 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Take out the Free gold card, and you get double points on travel and supermarket spend (including fuel) for the 1st year. also double points for forigen spend. The bonus MR points are 22,000, and the spend requirement is £2,000, and there are ways and means of getting the spend up without having to be down money !
I'm currently getting x4 points on a ba.com transactions.
http://www.goingonrewards.com
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I don't put many business expenses through my BA Amex card, just usual household expenditure. I use it instead of a debit card and pay the statement in full each month. The Avios / BA miles steadily accumulate, and with the companion voucher we usually have enough points for a pair of business or first class tickets to North America. Have done that for more than a decade, and this year's trip is a flight to Vegas and back home from LA, First in one direction and Club in the other.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Use of the BA Amex premium plus card to generate a 2-4-1 voucher, which you get when you hit £10,000 spend in a year is probably the smartest idea. That 2-4-1 voucher can be very valuable.
However as soon as you hit that spend, you should put the card away and take out an alternate, as once you get the 2-4-1, there are cards out there that give you a better return. For example, as I previously said, the Amex gold card is a clever move. The current offer waives the annual fee for the first year, and based on your stated spend, you can easily hit the £2000 spend threshold in 3 months to get the bonus MR points. The bonus, if referred by an existing card holder is 22k MR points (20k if you don't get referred), to get the equivalent amount of avios on the BA premium plus card would require £14k of spend. And then of course for the 1st year on the gold card, all supermarket, travel and fuel spend get double points, effectively getting you 2 Avios per pound instead of 1.5 per pound on the BA card.
And the above is not even considering the promotions that Amex run from time to time to give bonus for transferring Amex MR into Avios, currently I can get 25% extra Avios if I transfer MR, But there has been 50% and even 100% bonuses.
And as long as you ditch the card before its anniversary, you won't need to pay the annual fee.
My direct referral link is:-
Amex gold referral
Or you can find more info on my blog
www.goingonrewards.com
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Fri 21-03-14 0:25; edited 5 times in total
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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As of today, the 4th of March the, platinum american express sign-up bonus has been wiped from 50,000 points to zero, yes zero points, or a miserly 2000 points if referred.
This is a major devaluation of the card, one can only hope it is short lived. Note that the gold card is currently unaffected, giving 22,000 points for a referred sign-up, and card is still totally free for the first year. My referral link is is still the same as per the post above.
Don't know how long that'll last, so anyone that was looking, now would be the time to take it out.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Well my problem is that I can generally find flights cheaper than that offered by the discounted with Avios flights so I've stopped collecting them. Just checked for a flight to Chicago, over £450 plus thousands of AVIOS or I just find a cheap flight which I can get for around £400.00 - so I don't really and have never really 'got it'. Are there special flights I should be looking for?
Certainly not seen the £27 offers as it always seems to add taxes etc which make the flight much more than a budget flight and sometimes comparable to a standard flight with BA booked without AVIOS.
So what/where really is the deal?
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| johnnyh wrote: |
Well my problem is that I can generally find flights cheaper than that offered by the discounted with Avios flights so I've stopped collecting them. Just checked for a flight to Chicago, over £450 plus thousands of AVIOS or I just find a cheap flight which I can get for around £400.00 - so I don't really and have never really 'got it'. Are there special flights I should be looking for?
Certainly not seen the £27 offers as it always seems to add taxes etc which make the flight much more than a budget flight and sometimes comparable to a standard flight with BA booked without AVIOS.
So what/where really is the deal? |
Yours is a common reaction, and I suppose not entirely unexpected. Avios, in general are not good value if redeeming for economy fares, in fact bad value. Where they do come into their own is for getting business and or 1st class fares for little more than economy prices. For example, I have just recently booked London->Miami return for November in 1st class. Cost, including return connecting flights from Belfast to Heathrow was £1130 for 2 people, plus 150,000 avios (plus the use of a 2-4-1 voucher via a BA amex card). That price is somewhat LESS than the ECONOMY price. Buying those 1st class tickets using only cash would've cost me £14700. Of course I would never pay that, I'm not in that money bracket, but I have gotten 1st class tickets @ economy prices.
Also, some short flights within the US can be great value. I'm looking to fly to cancun whilst in Miami. Flights in business class are coming in @ 38,000 avios plus £93 for two people (flying on American Airlines, which can be booked on BA.com using Avios). Paying cash those business class seats would cost £1000 for two. Even economy would cost £500.
There are reward flight saver flights on some short haul flights which are great value too. London->Rome costs 15000 Avios plus £30. And this is a full service flight, including a bag, meal, drink etc.
So, if you understand where to spend them, you can get super value out of Avios.
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Thanks, Tangey, that does make sense. I know that I'm the one not getting it, I just have never been able to make it happen, even when I try any time, any place searches my results always suggest a rather marginal saving alongside large numbers of points.
I've stopped using the BA amex card now as I just couldn't see any point but I will go and try one last time.
I have the same problem with the budget flights when people tell me about the £5 flight to somewhere I never find anything less than 100 x £5. I'm so bad at spotting the bargains!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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12,000 Avios for a tenner ?
A new way of gathering up BA Avios has been recently announced. Most know that other than flying, the ways of generating Avios is via an American Express credit card, or via Tesco clubcard points. A cashback referral site, topcashback, has just launched an additional way of taking your cashback, It now lets you take your cashback as Tesco clubcard points, which can then be converted by Tesco into Avios. Max you can take in any one year is £50,=£50 in Tesco cc points =12,000 Avios.
I managed to get £50 of cashback for just £10 outlay, effectively getting 12,000 Avios for a tenner. Great way of topping up your Avios account if you need some for another flight.
My exact workings can be seen in my blog, the link for which is below.
Hope some find it useful.
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Real story. Flew to Colorado in April with BA. The flights getting their and the resultant Avios points for eight people required only a small top up amd £45 and we rented a mini van for all of us for ten days. I was gobsmacked that Mrs Frosty got it done.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Tangey, but can I turn Avios into Clubcard points ( and hence get my Euro-tunnel sorted)?
I've got quite a few Avios, but asjohnnyh, don't go Stateside that often, and this year are intending to drive to the continent. Don't shop regularly in Tesco, so looking for alternate ways to build their "loyalty" points!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Quote: |
Don't shop regularly in Tesco, so looking for alternate ways to build their "loyalty" points!
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use a Tesco credit card. That way you get Clubcard points for shopping at Waitrose. The rate at which you earn points isn't impressive but if you put everything possible through the credit card, they soon mount up. Mine is paid off every month by Direct Debit - it's how I get most of my Clubcard points.
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pam w, ahh. We use the John Lewis card for that... 
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You know it makes sense.
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Been saving them up for years... jsut spent 60,000 or so on a return to shanghai and still got enough for some europe trips. Just bung everything through on AMEX and trade in the tesco's vouchers. Shell fuel good too. Keep an eye on the promo's - they soon add back up again. Like the 12,000 for 50quid trick, nice one.... the merging accounts trick used to be neat too, not sure if it works anymore... could get multiple intro offers by mis-spelling ur postcode lol
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Arctic Roll wrote: |
Tangey, but can I turn Avios into Clubcard points ( and hence get my Euro-tunnel sorted)?
I've got quite a few Avios, but asjohnnyh, don't go Stateside that often, and this year are intending to drive to the continent. Don't shop regularly in Tesco, so looking for alternate ways to build their "loyalty" points! |
You don't need to convert them. Avios.com lets you book eurostar using Avios., starting @9000 Avios return
http://www.avios.com/gb/en_gb/spend/eurostar?from=SpendNav
If you have your Avios on baec.com instead of avios.com, open up an avios.com account, and then you can freely move your avios between one and the other.
You don't need to shop in tesco to collect tesco CC points. I have collected around £900 in tesco CC points (worth over 200K in BA avios), and have probably stepped inside a tesco store no more than 8 times. My nearest store is 50 mile round trip. Most of my tesco points are got via online promotions etc @ tesco direct. My most recent blog entry (link in my signature), concludes:-
"Using the 3 schemes above, I have gotten AT LEAST 25722 Avios for an outlay of £76. 18000 Avios (+£60 in taxes) is enough to get 2 return tickets London->Paris. Cost if buying the cheapest tickets for dates in June would be £320, a saving of £260 for about £50 of my outlay. The cost of buying 24,000 avios on the Avios website (the max you can buy in anyone year) is £399."
always goingonrewards.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Tangey, Eurostar is not Eurotunnel though.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Hells Bells wrote: |
| Tangey, Eurostar is not Eurotunnel though. |
And he seems to be a man possessed, to get max points.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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update update:
Decided we' re using the few Tesco vouchers we do have on the Tunnel on the way out, and the Avios on the ferries on the way back.
Simples!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Arctic Roll wrote: |
update update:
Decided we' re using the few Tesco vouchers we do have on the Tunnel on the way out, and the Avios on the ferries on the way back.
Simples! |
Hope I was of some help in my ramblings.
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Tangey, What's the best amex card deal out there at the moment in your experience?
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| fatbob wrote: |
| Tangey, What's the best amex card deal out there at the moment in your experience? |
The 2 options you should be looking at are, the amex gold rewards card, and the amex SPG card.
1) Amex gold gets you 20K MR points when you spend £2K in the first 3 months. For the first year, all supermarket, foreign spend and major service station fuel spend gets you 2 MR points per £. You also get 2 free lounge passes for airport lounges. First year is currently free, then £150 a year. This offer has been around for a while now, no end date has been advised.
2) SPG (starwoods) credit card. 20K SPG points for £1000 spend in 3 months. SPG can be transferred to BA Avios. If you transfer 20K you get a bonus 5K, so effectively 25K Avios. You get 1 SPG point per £, and there is a £75 fee from day one. This offer ends July 31st.
I can't offer a referral for the SPG card. I can offer a referral for the gold rewards card, which will mean you get 22K bonus instead of 20K bonus. I'll also get some points for getting the referral, which would be nice.
So basically gold card is 22K MR points (22 K avios) via referral for £2K spend plus double points on spend and no fee, Starwoods card is 20K SPG (25K Avios) regular points and £75 fee.
To go via referral, hit my blog (link in my signature) and click the gold card on the right hand side, or if you prefer PM me and I'll send you a referral link.
Update.
I should also add that if you envisage doing £10K spend in a year, then you should strongly consider the British Airways Premium Plus card. Now it has a £150 a year fee from day one, but spend £3000 in 3 months and you get 25K avios. On top of that you get 1.5 avios per £1 spend. But the big feature of this card, is the companion voucher. Basically, if you book a return flight on BA starting in the UK, using Avios, this voucher allows you to take another person with you, without spending any more Avios. You do have to pay the taxes and fees for both people. So if 2 people are flying 1st class return to Los Angeles, it would normally cost you 200K avios plus around £1100. With this voucher, it'll cost 100K plus £1100. In this particular instance, the £10K spend is effectively getting you a further 100,000 Avios. Outstanding value for £150 fee. The voucher is valid for 2 years. This offer is also due to end July 31st.
I can refer for the BA card, in which case your sign-up bonus will be 26K instead of 25K. PM me if interested.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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In the spirit of an earlier posting where I demonstrated how you could get 12,000 avios for a tenner, my latest blog posting shows a method by which you can get at least 4,800 avios for a tenner. It's not to be sniffed at when it works out at less than 0.2p per avios. For comparsion, purchasing 5,000 avios on the BA website will cost you £95.
If you take advantage of this offer and the previous one, you'd have close to 17,000 Avios. 18,000 avios plus £70 is all you need to do 2 return economy flights on BA from heathrow to say either Salzburg or Munich.
Www.goingonrewards.com
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Tesco points are being offered by Esso garages now I notice.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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You can indeed, and it all adds up. Tesco recently had some great offers that meant you could get points for little money. As per my earlier post, they again had an instore pre-order call of duty game for £5, which got you 1000 points. For avios hunters that's 2400 avios for £5 (in-store pre-orders are under no-obligation to buy the game).
HP inks is a great regular offer they run. Buy 2 HP inks, get 500 points. If you need the ink cartridges, then its free points. Even better, if the maths works out right, you can sometimes buy to resell, and can end up "buying" the points for about 1p per point, again, way less that 0.5p per avios.
Although the current HP ink offer ends on the 23rd of august, and some of the best value carts are OOS, you can check out my generic HP ink buying strategy on my blog, which will come in handy for the next time around.
http://www.goingonrewards.com/2013/08/tesco-and-hp-ink-cartridges-suggested.html
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I haven't been updating my blog as frequently as I would like. But today, I posted details of my August bank holiday weekend in London, which got me flights, exit row seats, drinks and snacks at both airports, £1300 of accommodation and free private car transfers, for a total 18,000 avios plus £60 plus 50K IHG reward points.
If you are prepared to work at it, you can definitely take great advantage of the various frequent flyer / hotel programmes.
http://www.goingonrewards.com/2013/10/doing-london-weekend-on-rewards.html
In about 4 weeks time, we'll be heading away for a 2 week, 2 centre holiday in Miami/Cancun, Flying 1st class where possible, business class everywhere else. My outlay is just under £2400 plus loyalty points. The value of the holiday if booked in cash is in excess of £10,000. This was booked some time ago, and the detailed itinerary and how I used the various loyalty programmes can be found here:-
http://www.goingonrewards.com/2013/06/american-holiday-using-avios-membership.html
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You know it makes sense.
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I've tended to find with BA Airmiles / Avios points that it's a matter of where will they take me and when, rather than I want to go to a specific place on or near a specific date. I did once get some really cheap return flights to Alicante to visit some friends (just before BA sold the particular operating division to Easyjet) - think I paid maybe £40 in taxes for 2 return tickets but since then, the balance has grown to about 54,000 points and each time I intend to fly, no Avios seats are available on the route I need to take... maybe I'm always wanting to fly a heavily subscribed route?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Mick_Br wrote: |
| I've tended to find with BA Airmiles / Avios points that it's a matter of where will they take me and when, rather than I want to go to a specific place on or near a specific date. I did once get some really cheap return flights to Alicante to visit some friends (just before BA sold the particular operating division to Easyjet) - think I paid maybe £40 in taxes for 2 return tickets but since then, the balance has grown to about 54,000 points and each time I intend to fly, no Avios seats are available on the route I need to take... maybe I'm always wanting to fly a heavily subscribed route? |
There should be reasonable availability on economy seats within Europe.
Of course you have to remember that BA isn't going to be falling over itself to make reward seats available if there is high demand on flights. And times when kids are off school like Easter are going to be hard to get as many will be looking for those reward seats.
Worth noting that Avios.com seems to have access to different reward inventory that BAEC,com, so you should be checking both
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I know I have recently mentioned topcashback as a way of getting up to 12,000 BA Avios for very little money, but they have just enhanced the referral process to make it even more appealing for first time sign-ups. If you go via a referral, you will be eligible for £5 of free cashback. All you need to do is generate your own £10 of cashback, and they will give you an extra £5 for free.
This free cashback can only be withdrawn as Tesco clubcard points, which is fine as that then allows you to transfer it to BA avios.
Note that the free cashback will only be given if you sign-up via a referral. Normally, topcashback limits the amount you can withdraw as Tesco clubcard points to £50 in any one year, however the T&C of this referral specifically states that this £5 does not count towards the £50 limit.
Thus a new referred member can now generate £55 of Tesco clubcard points in their 1st year, which can be transferred to BA avios, generating 13,200 Avios !
My sign-up referral link is :- http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/Goingonrewards
Or you can read more on my blog posting, which also shows how you can generate loads of cashback for almost no money spend.
http://www.goingonrewards.com/p/getting-12000-avios-for-free-each-each.html
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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TopCashBack (TCB) now allow you to to transfer your cashback to your BAEC/Avios account, at the rate of 1p per Avios.
You should still pay the first £50 of cashback to Tesco, as the TCB-Tesco-Avios route you 2.4 Avios per 1p of cashback, but now it means once you hit the £50 a year limit that TCB allows you to transfer to Tesco, you can continue to turn you cashback into Avios.
New sign-ups get £5 M&S evoucher once they have £10 confirm. The evoucher is only eligible for sign-ups that go via a referral.
You can see my analysis of TCB and how to get 12K avios for a £10 here
www.goingonrewards.com
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I've just signed up for a TSB credit card which collects Avios. It's set up with a Direct Debit so it's paid off in full every month and I'll just use it in lieu of my debit card for everything except getting cash from the hole in the wall, that plus my Shell card and tesco points should make a tidy double-up on the points I collect.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I just booked my Christmas flights with the Avios I've collected using feef's methods this last year.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I'm not sure what the signup bonus was for the TSB card when you took it out, but at the moment there is none. the Amex gold card gives you a 22K points sign-up bonus, when you spend £2K within 3 months (if referred, only 20K if you don't get referred), and gives you double points on all supermarket spend, and triple points on fuel spend (only advertised as double points). AMex points can be transferred to BA avios 1-1.
Its the best free card out there for accruing points.
To get this via a referral, go to my blog (www.goingonrewards.com) and click on the gold card on the right hand side.
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Or ask a fellow snowhead (like myself or rob@rar) to refer you...
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Amex isn't widely enough accepted, especially in Europe, for it to be worthwhile getting one. As it happens, my TSB account came with an Amex card anyway, not that I can see myself using it.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| feef wrote: |
| Amex isn't widely enough accepted..... |
That's because they rape their retailers with the commission they charge & take waaaay longer to pay 'em compared to VISA/MasterCard.
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feef, well I've managed to use it enough to get loads of points and a companion voucher so its VERY worthwhile for me. Most (all) petrol stations, supermarkets, restaurants take it
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FAQ
