pazza2000

Anybody know about the M&S convenience stores at Petrol Stations?

I spend silly money there, so would be good to know what card is best to use.

Currently i have 1 transaction from there showing with double points and another without

weirdfish

I have 3 M&S places attached to BP garages that I regularly use. Now my card has settled down I get 2x on everything I spend in them. Sometimes it appears on my statement differently depending if it was fuel or non fuel spend.

I believe it's because Amex see it as a fuel merchant that it qualifies for double rewards as stand alone M&S stores don't.

pazza2000

Does it matter if fuel is included in your purchase or not. Yes its the M&S stores at BP stations that i also use.

weirdfish

It only seems to effect how it is displayed on the statement but not the rewards

raikje

Well, my card number online has been incremented, so I presume a new card is on its way, and I'm now showing some "First year welcome bonus" points. However, it is a very arbitrary figure, less than half of what it should be, and I can't find any possible way of generating that number of points from the purchases I have made...

where2travel

If you click through from your Amex card page to the Membership Rewards page then you can get a full breakdown of the points total. You can clearly see which transactions have given you double points. It should also be obvious what the welcome bonus is (I don't know exactly how it's shown as I'm still waiting for mine).

raikje

Alas not as simple as that. The transactions are showing as base points only, and the bonus points (double points on travel, supermarket, etc) have posted as a single line item "First year welcome bonus". Having added up every combination of base points that I can think of, I can't see any sensible way to create that bonus point total... I'm still waiting on the 20k.

where2travel

Maybe your bonus points have been added retrospectively (in one go). For every transaction, mine shows the base points and bonus points separately so it's easier to keep tally (although it's still not quite right but close enough as I've only missed bonus points for a few small transactions).

raikje

It definitely appears to be retrospective adding of bonus points, but I am at a loss to figure out how they've come to the figure. As an illustration, I've got a pile of purchases in this sort of profile (just including those qualifying or possibly qualifying for double points):

200 + 100 + 50 + 30 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 5

And they've given me, for instance, 217 bonus points. I put them all in a spreadsheet and did some summing, and there seems to be no way to calculate the bonus point tally from the purchases made. And even if it did add up, in the example above I'm still 198 points short.

NewbieRunner

Received a reply to my latest query.

I know my local M&S also sells clothing and other non-grocery items but I never claimed I was visiting the Hilton Zurich Airport to purchase groceries!

David-A

I think MR points are always rounded down to the nearest pound, if that helps.

koshka

...and the card arrives less than 96 hours after application. Just hoping the spend and bonus goes as smoothly.

redshift27

Don't hold your breath.

I applied two weeks ago. I am a Plat Charge Card and BA Amex PP holder. My application was deferred. I phoned up to chase it 48 hours later and was told it had been approved and the card came a few days later. It is correctly gaining double points for travel and grocery spend (woo!). My Quidco has not tracked.

My wife applied about 5 days after me. She was approved immediately online (woo!) and the card came 3-4 days later (woo!). Quidco even tracked for her (woo!). But it has not earned double points on grocery spend and on phoning Amex it seems, even at this late stage in the offer, that she too has been sent an ordinary Gold card in error. Still in the throes of sorting this.

Raffles

Well, my Quidco HAS now tracked (after a week) but no sign of a card or indeed any sign that they have decided to accept me after all!

David-A

Like some others, I had two cards turn up (can't tell you when exactly they both arrived relative to each other). One card was attached to a piece of paper headed "The Gold Card". The second to a piece of paper headed "The Preferred Rewards Gold Card".
Both cards had different numbers but were otherwise identical.

The separate PIN advice letter, DD setup letter, and another letter all referred to the card number on the 'Gold' card, not the one on the 'Preferred Rewards Gold Card'.

Phoned up before activation to establish which card (by card number) I should be activating, was told the one that came on the "Preferred Rewards Gold Card" piece of paper. - And that the PIN etc would all work with that card, despite referencing the other one (which they did). Was asked to destroy the card that arrived on the 'Gold Card' piece of paper.

Now, I seem to be getting correctly the travel bonus, the supermarket bonus, and also the overseas bonus correctly (apart from odd things such as Holiday Inns not being classed as travel!)
However, compared to some others here, when I login my card account is called on screen "The Gold Card" (not "The Preferred Rewards Gold Card").

Not seen any sign of my 20k bonus MRs yet. Quidco didn't track, so put in a claim, which is currently pending.