What next?

[shadowfixer]

So here is my problem, I have the HHonors Barclaycard, Blue BA Amex card a couple of other random (non points earning cards) Other than Gold with Hilton (and keeping my account alive), the Barclaycard doesnt do anything for me, and there are other ways and means of getting gold….

Any suggestions on what my card holding strategy should be?
My thoughts were bin the barclaycard & wait 6 months – apply for an avios barclaycard. Keep my avios account alive with this and then bin the BA Amex card, re applying for a new persoanl card in a couple of years…. unless anyone has a better strategy?

I dont have a partner that i can share the cards with!

Thanks for any suggestions 🙂

[Peter K]

You need to ask yourself: What easy other way to keep Hilton gold do I have available to me that doesn’t involve the Barclaycard or an AMEX card (as you are going to have 2yrs fallow)?

What is Hilton gold worth to me?

Am I sure that my finances will allow me to get the BA Barclaycard in 6 months and amex cards in 2 years?

Otherwise, seems reasonable to me.

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

I’d think carefully about what benefits you are giving up before you discard (see what I did there) the Hilton card – it’s a legacy loyalty card, so when it’s gone it’s gone! The Barclays Avios card SUBs aren’t as compelling now and Hilton gold is a status you can get decent benefits from. https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/barclaycard-hiltonhonor-worth-keeping/

Alternatively, you are still eligible for the Amex Plat SUB (40k MRs) as a BA card holder, assuming you haven’t held any other personal Amex MR earning cards in the last 2 years… If you’re planning taking the 2 year break from Amex, you may as well earn that first then cancel once earned, as the fee is currently refundable on a pro-rata basis. You could even throw a cheeky retention offer attempt (on both cards) into the mix, if feeling brave 😉

[TJones]

What easy other way to keep Hilton gold do I have available to me that doesn’t involve the Barclaycard or an AMEX card?

20 stays. Or 40 nights or 75000 points.

[Harrier25]

There is no way I’d give up my Hilton Barclaycard. It’s free, gives you 2x Hilton Honors points for each £1 spend (3x in Hilton properties).

Remember you need to spend £10,000 per calender year to keep the Gold tier benefit, but that generates 20,000 Hilton Honors points, free breakfast for 2 people outside the US and the odd free room upgrade. Fantastic benefits and all for free!

[PIL]

Santander Edge card for 2% cashback up to £750/monthly spend?

[shadowfixer]

Thanks all for getting back to me….
THe HHonors card is a great deal with no real spend requirements and keeps my Hilton points live, as is always the way – having asked for advice, i may have found a different solution – as a Barclays customer i can also use Barclays Avios Rewards to keep my avois account alive as well – so this is something else to put into the mix, keeping the hilton card, ditching the BA Amex and getting a MR card as suggested by GG might be a way forward.

@Tjones – Founderscard gives Hilton Gold too – but i doubt if i’m allowed to share my referral code here…

Thanks PIL – already have a Santander card – thinking of moving off this to Chase for unlimited 1% spend – or using both!

Thanks again all…

[ChasP]

sadly the Chase 1% back has so many restrictions on payments that dont count its nowhere near as useful as a normal credit card

[Aston100]

I wish I had the Barclays Hilton card.

[NorthernLass]

Like @Harrier, I’ve no plans to part with mine. I can rely on it to keep HH gold while booking most hotel stays with IHG for the milestone rewards.

Takes me back to when I first discovered HFPs about 8 years ago and got the HH visa and Lloyds duo on Rob’s recommendation!

[AJA]

Another one who has no desire to get rid of my Barclaycard Hhonors card even if it prevents me from applying for the Barclaycard Avios one.

But I’m also OK with keeping the BAPP even with the higher annual fee and the higher spend threshold to get the 2-4-1 voucher. I’m lucky though as my card renewed in April so I only had to pay the £250 fee.

[memesweeper]

I’ve recently closed mine. The on-going spend return on the Barclaycard Avios is too attractive. In the six months while I’m waiting I’ll spend on Virgin Premium, which is a decent way to earn Hilton points. Possible loss of status is the big risk, but there’s several ways to get to Gold with Hilton.

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

shadowfixer wrote:

Thanks all for getting back to me….
THe HHonors card is a great deal with no real spend requirements and keeps my Hilton points live, as is always the way – having asked for advice, i may have found a different solution – as a Barclays customer i can also use Barclays Avios Rewards to keep my avois account alive as well – so this is something else to put into the mix, keeping the hilton card, ditching the BA Amex and getting a MR card as suggested by GG might be a way forward.

@Tjones – Founderscard gives Hilton Gold too – but i doubt if i’m allowed to share my referral code here…

Thanks PIL – already have a Santander card – thinking of moving off this to Chase for unlimited 1% spend – or using both!

Thanks again all…

@shadowfixer if you’re a Barclays Premier client and Avios collector then signing up for the Avios Rewards option is a no-brainer. You’re effectively buying 15k Avios a year at 0.8p each (cheaper than the best BA subscription or Avios boost deal), which as you say keeps your Avios account ‘live’, and you get the annual upgrade voucher (or 7k Avios option) as a bonus!

I was also interested to see your comment about Founderscard. I’d never heard of it before and don’t think it gets any coverage on here… Given the current fee seems to be $595, how do you find the benefits stack up? I think this may warrant a new thread altogether 😀

[shadowfixer]

@Guernsey Globetrotter – I think i am grandfathered in on the old cost of Founderscard – im not sure i get would get $595 worth of benefits out of it! I use a “frozen” card to pay as its an automatic subscription otherwise – they usually offer som sort of retention discount if you are not convinced about staying

There are various benefits with BA (transatlantic discount) & Virgin (status challenge) as well as hotels (status & discouonts) & other benefits…. you need to have a small business to be considered a “founder” i think…

[andiron]

Yeah Chase is good but not as good, you need to pay money in – £1500 a month, the card is very restricitve about what it pays cashback for – so I only use it if I know for sure, AND it has a limit – £15 a month, unlike Barclays HH.

I’ll keep my one for time being.

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

shadowfixer wrote:

@Guernsey Globetrotter – I think i am grandfathered in on the old cost of Founderscard – im not sure i get would get $595 worth of benefits out of it! I use a “frozen” card to pay as its an automatic subscription otherwise – they usually offer som sort of retention discount if you are not convinced about staying

There are various benefits with BA (transatlantic discount) & Virgin (status challenge) as well as hotels (status & discouonts) & other benefits…. you need to have a small business to be considered a “founder” i think…

Thanks for the reply – since my last post I started the FoundersCard application process, just so I could get to a stage where the costs and benefits were clear. I didn’t intend to complete and just left the web form once I was happy that the cost/benefit analysis wouldn’t stack up for me…

Within an hour I got an email from their member services team offering to discount the annual fee by $100 down to $495 and that this rate would be ‘locked in’ as long as I was a member. Still too rich in my personal circumstances (already hold Amex Plat and Bonvoy cards along with HSBC Prem World Elite) but it goes to show there are deals to be had. I read also that someone was grandfathered on $295 annually, which seems a lot more viable.

[figgyc]

Random thought – I don’t have an HHonors Barclaycard, but for the people that do, and really want to keep it – is it perhaps worth considering opening a Tesco credit card speculatively, in the hope that after Barclays buys Tesco Bank, it eventually gets absorbed into the Barclaycard system and then allows you to do a card type change to an Avios or Avios Plus? Or a Rewards for that matter if you want a good FX-free CC for some reason. I think something similar happened to the Egg cards that Barclays bought ages ago (although I don’t think the 1 Barclaycard limit actually existed back then.)

Perhaps not though, as I believe that you either get no SUB or a reduced SUB for doing a card type change, the headline offer is only for “new to Barclaycard” customers. So the only real potential benefits are the ongoing ones – Avios on non-Amexable spend, and the spend target upgrade voucher. And of course you are hoping that the HHonors card has not been gutted by then, which it will of course eventually be I imagine. (Given the Clubcard points deal is 10 years and the announcement says integration will just be “over time” it might be a while!)

[Supergers49]

My understanding of the deal is that Barclays intend to continue offering Tesco Credit Cards with Clubcard earning capability. It will effectively turn into a white-label product.