Afternoon monkeys,
Incoming first year Analyst in London + long time lurker, first time poster. Currently looking for a credit card and would appreciate everybody's two cents on the matter to avoid future regrets. Provided the incoming slavery, I dont believe reward scheme-based cards are the way to go? Any decent cash backs?
Looking forward to hearing from you guys. Thanks a bunch.
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Hi IBD_123, no, I never sleep and so I can respond to any lonely threads (like this one) at all hours of the night. Impressive, I know ;-)
No promises, but maybe one of our professional members will share their wisdom: blahack tukie Banquero
Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.
Interested as well
bump
HSBC is fine
I go with the Lloyds Avios one, you get a MasterCard and American Express, not expensive and can easily get points to spend elsewhere (like flights).
I don't know for cash back though, I'd rather have the points even though I haven't used them yet.
The only other two I've seen used by recent grads that I can think of - American Express gold and BA Avios. Not sure why you'd go for a BA Avios instead of the Lloyds one but there you go, and not sure how the Amex gold compares to the Avios.
Doubt there would be much difference between banks to be honest.
Reward cards in the UK are shit compared to what our US chums seem to be able to score. Oh well.
A common trick we're using is: BA Blue Avios Amex + Amex Gold. If you're a big spender maybe BA Black but it's pricey. Why this combo? Sign-up rewards!
Get one at a time and get it when you're planning a spending spree of £2-3k within 1-3mo
Both the BA cards and the Amex Gold give sign up points. Last year BA Blue was giving 9k Avios for £3k spend and Amex Gold is still giving 20k MR for £2-3k spend, both within the first 2-3 months. I think BA Blue is now 5k for £1k and BA Black is 25k for £3k but you pay 100s per year.
Amex Gold MR can be transferred to Avios at 1:1 rate any time while both cards are active.
BA Blue is free, Amex Gold is free for Year 1 (£140 after, but cancel it), BA Black is 100s
If you would spend over £10k on it then BA Black gives you a companion voucher worth the fee difference else BA Blue is better (£20k for the voucher but you won't reach that. You can upgrade to BA Black at any time if close to spending £10k i believe)
I went the route of BA Blue -> Get rewards Avios. It's free so I kept the card active as you need it for transferring Avios onto it. Got the Amex Gold about 8mo later ahead of another big spending spree and got my 20k reward MR which I am slowly transferring to Avios as needed.
Amex MR are worth 0.45p minimum and can be offset against spending giving an effective permanent 0.45% discount on all spending. Not really worth doing this. Avoid are worth between 0.5p and 1.2p depending on how you use them. At some times they can be worth even more e.g. last minute flight, 3h before takeoff was £350 or 4500 Avios + £17.50 for taxes so a whopping 7p per Avios.
Finally, GET REFERRED if you go the Amex Gold or BA Amex. Your referee will get 1-4k bonus points and so will you.
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