The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 17th February

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• BuildBackBetter says:

  17 Feb17 February 10:27

  Amex app has added 2FA. Going to be tough to manage mine and wife’s cards on mobile.

  • Rich says:

    17 Feb17 February 10:36

    Ah, so it’s not just me then!

    Not real 2FA if the device they’re using for authentication is the same device the app is on in the first place! Nor is SMS authentication a great thing to be bringing in right now, but whatever floats their boat.

    • Alex D says:

      17 Feb17 February 10:47

      Yeah I agree, chances are you have the mobile app of which you receive the SMS or even your emails. I’ve just remembered device so I don’t have to keep doing it. I have FaceID so I’ll just trust that – if a lose my phone it gets shut down immediately anyway so

  • cinereus says:

    17 Feb17 February 11:12

    Why not just use the website?

    • Jay-Marc says:

      17 Feb17 February 12:24

      The Amex website has 2FA also, albeit not applied every visit.

      • cinereus says:

        17 Feb17 February 13:34

        Never seen it in my life. Anyway isn’t the 2fa by email as well as SMS? Just set up an autoforwarding rule?

• Dan says:

  17 Feb17 February 10:45

  Logged onto the Nectar App and there was an option for me to select a ‘Sainsbury’s Juicy Points Boost’ – got 250 bonus NP on the back of it.

  Does anyone know what this is for? Is it for the offers that i didn’t manage to trigger? It did say one off points boost but wondering why – lol. Feels like they give out nectar points like confetti!

  • Alex D says:

    17 Feb17 February 10:49

    Same here but I got 750 points instead, I think just pushing people to earn/burn nectar I suppose

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      17 Feb17 February 10:56

      Nectar is just like a game, it rewards you the more you use it to get your endorphins going. That is the only logic they apply

      • ee says:

        17 Feb17 February 10:58

        1000 points here, but nothing on my partners!

        • Rob says:

          17 Feb17 February 11:12

          400 for me

  • Rich says:

    17 Feb17 February 10:59

    Thanks, just checked the app and it offered me 210. These are ‘points that you could have earned by saving offers’ – presumably in Sainsburys.

    They also have a post-shopping swipe-to-win (check you have it switched on in Settings) which regularly doles out a handful of points.

    • meta says:

      17 Feb17 February 11:23

      I got 1000 points. Not bad and it shows immediately in the account.

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    17 Feb17 February 11:17

    Nothing for me :/

  • Aston100 says:

    17 Feb17 February 11:25

    Nothing for me.
    About to start ordering my 5th lot of online grocery (will be over £100 as usual) and again I’ve got bonus points offers on 6 items, but they now add up to just under 500 points (was around 300 points for the previous 4 shops).
    Still not good enough and less than what I would have earnt at Tesco previously.

    I wonder if this is the Nectar equivalent of those who never receive Amex offers?

    • The real John says:

      17 Feb17 February 11:32

      You have to wait another 2-3 months before the offers improve.

      • Aston100 says:

        17 Feb17 February 11:38

        I’m not a new customer and have had a nectar card for longer than I can remember, at least 15 years.
        I just slowed down my sainsbury shopping to occasional purchases in store, and a couple of petrol purchases a month (prior to covid anyway)

        • Super Secret Stuff says:

          17 Feb17 February 13:41

          You need to be regular. It is a game, you need to play the game to get the rewards…

    • meta says:

      17 Feb17 February 11:33

      My offers are really good this week. I have nearly 1k worth of points offers. I had Nectar for years, but used it for Ebay and Expedia when you could still convert. My partner, new to Nectar only has about 400 points of saved offers, but since there were also two shops for 3x points we used that account for the last two shops.

      So there is maybe something in the fact that my account is older.

  • 747_Brat says:

    17 Feb17 February 11:26

    Thanks for posting. I got free 750 points! 🙂

  • Doug M says:

    17 Feb17 February 11:29

    Does anyone that regularly uses the bonus point offers have this.
    I use offers each week and don’t have this bonus. I notice I get the ‘scratch game’ if I shop and don’t use any offers. I think all this bonus stuff is to drive you to the app and to start taking advantage of the bonuses.

    • Sandra says:

      17 Feb17 February 11:47

      Thanks for posting, I got 750 points but I haven’t had a delivery from them since the last week of January so possibly why it was a reasonable amount 🙂

  • Stagger Lee says:

    17 Feb17 February 11:51

    Nothing for me but I’ve been using them for over a year for regular deliveries to my elderly in laws.

  • Mouse says:

    17 Feb17 February 12:04

    Thanks for posting! 500 for me

  • Andrew says:

    17 Feb17 February 12:20

    Haven’t got that, my regular weekly offers have arrived though.

    1560 bonus points on a range of goods that would cost about £30. There’s a few items I won’t be buying this week, so it looks like I’ll collect 1400 bonus points on a £25 shop.

    I must be at least half way to collecting enough points to transfer to BA for a free domestic so far this year.

• Terry says:

  17 Feb17 February 10:46

  Avios to Nectar – online conversion has stopped, got to call now. Probably due to fraud? Or too many people converting Avios to Nectar?

  On a related note, someone mentioned that the Nectar to Avios bonus (of 500 Avios) has started hitting accounts. Hasn’t happened for any of my family accounts yet.

  • Lady London says:

    17 Feb17 February 10:50

    see comments late yesterday on this thread. find it earlier days by clicking in last paragraph of this article.

• TomD says:

  17 Feb17 February 11:12

  Random question – with the UK out of the EU, I’ve read some posts previously where people shop online (clothes) from the EU and get slammed with tax on receipt of the parcel. Does that happen? What is the % that one will have to pay?

  • kitten says:

    17 Feb17 February 11:20

    usually works put to 30-33% same as American stuff if you are charged.

    what’s skewing it is flat rate handling fee of couriers – they have crept to over £10 now – which is a high % of lowish value parcels.

    Apparently you’re not charged for values of under £135 others will be ableto confirm.

    • stevenhp1987 says:

      17 Feb17 February 11:30

      You shouldn’t be charged any fees for items under £135 as the seller should add UK VAT for these (yes this means any business who wants to ship to the UK must register for UK VAT and process records regardless of their location…).

      I’ve heard some reports of some items being held but they shouldn’t, especially if you’ve correctly paid VAT.

      Anything above £135 and I believe you pay VAT on import plus duty, handling fees etc.

• ben says:

  17 Feb17 February 11:21

  If I withdraw cash using my Curve does anyone know if that counts as a cash advance fee for my HK CC?

• Chris says:

  17 Feb17 February 11:26

  Hello. Has anyone received a refund from BA recently for a cancelled flight using the 241 voucher and if so how long did it take? Called to cancel and request a cash refund and I was told it needed to be processed. It is shown as cancelled but pending on the BA website. It’s been 10 days now.

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    17 Feb17 February 11:31

    All my refunds have come through 2-3 days later… One was even the next day!

  • Anna says:

    17 Feb17 February 12:39

    All over the place! I requested 2 separate refunds during the same call over a fortnight ago – one credited in a about 5 days and I’m still waiting for the 2nd one. Another one took exactly 2 weeks. I would wait at least another week before chasing it up.

    • Chris says:

      17 Feb17 February 14:05

      Thank you and everyone else who replied. I did a refund almost a year ago and on that occasion it was almost instant so not quite sure why this was taking so long but it seems like it’s been a bit hit or miss for everyone.

  • Jill (Kinkell) says:

    17 Feb17 February 13:42

    Avios returned immediately, cash took. 3 phone calls .

  • Leafwarbler says:

    17 Feb17 February 14:41

    Cancelled 25th Jan. Avios and 241 returned immediately, cash refund hit Amex on 10th Feb without any follow up. Bank transfer from Amex requested on 11th Feb, hit bank account today.

• Martin says:

  17 Feb17 February 11:39

  Morning, not sure if covered previously but any views from BA on further status extensions this year, currently Gold but no way of keeping it by November unfortunately due to current travel restrictions, tempted to switch out to Virgin given the status match at mo. Anybody heard anything?
  Cheers

  • memesweeper says:

    17 Feb17 February 12:57

    All I’ve heard is speculation that BA will wait until the last minute, and then announce something. With so little flying going on some sort of extension seems likely. Rob has speculated BA won’t want to see a big drop in the number of elites, so avoid a stampede to competitors when more normal conditions resume.

    • Martin says:

      18 Feb18 February 16:28

      Cheers

• bafan says:

  17 Feb17 February 11:42

  I got an advert on Instagram yesterday asking if I wanted to participate in a clinical trial for a new way of getting an instant COVID result. Testing is in Central London. Would be a game changer if it works and we start to hit the big numbers of people who are vaccinated.

  IDK if I can post the link but I Rob can edit I guess if not:

  https://www. virolenstrials .co.uk/

  • TGLoyalty says:

    17 Feb17 February 11:51

    Wonder what type of test it is

    The evaluation trial is designed for participants of all ages over 5 who have not had Covid-19 or been vaccinated against it.

    You are excluded if you meet one of the following criteria:
    – Frontline healthcare workers who are likely to have Covid-19 immunity are unable to take part in the trial.
    – You have recovered from Covid-19 in the last three months
    – You have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 3 months
    – You are unable to understand the trial procedures and objectives

    • bafan says:

      17 Feb17 February 12:03

      “British startup iAbra has launched a screening device which can deliver COVID-19 test results in 20 seconds.

      After a successful three-week trial at London’s Heathrow Airport, CEO John Holland-Kaye urged the UK government to fast-track the Virolens system, which he says is quicker and cheaper than the currently used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

      The technology, which is about to undergo clinical trials for medical use, is based on microscopic holographic imaging and artificial intelligence (AI), with design and manufacturing expertise from TT Electronics and technology powered by Intel.

      It uses a digital camera attached to a microscope to analyse saliva samples, with the data run through a computer which is trained to identify the virus from other cells.”

      https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/emea/british-startup-iabra-launches-20-second-saliva-based-covid-19-test

      • Andrew says:

        17 Feb17 February 12:28

        The quote reads well, until I get to the end and it just jars.

        I’ve got a 30 years old desktop in the loft that’s “powered by intel”, and the “digital camera attached to a microscope” just makes me think of a gaffer tape lash up. Why not just use a digital microscope?

        • Callum says:

          17 Feb17 February 13:20

          Other sites do call it a digital microscope.

          And as I understand it, they’re working directly with Intel, not just randomly mentioning that the processor is from Intel! I won’t pretend to understand these things, but I’d imagine advanced AI works better with specifically tailored components.

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