Is this week your last chance to get the MBNA airline credit cards?

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• Dave says:

  1 Nov1 November 19:53

  This is the first I’ve heard of this. Ironically I cancelled my Virgin black 30 mins ago as I was due to pay the £140 fee and wanted to avoid it. What happens to existing accounts if they stop issuing the cards? Will they be closed down eventually? Or is it too early to tell?

  • Rob says:

    1 Nov1 November 21:53

    Existing card accounts will be closed down. There is likely to be a grace period, but whether it is 2 months or 2 years we don’t know. I’ve seen both in the past.

    • Lev441 says:

      1 Nov1 November 21:57

      I let mine renew a couple of months ago with the 5k bonus for £1k spend well aware that the cards had a limited lifespan left with MBNA. Hoping to get to £10k spend > generating the 2 x premium economy upgrade vouchers and hoping for a refund of some sort for the card if it’s cancelled shortly I’m the new year!

      • Dave says:

        2 Nov2 November 00:04

        Sounds sensible! Sometimes these things are too good to be true…in the long term anyway! 🙁

    • Dave says:

      2 Nov2 November 00:03

      Thanks Rob. Seems a shame, but I guess we will see what the future holds. I’ll be sad to see my Virgin card(s) go completely though – hoping it’s not going to come to that!

• UZI says:

  2 Nov2 November 17:41

  I was told by someone in the complaints department today at MBNA that their contract with Affinity Cards is ending next year and that applications for all airline cards will stop on either 7th or 10th November (cannot remember). He did have the email in front of him telling him of this. He also said that the American Airlines Visa card is being axed. MBNA will no longer do any airline partner cards. He did say the Virgin Atlantic card has gone over to Virgin Money but does not know what is happening to the other airline cards.

  • Rob says:

    2 Nov2 November 18:22

    That lines up with some stuff I have been told confidentially and so cannot repeat – although if the AA card is going that must be a Lloyds decision, post takeover, given that it was only launched very recently.

    Pretty bad timing for updating my Credit Card Reviews series, all told 🙂

    • Will says:

      6 Nov6 November 11:40

      Wasn’t there talk Lloyds would be doing what MBNA did with multiple earning cards? But wouldn’t IAG have words to say about that? Mind you, the 241 vouchers solely being the domain of Avios would give them a massive edge. I’m gonna stick with Lloyds Avios and wait.

      P.S. Rob – any chance you can tailor the “comments” to update via email when one gets a reply?

• Von Schmallhausen says:

  2 Nov2 November 17:47

  My brother was refused a BA Amex today due to ‘internal issues’.

  Is that the beginning of the end for the BA cards too ???

  • New Card says:

    2 Nov2 November 18:24

    I also had a random decline for a BA Amex last week, for no reason I can think of…

    • Genghis says:

      2 Nov2 November 18:37

      I don’t like the sound of where all of this is headed…

      • Rob says:

        2 Nov2 November 20:47

        I got approved for an SPG on Monday, 6 months after cancelling. Arrived today.

      • AndyGWP says:

        3 Nov3 November 13:18

        Rob – now you’ve received your SPG card, would you like to refer me (please)?

        • Rob says:

          3 Nov3 November 13:21

          Sent you an email, thanks

      • AndyGWP says:

        7 Nov7 November 11:09

        Great – thanks… I applied for it straight away but currently “awaiting a decision” 🙂

  • Scallder says:

    3 Nov3 November 16:34

    I had this as well in the past week. I took out a Platinum and SPG in August/September all fine. SPG card had a high 4 figure limit. Closed the SPG in early October. Applied for a Nectar card on the 29th Oct using the higher 30k offer (and an extra 3 cards for Shop Small), and called up on Wednesday to be told I was declined due to an ‘internal scoring measure’.

    Asked for a manager to look into it given I’ve never had a decline for any card at all (including my fair share of Amex cards) and they called back today saying the scoring measure was that my level of available limit was too high compared to my salary. So he said that he could move some of my available limit from my BA card (which frankly was much more than needed anyway), and did that so now all got through ok (with 30k offer intact).

    Either they’ve put a new policy in place within the past month or so which genuinely looks at available credit (I’m not so sure), or something else might be going on… :S

• Craig says:

  2 Nov2 November 19:35

  So are Virgin Money taking over the Virgin card? Will this be a smooth transition over I’m wondering and not mean having to cancel and then take out again! Any chance Virgin Money will offer an amex and visa?

  • UZI says:

    2 Nov2 November 19:37

    The Virgin Atlantic card is already on the Virgin Money website, however the eligibility check goes to the MBNA website.

    • Rob says:

      2 Nov2 November 20:45

      Virgin Money has been selling that for a couple of years.

  • Rob says:

    2 Nov2 November 20:46

    Yes. No. No. All facts.

• Spencer says:

  3 Nov3 November 14:31

  Hi all, was told by a customer services agent that all Airline credit cards will be stopping covert miles by end of this month, and no new online applications from 7th Nov. Telephone applications have completely stopped. All cards will be dead… just got my Miles and More card few days ago…

  • Alan says:

    3 Nov3 November 19:28

    Wow, they’re going to be due to refund a lot of fees if they stop them suddenly for existing customers like that!

  • Third Passport says:

    7 Nov7 November 11:25

    Yeap, all airline cards are gone from the MBNA website now 🙁

• polarization says:

  3 Nov3 November 21:10

  I found this old articles when MBNA sign a deal with Virgin Atlantic back in 2014, not sure if it is relevant. That agreement was up to end of 2018. It seems to make sense if they stop new sign up this month so all the new sign up can be used until end of 2018, which last for a full year,

  http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/mbna-and-virgin-atlantic-sign-new-uk-credit-card-partnership-245997551.html

  “We’ve had a strong and successful partnership with Virgin Atlantic since 2006, so we’re absolutely delighted to be continuing this relationship into 2018,” said Michael Donald, Marketing and Commercial executive for MBNA.

• TWG says:

  12 Nov12 November 12:24

  Hi Rob, what are the best options for United? I looked at the options above, but for the Amex Gold/Platinum I couldn’t see how to convert points into United Miles, and the same for the Starwood. Also, do you know whether there will be a new United card or when current ones will be withdrawn? Cheers.

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