Raffles

Because it is impractical, that's why. It simply is not worth buying a £20 voucher and spending £5 (on what?, gets tricky on the 10th trip I imagine) to get 250 miles. And I live literally 90 seconds from Waitrose. Even if you went in every day for a lunch sarnie you only net 1,250 per week. And using a £50 voucher daily for a sarnie will soon get you a visit to the manager I guess.

PanGalactic

So apart from possible embarrassment, what's the problem?

You haven't broken any laws or even T+C's

Remember, some of us have no shame (I just paypal'd my sister £50 for babysitting for us)

Also, the vouchers aren't linked to you so just like cash in some sense.

Rome77

Yeah - to become an Avios millionaire using solely this approach during the 10x promo you'd effectively have to buy 1600 vouchers of £50 each! If you'd want to cash them all in during the 90 day promo period that means almost 18 vouchers a day

PanGalactic

Put this way, it does seem a bit silly. Nevermind

Although I'm sure some people will find this method useful if they want boost their spending a little bit.

usually sat at the back

you can 'boost' spending simply by bringing future spend forward (if you can afford to do so). We've covered it on here before, but for example if you are a regular shopper at for example Waitrose - simply buy JL/W gift vouchers now to redeem later against normal shop. You can get them with Amex card from http://www.voucherexpress.co.uk if can't be bothered to go to store. Particularly useful for me is Asda vouchers which can be used for Petrol although they don't give change anymore so you need to be under/exact.

Especially useful if you've got a very short promo window with a spend threshold to hit.

I did this once to get me over the £10k BAPP 241 trigger on a rare occasion I was short (having nearly hit it in 5 months this time around and now stopped £50 short to avoid going over until as late as possible)

dc2447

The effort to reward ratio is way, way off

I'm out

KeithS

Waitrose - Brilliant.

Ever since I read 'Gift vouchers are your friend' I have been getting £200 per week in Sainsbury's to use when my 3 months are up (Did you know that you can only put a maximum of £750 on one gift voucher lol)

Started doing the tesco's ones as I get my petrol from there. They will only allow £100 per voucher.

I thought a couple of weeks ago 'why don't I do the Waitrose ones as we go there every Saturday' - so I have a quick £400 now. This may go up considerably now I know this about the change. I drew out from the ATM earlier today - I should have bought a load of vouchers and then a few bags of crisps!!!!!!!!

Trouble is with all this is that I am going to have to create a new category in Microsoft Money for the voucher value as my 'net wealth' appears to be taking a massive hit at the moment

Once again - many thanks for all these tips.

I do feel a bit of a failure as I have only managed to accumulate just over 200k Avios in the first 2 months and I know that is small beer compared to some of you, but I am a happy bunny. Bloody hard work though

PanGalactic

The LTSBPDA is the devil incardnate!

kingtut

I've had the card for 3 months, received my bonus miles and received 10k bonus miles* in month 4.

Question: Am I good to cancel this credit card now (and receive a pro-rata refund of the card fee)?

Reason is I already have my wife signed up, and a BAPP after that. I'm keen to cut down the number of cards (and prob free up some credit limit so I can apply for the Priority Club Black to push me towards retaining Platinum Elite status, where they will rebate the £99 card fee).

*Was going to ask about the random 10k miles that posted the other day but it looks like compensation for people that needed to chase up. +1 to LloydsTSB if this is the case.

PanGalactic

Keep it until the end of the year before next year's fee kicks in to get 3x more 2,000 Avios.com "collecting with new partners" bonuses for £80 Amex spend per quarter.

Did you manage to earn a 241 by the way?, I don't think anyone knows what happens to that yet if you cancel.

louie-m

I don't believe Lloyds offers a pro-rata refund, so you might as well keep it for the rest of the year for the 2,000 per quarter bonuses.

kingtut

Good point - forgot about the earning new ways. However, will I qualify even though at the time I didn't really do anything special (so not sure if I 'qualify' for the new way of earning)? I definitely didn't have my card up and running in the 1st quarter.

Didn't make it to 241-land but I believe my wife will...not sure we will use it though as we have BAPP 241 vouchers.

PanGalactic

@:-)@:-)@:-)

dddc

Typical. I knew this would happen.

Other half finally got his pin on Wednesday and we flew out for 2 weeks on Wednesday night. Assuming the card will be arriving in the next day or two.

Wondering whether it's worth the hassle and risk of asking the neighbour collecting our mail to fedex it over to one of the hotels we're staying at so at least we get some spend on it!!

PanGalactic

How annoying!

I guess it depends on how big your bill is likely to be at this hotel.

My card arrived the day after the pin so fingers crossed it should be there now.

You could ask the hotel if they are able to process "customer not present" transactions.

They probably can in order to process advance purchase bookings, that way you don't actually need the card to physically be there, just the long number on the front, expiry date and 4 digit security code on the front of the card.

Personally I would have a friendly chat with the manager and explain the situation. Just be straight with him. You could even offer to let them swipe another card as a guarantee until the money clears into their account from your LTSBPDA if you have to.

Good luck, let us know how you get on!