retired but not relying on an annual income. When someone highlights Retired in an application Amex should take a different route in its decision process. As an Amex member for 12 years holding various cards, I was refused.

Mike A

The algorithms look at the gap between your stated income and assumed expenditure. Graduate on £30k living rent free at home will get accepted before someone on £60k with a big mortgage, in theory.

That said, if you are only taking £10k per year from your pension (which would still be far more than, say, my Mum spends in a year) then its not hard to see why Amex wouldn’t give you a card with a £175 fee.

I already have taken the free ARCC to keep my MR safe, rather than have to transfer to a partner.

The Deliveroo credits are useful but I don’t use it enough to justify the fee (I think I got £35 back last year).

I contacted chat to cancel and was offered 10k retention bonus to keep it, and accepted it. I know there’s no requirement to actually keep longer it but consider it bad form to cancel now, so will keep it until the next renewal.

FatherOfFour

Yes, the regular bonus plus foreign spend and airline bonus make this very worthwhile. While foreign airline spend incurs FX fees, it’s still much cheaper than getting the airline to do the conversion, let alone the cost of booking via international sites, plus you get s75 that has proved useful over the years so with 3MR + 0.5MR bonus that’s a good deal as far as I’m concerned. Similarly for foreign hotel deposits, 2MR, 0.5MR bonus and s75 very happy with that. My son now uses the Deliveroo benefit which adds to the value proposition on top of this card being by far the highest earning one for my spend pattern.

Mayfair Mike

I am surprised that (Transfer)Wise multi currency a/c does not get more attention here.
If you have no interest in Virgin miles, Clydesdale/Yorkshire/”Virgin” Money current a/c debit card is also free to use in Eurozone/Sweden/Romania.
And if you are lucky enough to live in Cumbria or North Lancashire, a Cumberland Building Society debit card is free to use anywhere.
I agree that Halifax Clarity should be in any traveller’s pocket, even if it is only a backup to other cards (in my case two Eurozone debit cards and a Swiss debit card).

Mayfair Mike

One of these is a massively complicated product with byzantine rules, and one is a credit card which will reduce your capacity to take out other miles-earning credit cards.

Is it really worth it to save an extra £10 on £2,000 of foreign spend?

Clearly is for some but I’m not convinced.

(Before anyone mentions it, we get paid substantially more by Curve than Currensea if a reader takes out a card.)

RussellH

Yes, we reran that article a few weeks ago if you search.

Rui N.

Thanks. Agree you could apply straight away but how long a gap would it be advisable to leave in order to have a good chance of being accepted ? That is what I am hoping someone has some insight into !

Apart from being a way of using the credit for those who do not live anywhere near Deliveroo, you earn 120 points for an outlay of 24p.

Not massive, but an impressive earning yeld!
🙂

David H

Yes you can. No guarantee you’ll get it approved of course.