Why are some Lloyds Avios cardholders not receiving any points?

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Regular readers will know that I hold the Lloyds Bank credit card operation in contempt. It regularly manages to achieve levels of incompetence which other banks simply couldn’t match if they tried.

Who else, for example, would take five days to send out ‘refer a friend’ emails after you request them? Fewer than 1 in 3 people who I refer for the Lloyds Avios cards actually manage to receive the email and receive the bonus points (my Amex strike rate is 80%).

Who else would freeze your credit card on suspicion of money laundering because your spouse paid your bill from their bank account (as happened to me)?

Unfortunately, the Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card remains an excellent product. It is the only credit card in Britain to offer reward points (of any kind) alongside 0% foreign exchange fees. The Avios upgrade voucher you receive for spending £7,000 – which can be across the Amex and the MasterCard – is also a great deal for a solo traveller who might find the British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher useless.

So, as I say, I keep recommending the card regardless.

And yet …..

There is a group of cardholders – it isn’t clear how large, but many are HfP readers – who have never received a single Avios point from their Lloyds Avios credit card.

I have been receiving these complaints from readers for well over a year. To be honest I didn’t take them too seriously at first because IT cock-ups with data transfer of points are a fairly regular event. And, in any event, how hard would it be for Lloyds to manually send Avios a list of accounts and the points due?

And yet, when pressurised, Lloyds can do it. What a surprise.

This is what happened to a reader recently:

Opened a Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card account

Received no Avios at all after 10 weeks

Lodged a complaint, told it would take 12 weeks to resolve!

Waited 4 weeks, lodged another complaint threatening a referral to the Ombudsman

Missing Avios arrived 4 days later

So, pressure works. This reader also referred his wife for her own card. After two months, she had received no Avios. She complained and was told by Lloyds that it would take 26 WEEKS for them to credit her the missing points.

The good news is that Lloyds is now offering a defined piece of compensation.

If you are missing Avios points, you should contact Lloyds and say that you need them for an imminent booking. Magically, the Avios will appear. Lloyds will also pay you £150 in compensation.

Don’t expect any missing Avios to appear without intervention. What is interesting, from all of the different cases I have seen, is that no-one has ever been told what the problem actually is, and customers who question the bank are told that even they don’t know.

As I said, that’s Lloyds for you.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

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

Adam says:

5 May5 May 10:46

I’ve been quoted 26 weeks on top of the 5 weeks for when I first raised the issue. They have given me £225 in compensation after I said I’ll just close my account. So if Lloyds timelines are anything to go by I’ll get my first points (currently owned 20,000) from opening the account 12 months late.

What is strange is I got credited 4,500 points (within days) for being referred but nothing since. I’m also still struggling to understand how this issue is something that would take 6.5 months to resolve…
Edward Clifton-Brown says:

5 May5 May 11:13

Myself and my partner received no Avios at first. After investigation we found Lloyds had created a new Avios account on issuing our Avios Duo credit cards. Once this was established we gave them the correct Avios account number, the points were transferred and duplicate account closed.
- Alan says:
  
  5 May5 May 20:51
  
  Remember you can deal with that sort of issue purely over webchat with the Avios.com team – they can merge your accounts in this situation, although obviously going down the Lloyds route may be more profitable on the compensation front!
Chris C says:

9 May9 May 10:53

Slightly OT

I guess I’m one of the lucky ones as my points have been posting correctly since I joined 9 months ago.

The biggest issue I had was with actually getting the card! I originally tried through Rob’s referral link and my application was rejected. I then re-applied (through the same link) but requested a much smaller limit (I think I applied for £6k the first time and £3k the second time) and got accepted albeit no refer a friend avios posted. I immediately requested an increase and got told I wouldn’t be able to apply for an increase until 6 months had passed, but after about 1.5 months was given a nominal increase to £4k. After 6 months (from start date), I was then able to apply for an increase again (to £7k) which was immediately accepted

I guess the conclusion is the same as Rob’s above, the CC operation at Lloyds is a joke, but the benefits of the card mean that I will continue to use it. For £24, no FX fees and the ability to earn avios around churning MR Gold and BAPP cards make it too important for me to give up.
Vand says:

10 May10 May 09:39

– Make a formal complaint saying you need to book flights
– Receive complaint office phone number / ID reference for your case
– call back a few days later and repeat the ‘need to book flights’
– they should offer to credit the avios accrued to date and monetary compensation
– with all of the above, be polite – I dealt with very helpful associates who knew how to do their job and fix the mess of whatever has been going on above them.
Pk says:

10 May10 May 23:12

With me they want to know exactly how much money I’m out of pocket having had to buy the Avios instead of earning them. A difficult one to answer as I bought bulk (as I was short) and didn’t “need” them all for the recent flight I was short on. I’ve been waiting for Lloyds Avios since November 2016 and today told it will take 26 weeks. I’ll get a call from “complaints” tomorrow(ish) but don’t hold out any hope of actually getting any compensation, if they are going to base it on the amount I paid previously
omba says:

12 May12 May 16:09

Latest datapoint. Used the link referred to further up, had a call back within 2 hours, confirmed I was missing at least 15k of Avios for first two months, wanted to use them and had called previously with no success. Very helpful CS took notes, said she would call back within an hour, and did so. At which point I was told I would get my full complement owing within 2 days (over 25k), that the system needed 26 weeks to be fixed, but that I would then get those 25+k again, plus £175 compensation (for being unable to book a flight….no proof needed), plus £25 for the bother.

Thanks to all upstream for pointing out he process and opportunity
MJ says:

15 May15 May 19:16

I opened my account in January and used the card to pay for a holiday, I was due over the next three months 19k avios and the upgrade voucher.

A month ago I called up to ask what had gone wrong and Lloyds advised me they would fix it within a month. I rang up today as they had not (with the advice in this thread to mention I am trying to book a holiday asap with the vouchers, which I am!), they were great and are going to get the points to me in 3 days and giving me £200 as an apology. I may also get another set of 19k points in 26 weeks.

As mirrored by the author, they couldn’t actually tell me what the problem was.