Yes, I assumed it was a way for them to try to drum up business when nobody was using them.
The other week I had an offer from Marriot, I think, to spend £125 and get £100 back (or something).
If you were going to use a hotel anyway, that would be a pretty incredible deal.
A good quality hotel for the price of a motel!
Guessing its paying in full on time every month that just boosts my credit worthiness I guess.
I never got an offer for an increase in my two years with them. I did go from £2k to £16k though because every time I switch cards, they ask me to open it as a new line then close the old one and consolidate my credit limit
There’s no reason not to accept really
Accepting higher limits is just a bit of future-proofing to make sure you’re always below 30% utilisation - any card with higher utilisation will (very probably) impact your credit score.
I normally manually nuke the balance when it gets above £100 due to my anxiety about not liking owing money so i’m just not going to accept it for now.
I also have a direct debit to make sure no interest is charged.
If you want your credit card spending to benefit your credit file, you need to leave the spending on the card until it shows on your monthly statement, then pay it in full.
If you pay off spending as you go/when you go over £100, the Credit Reference Agencies cannot see you are using the card, and the use won’t be reflected in your credit file.
You can just use say £300 worth, pay it down to whatever is a 1pc utilisation by card and carry the 1pc balance onto the statement/whenever the cc is reported to the CRA.
It does boil down to what each person is comfortable with - there’s no right answer. Being highly averse to debt is no bad thing!
I know some people who just pay for one small thing every month on their card and leave it to be collected by direct debit just to keep their credit rating healthy. A small balance will still be registered. That might work better for you than having to keep an eye on the balance.
For bigger purchases, where you might want purchase protection, you could pay on the card and immediately transfer the same amount from your current account.
That’s exactly what I do for large purchases just for section 75.
I’m honestly guessing my anxiety problems extend to money which is not a bad thing.
That’s a sensible approach, especially if you don’t trust yourself to keep the money aside until the statement is due.
Section 75 makes using a credit card for large purchases where something might go wrong (like buying a new kitchen) well worth it and virtually a no-brainer, compared to a debit card. Even if you treat your credit card virtually like a debit card and pay it off immediately!
Hi all looking some advice form you savy bunch.
Currently in the process of buying my first home (should be moving in in around a fortnight). I have some savings set aside for furnishings and doing up the house also but then thought hey why not get an amex to bank some points in the process and hopefully once this whole coronovirus thing evens out in a year or so I can plan a nice trip away ( using the 2 for 1 travel voucher )
So I was going to get one of the British Airways Credit Cards
Having some trouble in choosing which one as both have some nice bonus offers:
Standard - 5000 avios when spending £1000 in first 3 months, £20,000 pa for voucher
Premium (£195 fee) - 25000 avios when spending £3000 in first 3 months, £10,000 pa for voucher
My first question is on acceptance - Is it hit and miss which stores accept amex still or has this changed for the better? Worried that the lack of acceptance on some stores could potentially stop me hitting the £3000 spend in the first 3 months or the overall yearly target for the companion voucher.
I’ve seen someone say before you can get around acceptance by using paypal or curve for some places? does anyone on the forum use these methods and if so any feedback or any suggestions how you maximise your amex spend?
Also anyone ever used the companion voucher before? Any issues in selecting specific flights to use it on.
As always all help appreciated guys 
I can’t really offer much except to say that you can’t connect an Amex to your Curve card unfortunately.
Head for points (and another blog?) have good guides on how to pick the best credit card for your needs
I find acceptance is pretty ok but small shops tend not to accept Amex still. Curve doesn’t work with Amex at all
And not sure about this but advice is to avoid anything that could have a hard pull on your credit file before your mortgage funds are with your solicitor so you don’t risk the bank asking questions if they run another search before completion
Oh yeah sorry I meant ill look at getting one once im all moved in etc.
I dont think ill be looking at purchasing sofas and things until the lockdown ends here in NI and i can physically go look at things like that so in no rush just yet, weighing up the options.
I’ll have a read of that blog.
Appreciate both of your speedy replies btw, thought id seen curve accepted amex at the beginning of last year? did they pull that?
Most big retailers accept Amex in some form. Particularly when furnishing a home, I’d be surprised if you had trouble hitting £3k because of retailer acceptance.
As far as using Amex at online stores that don’t accept it, you can add the Amex to Paypal, and use that to checkout if the retailer supports Paypal.
Yeah just confirming the PayPal workaround should work fine.
And also that there should be very few shops selling furniture, home appliances etc that won’t take Amex. I also just moved and put nearly all our furniture and house things on my Amex.
I think the other major difference between the two is that the companion voucher on the premium card is valid for two years, whereas on the standard it’s only one. And from reading the various points blogs etc, you have to book basically a year in advance to use the companion voucher for any decent flights, so think that’s probably a big benefit to consider for the premium.
Edit for source for companion voucher info: https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/modalContent/executive-club/avios/collecting-avios/credit-cards/uk/credit-card-companion-voucher-terms-conditions.html
For home improvement stuff I expect you won’t have an issue if using major national chains (e.g. for furniture). However I have spent £1,000s on some home improvements using local retailers or tradespeople where I haven’t been able to use Amex. Recent examples - boiler replacement and building supplies.
You may find the following website useful - https://www.whoacceptsamex.co.uk/
Just be wary that you lose section 75 protection if using Amex via Paypal
Crowdcube investment platform do accept amex. Nice way to slash income tax bill, invest into things, and hit amex bonus caps.
Would that not be considered a cash advance?
