Hilton HHonors - UK: Beneficial Bank HHonors Platinum Credit Card




Dakota
Jun 15, 04, 1:55 pm
I received a mailing for this with my HHonors statement a month or two back and applied. The card offers a 10,000 HH point bonus on first use, then 2 points per £1 GBP spent. My experiences so far have been less than satisfactory and I'd be interested to compare them to others'.

Problems started with my phone call to the Beneficial number on the mailing. Unbelievably,it took being passed through six people to get to one who even knew they offered a Hilton card - one of whom hadn't even heard of Hilton!

Anyway, I finally got the card, used it and all seemed OK, but the 10,000 points bonus offered failed to show up in my HH account, then a letter arrived saying I would soon receive my 5,000 HH points. I took this up with Beneficial and they, obviously incorrectly, directed me to take it up with Hilton because "they have nothing to do with Hilton points". Predictably, HH confirmed that the points must be applied by Beneficial, so I called them again. Spoke to someone who promised to sort it out and call me back. She didn't. Called again a few hours later and was told by another CS rep that the 10,000 points would appear on my July HHonors statement. Fingers crossed...

The whole process with Beneficial has been painful: inept and/or untrained staff, lengthy calls and periods on hold on their premium rate CS numbers, having to chase them up at every turn. Maybe it's teething troubles with a new card, but affinity cards are pretty straightforward and the staff who take the calls should at least know the basics. Good luck if you're applying too.


The _Banking_Scot
Jun 15, 04, 2:17 pm
Hi,

I applied for mine a few months back with no problems ( the 5k point offer) and the card came soon afterwards.

The points posted soon after the end of the billing cylce and have posted monthly since then.

No problems yet.

Sorry to hear about your difficullties and hope you get them resolved soon.


Regards

TBS

Roger
Jun 15, 04, 3:04 pm
I applied online when the card came out, for 5,000 points bonus.

All went well, although the card took a little time to arrive. Points posted promptly.

Note: if you want to keep the card, you need to use it at least once every six months. No great problem except the earning rate is poor.

However, given other posts about HH closing inactive Honors accounts, it seems two charges a year keeps two accounts open for infrequent stayers ;) .


GottaFly
Jun 15, 04, 6:45 pm
I received a mailing for this with my HHonors statement a month or two back and applied. The card offers a 10,000 HH point bonus on first use, then 2 points per £1 GBP spent. My experiences so far have been less than satisfactory and I'd be interested to compare them to others'......

Good luck if you're applying too.
Unfortunately I went thru a similar drama with the Hilton and Beneficial Bank offer. Like TBS and Roger I also applied when the offer was 5k HH Bonus points, in fact I applied when the card was launched around April last year.

I was passed back and forth between both company's and most of the people I spoke to didn't have a clue about the new product / promotion. Hilton finally apologised for the delay in posting the points, but amazingly weren't able to give me an indication of when points would be posted. :td:

I actually received my card in early May but didn't actually have my points posted until 4 months later !!

All in all a painful experience. I put it down to teething problems and very poor communication between sales and marketing departments within both companies. I'm staggered to hear that others are having to endure these delays over a year after the card was first launched in the UK

To add salt to the wound HH members in the US were offered a more generous 7.5K points by AMEX. I thinks its even more generous now !

I used the card extensively for a number of stays initially but have switched back to my BA Amex.

Not that its any consolation but am currently going thru the same debacle with BMI MBNA card!

richteab
Jun 16, 04, 7:41 am
I had a trouble free application & setup but the 5,000 points took forever to appear. I was therefore surprised when another 5,000 appeared the next month!

Only other benefit is that the six months interest free period ended on "the 30th of the month following the May statement date" which bought me 7 extra weeks.

I will probably not use the card that often, but it has served its purpose (points & credit)



SEO by vBSEO 3.2.0