See The Who in concert with your IHG Rewards Club points

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• Nic says:

  21 Feb21 February 11:02

  Bits / O/T:

  Just got a very fancy letter from Amex Plat with a single-use LHR FastTrack security voucher, good for two people, use until the end of the year.

  Checking in with my second cardholder to see if they got one as well.

• George K says:

  21 Feb21 February 11:06

  Theoretical question on the SPG card: If one takes it out now, days before it switches to Bonvoy, is there a guarantee that the original £1000/30k bonus will be given, even after it morphs into the new product?

  Trying to see if there’s any benefit from getting it now, or next week…

  • Rob says:

    21 Feb21 February 11:18

    Yes. You aren’t even meant to know the offer is changing next week, remember.

• BS says:

  21 Feb21 February 11:13

  OT: tried Revolut with visa CC again. No cash advance charge. How do I find out the MCC?

  • BS says:

    21 Feb21 February 11:21

    Just rung up my CC company, and the MCC is 6012.

    • TripRep says:

      21 Feb21 February 11:24

      BS – grateful for the card company, pls email me if u prefer (click on username)

      • BS says:

        21 Feb21 February 11:29

        Sent.

      • jc says:

        21 Feb21 February 13:41

        To my knowledge every Visa is now back to 6012. Revolut live chat will be telling customers this, so I’d advise asking & documenting it from them before acting on it

        • AlexT says:

          21 Feb21 February 13:44

          Is this a recent change? Anyone tried Barclays Hilton Honors card with it? If not, I may give it a try later todat…

        • fivebobbill says:

          21 Feb21 February 17:13

          Wouldn’t bet on it, tried a small top up 3 days ago, HH-Curve-Google Pay-Revolut. Appeared as Revolut transaction and Money Transfer next day, with a £2.99 cash advance fee.

        • Lady London says:

          21 Feb21 February 17:15

          …while you’ve got it. There was a cryptic comment below the line about a week ago from R not to get too attached to it IIRC

        • jc says:

          22 Feb22 February 07:36

          fivebobbill Curve is a Mastercard, you shot yourself there

        • fivebobbill says:

          22 Feb22 February 08:53

          @ jc, that’s a fair point actually!

    • Don says:

      22 Feb22 February 02:12

      Are we sure the MCC is back to 6012?

      And LL, what do you mean? Is the top-up going away?

      • Lady London says:

        22 Feb22 February 16:52

        The way it landed I took R’s comment of a few days ago to mean don’t get too attached to the Hilton.

  • Grant says:

    21 Feb21 February 17:54

    Are there any decent points earning Visa cards available to new customers? Everything seems to be Mastercard these days.

• James says:

  21 Feb21 February 11:15

  Has anybody ever had trouble transferring a balance from a Amex PR Gold?

  I’m using a Santander card, getting an error message when doing it online, have tried with 3 different Santander reps using A/C, Sortcode and CC number as reference – all keep getting bounced back a day or two later.

  Amex say it’s not possible for a payment to be bounced back at their end, Santander say there must be an error in the details (there isn’t).

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    21 Feb21 February 11:33

    If the j fk being requested is bank and sort # the use your own rather then Amex’s?

  • Michael says:

    21 Feb21 February 11:34

    Balance transfer from Amex to Santander doesn’t work online. Or at least it didn’t for me. I no longer have the Santander card but each time I did a BT from Brighton I had to phone Santander and do it that way. They needed Amex’s sort code and account number.

    30-00-00
    00200476

    • Michael says:

      21 Feb21 February 11:35

      Meant to be a reply to James’ comment above.

  • Harry T says:

    21 Feb21 February 11:44

    I’ve done it recently from PRGC to a Barclaycard. I’ve heard of difficulties with Amex balance transfers, due to Amex having shorter card numbers.

• Vit says:

  21 Feb21 February 11:27

  OT: Rob et al, based on your wisdom and experiences, what is the most beneficial way of using 9000+ rewards points? Of course, this is subject from person to person. My main priority is avios at the moment (i.e. trying to get above 100k household and use 2-4-1 voucher before end of Nov 2021) but I read somewhere from Rob’s article that only converting amex reward points to avios / other airlines mileage only when you really need it. Has there been any promotional conversion period where 1 reward point getting you more than 1 avios? Just thinking if there is anything else I should be looking out for.

  Cheers,
  Vit

  • Harry T says:

    21 Feb21 February 11:51

    Obviously I’m not Rob but transferring MR to Avios is one of the best uses of them, as long as you redeem for 1p per point. If you need Avios for a 241, then that may be the best place to transfer to. I’ve never heard of there being a transfer bonus from MR to Avios. There have been recent bonuses for transfers to Hilton and Marriott but 9000 MR isn’t getting you a hotel night, whereas 9000 Avios could be a one way to somewhere in Europe if you’re starting in London.

    • Harry T says:

      21 Feb21 February 11:54

      Apologies, I should say 9000 MR isn’t likely to get you a hotel night somewhere luxurious, whereas 9000 Avios could get you a one way in Club to somewhere in Europe or a return in Economy.

  • Rob says:

    21 Feb21 February 13:18

    Reward points from where?

    • Vit says:

      21 Feb21 February 13:47

      Amex Gold Reward Credit Card.

• Joseph’s mum says:

  21 Feb21 February 11:29

  OT – looking for advice please….
  Took out Lloyd’s Avios MasterCard July 2017. Received first voucher Jan 2018. Second voucher Jan 2019. (I believe that for both of these vouchers the spend was achieved in Dec and the voucher Issued in Jan.) Then had the closure letter in Feb 2019 to say I had until 4 July 2019 for eligible spend for a further voucher . I (mistakenly!) assumed my card anniversary date was Jan and was therefore expecting another voucher in Jan 2020. Complained, they said I’d already had my voucher in Jan and ‘as the letters were prepared in advance they couldn’t have known I’d already had the voucher’. Are they right? I recall some previous discussions around anniversary / calendar years . I think I also recall that the Ombudsman was unsympathetic to complaints re Avios etc . Am I just being cheeky in expecting a further upgrade voucher …? Thanks!

  • Anna says:

    21 Feb21 February 12:33

    If you took out the card in July, why would you assume your anniversary date was January? If you’ve had the correct number of vouchers, any others would only be issued as a mistake. You could try taking it further, but I think they would just say you’d had the last voucher when you competed the £7k spend for that card year and that’s that.

    • Lady London says:

      22 Feb22 February 16:54

      I spose you could perhaps imagined card rewards were calendar year not personal year

• Harry T says:

  21 Feb21 February 11:53

  OT as bits:
  Datapoint regarding the Bonvoy bonus for transferring Membership Rewards points. I did not receive an email but was told I was eligible by Amex. I contacted Marriott Bonvoy and they have credited my account with the extra bonus Bonvoy points.

  • Flying Misfit says:

    21 Feb21 February 12:53

    Can second that… As a poster mentioned earlier in week, I contacted Marriott on Wednesday and today they have duly delivered the 50% bonus. For the record, I did not receive the email.

    • Munch says:

      21 Feb21 February 13:10

      Did you contact by email? If so what email did you use to raise the claim?

      • Flying Misfit says:

        21 Feb21 February 13:18

        I called them on phone. Tried that UK number that gets bandied about in here at first but said number was out of commission, then tried on the generic +800 number for global support.

        Of note, the person I spoke to had to raise with manager, and then came back and said sthg along the lines that cut off date was end of Oct and for those with an Indian address. Made it clear this was the UK promotion with cut off towards end of Dec, she opened up a complaint and was told that I would hear back within 7 days.

        2 days in and bonus points in account

      • Harry T says:

        21 Feb21 February 13:25

        I used the generic email form on their website. Very rapid response and then points deposited within 48 hours. Very impressed with Bonvoy CS.

• Tamara says:

  21 Feb21 February 11:54

  OT: Hi, re IHG Premium card, I’m having occasional issues with this card, especially when using with Curve. I’m not doing MS or anything like that, just usual day to day spending. So at first payment failed at a stall in the market when using it with Curve, then failed again without Curve. At Waitrose first payment went through, 2 mins later second payment failed. At first I thought it was the new POS machines causing the problem, Paypal, iZettle, Square etc, but Waitrose?? Also occasionally payment fails when shopping online as well? It’s unlikely to be the credit limit either, I’m using 10-15% of my limit anyway.

  What are your experiences like, any similar issues? UK and abroad, with and without Curve? I’m planning to use it as my main card, but if I won’t be able to trust that the payment will go through, I have no intention of chasing Creation for transactions.

  Thanks

  • Lev441 says:

    21 Feb21 February 11:59

    They have very random fraud detectors – and they don’t normally tell you if it’s a security block (or at least I’ve found that..)

    Overall card works very well for me and I’ve done very nicely off of it.

  • Michael says:

    21 Feb21 February 12:16

    Just give Creation a phone. I did that last week after having had a couple of transactions declined when linked to Curve. Nothing dubious and for small amounts less than £10. I was told on the phone that there was a flag on my account due to some suspect spending (possibly Monese and Revolut). I explained what the transactions were and hey presto flag removed. I’ve not used the card much since then but no issues. A pain to contact Creation but a lot better than having transactions declined.

  • Anna says:

    21 Feb21 February 12:38

    I (and my OH) also have issues with IHG (whether with Curve or not). As well as the random fraud thing, I think that some payment processing systems, as you say, just don’t like Curve.

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