The new HFP chat thread – Wednesday 13th May

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• Novice says:

  13 May13 May 10:55

  Tax rise is coming!

  • Anna says:

    13 May13 May 11:08

    TBH that’s preferable to another slash and burn exercise on the public services, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if we were to see both.

    • Paul Pogba says:

      13 May13 May 11:17

      At what point for you does it cease to be preferable? These things aren’t black and white, another 5% on both rates might be something you can live with but how would you feel about a 35% lower rate, and 83% higher rate as it was in 76/77?

      http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/repository/incometaxrates_1974to1990.pdf

      • Anna says:

        13 May13 May 11:42

        That was under a Labour government and probably contributed to them being out of power for the best part of the next 2 decades. Any administration would have to weigh the political fallout versus tax rises and try and find an acceptable middle ground (not an enviable task, obviously).

      • Lockdown Larry says:

        13 May13 May 11:48

        “how would you feel about a 35% lower rate, and 83% higher rate as it was in 76/77?”

        That’s not going to happen so it’s irrelevant how i’d feel

        • Rob says:

          13 May13 May 12:25

          Logically you need to move towards 30% / 50% or the country is stuffed. Either that or actually ask companies to pay a few quid, or stop bunging up pensions by crazy sums each year ….!

        • Lockdown Larry says:

          13 May13 May 13:11

          “or the country is stuffed.”

          We’ll be fine. The country has survived much worse

        • Genghis says:

          13 May13 May 14:32

          It’s all about collecting the highest amount of tax in terms of £££, not necessarily having higher rates. What are the optimum rates anyway? I don’t know. Reminds me of the story of Ronald Reagan deciding to work PT to avoid 90% tax
          https://toomuchonline.org/the-tax-that-turned-ronald-reagan-right/

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          13 May13 May 16:11

          Given that the average pensioner is now has more income than the average working person with the gap growing, AND we’re talking about wage freezes in the NHS, is it time to break the ridiculous 2.5% triple lock that seems impregnable because pensioners are such a large voting block, and freeze pensions for a year or two. That way we can at least reduce the current abomination produced by the pension system where taxes are now transferring money from the poor towards the rich on average. If you frame it as “freeze pensions to give NHS heroes a pay rise” then you can even get it through without political suicide….

  • Doommonger says:

    13 May13 May 11:25

    As I’m young I don’t pay tax yet.

    • Nick_C says:

      13 May13 May 11:46

      Very few people don’t pay tax. People in religious orders perhaps. Children who don’t get pocket money. Although quite a lot of people don’t pay income tax.

    • Rob says:

      13 May13 May 12:27

      Where do you think the £5 you pay for a pint goes?

      You almost certainly pay more tax than someone on a low salary in a job, because they get more back in allowance, tax credits etc than they pay in tax.

  • Craig says:

    13 May13 May 11:43

    Not if I’m unemployed!

    • Sean says:

      13 May13 May 12:15

      VAT?

      • John says:

        13 May13 May 15:28

        Mostly paid by retailers in the form of lower profits.

  • Lady London says:

    13 May13 May 12:18

    Ya think ?

  • Optimus Prime says:

    13 May13 May 20:13

    And pay freeze for civil servants again (i know quite a few whose salaries have been frozen since 2010). I guess MP’s will freeze theirs for 2 years and then give themselves a 10-15% raise while cheering for not removing the public workers’ cap – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9C65DGd068

• Anna says:

  13 May13 May 11:13

  Out of interest, has anyone had, or knows anyone who has had a private COVID antibody test? There was an article in the Guardian yesterday by an English GP who bought one out of curiosity and administered it to herself, apparently satisfied that it was legitimate. She doesn’t say who the provider was (presumably she can’t be seen to be endorsing a private service) not what her result was (presumably doesn’t want to share her private medical info, fine). The only one I can find online is £99 from somewhere called the Doctors Clinic Group in London. Their website appears to be legitimate but of course I have no way of being sure (though I might ring them and see who answers). I would be happy to pay £99 to find out whether I have been infected at some point.

  • Pat the Postie says:

    13 May13 May 11:30

    There are many private clinics offering the test between £99-£149 but the problem is how do we know how accurate the test is and whether it is accurate at all, there needs to be more information on who conducts the test and accuracy before I would spend the money and risk it being inaccurate.

    • Anna says:

      13 May13 May 11:44

      That’s why it was annoying that the article didn’t specify who supplied the test, as the doctor was clearly happy with their credentials.

      • meta says:

        13 May13 May 11:56

        You could always fly to Austria, get tested at the airport and the fly back. Obviously, it would be more expensive, but they also provide you with a proper certificate if you test negative. None of the UK online ones do as far as I can see.

        • Lockdown Larry says:

          13 May13 May 12:02

          That’s a regular test to let you know if you have the virus now, not an antibody test

        • Anna says:

          13 May13 May 13:02

          I’m fairly certain I haven’t got the virus at this moment, I haven’t been anywhere!

  • Tested says:

    13 May13 May 11:50

    I’ve had six antibody tests, there results have been mixed and I don’t have a great deal of confidence in them.

  • memesweeper says:

    13 May13 May 11:55

    I was on the waiting list with another highly regarded private GP for an antibody test. Decided to take a chance on Doctors Clinic Group’s test. As Tested has said, there’s a chance any test will fail to detect antibodies that are actually present, and we’ve no idea how good DCG’s tests are. I’m not sure the reverse (saying you have antibodies when you do not) is an issue, I certainly hope not as it could cause potentially at-risk individuals to make bad choices.

    • Tested says:

      13 May13 May 12:37

      That’s the thing that worries me, on my first test I couldn’t see a line against img or igg antibody indicators but the company said that it did indicate after some time, this was in the early days. The subsequent tests have been more consistent but I still have doubts.

      I should say these are stick tests rather than lab analysis.

      • Anna says:

        13 May13 May 13:02

        Why have you had 6 tests?

        • Josh says:

          13 May13 May 13:47

          To help hit that 100k target, obviously 😂

        • Tested says:

          13 May13 May 14:47

          To get some info on how the antibodies build in the system and how long they last.

  • SimonW says:

    13 May13 May 13:20

    Yes, bought some online 6 weeks ago. Worked out around £20 each plus Vat but had to buy 20 of them….. Doctor neighbour said they are no better/worse than a test you will pay £200 for in Harley Street. I had symptoms and came back with antibodies, so test seemed to “work”. Friends and family who have used them pretty much had the results they expected….. They are from Singclean – a Chinese firm, via a UK supplier. I believe that a false positive test is v unlikely, while a false negative is possible.

    • Anna says:

      13 May13 May 13:53

      Interesting – have you spoken to your GP about the results? Apparently the WHO is urging countries to try and find out who has had the virus to help them track its previous spread.

      • SimonW says:

        13 May13 May 14:02

        Yes, she seemed happy it was legitimate. I had loss of smell and a cough for a week. Nothing else, and 4 weeks later I had the IgG antibodies, not the IgM. I commuted in London every day, and work on a large open plan floor, close to others who had worse symptoms. I was not surprised I had caught it.

        • Tested says:

          13 May13 May 15:03

          The false negative is probably what my first result indicated, igG and igM were present in the following ones after 5 weeks. I’ll probably have another on Friday.

  • David S says:

    13 May13 May 16:33

    There are multiple testing kits out there. None of them are 100% accurate for COVID-19 and there are various trials going on to find the best diagnostic kit. Would not waste your time and money yet on these tests till they are proven properly.

    • BLT says:

      13 May13 May 17:20

      You can get an Abbott laboratory IgG test for £99 online. Try private coronavirus tests dot com. Can’t comment on the accuracy, but Abbott laboratories are a huge US pharma company.

      • Lady London says:

        13 May13 May 22:35

        Dont they own Boots?

• marcw says:

  13 May13 May 11:35

  BA CityFlyer also cutting jobs balpa.org/Media-Centre/Press-Releases/BA-CityFlyer-redundancies-on-the-day-the-Chancello

• Hanif says:

  13 May13 May 11:42

  I called Amex, hoping to get the 20000 MR point instead they offered me to split my annual fee over 12 months or a downgrade to gold charge free for first year.. My renewal date first week of June, Will try again later.

  • Aslan says:

    13 May13 May 12:30

    For what its worth, went to cancel Plat this morning – I got offered the Gold charge free for first year, or 15,000 points in the next 48 hours.
    Took the points, will cancel Plat in a week or so.

• BuyEMLocalBonds says:

  13 May13 May 12:09

  Incredibly OT but AMEX related

  Does billing address matter at all? I want to buy a laptop and deliver to my flat which is different to my amex billing address, but want to avoid the fuss around ‘we can only ship to billing address’

  Do merchants see the underlying billing address for amex cards? I have placed orders with a different billing address in the past and never had an issue

  • Rob says:

    13 May13 May 12:18

    Put it this way, Amex does match billing address to card details so the transaction will fail if you don’t put it in. You need a retailer which lets you specify a different delivery address.

    In my personal experience, however, separating billing and delivery address for high-risk items like laptops does make it more likely that your card will be declined.

  • Anna says:

    13 May13 May 13:05

    I think you could get round this by using Paypal and having your delivery address on your Paypal account, but obviously you might not want to pay for an expensive item this way. OH took a punt recently by buying a dive computer from Germany as Paypal was the only way we could pay by Amex; it did arrive safely and extremely quickly but I was slightly nervous while we were waiting!

  • Chuck says:

    13 May13 May 13:55

    Amex will let you have both addresses on the account but you need to call up to do it.

    • J says:

      13 May13 May 14:49

      Thanks Chuck – that’s a great tip.

  • Charlieface says:

    13 May13 May 15:06

    Random point: Amex don’t verify the country, nor do they (nor Visa/MC) verify most of the address. So long as the house number (if any) and the NUMBERS in the postcode match, it should go through.

  • John says:

    13 May13 May 15:31

    In my experience it seems to depend on how strict the merchant’s settings are.

    In any case only the two numbers in the postcode are verified, so potentially you could give a “wrong” postcode and hope the delivery guy figures it out….

  • Chrish says:

    13 May13 May 18:38

    BuyEMLocalBonds@ I Used to do it all the time house in Blackburn, Flat in Bognor Regis
    Mostly had House as billing address, Flat as Delivery Address (mostly)
    When largish purchase, payment being made a call to Amex always worked for me
    sometimes had to resubmit order though
    even if unable to put two address on order, call Amex (never used chat for that though)
    (I say always worked but except Argos for some reason Argos was unhelpful)
    Helps if Amex is imformed before order
    Not done it since Feb as now billing addy same as Flat

• r* says:

  13 May13 May 12:27

  Anyone know what American Express Airline Bonus is on plat card points statement?

  It appears for some flights (with the same airline) but not others and theres also some rows where a flight has been refunded that means they have deducted twice as many pts, I didnt think there was double points on flight bookings with plat card?

  • r* says:

    13 May13 May 12:30

    hmm, nm, it might have been put through on the gold. Just I had 3 easyjet bookings made within a couple of days, one shows the bonus and the others dont, I thought they had been all put on the same card.

• Ian M says:

  13 May13 May 12:39

  I called Amex again today regarding my Platinum card to see if there was anything they could offer considering the lack of access to card benefits currently. I pointed out today that a friend had been offered 20k MR points a few days ago. The result was the same as yesterday, they told me there was nothing available other than the double points promo which has been applied to my account automaticlly, or they could downgrade me to gold.

  Has anyone else had any luck recently or did HfP readers drain the Amex points stash on day 1?

  • Nelson says:

    13 May13 May 13:19

    I called yesterday. Was Offered 15k Mr or downgrade to gold. I asked if it is possible to get 20k. A few minutes on hold and a lady informed me that the amount of points offered are coming from the system and cannot be raised. I have accepted. Points have appeared today. I have the plat card since 3 weeks only.

    • Rum says:

      13 May13 May 13:44

      Oh wow – that’s really interesting to know. I also just upgraded from Gold having downgraded Less than three months ago.

    • n_g says:

      13 May13 May 15:45

      I had the exact same experience as this.

  • Anthony Edwards says:

    13 May13 May 14:27

    I called this morning (about 7am) and got the 20k

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    13 May13 May 15:47

    Do you spend a lot through the card? Read different bonuses based on high spends.

    • Ian M says:

      13 May13 May 16:08

      I’m a very heavy spender yes. Use it for my business.

    • Polly says:

      13 May13 May 23:53

      Depends who you get. We put about q5k through it, but only,offered 15k initially then she broke her heart and offered the extra 5k… but nice to have. Card end beg July.

• Louise says:

  13 May13 May 12:45

  Anyone managed to downgrade BA Amex online recently? I tried to apply for the basic one and it popped up to say I had to call

  • Rob says:

    13 May13 May 13:41

    You are not the first person to say this. Seems to be a change of system over the last couple of weeks.

  • kevbar says:

    13 May13 May 14:07

    I tried to apply for basic card after 8th April in order to downgrade BAPP, but it said I already had a BA card please contact us. Just cancelled BAPP via chat in the end…

  • Rum says:

    13 May13 May 15:15

    I was told by Amex to do it over the phone as applications online are now doing a full credit search. On another note I tried to ask for a retention on BAPP and got told I can downgrade or cancel.

    • guesswho2000 says:

      14 May14 May 02:08

      Interesting DP re the full search, I haven’t had a search from Amex for years, so will check that next time I apply.

      I have zero hard searches on file though, so I don’t really care.

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