WilcoRoger

On the Finnair website

Seems to be the best CC deal available in FI

50€/year, first year 25€ (free for Gold and Plat)

2 AY+ points/€ (2,5 points for Gold, 3 points for Plat)

3000 points with first use

Now if only the application would mention where one is supposed to send it...

Behold!

http://www.finnair.fi/finnaircom/wps...ds_160x300.jpg

HELflyer

Good spot, finally a decent CC it seems.

Personally I've moved over to BA, since I find their program better for me and tend to fly a fair amount on BA metal these days, but this card just might tilt the scales enough back toward AY to make me at least interested in them again.

I hope it's not too much OT to ask if anyone knows any other good cards for Finland-based flyers? So far I was thinking of getting the plain non-branded AmEx which gives 0.8 miles/€ through their rewards program, which can be credited to BA, EuroBonus, or a few other airlines. But besides AmEx and this new Finnair Plus Diners there's not much else worth considering it seems.

Now if Finnair would just introduce a way to keep their points from expiring (except by reaching Platinum), I might start using their program again. Even with this card, you could put several tens of thousands of points to your account just to find them expire if you didn't find award availability when you had time to fly, it's still a no-go for me I'm afraid.

Curious that they wouldn't clearly mark an address where to send the application. I guess there might be an envelope included if you find the form on a plane or in the next membership mailing, but other than that I'd venture to guess that you could send it either to the address listed in small print in creditor's details above the signature, or probably also to Finnair since the same form can be used to apply for Finnair Plus membership without credit.

Finnair_Plus_rep

Hi all,
Please send all the applications to this address:

Finnair Plus/Diners Club
Business reply mail
PLUS1 5000352
FI-00003 HELSINKI

This information will be updated to our website shortly.

Best Regards,
Finnair Plus Rep

m2uk

Odd choice as DC is not supported as widely as MC/Visa in Finland if you want to use it more than in hotels and airlines.

d

mkgrip

Maybe not as widely as Visa/MC but still practically all the bigger stores accept it.
Plus of course there still is Finnair Visa/MC for those who want that.

I wonder if the 3000 points and discounted first year is available for people who already are DC members? At least some of the SK DC promos were limited to people who did not have DC at all.

m2uk

Maybe inside ring 1...

but the Finnair Nordea card has the benefit (sic) of nordea customer service and is restricted if you are not a Nordea customer (they don't want to give solo codes out without charging for them separately, and you need them for the Mastercard Securicode thing). Customer services claim they are free from the bank, the bank laughs and says free? Noooo.... even ignoring a letter claiming same. And customer services at Nordea just say "got to see bank, we cannot help".


Poor redemption value and low limit also.

Maybe I got spoiled when living in the UK with their credit card "competition" and lack of fees/better customer service.

TTL

DC works just fine in Finland. There are very few places which would not accept it. And there is a co-branded MC GlobeCard for DC cardholders to be used when DC is not accepted.

Blueskies

So one earns Finnair Plus points with the new DC, but not points in DC's own reward scheme (Club Rewards)?

NoWindowSeat

You can't have it all, can you..

Blueskies

Obviously not

But actually what I meant to ask was if there would be a choice for the customer, what he/she wants to earn...

WilcoRoger

Afaik in Finland we have the following options

AY
-----
Diners 2-3 point/€
MC/Visa (via Nordea and Sampo) 1point/€

SK
---

Amex 5 MR points for 4 EB points
DC (I'm not quite sure, it used to be via their rewards program)
MC (via SEB) 1 point/€

The DC/MC/Visa all have some startup or yearly bonuses.

For Gold and above DC is free for both. With Amex you can negotiate - they are ready to waive the yearly fee, if you spend enough and call them for a fee waiver.

NoWindowSeat

I'm not sure what you mean by the "choice" in this context but naturally the normal DC remains available with normal DC Club Rewards, for a yearly fee so same as with non-elite AY cards.

Just from pure financial value, to me 1 Club Reward point is far more valuable than 1 AY Point so the earnings seem to be somewhat aligned here with AY DCs earning 2-3 points per € spent.

Richie

If you really plan to use these cards, please compare the terms regarding the exchange rates. DC for example uses the exchange rate of "Nordea Cash exchange rate", which has worse rate than Visa International or MasterCard international exchange rate added with bank fee.

These are hidden in the terms, so read carefully. @:-)

Just to note that EB MasterCard use the same "Nordea cash exchange rate" and another small con is that they charge 2eur monthly invoicing fee above annual fee, which is unheard of in credit cards issued by banks.

WilcoRoger

Good points!

Amex also used to use a sucker forex rate converting to EUR via USD, now it seems to be "normal". Of course being in the € zone we can rather widely use our cards without any forex headaches (as opposed to the good ol' times with the markka)

The EB MC monthly invoicing fee is a scandal (and the issuer IS a bank - SEB)

Richie

True, the point was if you have an ordinary CC from any bank (normally includes bank debit card also), not these co-op cards. But anyway, invoicing fee is redicilous