Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Changes to the lesser-spotted TSB Avios and TSB Premier Avios credit cards

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New HfP readers may not know that TSB used to issue two Avios credit cards.

When TSB separated from Lloyds, part of the divorce proceedings involved custody of the Avios contract.  TSB ended up retaining the right to issue an Avios credit card, but it was weaker than the Lloyds Avios Rewards card.  Unsurprisingly, it was pulled from the market soon after.

Existing cardholders have retained their cards.  However, with American Express pulling all of its licensing deals, the American Express element of the TSB Avios package is ending on 27th September.

In addition, the TSB Premier Avios credit card – which offered a companion voucher – is being closed completely from the same date. 

Going forward:

TSB Avios credit card holders will only have a Mastercard product, not an Amex

Premier card holders will be moved to the standard card

The earning rate will be a poor 0.2 Avios per £1 on UK spend and the slightly better – albeit with a 3% FX fee – 0.4 Avios per £1 on overseas spend

TSB Avios credit card changes

What is the best alternative to the TSB Avios credit card?

If you still have the TSB Avios credit cards, I recommend you switch to the Tesco Clubcard Mastercard (representative APR 18.9% variable).

The earning rate on this card isn’t great either, but it is the best Avios Visa or Mastercard available unless you are wealthy enough to qualify for HSBC Premier.  You earn 1 Clubcard point (2.4 Avios) per £8 spent – calculated on a ‘per transaction’ basis, so small transactions are penalised.  You are still likely to come out ahead on UK spending.

There is currently a sign-up bonus of 1,000 Clubcard points (2,400 Avios) on one specific version of the Tesco Clubcard Mastercardsee here for details.  There is no annual fee.

If you are happy to walk away from Avios, you can’t beat the new Virgin Atlantic MastercardThe free card has a 5,000 mile bonus and offers a whopping 0.75 miles per £1 – almost 4x what the TSB Avios card earns.  The annual fee card has a 15,000 mile bonus and offers 1.5 miles per £1.


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 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

Nectar American Express

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

American Express Platinum card Amex

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

Amex Platinum Business American Express

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 card

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

Comments (151)

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

  • Andrew S says:

    Bits O/T:
    It’s been over a week since my spg points have left my spg Amex account and they have not yet reached my spg account. Usually takes 1-2 days but now been about 10.
    Anyone else in the same boat?
    I also stayed at an spg hotel in this time frame and the points and bonuses (green choice, spg gold bonus on base points etc) all posted fine.

    • E says:

      Yes, me too. SPG points not hit and it’s 9 days now. Haven’t got round to cahsing it yet – was hoping they’d just turn up late.

    • G says:

      I requested the transfer around 10 days ago but as nothing turned up I requested the transfer again 5 days ago. They have turned up this morning at last. Not sure if it was the first request or the second that was actioned.

      • Andrew S says:

        Thanks. It’s the spg card points that I’m wondering about, not MR to spg, but maybe it’s just a bit slow this month!

        • Genghis says:

          On Sunday, my wife’s SPG points left her SPG Amex acct in the morning and were in the SPG acct in the afternoon. Then initiated transfer to me but still waiting for that to go through. I want SPG points to be where they need to be in advance of the transition to the new scheme.

      • Matt says:

        Are you able to request AMEX do the transfer to SPG successfully?
        I have 11K in my AMEX SPG account from a recent bonus and I asked AMEX to send to SPG (out of the normal sending to SPG cycle) – they claimed they could not do it?

        • Mark2 says:

          I believe that it happens automatically in a batch run so it is unlikely that anyone could vary it.

        • Genghis says:

          I remember reading once that a person had amended statement date which brought forward points posting date.

    • RP says:

      Yes same here. They left my AMEX MR account 10 days ago and have not popped up in my SPG account yet. I dropped a message to AMEX who are investigating but haven’t heard anything yet

      • Munch says:

        Yes same here. Waiting for my SPG Amex points to arrive in my SPG account. Over 10 days now.

        • roberto says:

          and again..

          My AMEX spg points ( inc the 10k bonus ) left on the 14th and have not appeared into SPG. I spoke to both parties, Amex said it was done correctly and SPG have no notification of the transfer. SPG said they see it instantly under normal circumstances and are blaming Amex..

          I just want my miles and am going to cancel the card as soon as I get them. At £75 per year its costing me 20p a day to keep the cardt open so I guess I wont exactly go skint over this but I would rather someone went and poked the computer thats dealing with it.

        • MattyS says:

          Same here. Wife’s statement date was 19th, left Amex account straight away but nothing arrived in SPG account yet. Was looking to transfer to my account as would have given me enough to transfer to Marriott and do a travel package, but may not have the opportunity (or may not be the value anyway) now if we are to find out soon what will happen to them.

  • Bach says:

    OT – Trying to transfer MR points to Radisson Rewards but getting an error. Is there a trick (like to add leading zero)?

  • shd says:

    OT: just over a month ago there was a Rocketmiles – Heathrow Rewards article, in the comments someone posted a signup link to a bonus points offer for new customers which was even better than the headline one that Rob posted.

    Did anyone get this to work?

    I got my 500 base HR points, and that’s it. Rocketmiles being unhelpful chasing the missing bonus points.

    • BJ says:

      In the original article i cautioned people against rocketmiles due to reports in blogs about problems witb the bonus. I think Rob searched the HFP comments and coukd find only two others reporting issues.

  • AlexI says:

    OT: Advice needed! I have been told that my compensation claim for cancelled flights with BA has been successful. Most expenses have been honoured which is great but they are not refunding my taxi from LHR onwards . I was originally meant to land at LCY as it is cheaper and faster to get to work from however that did not happen. BA say that it is not their policy to reimburse for travel expenses at the end of the inbound flight. Any advice for challenging this would be much appreciated or even being informed that this is a futile endeavour would also be good to know!

    • Anna says:

      It might be a bit of a grey area as BA have technically delivered you to the same city but others on this forum might have personal experience. It’s always worth having a look at the relevant EU regulations as BA have a habit of trying to wriggle out of their legal obligations by saying it’s “not their policy”.

      • Rob says:

        Yes, technically all London airports are the same which is why you can search as LON on Expedia etc. Whether this stands up in court is a different question. My brother’s LHR New York flight in Feb was oversold in PE and he was moved to a later LGW flight. BA would not pay to get him to Gatwick, although as he was picking up €3,000 (5 pax) in EU261 for the 3 hour delay he wasn’t too bothered …..!

        • Anna says:

          When did he find out about the change? Is it the case that if you’re only having to travel to one airport for your flight, which you’d have to do anyway, BA won’t pay for that, but if you had other expenses such as pre-paid airport parking or a hotel they would reimburse you for those?

        • Anna says:

          That’s abysmal then that they wouldn’t cover his transport costs to Gatwick! (Was his return flight still to Heathrow though?)

        • KBuffett says:

          I’ve always wondered whether the Advertising Standards Authority would consider a complaint against Luton, Stansted & Gatwick airports calling themselves ‘London Luton’ and the like. Surely it’s a fraudulent trade description. Thoughts?

    • John says:

      Presumably you went to work directly from LHR, instead of going to LCY then going to work?

      If transport from LHR was only a few £ more, then the euro exchange rate is likely to have moved in your favour since the time of your flight… if you had a car parked at LCY or something like that it might be a different story.

      • Alexl says:

        Yes, went directly from LHR, did not go to LCY. I think I am going to let it go now as have recouped most of the expenses (and a lot of the ‘indignation’ has subsided).
        Would like to say thanks to the HfP team and all the contributors as the info that I have discovered here over the months gave me the nous and impetus to make a claim in the first place. Also it helped me to get in touch with BA when the cancellation happened as when they informed about the flight, they gave me two numbers to call (one was UK and the other European) and they were both closed! But I remembered that some people here call the BA team in Australia to get their reward seats as early as possible. So I called BA USA and it was quite a surprise that I was put through to the same call centre that I usually get put through to when I call BA from the UK. Ridiculous! (Which was conveyed in my letter of complaint.)

  • Nigel says:

    O/T has anyone had issues with IHG premier linked to Curve Card??
    Tried paying HMRC last night but it was declined saying Curve Card was not issued in the UK??

    • Memesweeper says:

      I paid HMRC with Curve two days ago no ‘foreign card’ issues.

      Creation IHG are notorious for declining large-ish transactions originating from Curve.

      • Roger1* says:

        Notorious? Within limits?

        OK for me, paying HMRC for my wife’s self assessment, using Curve linked to IHG MC.

    • Peter K says:

      Not had any probs with Curve linked to IHG premium card. I’ve not tried paying HMRC however recently.

    • Leo says:

      No probs this tax period with the IHG card. Just about to put my VAT through – but thinking about it will probably put that through the new Virgin MC.

  • Matt says:

    OT – Marriott Travel Packages.
    Rob – I am surprised you are not recommending people with the points to get the travel packages before the end of July, which I am looking to do.
    A quick comparison:
    hotel cat 1-5 with 50K avios (new scheme 1-4) is 200k Marriott now, 255K Aug (55K more)
    Hotel cat 6 with 50K avios (new scheme 5) 230K Marriott now, 315K Aug (85K more)
    Hotel cat 7 with 50K avios (new scheme 6) 260K Marriott now, 435K Aug (175K more)
    Hotel cat 8 with 50K avios (new scheme 7) 290K Marriott now, 495K Aug (205K more)
    Am I missing something why you would not get the travel package now??

    • Genghis says:

      Unsure what happens to unspent vouchers? Current lack of availability at decent Marriotts for rest of the year?

      If I had some certainty that I could purchase a MTP now and it would then be available for use for a certain category of current SPG hotels in the new scheme, I’d jump right in.

      • Matt says:

        I just renewed one of my travel packages yesterday so it is valid through to July 24 2019 – I would thus expect to be able to use it for the next 12 months, would seem strange to cancel it a month after I bought it from them?
        The extra cost of the travel packages post August is huge, hence why I think worth the risk now – but we all have different opinions…

      • BJ says:

        To be fair to Marriott they have done a good job on the merger so far. It seems unlikely to me that they would now play dirty with existing TP. Thus, I was quite happy to take one out under the current circumstances. I will be very surprused if existing cat 1-5 certificates don’t simply become cat 1-4 in tbe new system, points map across evenly.

      • KBuffett says:

        Rob – any thoughts on this? I’m thinking about taking the plunge. Perhaps book myself another stay at Essex House, although I’ve not look at the cost of that after the merger. Perhaps a week is too long also…

  • Brian S says:

    OT – Hilton Amex Offer
    I have received the offer on my Platinum card for 7,000 MR points for £250 spend at Hilton properties..

    Does anyone know by experience if the spend is cumulative or does it have to be in one transaction?

    • Craig says:

      The last 3 Hilton offers I have had have been cumulative.

    • Anna says:

      Would you get HH points on top of that? I’m struggling to work out what points are awarded for spending on/at Hilton hotels if you don’t use the HH visa. No offer at the moment though!

      • Genghis says:

        Yes

      • John says:

        You get 10 HH points per US dollar spent but not on the portion classed as taxes (so for UK hotels, roughly 11 points per £ at the moment), plus bonus rates if you have Hilton status. This comes from the hotel and you get it whichever card you use, and even if you pay in cash.

        The HH barclays visa gives you 3 points per £ on anything that is put through a Hilton card machine.

        If you use the Amex, you won’t get the 3 points per £ but you will get the normal points from the hotel. The hotel won’t know or care about the Amex offer.

  • s879 says:

    OT: Tried to transfer about 3,000 points from the HSBC Premier MasterCard (not Elite). We’ve had it for about 10 years but the CS said the rules have changed and minimum transfer is 18,000 points!!! It would take me years to get there as that is not our main card to spend on. We use it in places Amex is not accepted. Is this new or has it been there for a while. She said we could get two £5 Amazon voucher and I’m not happy about that.

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