The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 21st October

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• Nick says:

  21 Oct21 October 09:18

  I see Radisson has joined the Amex hotel offer party. Can someone please post the link to ‘participating locations’ here? As I can’t get it to open in the app 🙁

  • David says:

    21 Oct21 October 09:29

    https://merchantgeo.secure.force.com/selectsImage/servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=00P3Z00001UjOrG

    Stacks with The May Fair offer

    • KS says:

      21 Oct21 October 10:25

      Or the Mercer Street/Manchester offer.

      • mr_jetlag says:

        21 Oct21 October 10:45

        I didn’t see Mercer St on the Radisson list, is that confirmed? Would be great if they did stack as my staycation hotel.

        • KS says:

          21 Oct21 October 13:11

          I thought I saw it but looking at the list again I cannot see Mercer Street. Sorry!

• Doog1000 says:

  21 Oct21 October 10:36

  Just a quick question re the Virgin spend £500 get a free upgrade offer – I spent £600 on the Virgin site a week ago but no sign of the upgrade voucher – anyone else have experience of this?

  • Sam says:

    21 Oct21 October 11:27

    Mine took 11 days from the transaction date to appear on my flying club account

    • Doog1000 says:

      21 Oct21 October 12:30

      cheers

• stevenhp1987 says:

  21 Oct21 October 10:37

  IHG park and fly… Can I use it for more than 15 nights?

  Worth just contacting the hotel directly to ask?

  • Anna says:

    21 Oct21 October 10:57

    Definitely worth asking – if it’s just a few hours over you might get away with it, but on the other hand they might say you have to pay the full daily rate for any extra days. Hilton are a merciless about this and want £15 per day if you go over the amount of night booked.

  • MinR says:

    21 Oct21 October 10:58

    I’m curious to know the same for the stay/park/fly at Radisson Heathrow. Rates on their website are for 15 day parking, and I need 18 days parking.

    Hoping to use the Radisson Hotels offer with it

    • Alan H says:

      21 Oct21 October 16:24

      I was there last week and the hotel car park was empty (still charging £16 a day).

  • Lady London says:

    21 Oct21 October 12:43

    I have been offered 21 days by an IHG hotel before – for a ridiculously tiny.sum over the two week rate. I suspect you can negotiate longer with some.

    Coming back later than you negotiated anywhere is usually punitive. On longhaul I generally pay in round weeks and advise the hotel that’s the plan and I am overbooking to allow for any flight delays back. The cost makes no real difference and if I need hotel parking in Covid would add even a few days more.

• Liz says:

  21 Oct21 October 11:19

  Is anyone else having problems accessing Revolut. Every time I try to log in it says my passcode is not correct when I know it is. So I have to do a reset but the other day I had to do a selfie and ID check which still didn’t work – after several attempts I contacted Revolut who then contacted the tech team – i had to uninstall the app, clear my cache, reboot the phone, go through all the ID stuff for the 6th time which eventually cleared it and I reset my passcode. I’ve now tried logging in again and it has rejected my new passcode and I am going through the ID check again. Getting really p….d off having to do this every time I want to access the app and my money. Any suggestions???

  • Anna says:

    21 Oct21 October 11:23

    There seem to be a lot of fraud issues with Revolut atm (it was even highlighted on TV the other morning), no idea if it’s linked. Have you got fingerprint recognition on your phone? It’s much easier than remembering passcodes and might get round the problem.

    • Liz says:

      21 Oct21 October 11:49

      No I don’t. I don’t normally use a passcode either but I have to set a passcode on my phone in order to access Revolut but it then doesn’t recognise my Revolut passcode. It’s driving me nuts.

      • rams1981 says:

        21 Oct21 October 12:45

        this happened to me. I had assumed it was a compliance issue as my account was closed soon after

        • Liz says:

          21 Oct21 October 13:36

          I don’t use Revolut very often. Occasionally load £300 via CC and use it for bills when Credit cards not taken so I don’t abuse it. Hopefully they won’t close my account.

• Anna says:

  21 Oct21 October 11:21

  @Peggers – just spoke to the IC O2 and all you get is breakfast at the moment! I don’t think that’s worth £350 per night to be honest. They said they’d reduced prices to reflect this but I have a booking for late May bank holiday next where the price is almost the same so I don’t buy that to be honest. I haven’t checked but I doubt there are any concerts that weekend. I think they might be being a bit optimistic about how busy Twixmas is going to be this year!

  • Anna says:

    21 Oct21 October 11:31

    Especially as I’ve checked ricing and you can get DBB for £219 in a standard room!

  • ChrisC says:

    21 Oct21 October 11:36

    Easy enough to check

    Sunday 30th May – Pet Shop Boys

    Monday 31st May – Barry Manilow

    Tuesday 1st June – Adam Lambert & Queen

    These performers have huge fan bases that will fill out what rooms the performers etc don’t need at the IC at the drop of a hat.

    • Anna says:

      21 Oct21 October 11:59

      No, I meant no concerts the last weekend in December. I know about the ones in May, which is why I’m dubious about them “reducing” the December nights when the prices are very similar to that May weekend!

      • Anna says:

        21 Oct21 October 12:04

        I looked at tickets for those (not Manilow, the others), but yikes £££! Pussycat Dolls are also on on the 29th, which interest my OH …

        • Lady London says:

          21 Oct21 October 12:46

          Can the Pussycat Dolls actually sing, or is there more to their act?

        • Anna says:

          21 Oct21 October 13:18

          I don’t imagine many people go and watch them for the singing 🤣

        • Jack says:

          21 Oct21 October 17:24

          My gay cohort very much goes to see the singing! The rest…I suspect you’re correct!

  • Pid says:

    21 Oct21 October 13:25

    My last booked were in Feb 20 and Dec 18. Both times were around £400 per night for a City suite on the ambassador certificate rate. So sounds like they have dropped slightly but probably not worth a stay at that rate if the lounge is not open.

    • Anna says:

      21 Oct21 October 14:59

      But see my comment on page 4!

  • Peggers says:

    21 Oct21 October 23:05

    Thanks @Anna. Maybe not for me in January then……

• Mco says:

  21 Oct21 October 11:51

  Isn’t switching bank accounts seen as a negative on your credit? I thought credit companies liked to see a long relationship when it comes to current accounts.

  • BuildTheWall says:

    21 Oct21 October 12:04

    If you apply for an overdraft, yes, it’s a hard credit check and does affect your credit rating. Each bank calculates Credit scores differently but most look for number of new applications in the previous 6 months or a year.
    But not sure about opening accounts with fin tech / new banks like Starling or Monzo

    • Genghis says:

      21 Oct21 October 13:43

      Even if you don’t apply for an overdraft, the bank will likely still do a credit check. This is because, due to the way they’re processed, debit cards are actually a “credit” product.

  • Doug M says:

    21 Oct21 October 12:07

    I think they like to see one long term account or card. Essentially switching for the bonus should be just that, and using an account or accounts you care little for. You shouldn’t let £100 or so influence your choice of which bank works best for you.

  • Nick_C says:

    21 Oct21 October 12:08

    If you only have one current account, open a second account with the same bank and switch that. That way, you still have a long stable relationship with a bank.

    It’s usually easy enough to create monthly credits and DDs to satisfy whatever criteria there are for the switching bonus.

    I currently have a dozen current accounts, but the two that I use conventionally have been open for more than 5 years.

    • Genghis says:

      21 Oct21 October 13:44

      Thanks for this tip on this the other day. Opened another Halifax account v easily. Will convert to a reward account to get another £5 pcm once I get the debit card then will switch it in a couple of months’ time.

  • Optimus Prime says:

    21 Oct21 October 12:12

    Speaking of switching bank accounts – I took the HSBC and Natwest bribes before Christmas, and now due to covid HSBC doesn’t accept upgrades to Premier.

    Can I switch to Lloyds and then apply for HSBC Premier later on, maybe in January?

    • Nick_C says:

      21 Oct21 October 12:27

      I wouldn’t leave HSBC if you want their Premier account. Open a spare account and switch that to Lloyds. (Then switch Lloyds to Metro. Lloyds pays out really quickly. Or keep Lloyds for instant access 0.6% and a free Rakuten movie every month.)

    • BJ says:

      21 Oct21 October 13:13

      You put the money in the account and then request upgrade otherwise funds are leaving.

    • Fred says:

      21 Oct21 October 18:46

      no upgrades ‘due to COVID” ? such nonsense

  • Pete says:

    21 Oct21 October 12:38

    I opened a current account with Starling recently (no overdraft) and was surprised it left a ‘hard’ search on my report!

    • Nick_C says:

      21 Oct21 October 12:50

      I think any application for a current account will result in a hard search. Even if you don’t ask for an overdraft, a debt card means you can go overdrawn.

• illuminatus says:

  21 Oct21 October 12:29

  BA has not yet refunded me for a flight they cancelled 15 weeks ago. Every time I call they ask for another 2 weeks, but at this point this is ridiculous. What are my options? Raise a dispute on my BA Amex?

  • Pete says:

    21 Oct21 October 12:39

    I would at this point….!

  • ChrisC says:

    21 Oct21 October 16:44

    Write to BA legal giving them 14 days to cough up or it’s off to MCOL

    Give them the dates of your calls and the failed promises to sort it.

    They really don’t like having to deal with basic customer service department failings like not refunding promptly.

• Bob says:

  21 Oct21 October 12:41

  If there’s a £1k spend for eg on a Virgin reward + CC which is then balance transferred to another CC, that £1k spent on the Virgin CC wouldn’t go towards the annual £10k spend for upgrade / companion voucher etc would it? Thanks

  • Connor says:

    21 Oct21 October 14:16

    Should do as the balance transfer is just another method of payment. You’ve still spent it using the card. If it was the other way round and you transferred a balance to the Virgin card then no it wouldn’t count.

    • Bob says:

      21 Oct21 October 14:53

      Ah ok that’s true as well thanks, assumed that transferring the balance elsewhere may mean that it wouldn’t count towards the spend.

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