The new HFP chat thread – Thursday 21st May

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• Spk says:

  21 May21 May 08:40

  Looks like the economist offer doesn’t include print-only option anymore. ☹️

  • mark2 says:

    21 May21 May 09:05

    print only subscriptions are being discontinued.

• Alex says:

  21 May21 May 08:58

  Had Easyjet flights which were cancelled recently, haven’t received any refund and impossible to get through to them on the phone. Any suggestions v welcome! Thanks

  • Rhys says:

    21 May21 May 08:59

    Try writing to flightrefund@easyjet.com
    following these instructions:
    Subject Line : Booking Reference/Departure Date/EN

  • Neil says:

    21 May21 May 09:33

    My wife had an email from Easyjet yesterday about some cancelled flights so followed the link in the email and after a lot of “take a voucher” prompts she was given the option to request a refund. She’s had an email to say it should be back in 30 days but don’t call till after 60 or 90 (can’t remember what she said now). So did you do anything after you got the cancelled email ?

  • Ian says:

    21 May21 May 19:01

    Try here…
    https://www.easyjet.com/en/refund-form

• Mike P says:

  21 May21 May 09:31

  For those people looking at fixed rate HSBC mortgages (there have been a few people commenting on these on here) the rates appear to have dropped overnight. 60% LTV 5 year rate has dropped from 1.44% to 1.39%. Question is do we lock in now or wait to see if it falls further?

  • Sean says:

    21 May21 May 10:31

    The financial markets are betting we get negative interest rates shortly – the BofE just need to ensure that all institutions can cope – not all can as lots of documentation doesn’t allow for it.

    As I said the other day – can only see mortgage rates going 1 way for low ltv mortgages.

  • Fred says:

    21 May21 May 10:33

    For existing RBS mortgage customers, RBS offer a 60%LTV 5 year rate of 1.87% at a cost of £995. This same rate was available when BBR was 0.75% thus RBS have chosen not to factor in the current BBR being 0.10% for EXISTING customers.

    Meanwhile RBS have factored the latest BBR in for NEW customers.

    • Sean says:

      21 May21 May 11:44

      Fred

      Actual Base Rate makes little difference to the price of mortgages – it is the forward expectations of rates that matter. If on the product you quoted the market already expected a future drop then Bank Rate changing wont necessarily affect the price. Always horrible and no excuse here to see new and existing customers treated differently.

      • Fred says:

        22 May22 May 00:49

        You say that, but once BBR changed substantially in March, the RBS mortgage rates for NEW customers improved dramatically yet the rates for EXISTING customers remained the same.

  • Grant says:

    21 May21 May 10:33

    Thanks for the heads up, Mike. I can’t see it going the other way, can you? In which case I might just run it up to the wire to see if it drops any further. Got another 30 days or so before we revert to the SVR.

    I naively assumed any rate changes would occur at the end / beginning of the month.

    • Mike P says:

      21 May21 May 10:59

      No problem at all. I think we are fairly safe waiting at this point as rates are only likely to drop further. I’ve got until the end of July before my existing rate finishes so not in any hurry.

      • Lady London says:

        21 May21 May 12:11

        personally on mortgages just like investment then good advice would be not to try to time the market. I’d suggest comparing the rate to the best case you’d estimate for the average over the period then if it fits your expected ability to pay for it for the period and you dont think you’ll be divesting the property within the period then grab something reasonable. IMV any move in the other direction could be explosively fast when it starts.

      • SimonW says:

        21 May21 May 18:10

        Bear in mind, any offer is limited by the tranche they have available. Be it £5m or £10m etc. Once that is gone, the rate is gone. Natwest 5yr 1.35% fixed was too good for me not to lock in now, 3 months ahead of needing it….

  • Jonathan says:

    21 May21 May 11:09

    At those sort of rates I’m pretty tempted to extend my mortgage, should be pretty easy over a 5 year time frame to generate annual returns of more than the 2.31% a higher rate taxpayer would need to be quids in (Even lower if you aren’t already maxing out ISA subscriptions).

  • Joseph Heenan says:

    21 May21 May 22:17

    If it’s one of HSBC’s zero fee ones then you can lock in the rate, but hold off finalising application for as long as the offer is valid for. If rate drops, just start again. I did this last year and saved 0.2% or so.

• da trader says:

  21 May21 May 09:33

  Will topping up my Trading 212 or Nutmeg account with the Virgin credit card incur a cash advance fee?

• Doog1000 says:

  21 May21 May 09:35

  Just tried to top up Revolut with my virgin master card – never any problems before and earning points on previous topups including a couple of weeks ago
  This morning though transactions declined – called virgin and they said that Revolut is no longer a merchant at the moment they are transacting with due to fraud issues
  Just an FYI to see if others have some experience now

  • Michael says:

    21 May21 May 09:57

    I’m pretty sure someone mentioned a couple of days ago being unable to top up Rev from Virgin. Thankfully it still works with IHG but I’m taking a break from the boys in Vilnius for a spell to keep my account open.

  • Lady London says:

    21 May21 May 11:53

    Fraud? I’d love to see what documented examples of ‘fraud’ happening to Virgin through Revolut, Virgin could provide.

  • The Urbanite says:

    21 May21 May 12:50

    Topping up Revolut with a credit card has been risky for a while due to the MCC situation and is no doubt causing the credit card issuers headaches for many reasons. Some people will be raising fraudulent chargebacks, others will be adding to demand for customer services by requesting cash advance fees and interest are waived and others will probably complain to them because Revolut have blocked their accounts with the funds still inside.

    I know in theory it’s an easy way to generate spend/get a cash advance but are people aware of the risks, including receiving no points for topping it up and paying fees + interest for that “free” cash advance? The amount of negative posts springing up on here and several of the financial/fintech communities from people topping it up with a credit card would suggest a lot of people are being caught out.

• Nick says:

  21 May21 May 09:44

  I Am awaiting the taxes and fees refund from a Virgin Atlantic reward flight cancelled in March.

  Got an email 4 weeks later to say we have “received your claim”

  Now end of May- nothing. Has anyone received their virgin taxes refund yet?

  • Rob says:

    21 May21 May 10:05

    It is 90-100 days.

    • idrive says:

      21 May21 May 10:11

      same here, waiting for two refunds, originally told me up to 90days

• YH says:

  21 May21 May 09:48

  Booked LHR-HND in the new ANA F with 120k VS miles for March 2021 last night.

  Called VS call centre, waited 40 minutes and got disconnected whilst on hold, called again and got through to someone after 40 minutes this time. Super friendly representative, I used United Award Search to find availability and then she was able to confirm and reserve the flights straight away.

  I have tickets in Qatar J for Tokyo in September but I doubt that will happen now. Hopefully by March 2021 things will look a bit better! And hopefully VS hasn’t gone bust!

  • Rob says:

    21 May21 May 10:02

    Brilliant. Did you manage to get 2 seats or just the 1?

    • YH says:

      21 May21 May 10:08

      I’m flying solo so just the 1.

      The United Award Search seems to only show 1 reward seat available for the LHR-HND route on any date. When selecting my seat everything was available (apart from the customary blocked 1A – EF confirms this is blocked not booked) so looks like only 1 reward seat available per flight.

  • Andrew says:

    21 May21 May 10:12

    And hopefully first class service will be back to normal by then and not the limited F&B service on a tray and no blankets as it is at the moment. I wonder how long it will be before premium flying gets back to being a premium experience. BA offering a packet sandwich and bottled water in First at the moment, doesn’t really seem worth it just for a larger seat.

    • YH says:

      21 May21 May 10:29

      I am meant to be flying BA F in July to SCL. As much as I want to go, I hope it gets cancelled because, as you said, doesn’t seem worth flying in F if I don’t get to enjoy the CCR and proper F service.

      I am basically delaying all of my travel plans for a year. Might even ask for a mini-sabbatical from work to make up for lost travel time – here’s to hoping for a return to normality in 2021!

      • Andrew says:

        21 May21 May 10:49

        Likewise, I was supposed to be going to JFK in First in July and have already decided I’m going to cancel as it won’t be even close to a premium experience. I booked with BA holidays, so I can just take a £300 voucher for the deposit I paid if they don’t cancel the flight. I think it’s wise not to plan any trips until next Easter if you are wanting the premium travel experience we know and love.

    • Blenz101 says:

      21 May21 May 15:06

      Emirates are back to hot food now on 9 routes, hopefully not long!

• Jon says:

  21 May21 May 10:12

  Haha! They’ve dropped Virgin Australia and SAA. I suspect it may be because such status will be pretty worthless now

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