What is the best credit card for points/airmiles/freebies

[DangerousMike]

look at amex card that have reasonable cashback or airmiles deals.

[sinizter]

Amex Platinum Cashback and Egg Money (for cashback)

Cash is obviously superior to points. Paid every year.

Edited by sinizter on Saturday 28th August 19:40

[Big_Dog]

Been using a BA Amex for the miles. Word to the wise, they are "BA Miles" not "Airmiles" still pretty good though. Oddly despite both being owned by BA and of similar value, not interchangable.
The Barclaycard Platinum gives cash back on fuel and groceries but iirc has a ceiling set quite low.
Eggs pretty good too.
You might like this place http://www.fool.co.uk/credit-cards/rewards-credit-...

[sinizter]

Big_Dog said:

Been using a BA Amex for the miles. Word to the wise, they are "BA Miles" not "Airmiles" still pretty good though. Oddly despite both being owned by BA and of similar value, not interchangable.
The Barclaycard Platinum gives cash back on fuel and groceries but iirc has a ceiling set quite low.
Eggs pretty good too.
You might like this place http://www.fool.co.uk/credit-cards/rewards-credit-...

Which Barclaycard offers straight cashback ? Yes, they do have a rubbish setup BarclayCard Freedom or something like that, but it is for only a few retailers and cashback isn't that great. I have one as a backup, but it gets used about three times a year.

Edited by sinizter on Sunday 29th August 08:52

[bogie]

as with most reward schemes it depends on what you want/use

I use a Virgin black amex for the miles, pay all my business expenses on it, and never have to fly economy class long haul....I always have enough miles to upgrade to premium or upper, 4 times a year when I need to on business (employer only pays economy)

if I dont use all the miles for business, I have free flights for holidays all year

if you want cashback then Egg is ok...there will be a list on moneysupermarket etc for whos running the best deals at the mo, just depends what you want to earn

[sinizter]

musclecarmad said:

thanks guys

so, for that BA card in the link below it says you get 1 airmile for every pound you spend.

Now, I should know more about this due to my line of work but I have to admit I don't as I don't normally borrow.

So, is it as simple as if you spend £500 you get 500 airmiles so you can go on a flight that's 500 miles in distance and you don't have to pay?

Surely it can't be that good, so how am I misinterpreting it?

What else do I need to know etc?

The way I look at it is that I spend petrol and money for entertaining on business expenses and so on so I really should be putting it all on a credit card each month shouldn't I?

Cheers

Not quite that straightforward.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/ecredeemcalcu...

[Phooey]

HSBC - Premier points. For every £750 you spend on your card, you get a £5 voucher, i am opting for M&S - Xmas dinner and a bottle of sherry, ta very much

[51mes]

I have my John Lewis partnership card...

1p in a pound spent instore, 0.5p in the pound spent elsewhere.. I get JL giftvouchers which I redeeem in december each year for chrimbo shopping ;-)

I'd love to have a waitrose locally ;-)

Simes.

[Chris Hinds]

I use Amex Platinum Cashback card. 5% Introductory offer for 3 months then ongoing at up to 1.25% depending on how much you spend. Most years I get about £120 in cash back since I've had the card and I use it for everything, clearing the balance each month by direct debit. Works for me but you need to be disciplined otherwise if you pay interest you loose cashback.

Regards

Chris

[Silver993tt]

sinizter said:

musclecarmad said:

thanks guys

so, for that BA card in the link below it says you get 1 airmile for every pound you spend.

Now, I should know more about this due to my line of work but I have to admit I don't as I don't normally borrow.

So, is it as simple as if you spend £500 you get 500 airmiles so you can go on a flight that's 500 miles in distance and you don't have to pay?

Surely it can't be that good, so how am I misinterpreting it?

What else do I need to know etc?

The way I look at it is that I spend petrol and money for entertaining on business expenses and so on so I really should be putting it all on a credit card each month shouldn't I?

Cheers

Not quite that straightforward.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/ecredeemcalcu...

You also have to pay the tax & charges even if you get a "free" BA miles ticket. This can still be very high and actually make up most of the price of the ticket in the first place.

For axample, I recently bought a ticket to a European city. It cost around £60 one way but the tax & charges where around £50. The cost of the ticket itself was £10. Therefore if I had used BA miles, I still would have had to pay an additional circa £50. This gets exponentially much more expensive when going long haul.

[seaninog]

Silver993tt said:

sinizter said:

musclecarmad said:

thanks guys

so, for that BA card in the link below it says you get 1 airmile for every pound you spend.

Now, I should know more about this due to my line of work but I have to admit I don't as I don't normally borrow.

So, is it as simple as if you spend £500 you get 500 airmiles so you can go on a flight that's 500 miles in distance and you don't have to pay?

Surely it can't be that good, so how am I misinterpreting it?

What else do I need to know etc?

The way I look at it is that I spend petrol and money for entertaining on business expenses and so on so I really should be putting it all on a credit card each month shouldn't I?

Cheers

Not quite that straightforward.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/ecredeemcalcu...

You also have to pay the tax & charges even if you get a "free" BA miles ticket. This can still be very high and actually make up most of the price of the ticket in the first place.

For axample, I recently bought a ticket to a European city. It cost around £60 one way but the tax & charges where around £50. The cost of the ticket itself was £10. Therefore if I had used BA miles, I still would have had to pay an additional circa £50. This gets exponentially much more expensive when going long haul.

Another vote for the BA Amex card here.

Silver933 is right though, don't waste the miles on short haul economy flights, it only makes sense if you cash them in for long haul business class.

Example: My wife and I went business class to LA a couple of year sago. I got my ticket with miles and got her one with the companion voucher. The total cost for tickets that should be about £3,000 each were just the taxes, about £600. This is where it works best and gives the best "cashback" of any card out there.

But as someone said, it's all about what you want to use the benefits for.

[sinizter]

musclecarmad said:

ok thanks guys, a lot to think about really. Don't know if I can be bothered with the hassle for it all though really.

other suggestions welcome - the john lewis one doesn't appeal as I don't shop there.

the BA one is ok but I don't fly on business etc so it's only really for annual holidays and they are normally a package holiday rather than just flights.

I don't know

What hassle ? Get a cashback card, use it for everything and get a payout at your one year anniversary - Spend as you wish.

Last year, my holiday to Vienna was paid from cashback from my 2 cards alone.

[RizzoTheRat]

Another vote for cashback, I have the Amex platinum cashback, and a Halifax mastercard cashback for the places that won't take Amex, there is no hassle involved at all as they just credit the cashback to the card once a year.

[sinizter]

musclecarmad said:

i went to vienna earlier this year - the flight was only about £20 all in return i think!

just the hassle of knowing I owe money, missing payments if you are on holiday and them trying to screw you with terms and conditions you don't know exist for the sake of £100 a year

Stick it on direct debit to pay off total amount every month. There are no other terms and conditions that you need concern yourself with.

And my holiday to Vienna did cost somewhat more than £20.

Edited by sinizter on Monday 30th August 17:48

[Carpie]

sinizter said:

musclecarmad said:

i went to vienna earlier this year - the flight was only about £20 all in return i think!

just the hassle of knowing I owe money, missing payments if you are on holiday and them trying to screw you with terms and conditions you don't know exist for the sake of £100 a year

Stick it on direct debit to pay off total amount every month. There are no other terms and conditions that you need concern yourself with.

It's really no hassle whatsoever. It strengthens your credit rating as well, plus you get the added protection of a credit card if you're buying something it applies to.

[oldbanger]

I have an Amazon Mastercard which gives me 1p in the pound spent at Amazon and 1p in every £2 spent elsewhere. Payment is via Amazon vouchers.