The HfP chat thread – Friday 8th January

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• Navara says:

  8 Jan8 January 14:10

  If only they had put London in their 3 before Christmas
  https://apple.news/AI9dwX-TDRoehpsH7QqlseQ

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 Jan8 January 14:28

    The majority of It should have been tier 3 as soon as the November lockdown was lifted.

  • BS says:

    8 Jan8 January 14:29

    Well, they did.
    It is less clear the restrictions are having an effect now. This will be a combination of ‘lockdown fatigue’ meaning people don’t follow the rules, and possibly the new variant being more infective (but not virulent).
    The best thing we can do now is urgently try to reduce cases if we want to have available hospital capacity. If everyoneone sat in a room on their own for 14 days, this virus would be eradicated from the U.K. Obviously not practical, but really highlights each trip to the shops will be increasing risk.

    • Charlieface says:

      8 Jan8 January 15:20

      People aren’t really catching it in shops or in the street, and never have. They are not in close contact in an enclosed space with a carrier for long enough.
      At home, in the office, at a restaurant or club: much more likely.

      • Tom1 says:

        8 Jan8 January 15:46

        I’m not disagreeing with you – but how do you know that people aren’t catching it in shops etc? That’s the data I’ve always wanted to see but couldn’t find.

        Something else I don’t understand is the 15 min thing – why is that?

        People are catching at home in families obviously – but it has to get there somehow. If people aren’t going into each other’s houses, I imagine the original infection has to be outside he house.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          8 Jan8 January 15:57

          It’s getting into homes from people that have prolonged close contact with others.

          Probably at work, school, college, uni, party, restaurant, pub etc.

          The chances of catching outdoors is infinitely lower than indoors with no/low ventilation.

          “Ventilation-ventilation-ventilation” should have been in bold above “hands – Face – Space”

        • Nick_C says:

          8 Jan8 January 16:47

          “Something else I don’t understand is the 15 min thing – why is that?”

          I think the 15 minute thing is a very crude guide as to the risk of infection. The virus is airborne. If you inhale the air that someone has exhaled, you could catch the virus. The closer you are to them and the longer you are sharing the same air, the higher the risk.

          I know someone who caught Covid early on. He was working in a coffee stall at a railway station. He wouldn’t have been close to any one person for 15 minutes, and wouldn’t have been particularly close to anyone. But within touching distance, and before masks and screens were in use.

      • Louise K says:

        8 Jan8 January 16:06

        I was pinged by the app just before Christmas telling me to self isolate as I had come into contact with someone who tested positive. The ping came from the supermarket are that was the only place I’d been.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          8 Jan8 January 16:08

          You were within someone for 2m for more than 15 mins in the supermarket?

          Or 3 people within 2m for 5 mins at the supermarket?

          Literally the only way you’d get pinged on the app.

        • meta says:

          8 Jan8 January 17:53

          Actually the NHS Track&Trace that you need to fill in if you have covid asks if you had a close contact with anyone longer than 5 minutes.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          8 Jan8 January 18:07

          But that info doesn’t inform the app, it has built in rules. And the tokens are completely anonymous.

      • Nick_C says:

        8 Jan8 January 16:41

        “People aren’t really catching it in shops or in the street, and never have.”

        My nephew caught Covid during the first lockdown. He’s a personal trainer. He was living alone. The gym was closed. He was training some clients privately in parks.

        He either caught covid in a shop, in a street, or in an outdoor space.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          8 Jan8 January 16:47

          @lousie K did actually contract it or was it just an app ping.

          @Nick_C Wouldn’t be the first PT to get up close and personal with a client!

        • Nick_C says:

          8 Jan8 January 16:53

          @TGLoyalty

          He tells me was maintaining a safe distance. He believes he caught it from a shop. Possible, if he touched a surface that someone had sneezed on and then touched his face.

          I think it was more likely to have been an asymptomatic client. If someone is exercising hard they will be expelling a lot more air and it is probably spreading further. A 45/60 minute session would have certainly been enough to catch it, possibly even at 2 metres away if he was downwind of / facing the client. His own symptoms were very mild, and he only realised he had Covid because of anosmia.

        • avstar says:

          8 Jan8 January 18:13

          to quote Gregory House MD…”Everybody lies….”

        • Brian W says:

          8 Jan8 January 20:05

          He didn’t receive any mail or deliveries at home during the first lengthly lockdown period you’re referring too?

          If he believes he could have caught it from a surface in a shop, he could just as plausibly have caught it from an item he received at home which would somewhat turn your claim that he either caught Covid in a shop, in a street, or in an outdoor space on it’s head.

        • kitten says:

          9 Jan9 January 05:26

          or someone panted in his direction or shouted when speaking as sonme people do indoors or on planes.

      • Ming The Merciless says:

        8 Jan8 January 20:01

        My wife caught Covid off a toilet seat on a business trip to Turkey a couple of years ago. It played havoc with our live life.

        I’m surprised the government has only just woken up to the impact this disease has.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          8 Jan8 January 20:24

          C19 or the clap?

  • Nick_C says:

    8 Jan8 January 16:59

    1325 deaths recorded today. A new record. And the 7 day average is now 809 deaths a day.

    We currently (last 7 days) have more confirmed deaths per capita and more cases per capita than any other country in the world.

    But at least have people have enjoyed their holidays and Xmas get togethers. For some of those people, it will have been their last Xmas.

    • Dick Steele says:

      9 Jan9 January 00:57

      Wait until what’s happening in the world in one week’s time… you’re in for a surprise.

    • kitten says:

      9 Jan9 January 05:30

      And dying before their time.

      I really do appreciate people’s openness on here, it’s taught me so much

• DT says:

  8 Jan8 January 14:28

  Have just received a new Amex card for the first time in a while, how long do offers normally take to load in once the card is activated? Hoping to catch another Paypal offer on the new card

  • Eric says:

    8 Jan8 January 14:42

    You need to first spend on it before offers start coming on progressively. Will take a while for the ‘hotter’ ones to come up.

    • Charlieface says:

      8 Jan8 January 15:20

      Can someone prove that you actually need to spend? IME offers came through anyway after a couple weeks

      • Sean says:

        8 Jan8 January 15:39

        Have never spent on BA amex and have 26 offers so not linked to spend

  • Jay says:

    8 Jan8 January 14:44

    7 days in my case

  • Andrew says:

    8 Jan8 January 14:46

    You’re unlikely to get the paypal one – as I’m sure the 30,000 slots have all gone now.

    • Charlieface says:

      8 Jan8 January 15:21

      More to do with the fact I don’t think they add pre-existing offers to new cards

      • TGLoyalty says:

        8 Jan8 January 15:58

        It’s been known to show up but I don’t know if that’s because they’ve extended the offer or because not enough people have taken it up so they’ve moved to different card types / people.

  • DT says:

    8 Jan8 January 17:30

    Thanks for the replies guys, guess I’ll be happy with just two PayPal offers!

• FFoxSake says:

  8 Jan8 January 16:52

  Data point – just downgraded BAPP Amex to free BA Amex. The retention offer was an extra 1 avios per £1 for 3 months (i.e. 2.5 for non-BA spend, 4 for BA spend) which I declined, as I don’t have any planned major spending/flying coming up.

  • Nick_C says:

    8 Jan8 January 17:03

    I feel the same way. I have a voucher that expires in Feb 22, which I may not be able to use, and am about to earn another one which will expire in Feb 23 which I am more optimistic about!

  • Lee says:

    8 Jan8 January 17:19

    This is retention offer for cancelling card. You can take the offer then downgrade so £1 for 2 avios

    • Nick_C says:

      8 Jan8 January 18:31

      Assuming a spend of £2.5k in three months, you would get an extra 3750 by sticking with the BAPP for three months. And incur a fee of £48.75. That’s 1.3 pence per Avios.

      I’m not a buyer at that price.

      • FFoxSake says:

        8 Jan8 January 18:36

        I think the suggestion is you take the retention offer and THEN downgrade to the free card as well – the offer sticks to the free card (so 2 avios per £1 instead of 1, no fees). Hence my “Doh!” below.

        • Nick_C says:

          8 Jan8 January 18:40

          Ah ok.

          But are we sure that works? I wouldn’t have expected it to.

        • Lee says:

          8 Jan8 January 19:40

          It worked on my card

    • FFoxSake says:

      8 Jan8 January 18:33

      Doh!… a schoolboy error on my part then
      Oh well, no major Amex spend planned for the foreseeable anyway.

• Nick_C says:

  8 Jan8 January 18:52

  “The government is urging people in England to stay at home and “act like you’ve got it” as part of a new advertising campaign.

  The “stay at home, save lives” campaign will run across TV, radio, out-of-home advertising and social media.

  The campaign will include a new advert fronted by England’s Chief Medical Officer, Prof Chris Whitty, which will air for the first time on ITV at 19:15 GMT tonight.”

  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-55584456

  Right. Who will be first to say Professor Whitty is a curtain twitching virtue signaller?

  (Rhetorical question.)

  • Anna says:

    8 Jan8 January 19:58

    He’s advising on personal conduct, not grassing up your neighbours, so your question makes absolutely no sense.

• Nick_C says:

  8 Jan8 January 18:55

  “… we estimate that 3.56% of people in London had COVID-19 (95% credible interval: 3.26% to 3.87%), equating to around 1 in 30 people (95% credible interval: 1 in 30 to 1 in 25).”

  https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/8january2021

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 Jan8 January 19:30

    Wonder what % of London has had it total. Not just in that particular week.

  • Alan says:

    8 Jan8 January 20:27

    With infection figures like that, and around 60% of those being the new variant, it’s hard to believe that anyone is accepting flights from the UK. Even with testing every plane landing from London will be bringing in multiple cases.

• Pablo says:

  8 Jan8 January 20:12

  Can somebody share a pagoFX referral link please?

• dezbez says:

  8 Jan8 January 20:56

  Not sure if this has been confirmed already ( I haven’t seen it other than some quality teasing by BJ) but I wonder if I’ve solved the Avios new partner riddle. Just done a purchase at a well-known high street store via Voldemort and the ONLY option it says I can use the proceeds for is use them for – you’ve guessed it – Avios.
  And the well known high street store was…. JLP…..

  • Pablo says:

    8 Jan8 January 21:12

    This has always been the case.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      8 Jan8 January 21:34

      Yup

  • Rob says:

    8 Jan8 January 22:00

    This has been the case for a year or so.

    • dezbez says:

      8 Jan8 January 22:43

      Oh well, scratch that. I was excited for a minute or two

• Crafty says:

  8 Jan8 January 21:42

  Big HMRC / Curve news… for me anyway – possibly others.

  When I asked Curve to switch me from a business to a personal card, it seems that – somehow – my account address was reset to my old address (where I used to live at the time I first registered with Curve). Note that this is separate from the “shipping address” to which they sent the card, and held separately in their systems.

  I have no idea why my old address was even retained (surely this is superfluous data and under GDPR should have been deleted?), but somehow a system glitch on the card switchover lost my new address, and reverted me to the old one.

  This was causing an address mismatch when trying to pay HMRC, because of course HMRC asks for the cardholder’s address.

  I have just now tried – successfully – to pay HMRC using Curve and stating my OLD address. For me this is a game changer, I had otherwise been entirely unable to pay HMRC since switching my Curve account from business to personal.

  If you too have experienced the same problem, give it a go using your old postal address, you might just be lucky.

  • DodgyDCF says:

    8 Jan8 January 21:55

    What a bloody mess, glad you got it sorted

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    8 Jan8 January 23:30

    Wow, this worked. My Ernie topup using bendy always failed and I suspected it was to do with my address change. Asked curve and they said they had new address. But never worked.
    Tried changing my Ernie address to old address and voila, it worked!

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