Is it a new card? Lloyds security tends to be turned up to 11 on foreign and small transactions on new cards. Give them a ring.

Newish

Are they open now?

Yes, 24/7. 0845 3000000 or whatever number's on your card.

01702278272 if you would rather speak to them without paying through the nose from a mobile.

Thanks, card was indeed blocked, called them and they unblocked and I paid

Next puzzle is trying to see my transactions online, my statements are all empty

Can take a few days to pass through - and I think it's more an Amex issue than Lloyds. When we use to take Amex in my firm, they would take anything from 5 to 15 days to credit us the money - and less their fee which made reconcilliation a bit of headache for the juniors.

Barclaycard, our merchant, would act as an agent and pass on the details of the transaction from us to Amex - not sure if that was part of the delay, but all my Lloyds transactions seem to take around 3 to 5 days to appear. I think on the paper statement and maybe online you'll see a transaction date and a posted date.

Read what I said very carefully. I didn't say I got 10x on my 4th statement.

So you got the Avios joining 10x bonus and the Lloyds 10K joining bonus! Excellent! Hope we all get those! Move those Avios points out quick in case they try to reclaim them! :D

If it's anything like the way Amex does it, if they are reclaimed (like when you get a refund for example), it will just leave you with a negative balance in your Avios.com account so any future points you earn will just reduce the deficit.

Not sure if Avios.com has the power to transfer points back from your BAEC account, but I guess they could if they wanted to as they are the points "bank" for both BAEC and Avios.com

My first avios started posting at the 10* rate :)

But still not statements online

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1134165/Scre...40.50%20AM.png

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1134165/Scre...40.34%20AM.png

;) I moved them to my BAEC account as soon as I saw them.

At risk of sounding miles greedy, I have an unrelated question:

I made a £600 odd purchase in Euros a few days before the end of my third month, but because it took 5 days for the company to process the payment, it went onto my account the day after my 3rd statement was processed and so I lost out on 25 x 600. Since the purchase was within the first 3 months, should I pursue the bonus miles for this? Or will they just say that it only counts on the date the payment is put through, not when the purchase was made?

A quick update - I have had a large lump of miles post to my Avios account :)

I am at work so no time to check their maths but it looks like 10x has been applied.

Still waiting for Mrs smckay to get her bonus miles but at least mine posted without the need to phone anyone and complain!

Are you certain it didn't attract the bonus?

The statement dates and bonus periods aren't always aligned.

Most people have a short 1st month's statement so the bonus period should carry on for a few days into the 4th statement, though finding this info out from Lloyds or Avios.com can be painful to say the least.

Cant believe I missed out on this offer, is there still any way to apply for the card with 10 x bonus?

Im currently working in France and have approx 3000 Euros a month in credit card expenses, this would have done nicely, considering I just paid £400 for 33k Avios!