Originally Posted by
parklife
The Gold is actually a great card for the first year, just before getting rid of mine I racked up 115k of points for moving my supermarket, petrol and travel spend to this card, plus a few referrals and the 7.5k bonus for spending 15k....had to pay the fee for the 2nd year, but as soon as the points posted and I moved them out I cancelled for a pro rata refund.
The supplemtary card bonuses at 5k per card is good as well - so best to refer the wife, waits until she gets the card and then apply for a supplementary card.
Also the Gold credit card - 3k bonus for £500 spend - can only be held if you have the Gold charge card.
Anywhere where there is no bonus spend goes to my BA PP.
With everything you never know how long the sign up bonuses will be around for, and if they will make a move to the one bonus per card per lifetime as they have done in the US.
The SPG Amex is another good one when the increased bonus of 20k appears, which is normally transferred to 20k Avios.
Very useful post thanks.
Just wondering how someone with very high credit card expenditure could absolutely maximise their Avios and companion vouchers. I have come up with the following:-
Husband applies for BAPP card. Spends £10k. Uses companion voucher. Refers wife. Cancels card.
Wife gets BAPP and follows above.
H applies for Lloyds premium card. Spends exactly £2,500 pcm for 6 months.
W does same.
H applies for gold amex card. Spends £2k. Waits for anniversary of card then cancels after 7,500 Avios bonus.
W does same.
H applies for SPG card. Spends £1k.
W does same.
If above doesn't exhaust your spend, potentially apply for the Virgin amex cards and follow a similar pattern.
Any improvements to the above? Presumably there are referral bonuses for cards other than the BAPP which could be earned.
Are there any other good cards I've missed?
Is it generally the case that one can cancel a card, wait 6 months then really and get the signup bonuses?
On a vaguely related matter, when I recently asked amex if it was possible to cancel an Amex card without losing an associated companion voucher, I was told that it wasn't becasue that Amex card needed to be used to pay for the booking. Having made a companion voucher booking yesterday, the operative comfirmed that in practise this was not the case. The booking can be made with any Amex card.
It may be the case that the voucher is cancelled when the card is cancelled but it is definitely not the case that that specific Amex card has to be used (at least, that may be the rule, but it isn't enforced).