The HfP chat thread – Monday 7th December

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Peter Mc says:

7 Dec7 December 10:46

With the upcoming Tesco/Avios divorce I will be looking for another non Amex secondary credit card. Does anyone here use the IHG rewards card and have the points transferred to Iberia Plus? For me this would also be a good way of keeping my Iberia account active.
- Andrew says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 11:11
  
  LBG will be offering similar promotions to what they have on the Lloyds, Halifax & BoS current accounts on their MBNA credit cards from January.
  
  Not helpful for Avios, but could be some good fund return offers on there.
- Genghis says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 11:38
  
  There’s significant loss of value here.
  The only IHG rewards card currently available is the 1 IHG point / £, then these transfer at 10k IHG points = 2k avios. I.e. 0.2 avios / £, or 0.2p / £ at 1p valuation. There’s other cards that offer a significantly better return – perhaps even look at some of the cards that earn cash which you can then use to buy avios if that’s what you want.
Anna says:

7 Dec7 December 10:48

What are people’s experiences of setting up small businesses? I’ll shortly be taking up some tutoring work will be on a self-employed basis so I’m wondering if it’s worth setting up my own business. It’s not going to be loads of money so I won’t need an accountant. but there might be benefits due to some of the work probably being online from my home (and possibly eligible for Amex business cards?!)
- Rob says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 10:52
  
  You don’t need a limited company for Amex business cards, just a business bank account – Starling can do one online quickly, Metro Bank is very easy to deal with. Capital On Tap DOES now require you to have a limited company to get its Avios card.
  
  For small sums using a company structure is unlikely to be worth the effort especially as you probably would end up needing an accountant to ensure that your company filings were done correctly. Far easier just to act as a sole trader and pop the numbers into your tax return.
  - Genghis says:
    
    7 Dec7 December 11:05
    
    Agree with this. We had a limited company for my wife’s previous side line. Now she works only part time and has become a 20% tax payer, her latest venture is just as sole trader.
    
    Just keep a record of money in and money out and then you’ll be able to complete your tax return. Remember that any expenses and capital expenditure should be “wholly and exclusively”. My wife’s new laptop, for instance, is only used for business purposes.
  - Anna says:
    
    7 Dec7 December 11:09
    
    Interesting, thanks!
    Ken – it’s all new to me so I need to look at the options properly but there’s obviously a huge amount of experience on HFP. After 3 decades in the public sector, I’m not too familiar with doing my own taxes etc but it’s so good to (hopefully, soon) have more flexibility when it comes to travelling!
    - RussellH says:
      
      7 Dec7 December 12:30
      
      A business bank account that should be open to you if you want, as they have a branch in Fishergate in Preston, is the Cumberland Building Society.
      I switched to them after the Royal Bank of Scotland imploded (before that they had been really good to me, but when cost cutting became the order of the day they rapidly became a nightmare to deal with).
      I never regretted having the Cumberland for my business bank, but they only offer a/cs to those in their operating area, and Preston is as far south as it goes.
      As to taxes, as long as you keep decent records, completeing a tax return is easy. Tedious and boring maybe, but not complex. And the self-employment section is much shorter than the personal section.
    - Tocsin says:
      
      7 Dec7 December 18:06
      
      If you decide to diy rather than accountant, then I recommend TaxCalc for helping with the tax return. I can’t speak for the self-employment bit, but it has saved me the cost many times over for pensions, investments and allowances.
      
      (Reminder to self – get this year’s edition soon!)
  - the_real_a says:
    
    7 Dec7 December 15:09
    
    AFAIK Starling are only opening registered LTD business accounts at the moment due to excess demand. I tried opening one as a sole trader at the weekend…
- Ken says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 10:53
  
  Do you mean setting up as a Limited company as opposed to being self employed?
- Chris Heyes says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 12:05
  
  Anna I had a Lloyds Business Account many many years ago and i didn’t even have a business Son was 16 (He’s 40 now)
  Was hard for him at 16 so i just asked my Bank Lloyds if i could have a business account and operate it for/with him
  It was very easy
  Lloyds was the landlord, the property he rented was a ex-Lloyds Bank in Blackburn (complete with safe lol)
  Anna you might think you don’t need a accountant, but a very good accountant can save and get you a lot of money back.
  of course a not so good accountant can be a waste of money
  bytheway he managed to buy his first house at 18
  So go for it (just make sure you keep on top of finances in and out)
  - Lady London says:
    
    7 Dec7 December 13:30
    
    +1 on the accountant. I have an excellent small business one in Middlesbrough area (I’m in London found him through family), he definitely saves me 2 or 3 times his fees each year for many years now. If anyone wants a recommedation please post
- Zoe says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 13:03
  
  Hi Anna I do Maths tutoring and sole trader / self employed is the way to go. I was doing face to face at my home (saving on travel) now moved over to Skype and have a visualiser so students can see what I’m writing . Prefer face to face and will swap back once we don’t need to be 2 metres apart with all the windows open! Actually in the recent lockdown tutoring didn’t count as education unless the student was home schooled.
  If you want a chat let me know.
  - Lady London says:
    
    7 Dec7 December 13:26
    
    @Zoe could you explain more about your visualizer ?
    - Zoe says:
      
      7 Dec7 December 13:51
      
      Hi Lady London, it is like a webcam that looks down onto for instance the A4 sheet of paper I’m working on, in Skype I can just change the video input from my laptop webcam to USB camera. It was about £70 from Amazon. In an ideal world the student would have one too. My students are local so most pick up printed work from my doorstep.
      - Lady London says:
        
        7 Dec7 December 13:57
        
        Thanks Zoe. Particularly interesting to hear it works with Skype.
    - Stanley says:
      
      7 Dec7 December 13:55
      
      When my son had some tutoring on Zoom, the teacher had an ipad app so whatever she wrote on her ipad appeared on my son’s ipad, and vice versa. Was very helpful when she was teaching him maths for showing working out etc….
  - Anna says:
    
    7 Dec7 December 16:54
    
    Thanks Zoe, that’s very interesting. My son has maths and science tuition (he’s beyond me now in Year 10!) via Skype doing exactly this. To start with I’ll be delivering programs to classes in schools, either in person or virtually, but I’m hoping this might lead to some private work in the future. Fortunately I have a pension already so am happy to just start slowly and see how it goes!
    - Zoe says:
      
      7 Dec7 December 18:22
      
      I was about to suggest volunteering in your local school for a few hours per week in your subject. You get to know the teachers, often see how they are approaching the topics. Once they trust you they will then be very keen to recommend you.
- Lady London says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 13:23
  
  You could need Ltd for 2 reasons
  – a much better limitation of almost all types of liabilities (including some you wouldnt be able to insure against). Professional indemnity insurance could be worth considering whether you go Ltd or stay self-employed.
  
  – some types of work or buyers of your services can insist on it.
  
  If you are going to make capital expenditures a Ltd can be more useful
  
  – if you are on a DB pension and not taken money from any DC/AVC I am wondering whether you can still put up to £40,000pa of your earnings back into a pension taxfree or if you count as having breached the MPAA thus letting you put in only £4,000 pa.
  
  I think current mileage offset is still 45p per mile which comes straight off your income before it is taxed so start recording everything. Over 10k miles pa rate goes down.
  
  Keep all your receipts from now as you will be incurring business expenses prior to signing up for work, already.
  
  Amazon will open an account not necessarily Ltd – a very occasional useful promo – I am sure they will do another promo with Rob reasonably soon.
  
  Good luck!
  - Anna says:
    
    7 Dec7 December 16:57
    
    Thanks for all that , LL, I need to save this page now! It will probably be a while before I’m earning decent money for this and a bit of it is going to be done as a volunteer to start with to support kids who have lost out on education this year.
    - Zoe says:
      
      7 Dec7 December 18:26
      
      School will also sometimes pay for looked after children to be tutored (usually on school premises, and often pay less than market rate). The time I have spent with these students has been the most satisfying work I have ever done. Really puts some other issues into perspective.
  - Ken says:
    
    7 Dec7 December 19:14
    
    The answer to that is yes, if you are on a defined benefit (final salary) pension you can still contribute your earnings up to £40k pa to a pension. The MPAA only applies to defined contribution.
- Peter K says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 20:13
  
  Don’t forget to register with HMRC within a month of becoming self employed or your can be hot with a fine IIRC.
  
  Also keep receipts of items bought in the lead up to being self employed to enable you to achieve being self employed as they are claimable as well.
Mike says:

7 Dec7 December 10:57

Booked for LHR-IST early Jan on BA. Given how things are quite fluid at the moment, probably likely I’ll have to change my flights. How many times can I actually change it for free? Just once?
- Jonathan says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 11:11
  
  What do you mean by change for free? You can keep taking vouchers for the value of the booking ad infitum but you do need to pay any fare difference.
- Jon G says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 11:46
  
  In addition to Jonathan’s comment, you can ring them up and make changes as many times as you want (accounting for fare differences if there is one every time).
Rhi says:

7 Dec7 December 11:13

I have a question re: the “free night voucher” gained by spending £10k on the Black IHG Rewards card. Is the expiry date on it a “stay by” or a “book by”? I have one expiring at the end of the year, so wondering if it will work if I book a stay for 2021? I suspect it is a stay by but can’t find confirmation anywhere. Thanks very much!
- Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 11:28
  
  Book by.
  - Rhi says:
    
    7 Dec7 December 15:07
    
    Great! Thank you 🙂
Martha says:

7 Dec7 December 11:32

I am thinking of cancelling my COT card before year 2 as not getting great benefits from it. If I do decide to reapply in the future, will they accept me? I am not aiming at churning
- Rob says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 11:44
  
  You won’t get a bonus (in theory, who knows how good the IT is?) but there is no reason not to accept you looking at how the application site is worded.
Kai says:

7 Dec7 December 11:36

Not sure if it’s an IT glitch or intentional, but the Oyster top-up shops I’ve used before are no longer in the Shop Small map. Anyone else seeing the same?
- YC says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 13:04
  
  However seen a few boots and sainsbury as shop small!
  - Small Shop says:
    
    7 Dec7 December 13:41
    
    Be careful – there are lots of retailers listed just because they take Amex. Boots, Sainsburys, Coop etc. They are not in the shop small offer. You have to set the filter and check for the shop small badge against the merchant name.
- TechnoT says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 13:24
  
  They’ve clearly done a clean-up of the list. A number of restaurants that were on in August and processed payments using a 3rd party aggregator, thus necessitating contacting Amex to get the credit applied, have been dropped off the list…
James says:

7 Dec7 December 11:59

Hello all, flying from LHR T5 later. What is the current BA Lounge situation? Thanks!
- Rhys says:
  
  7 Dec7 December 12:46
  
  Limited opening as prior to 2nd lockdown, with app-ordering.
James says:

7 Dec7 December 12:07

I have Amex Etihad offer of £250 off £500 spend on both personal platinum and supplementary card. Is it likely that Etihad will have any sale or promotion before 31 December that would stack with the Amex offer?