Roger

So did the DVLA - except they wanted to surcharge 25% (Actually a fixed £2.50 for a £10 tax disc.)

I'll try to part pay for new doors and windows on Tuesday - for credit cards, they want 2% extra and for debit cards 0%.

Roger

Still there. Wait for the revolving offer thingy to rotate.

littlefish

Great stuff Roger. Interesting if no surcharge for bank's online service.

The T&C seemed to me to indicate otherwise:
Reloading your Avios Cash Passport

Want to put more money onto your Card? Easy. You can:



1. Reload online

2. Transfer money via a bank transfer with internet or telephone banking

3. Call Card Services to add funds to your Cash Passport


Please note that a 2% commission will be charged for reloading your GB£ Avios Cash Passport by telephone or via internet/telephone banking.

This has my attention at 2 avios / GBP; but being an avios.com production I simply don't trust it, yet.
Is it really possible to load without any surcharge? and get any merchant to accept its use as a debit card?

PanGalactic

Is it really a debit card?

I thought those were normally linked to a bank account, hence the name "debit" card, ie: debited from your bank account.

I would imagine this is just seen as a mastercard credit card, albeit a prepaid one thus requiring no credit checks.

Roger

It seems so. Note that I did it using my bank's system, not Travelex's.That remains to be seen. Theoretically yes, though I've had a couple of problems trying to do just that. I'll try again on Tuesday.Not as you define it. It's online, so transactions do not succed without a covering balance.

In a previous life, Ryanair accepted prepaid Mastercards without surcharge - until it proved too popular for them.

Roger

The card was accepted at our local Tesco Express this morning and recognised as a 'Debit MasterCard'.

I'm looking forward to earning 2 Avios per £, sticking to the rules: minimum £250 load/reload from own bank's online banking before 17.04.12. Why, that's better than the 1.5 Avios per £ on normal spend with my BAPP AmEx.

Talking of which, it's B&Q who don't accept AmEx, isn't it? And who have a 15% off promotion until tomorrow? Using this card has no section 75 protection, but I could live with that.

PanGalactic

Interesting, I owe Santander around £1600, this is my settlement figure for the remainder of a 3 year interest free loan I took out in 2009 to buy a "Doofs" sofa (first year payment free, so there are about 20 months to go).

Can anyone confirm if they have paid off a santander credit agreement using this card? It annoys me that it appears on my credit report and I'd like to get rid of it while earning some Avios at the same time.

So if I'm understanding this correctly, I should buy a £50 card for £51 including the surcharge, then load the other £1550 or so by bank transfer, this avoiding the 2% fee then call santander up and pay the loan off with my cash passport "debit" card, right?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYupgVvtMOA

lwildernorva

I hesitated to post this because it does involve a bit of gambling, but when I saw the post regarding crediting Hilton stays to Iberia and then transferring, I figured it might be appropriate.

I am assuming that the same promotion Hilton just started running in the US currently applies in the UK: double points or double miles. That means you can earn 1000 Avios through BA or 1500 through Iberia instead of the standard 500/750 per stay.

Or, you could gamble that you'll earn 6000 for a three-night stay at almost any Hilton property by changing your partner preference to BMI. BMI normally earns 1000 per night (not stay) with a maximum of three nights allowed per stay. Double that to 2000, and if your travels allow you to stay three nights, you'll earn 6000 DC miles. As an added bonus, Hilton gives you the same award even if you're staying in a Hampton Inn/Suites or Homewood Suites. With IB, you get 150 Avios (doubled to 300 during this promotion) and with BA, 100 (200) if you stay at those properties. Only the Home2 Suites chain gets a lower earnings rate, and that's still 1000 DC miles (2000 during this promotion).

I understand that there's no resolution on whether these miles will ever become Avios or stay in a separate program for whatever BMI becomes as the sale proceeds. I also understand that there's no guarantee of a 1:1 conversion, but even if it turns into a 2:1 conversion, you're ahead by at least 1500 Avios. You even win if it's a 3:1 conversion. You can only lose if the conversion is 5:1 or worse.

You have to make an irreversible choice of either double points or double miles, but since the Hilton program allows you to change the airline of choice almost any time, you could credit a stay or two and then change back to BA or Iberia later.

I don't know how long BMI will remain a partner with Hilton. I'm currently on a three-day Doubletree stay, however, that will get credited to DC (and I hope will produce 6000 Avios later!).

PanGalactic

I chose double points, as I have avios coming out of my ears at the moment, thanks to the LTSBPDA

lwildernorva

The risk for me is not high as I may have some short-haul redemptions in Europe next year that I could probably do on whatever BMI becomes assuming BA doesn't fold the entire operation, including the FF program, into its system. Thus, I don't mind getting 15-20K potentially orphaned points because I'll have a use for them. I still think the most likely option remains DC to Avios at 1:1, however.

Roger

I already mentioned that my attempt to pay council tax using the cash passport was met by a demand for 1.8% extra as they thought it was a credit card. I balked at that and have just spent some time talking to Travelex about the difficulty.

It seems there are three types of MasterCards: credit, debit and cashcard. It's up to the merchant which of these they accept. Tesco were happy to treat the Cash Passport as a debit card, the council's agent not - it seems the council's agent only recognises credit and debit cards and treats the cash passport as a credit card.

As is typical in these situations, the merchant says to take it up with the card issuer, the card issuer says to take it up with the merchant. I've done both and won't be using the card to pay the council tax. I'll pay by standing order and they'll have to wait up to 10 months for settlement instead of instant payment.

yamyam flyer

Resolved now 1:1 conversion - see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...rtunities.html

PanGalactic

Added BMI cards!

Rome77

Did anybody else take advantage of this during the bonus period? I got onto it towards the end of the bonus period so but managed to churn about £12500 on two cards, earning a total of about 25,000 avios at a cost of about 0.2p per Avio.

PanGalactic

If it was free to top up, how come it cost you 0.2p per avio?