dc2447

Dammit

Big spends coming up but can't face taking the bapp out without a decent bonus

EsherFlyer

I had the MBNA bmi AmEx and had paid for some flights on it. I then cancelled the card, and then the flights. The card showed as closed with a £2k credit balance on the online management site. A call to MBNA had it moved back to my bank account pretty rapidly.

stifle

I had this happen once. The bank involved posted me a cheque several weeks later.

EsherFlyer

One of those answers that I can't find but I'm sure is out there...

I'm expecting to pass the £3000 initial 3 month spend to trigger the 40k bonus, but I missed an initial month of spend due the card arriving while I was a way for a few weeks, so will be a bit tighter on the target than I'd anticipated. But not sure how close yet.

I'm anticipating taking a few items back to the retailers I bought them from. If the returns take the nett spend for the three months back below £3k does the bonus not get paid, even if I've subsequently spent more to keep total spend to date over £3k?

For example, purchase £3050 of items in three months. Then spend £200 in month 4, but return £100 of items that made the £3050 total. What If I waited until month 6 to return the items? John Lewis are very accomodating .

louie-m

Why take the risk? If I were you I'd simply buy some gift vouchers for whichever supermarket you do your food shopping in.

Raffles

Agreed, too risky. Just book a BA fully flex flight or some supermarket gift vouchers.

layz

You could take the bmi credit card (the free card earns at the same rate as BAPP 1.5 miles/£ and comes with a visa that earns 0.75 miles/£), or if it really big spend then pay £85 for the bmi Plus card(2 miles/£ Amex, 1 mile/£ Visa). You also get 20000 miles for signing up and spending just £250.

If you're not already a bmi diamond club member sign up for that first as although MBNA say they can create a diamond club account for you, they don't tell you the number so you have to phone them and ask. So just sign up online.

You can transfer diamond club miles to BA Avios at a rate of 1:1 thanks to BA's takeover of bmi.

Then once a decent sign up offer comes along go for the BAPP card.

EsherFlyer

I see cancelling a flex flight in 6 months as the same thing, but delaying the uncertainty.

And I thought buying gift vouchers would count as a cash purchase, so would pick up interest charges straight away.

The £50 'error margin' in my above example understates the wriggle room I need: it was just to keep the number simple. But a few 00 of vouchers sounds like a reasonable way out if they don't have the pitfalls I thought they did. Thanks ^.

Olly-

No, they are treated as a purchase.

layz

Also don't forget the Tesco 150 clubcard points for each £50 of giftcard purchases. Note these are the third party giftcards (Debenhams, Pizza Express, etc) not Tesco's own cards.

Teefaf

Has anyone else received the following offer by email this morning?

£3,500/month spend for three consecutive months is not a trifling sum, though I imagine that as this covers the xmas period it might be within the bounds of achievability for some. I'm not really sure what my spend levels will be over the next few months so will have to wait and see, but it's a nice wee offer anyway.

Raffles

No, its a terrible offer!

Basically 20% bonus Avios - and you'd still earn more Avios on £10,500 of spending by using the BMI Amex (paid version)!

You have the hassle of making sure each chunk of £3,500 goes into the right month (is it statement date or transaction date?) which the Christmas holiday will mess up a bit as well. Most people are also not big spenders in January.

For 10,500 bonus Avios I may have thought about it. For 3,500, my card is staying in the desk.

layz

I'm surprised I never got this offer as I was constantly spending over £3500 every month until the BA takeover of bmi and then I switched all my non-BA spending to the better earning bmi plus Amex.

As presumably American Express don't know why my spending has dramatically dropped (although BA might depending how well the analyse diamond club data) then I thought Amex would try and encourage me to up my spending again.

Teefaf

Haha, yes it is. But I try not to look a gift horse in the mouth as so many here so often do (with you as a specific exception, Raffles! ). If I meet the spend levels then great I get a small number of extra points. If I don't, then I'm no worse off.

Paralytic

Do what I did - take out the Gold card, which is fee-free for the first year, and then cancel the Platinum. Give you a year longer to hopefully get a transfer bonus.