Yet more Lloyds problems …. this time with the new Avios Rewards cards

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I have, in the past, given Lloyds a hard time on Head for Points over the appalling way that it manages its Avios credit cards (such as here). The criticism was well deserved – Lloyds even put its failings in writing to one reader.

(Despite this, by the way, Lloyds has told me formally that it wishes to have no involvement with HFP because of my criticisms of them – which, remember, are simply me reporting the problems of readers. I’ll get over it. And my door is always open.)

I did like the new Lloyds Avios Rewards cards, though. You can read my 3-part review here, here and here. The official websites for the cards are here and here.

I was especially impressed with the ‘no foreign exchange fees’ feature – not only do you not pay the usual 3% fee that 99% of all credit and debit cards charge, but you also earn Avios on your foreign transactions. If you spend over £800 a year on a credit card outside the UK (£800 x 3% = £24, which is the annual fee on the Lloyds card) then you will make money by getting one. If you are a solo traveller, the upgrade vouchers are also more useful than the 2-4-1 voucher given by the BA Amex.

It was disappointing, then, when the first complaints started coming in about the Lloyds administration of these cards. After all, Lloyds has been issuing Air Miles and Avios cards for a number of years now. The story is the usual one, though, of miles (either base or bonus) not being received. You may have seen someone in the Comments section of HFP mention this yesterday.

Here is how another HFP reader put it to me last week:

“I applied for a card at the end of October ….. and put almost £2500 through the Amex card in the first month. I have not had one Avios point credited yet …… Lloyds customer service is appalling – only a (second) letter to their customer services copied to the Lloyds Bank chairman seems to have elicited a response in the shape of a phone call.”

Before the Lloyds PR department is on the phone, I should mention that Lloyds has now confirmed its faults in writing. To quote from a letter received by the reader:

“There is a known problem of receiving Avios on the new account.”

The new Lloyds Avios Rewards cards have not taken off well, despite the ‘no FX fees’ feature. This is probably down to the lack of a sign-up bonus, the lack of promotion by Avios and confusion between the Lloyds cards and the TSB versions (which are effectively the old Lloyds Duo cards). Having both the Lloyds cards and the TSB cards promoted equally on the avios.com website doesn’t help.

I really want these new Lloyds Avios Rewards card to succeed – if only because I want Amex to come under some pressure to remove the 3% foreign exchange fee on its travel cards.

Yet again, though, despite the best attempts of its marketing department to hide them, the Lloyds IT team appears to have found a spade and begun to dig another hole for itself.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

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 BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

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

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

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

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

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

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

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

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

AC says:

16 Dec16 December 08:03

Very similar story here, applied back in October and have yet to see a single avios credited to my account. What’s noticeable to me is that when you receive the initial documentation with the card, there seems very little mention of avios and then there’s no direct way of seeing avios accumulated or redeemed on the lloyds website, as if you might have misremembered there being an avios deal at all!
- Calchas says:
  
  16 Dec16 December 08:09
  
  Same for me. Also had a problem where now I cannot access my online statement; apparently I have to find the time to take some photo ID into a branch. They really don’t look good compared to Amex. If it weren’t for the 0% forex, I’m not sure if I can be bothered.
  - Colin MacKinnon says:
    
    16 Dec16 December 08:35
    
    Just cancelled my old Duo because they now – after at least 100k through the card during that initial promo – want to see photo ID.
    
    Trouble is, there are few branches nearby!
sandgrounder says:

16 Dec16 December 08:13

Back to the Premier Duo, I am currently in a battle for my 20k bonus. This is due to the 40 30 30 day month rule. The fact I called and had the dates needed to achive the bonus confirmed matters not- apparantly Lloyds don’t record phone calls. I’ve currently been sent from Lloyds to Avios, no doubt the buck will be passed again and in the end it will be the Ombudsman. I will never do business with this useless shower again.
- Alex says:
  
  16 Dec16 December 08:29
  
  I had the same problem. A tersely worded to avios explaining that it was their problem to fix, not Lloyd’s, and that I would issue proceedings if the bonus Avios were not credited within 2 weeks, did the trick.
  - sandgrounder says:
    
    16 Dec16 December 08:57
    
    That gives me hope of a swift resolution!
    - sandgrounder says:
      
      16 Dec16 December 17:14
      
      Speak of the devil, 20k in my account today! I only emailed Avios on Friday, very impressed. Still no love for Lloyds though!
Trevor says:

16 Dec16 December 08:35

This is all very unsurprising. Enough comments were previously made that those who applied were very well fore-warned. A shame they applied anyway – Lloyds deserve to be sanctioned due to their shocking service and a headline stating they offered the worst service came as no surprise when I was last foolish enough to sign up a few years ago.

The fact that Lloyds will have nothing to do with HFP due to reader criticisms here (you reap what you sow) just highlights their narrow-minded and unwilling approach to dealing with people and issues, and no doubt banking in general.

A rational bunch who have a reputation for bad service – and not just in our circles – would see HFP as an opportunity to win back business with special offers and attempt to ensure good service to improve their image. But that would indeed require rational thinking with a dose of common sense…

If they were the last bank on earth, you can bet my mattress would be bulging!

PS: I am specifically unticking the “Notify me…” option as I have no desire to read about more people’s woes with this woeful attempt at a bank! But good luck to all of you. Don’t forget to stock up on some salt, a horse-shoe, a rabbit’s foot, and a 4-leaved clover… and a lot of patience.
Will says:

16 Dec16 December 09:23

Well, to add some fuel to the bonfire, I’m a long time premier duo holder and got 2 shines new lloyds branded cards sent to me when the bank split.

I thought great, 0% on forex transactions.
I was wrong, existing customers still get charged for forex.

To be fair to lloyds they have offered to “upgrade” me to the 0% version but I need to visit a branch for this.
DV says:

16 Dec16 December 09:26

In reality would Head For Points want anything to do with Lloyds? My experience of them, based on the previous credit card and associated visits to branches, was poor. It has the appearance of a zombie bank, stumbling from one crisis to another.
- Rob says:
  
  16 Dec16 December 09:28
  
  Happy to take competition prizes or advertising off anyone 🙂
  
  I would have drawn the line at a sponsored post saying how wonderful Lloyds was, though!
  - Volker says:
    
    16 Dec16 December 21:58
    
    Did you actually approach them (e.g. offering advertising space on HFP) or did they just send you a nasty “shame on you” letter/email? And do you do “sponsored posts” at all?
    - Rob says:
      
      17 Dec17 December 09:37
      
      I approached them with a particular request, and was refused on the basis that they don’t want to work with people who are critical of them.
      
      ‘Sponsored posts’ – in general, no, I don’t do them. You will never see a random post on HFP for discussing the wonders of, say, Timberland boots!
      
      However, if – as a random example – Lloyds offered me some money to write a post on ‘how to save money abroad by using a zero per cent FX fees credit card’ then (subject to editorial control) I would do it, clearly labelled. It is useful for the readers and I do genuinely find this card good for that. But its not going to happen!
Wozza2404 says:

16 Dec16 December 10:14

Thing is, I’d be more than happy to give them a crack. Missing Avios are (IMHO) easily sorted with a couple of letters followed by a quick trip to Small Claims Court. Amazing how quickly banks sort these things out once a summons hits their doormat; particularly when you’re valuing the Avios at the Avios.com purchase rates.

The no FX thing is, ultimately, a game changer. I’m gob smacked Lloyds haven’t marketed this card as such. If the reason for no sign up bonus is that they’re against churning, then why not really promote the no FX thing and offer something like 50k Avios for £5k of FX spend in the first 12 months of card membership?
- Rob says:
  
  16 Dec16 December 10:17
  
  Lloyds doesn’t let you have a 2nd sign-up bonus anyway, so churning is not their concern.
ukflyer says:

16 Dec16 December 12:47

Does anybody know whether LLoyds will let existing customers swap to the new cards without a fee? I have one of the old free avios cards and would like to take advantage of the new forex free cards, but don’t fancy the £24 fee.
- will says:
  
  16 Dec16 December 23:24
  
  Unknown, but I suspect they’ll want to charge you.
  
  My partner has an interesting story, she upgraded from the normal duo to the premier just before the split, ended up being charged £100 (old rate should have been £50, new rate £140) annual fee and still has forex commission charged on her card.
  
  I’m going in this week to branch to try to update my card so I’ll report my findings by replying here.
Jon says:

16 Dec16 December 12:47

I applied for the lloyds avios card a few years ago when it was 10x bonus season. They were incompetant – failed to open my account properly, failed to give me my bonus properly, botched up my proof of address ID request.

I have never had a worse service, which left me so frustrated. I would have abandoned everything if it weren’t for the bonus, but as soon as those 3 months were up I cancelled as quickly as I could!

I would never touch lloyds again if I possibly could help it