The problem with taking pending out of balance (John Lewis' fault, to be fair)

If I was paying £720 to John Lewis, I would put it on my Amex.

It has the following advantages:

Two £720 transactions aren’t a big deal in the context of a £10,000 credit limit of which I generally use about £1,000 per month, and I can sort out any problems before I pay the bill.

I get S75 protection on the transaction. I end up having to use this about 3-4 times per year.

I get 1% cashback.

Monzo is great, but it isn’t a credit card. No doubt they will offer one at some point in the future.

Do you mind if I ask what the general percentage that credit limit is of your total income? If you do mind, then I won’t ask, if you don’t mind, then consider that me asking :slight_smile:

I just want to get an idea of how Amex do their credit limits and stuff.

Liam

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Gosh. I’ve never used it. :flushed:

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About 20-25%

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That’s why it was on my Amex… I was just pointing out how it could have been a problem if it wasn’t.

Buy anything nice?

I think this is the case for a lot of people. Would be interesting to know how many people exactly…

(I tried switching back to Nationwide a while ago, but came back, purely because I missed that bit of magic)

Ooh now that’s another saga. I got a Dell laptop. By the time it arrived I’d found a Lenovo for not much more with a 4K screen so I decided to return the John Lewis purchase. They took it back no problem as it was unopened.

The Lenovo arrived dead on arrival. The screen shows some pretty bad artefacts ranging from glitches to outright flashes of black. Bad stuff…

As this seems most likely a design flaw I’m trying to get Lenovo to just give me my money back. I requested an RMA on Wednesday and still haven’t heard from them. Calling on Thursday and Friday proved pointless. They were closed both days due to ‘an unforeseen emergency’ apparently. Their Twitter rep promised me a call back within 24 hours on Friday, which did not happen

Lesson learned about buying Lenovo. I’m still unsure but think I might get an HP EliteBook 840 G5. It’s a bit heavy for my liking though…

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Are you planning to use Windows or Linux? I’ve found poor Linux hardware support in high end HP laptops. I have the Spectre 13 Pro

Linux. I’ve had no issue at all so this surprises me, though I haven’t yet used the latest range even the EliteBook x360s are flawless in Linux - touchscreen and pen work perfectly in Fedora with no effort needed.

The HP is more expensive than the Lenovo, even counting the fact the configuration is basically identical AND the HP won’t come with a Windows licence. HP has a three year warranty, smart card reader, 14 inch screen (Lenovo is 13 but both 4K). Lenovo has a fingerprint reader that won’t work in Linux anyway.

The biggest difference is the HP is 200g heavier but meh… I can deal for a machine I know will be well made and reliable.

Fair enough, maybe I’ve just had bad experiences

Edit: my laptop in particular won’t suspend properly which is very important for me in a lightweight laptop

Yours is also the consumer range which are generally rubbish from HP. They don’t even have a proper keyboard!

Really? It’s a Pro and I got dealt with through the enterprise support?

It’s actually that it’s the pro vs not pro that means suspend doesn’t work I think

It shipped with a bios where you could not type | and that key is in a silly place

Edit: that said I work for HPE so have plenty of experience with the business models

Keys in silly places and an American shaped enter key. That’s a consumer unit :slight_smile:

HP doesn’t think consumers deserve a proper keyboard.

I’ve had no issues with the business models and Linux. Maybe lucky?

Tbh I bought my one purely for aesthetics and for a huge internal discount. I’d have returned it otherwise :man_shrugging:

Hope you get a laptop you’re happy with in any case :+1:

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Thanks! How is work for HPE?

Oh and I get a huge discount on the EliteBooks also. The website price is absurd…

I genuinely have a Lenovo Ideapad 100s and it cost £148. It’s seriously the best laptop I’ve ever owned :joy:

Storage is rubbish. But for what I need it for, it’s great

Some bad things, some good things. I generally enjoy my work :slightly_smiling_face:

Edit: feel free to PM for a more detailed discussion, I think I’ve taken this thread off topic enough :laughing:

I’ve been impressed by some of the Lenovos. Mine has a metal case so the whole thing doesn’t flex when you pick it up one handed.

Also repairing the power socket is just a replacement part that plugs in too, no more soldering connectors onto boards!

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The Lenovo I bought is all metal. Beautiful design and gorgeous screen. When it isn’t deciding to flicker and flash. An HP EliteBook will be a huge step backwards design wise. Maybe I should have stuck with the Dell I ordered from John Lewis but while it was on its way I had massive buyers remorse over the lack of 4K

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