My Lloyds TSB Avios card adventure

People will tell you that the Americans get all the best loyalty credit card sign-up offers.  This one, though, may be the greatest ever. 

Towards the end of 2011, Lloyds TSB relaunched their Air Miles credit cards as Avios credit cards, and (if you applied via www.avios.com) threw in an amazing carrot – 12.5 Avios per £1 spent for the first 3 months on the Amex card (you get an Amex and a Visa from them), and a crazy 25 Avios per £1 spent in foreign currency.

This card was aimed, I think, at low spenders.  It had to be, because – even if you value an Avios at a paltry 0.75p as I tend to do – that is effectively 18.75% cashback on your foreign spend and 9.38% on your UK spend!  And, as this Flyertalk thread explains, a lot of people with high incomes seemed to be rejected. 

Lloyds was also indiscriminately blocking people who had previously had Lloyds credit cards, even non-loyalty ones, and making crazy requests for ID proof of others. 

Their fraud department was also very trigger happy – our card was blocked when I put it into credit before a holiday in Barbados, and I had to go to a branch with bank statements and passports before they would unlock it. 

To add to the problems, for the first 3 months of the 4 month period that the card was available, Lloyds was mishandling the applications and not automatically processing the bonus miles.

Some people have beaten the system, though.  You could pay your account from your current account via Faster Payments, so a payment you sent would credit within 2 hours.  This let you spend many times your credit limit per month.  People were also stacking up on supermarket gift vouchers etc. 

I got lucky when our Barbados hotel agreed to refund the £3,000 deposit we paid on our BA Amex a few months earlier and charged the whole bill to our Lloyds card.

So …. we got 9,000 on our first statement (really just a 2 week period).  Over 90,000 on the second.  The third is going to be a whopper, I promise you.  And at least 2 weeks of spend on the fourth statement should be multiplied up as well.

A fair few Flyertalkers have banked over 1 million Avios from this promo.  I (well, technically my wife, the card is in her name as I had previously had a Lloyds Air Miles card) may or may not manage this, probably not.  You have to feel the pain of the people Lloyds turned down and who couldn’t take part.

And whenever you hear that the US market gets all the best credit card deals, remember that there was never a deal there that let people accumulate 1m Avios in just 3 months if they played it right.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus. 

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

Barclaycard Select Cashback Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review