All this from one standard switch. What a mess this bank is.
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Branch?! 
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I have to ask, how many times did you end up on the phone or in a branch? 
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I called them straight after the first text featuring a number, they spoke to me for about 25 minutes confirming details and putting me on hold etc then they said I’d called too close to the text message and needed to wait at least three hours from receiving a text to contacting them. Everything else you see came through without any input from me, just randomly.
Grabbed the £175 and I’ve already setup a switch away from them to Nationwide.
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… what?
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I know, I was already done with their BS at that point. Good riddance.
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Or a NatWest style payment thingy? Who knows
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I hope not, the NatWest biometric approval process using your face is challenging to get it to work.
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FaceID is only available on iPhones and not everyone has them, plus Apple only allow it to be used for local verification. It doesn’t allow the bank to verify the image of customer is one they hold.
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There is also the same card from Lloyds. But I prefer Halifax branding.
- £15 fee
- Cashback 0.5% until £15,000 spend
- Cashback 1.0% after £15,000 spend
- Unlimited Priority pass visits for main and one additional card holder
- Airport fast track (select airports, in London just Gatwick)
- Perks also available for the additional card holder
- FX charges 2.95%
Overall a really decent proposal.
Unlimited PP lounge and very few airports with priority security lane, for both main card holder and additional card holder. So easily £70 value per two people departure out of Gatwick.
Don’t you get the £15 food credit in the lounges too? For someone flying reasonably regularly that would pay the fee all by itself.
Priority Pass introduced £15 off at a few pubs / cafes at airports. Which can be used as if it was a lounge visit.
Not sure about that.
£15/month for half the cashback of Chase and for the privilege of paying FX charges where so many other banks and credit cards have done away with them (including at least one of Halifax’s own credit cards)?
For the airports, when I want fast track I pay something between £7 and £10. I only fly at most 3 times a year (so 6 airports, but some abroad don’t have fast track), so at most I’d pay £60 for that for the year (usually a lot less), which I’d burn through in 4 months of having that Halifax card. So unless one flies very very frequently, this is not useful.
It seems to be more aimed at the UK commuters. £15 in the lounge for six return trips a year (my pre COVID norm) would pay for the card before you even count the cashback. There’s also the discounts you get on car hire and hotels because it’s World Elite (saved me £1000 or so last year, not even counting the upgrades that I didn’t have to pay for).
So far chase is a debit card. Thus it does not have section 75 protection like this credit card does. So I tend to not use chase debit card for anything above £100 unless it is goods or services I have already received (for example restaurant meal).
Cashback does not offset the FX fee. The only way to “win” here is by using lounge access a lot, and by using fast track a lot. But it is also dimishing returns - as one unlikely need or choose to use that many lounges (given alternatives I sometimes would only grab a small snack or nothing at all). And if one does travel that much - one likely might have status for free lounge access anyway.
So it seems the sweet spot is very narrow - someone who always travel with with additional card holder. Often enough, but not too much - circa 4 round trips with a connection somewhere. And who doesn’t have Amex or has a lot of spend that doesn’t take amex. Indeed seems quite niche better served by a combination of - no-FX credit card, amex cashback, chase cashback, and ad-hoc purchased lounge access when one actually needs it. (Rather than forced to use).
For the same level of monthly fee I guess lots of people might choose Monzo premium instead (insurance, metal card, ad-hoc lounge access to purchase, Monzo product specific perks). Or like Revolut metal (insurance, metal card, ad-hoc lounge to purchase, potentially valuable perks / discounts / subscriptions - like FT.com digital standard).
I will check my non-amex domestic from upcoming annual statements + lounge fees usage over the last year to see if this card would have been useful to me or not.
Phew. That post was nearly as frustrating as navigating an airport to get on a plane
I do. And I’ve found that missing out the lounge part on recent outbound airport visits lessens the frustration to try & get into a lounge. Head to the public area Burger Joe’s, JackMonalds, InFamous Rays Pizza and you’ll get food/drink quicker than a lounge. Not to mention a Spoons table in the UK. Lounges are unfortunately so 1998 nowadays. A victim of their own ‘exclusivity’.
Which does raise a doubt on the whole Premium Loungekey thing
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I have current and savings accounts with Lloyds and Halifax and I confirm that you cannot see any of the accounts from one in the others’s app. That’s as it should be because, although they are part of the same group, they are registered as separate banks.
I have been told that you can see Halifax accounts in the Bank of Scotland app, and maybe vice versa, because Halifax is just a brand of Bank of Scotland. I can’t confirm that for definite, as I don’t have any accounts with B of S.