Bits: Hilton summer sale ends Monday, Irish Independent Avios deal closed

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• PaulyRoad says:

  2 Sep2 September 03:46

  OT: I have now been rejected for the Amex Gold card the last two times I have applied. I seem to satisfy all criteria apart from maybe “a permanent UK address” (I currently work and live in Norway). I still consider myself to have a permanent UK address however. Does anyone else have experience of this? Thanks in advance.

  • Mr Dee says:

    2 Sep2 September 04:12

    Amex use an internal check in most cases if you are a previous customer, you can write to the executive team to appeal, maybe that will help. Contact Amex for the details.

  • Alan says:

    2 Sep2 September 09:51

    Are you still on the electoral roll and have other credit products at your UK address? If so I wouldn’t have thought they’d even know you were abroad.

  • JamesB says:

    2 Sep2 September 11:09

    Do you currently hold any other amex issued cards? If you hold a card it is usually easy to get another from amex but if you cancel all of their cards you hold then it is more difficult to get another and start with them again. This happened to me a few years ago and when I queried it with amex they suggested I reduce the number of non amex cards I held, wait a while and reapply. I reduced my cards to two, applied about eight months later using a referral from Rob and got accepted. I suspect applications from existing cardholders are largely dependent on current amex file while applicants who don’t currently have a card are subject to more rigorous external checks on their credit file.

    • Michael Jennings says:

      2 Sep2 September 17:58

      I was just turned down for a BAPP Amex Card. I have had at least one card with Amex UK since 2005 (and about ten years of further history with Amex Australia before that), This is despite the fact that their “Check your eligibility” test said I had a 9/10 chance of being approved for this card.

      I still have a gold charge card with them, and I have cancelled two other of their credit cards (with combined credit limits of about £20,000) in the last year. One of these was a Blue BA card six months ago, so I was hoping to get the premium card for the signup bonus and then work towards a companion voucher. I have never missed a payment on any credit card and my utilisation rate is miniscule. What has changed is that I have made rather more applications and have more UK credit cards in the last year than at any other time, and I suspect they have decided either than I have too many credit cards or I have made too many applications in too short a time.

      What I am now going to do is cancel some of the other cards I am not using, and try again in six months.

      • Genghis says:

        2 Sep2 September 18:18

        Thanks for sharing your experience. You seem to have been very unfortunate. How many credit card applications have you made recently? I make on average 8 or so a year and have never been rejected. One thing I did learn recently is that a v low amount of credit (and therefore utilisation) vs income can affect credit scoring (I was paying off credit cards mid month but now keeping max 25% credit limit as month end bill).

        • the real harry1 says:

          2 Sep2 September 19:06

          8 for you & 8 for your wife makes 16

          seems a bit over the top?

        • Genghis says:

          2 Sep2 September 21:46

          Perhaps. Works for us though. 6 of the Amex suite a year (approx) and two other misc ones = a shed loads of points

      • JamesB says:

        2 Sep2 September 18:51

        Hope you get it sorted. It would be useful if HFP readers could routinely post comments for applications being declined so that we could get a better picture of the issue.

        • Johnny_c-l says:

          2 Sep2 September 20:07

          I’ve been having about one credit check per month for the last few years (of which most are for credit cards) and the only one I’ve been rejected for was the Sainsbury’s card!

          Out of interest I’m thinking of upgrading Gold to Plat – for the purposes of credit reporting does anyone know if this is recorded as one continously account, or the ceasing of Gold followed by a new Plat being reported?

        • Mzungu says:

          4 Sep4 September 14:33

          OK, here’s my contribution – which doesn’t appear to have been covered in the comments to date.

          I have a couple of Amex cards, and my wife applied for her first Amex card (BAPP) and was declined. Contacted Amex, and they said there was nothing untoward, just leave it 6 months and re-apply. Carried out a credit check and all was good, re-applied after 6+ months – rejected again. Similar conversations with Amex, on about the 3rd call, actually got a helpful agent, who looked more closely, and noticed a discrepancy between our address and the address on the application. Corrected this, and bingo! Card issued.

      • Michael Jennings says:

        3 Sep3 September 01:58

        Six applications in the last six months and ten in the last year. I had allowed total credit limits to creep up to something like 150% of my income, which was probably a mistake and I should cancel cards earlier in future. (I have just cancelled several cards). I always pay everything off in full every month, though, so I don’t think I have ever used more than about 5% of my total approved credit.

        None of this matters very much, really. I don’t actually *need* any of this credit. It’s just nice to take advantage of the introductory offers. MBNA seem happy to give me any card I ask for with a large credit limit, but if I want more Amex cards in future, it might be better to back off for a bit.

        • Genghis says:

          3 Sep3 September 08:03

          Thanks for reporting back. As you say, it’s most likely the credit to income ratio but @Clive may be along soon to say I’m wrong. I find it’s about trying to maintain the Goldilocks “just right” principle. Ie. Not having too much overall credit, not too little, not too much credit utilisation, not too little etc. It’s worked for me (so far).

• AK says:

  2 Sep2 September 07:12

  What do you think will happen to those of us who bought the Irish Independent before they changed the avios amount to 9,000 but have yet to receive our Avios? Would we get 18,000 since we purchased before the change or the newly changed 9,000?

  • the real harry1 says:

    2 Sep2 September 07:40

    your contract includes 18,000 Avios & I doubt very much if these won’t be delivered

    a very small number of people may have signed up thinking they were in for 18K but in reality they were signing up for 9K

    always worth taking a couple of screenshots

    #harry£300F&boozecompo

    • LB says:

      2 Sep2 September 09:18

      Well done harry.

      • the real harry1 says:

        2 Sep2 September 18:35

        thanks – pretty painless – following c-w-s advice on FT was the key

  • Rob says:

    2 Sep2 September 10:17

    You’ll get 18,000

• Crowtraval says:

  2 Sep2 September 07:41

  I’ve made a few HIlton bookings recently and they have all offered HIlton Sale rates – including for August 2018 and during midweek between Christmas and New Year, so the October 2017 travel period cut-off isn’t a hard rule.

• Neil says:

  2 Sep2 September 07:48

  Gutted about the Irish Independant offer. As there seemed to be a pretty decent deadline, I opted to wait until pay-day before paying.

  It always shocks me when this happens. Either Avios or the Independent didn’t do their homework and deliver a viable/sustainable offer and had to pull the plug when “surprise surprise” it turned out to be popular.

  Lesson learned – when there’s a good offer out there, grab it before everyone else realised how good!!!

  • Crafty says:

    2 Sep2 September 07:56

    I would suggest that in any instance where the implied cost of the product alongside the Avios is less than or equal to nothing you should jump in ASAP as it is likely to be pulled early.

    • Michael Jennings says:

      2 Sep2 September 18:03

      Call this the “Rule of Hoover vacuum cleaners”.

  • Alan says:

    2 Sep2 September 09:54

    Indeed – at least a benefit of having lots of credit cards from this game is you’ll normally have at least one that will have over 30 days until you’re next due to make a payment so cashflow is easier to manage.

    I wasn’t a buyer at this price, pretty much bang on my own valuation but have over 1m Avios just now so more in spend mode! At 0.5p I’d have gone for it.

    • Neil says:

      2 Sep2 September 16:58

      Jesus Christ…where do you get them that low?! I’ve only got a mere 250,000 Avios so could do with collecting a few more….

      • Genghis says:

        2 Sep2 September 18:07

        Tesco ink?

• the real harry1 says:

  2 Sep2 September 07:49

  shame about that II deal – now would only have been 0.74p/ point 🙂

• Concerto says:

  2 Sep2 September 09:09

  I also was waiting a bit before jumping in, simply too many expenses lately. Thanks for letting us know. There’ll be another deal along some time.

• Cate says:

  2 Sep2 September 19:21

  Anika, completely OT but in a previous article regarding access to the VIP Lounge at Madrid Barajas Airport you said you were given a paper invitation at the check in desk. Was that because you checked in at the terminal or can we just got to the lounge if already checked in online? Thank you.

  Original article: https://headforpoints.com/2017/02/09/review-sala-velazquez-latam-vip-lounge-madrid-airport/

  • Rob says:

    2 Sep2 September 19:54

    She’s in Porto for a birthday party 🙂

    • Cate says:

      2 Sep2 September 20:16

      How selfish LOL!! 🙂

      No, really I hope she’s having a great time.

      • Stu N says:

        2 Sep2 September 21:35

        I’ve got into Air Canada lounge at Frankfurt on a LATAM business class boarding pass no probs, they asked if I had an invitarion but I said I was on hand bags so hadn’t gone to the counter and that was fine. Suspect the Madrid end will be easier for that flight as they will be much more used to LATAM customers.

        Other trips to Madrid have been fine for lounge access on boarding pass, both Dali and Velazquez, but that was IB flights though.

        • Cate says:

          2 Sep2 September 22:16

          Thanks Stu N. We only do hand luggage to so unless I hear otherwise think it’ll be fine.

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