Raffles

For anyone looking for a commission-free credit card to use abroad, I just noticed that you can get £15.60 cashback when you apply for the Post Office card through www.quidco.com. If you don't already have a Quidco account you will lose £5 of this as annual fee, leaving £10.60 for you.

There are also doing 0% interest on all purchases for the first 3 months. The card is issued by Bank of Ireland so unlikely to conflict with any existing loyalty-based card you have (ie its not MBNA!).

Pocket Aces

Not sure how long it will take for the points to post to Tesco as I've never done this transfer before. There are approx. three weeks left for the transfer to go through in order to get the points on the next Tesco statement.

Regarding the credit card, when I mentioned I used my Nationwide credit card I actually meant the debit card. I was charged £505.90 for 99k points.

The question is how many points to purchase. I'm looking to purchase enough to cover the Amex 241 redemptions for a while and to take a much needed break from having to shop at Tesco! I'm sure they'll be more earning opportunites through Tesco but there's only so much wine and food I'm prepared to buy from them.

I assume this deal will be running for quite a while but thought it would be better to load up on points (and thus miles) all the same, just to be on the safe side.

Haven't yet considered Tesco deals in great detail but did note that you can redeem CC points for Marriott stays. Haven't done the maths on this but was wondering if the conversion of Marriott points to CC points and then to Marriott deals made it cheaper than using the points directly with Marriott!

Raffles

CC only valid for Marriott weekend packages and only at UK hotels, if I remember rightly.

Hilton is more interesting. You can redeem CC for Hilton hotels in the UK and some European countries. AND you can get suites, executive rooms etc! The Euro hotels are: Hilton Paris (not the new one, I think, its the Arc de Triomphe one), Hilton Brussels, Hilton Barcelona, Hilton Milan, Hilton Amsterdam, Hilton Luxemburg, Hilton Berlin, Hilton Munich Park and Munich City, Hilton Istanbul, Hilton Dusseldorf.

You can check the Tesco rates by using corporate code PR20TC on hilton.co.uk - this brings up Tesco rates, although you can only book on the phone. Remember its £1 of Tesco vouchers (£1.87 of Marriott points) for £4 of Hilton night, so when you buy from Marriott you are effectively paying 47% of the web rate shown. However, the Tesco rate is often not competitive with other web rates so you need to make a judgement based on the rates available.

Pocket Aces

Thanks for the info. Raffles - looks like Hilton is worth a look. Do you still get HH points with Hilton if you book using Tesco CC vouchers or is it treated as a redemption in the same way as using hotel points? Will it count as a stay with regards to renewal of status?

Raffles

Absolutely no idea. I remember that there was a downloadable PDF on this offer on tesco.com which may have the answer in it. In theory it is a revenue booking so may count for credit.

uk1

............ well .... they haven't announced any new points codes yet. I'm having to actually buy stuff and NOT earn points! How do we wake them up!

Pocket Aces

Just checked the PDF and I cannot find the answer there. What I do note, however, is that you have to book using the Fully Flexible Bed and Breakfast Rate yet your booking is not in fact fully flexible! Further, if you add breakfast to the rate it is quite extortionate.

I've just checked the Hilton site using the promotional code. The first rate type is Tesco Clubcard and the cheapest room is £168.61. I assume this includes breakfast as it's the same as the fully flexible rate which includes breakfast. The cheapest fully flexible rate is £135. So breakfast looks very expensive.

Last time I stayed at Hilton Gatwick, I was upgraded to an Exec room by showing the Gold card. This gave lounge access which provides breakfast anyway. The cheapest room (without breakfast) is £105.30 per night. As I would probably get upgraded and get breakfast anyway, it doesn't look like a good use of Tesco deal vouchers.

Pocket Aces

There's usually a quiet period when all vouchers seem to reach expiration simultaneously. This shouldn't last too long before they release another batch of wine/grocery/Tesco direct etc. vouchers. I'd expect some more to come out later this month, plus another batch with the Feb statements.

Gizmos

Health Living mailing should be out soon and thats usually good for a code, then and the Wine one should be hitting the mats soon

Alvador

I was charged £505.90 as well using the Nationwide CREDIT card for 99k points on 1st Jan. I think that the cost of purchases in a foreign currency is exactly the same with the Nationwide Credit Card and Nationwide Debit Card. Foreign currency cash advances on the other hand cost more using their credit card than their debit card.

Smirnoff

Grateful for this thread, as I never knew you could convert MR points into TCC points. Am sitting on quite a stack, and am relieved I don't have to spend them staying in what is possibly the most hideous hotel chain there is. Have transferred 125k to Tesco to see how long they take to reach my BAEC account.

E14 26C

No it depends upon which fx bucket your transaction fills at AMEX (very simple example to follow)

Amex US and Amex UK will have some FX's booked based upon the authorisations that have been processed - note this is authorisations not transactions - a merchant may process a transaction have it authorised but not actually send the transaction in for payment until a few days later (also some preauthorisations will go into these buckets)

These are often spot deals (dealt two days prior) so looking at the FX rates i.e. on www.xe.com only can give an indication of a rate that could potentially be applied to a CC transaction in two days time

What happens is that say there are five million dollars bought by AMEX uk - all the transactions that are processed up to 5$ will go against that FX rate, then say another 5$ against the next rate in line ...etc

And this is a simple transaction not counting commissions

Sorry the short version is that you will only ever get an indication of the rate that will be applied

Roger

My Nationwide online statements show exchange rates to 8 decimal places (only 4 decimal places on printed statements).

I made 2 Marriott points purchases about 25 minutes apart, and they were converted at two different rates. OK, the difference doesn't start until the fifth decimal place, so the difference is next to nothing, but it does show that rates move continually.

Oh, when do AmEx statements show exchange rates?

nonsoloinglese

Roger, are you using the credit card or the debit card? I am tempted to try the debit card...

Roger

Both.

I use the credit card for purchases as it has better protection if anything goes wrong. Most purchases over £100 enjoy certain protection under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. According to the Daily Mail (so I'd be happier with independent corroboration), Visa say this protection also applies to Visa debit cards.

I use the debit card in ATMs. This avoids interest which would be payable if I withdrew cash with the credit card.

You need a Nationwide current account (FlexAccount) to get the debit card, an experience I find totally satisfactory. Transparent charging, and credit interest (I believe around 5% up to £3,000 balance).