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The HfP chat thread – Thursday 25th February

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We are running this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

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General

Comments (337)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Baji Nahid says:
    25 Feb25 February 04:07

    Noticed the adverts about Amex being accepted at most supermarkets, however not the case with Asda. Every time i pay at their machines it doesn’t get accepted.

    • Dave Barron says:
      25 Feb25 February 04:54

      I’m my experience at Asda stores Contactless Payments never work but I’ve never have an issue when using Chip and Pin. Yet bizarrely at their petrol station’s Contactless Payments work no problem!

      • Baji Nahid says:
        25 Feb25 February 04:56

        Interesting about chip and pin! Shall try that next time im in. Frustratingly its the contactless/ apple pay that doesn’t seem to operate on their systems

        • lumma says:
          25 Feb25 February 06:40

          100% asda’s tills don’t accept AMEX contactless but will accept chip and pin, so no way of paying with a mobile phone and AMEX

      • stevenhp1987 says:
        25 Feb25 February 08:19

        +1 same at Wilko too.

        Although Google Pay Amex works at Wilko but not Asda…

    • Andrew says:
      25 Feb25 February 06:16

      Asda certainly does accept Amex.

    • Number9 says:
      25 Feb25 February 07:19

      Same with Lloyds chemists their systems don’t accept Amex by swipe but do by chip and pin.

    • Chris Heyes says:
      25 Feb25 February 08:18

      Baji Nahid I’ve found contactless doesn’t work at some tills in Asda’s but chip n pin does a strange one i know. usually same till every time
      Don’t use self checkout otherwise it’s yourself putting back in trolley to change tills

    • Harry T says:
      25 Feb25 February 08:34

      You can always use Amex at Asda but they’ve got weird payment terminals that only accept chip and pin for Amex. I’ve encountered this in some TK Maxx stores too.

      • ChasP says:
        25 Feb25 February 08:42

        ASDA have refused my Curve – tried it on 3 occasions and got card not supported

        • Alex says:
          25 Feb25 February 10:12

          This is why I’ve gotten into the habit of just putting me Amex in the machine instead of asking, more often than not it’s taken! Asda being a key example, I’ve had same issues at some fast food chains

      • RussellH says:
        25 Feb25 February 10:10

        Anyone here know someone senior at ASDA who can issue an instruction to store managers to set up the terminals for contactless Amex? AFAIK it is just a setting on the terminal, just as setting it up for Amex itself is.

        • Alex says:
          25 Feb25 February 10:14

          Amex is actually automatically set-up on 99% of machines these days. It’s just that the company doesn’t have an Amex account to draw down the money into their accounts. We had this at one of our restaurants, we were a few grand down and released it was sat in an Amex account we didn’t think we had😂

        • Crafty says:
          25 Feb25 February 11:00

          I am senior at Asda. I’ll find out.

  • Mco says:
    25 Feb25 February 05:32

    Anyone rented a car at LHR recently? Are they open as usual?

    I land at 7pm on a weekday and need a one way rental. How would this work with my quarantine as I won’t get home till past 11pm and the return office doesn’t open till the next day. Do any of the companies offer a pick up from the house option?

    Any suggestions for reasonable one way rental websites? My usual company is Hertz but their locations in north east are shut.

  • Anna says:
    25 Feb25 February 05:34

    As per a couple of readers last night I’ve got an offer on my Amex gold for 12k points referral bonus plus the applicant will get 32k sign up bonus. How long do these offers usually last – OH’s 2 year gap finishes around March 20th?

  • DT says:
    25 Feb25 February 05:46

    Got 18k referral points and 50k spend bonus for the personal platinum, just in time to refer my wife in a few days.

    Hopefully see an equally aggressive retention bonus when I call to cancel my plat after the refer

    • TGLoyalty says:
      25 Feb25 February 07:29

      Oddly I have the gold one but not platinum.

      Encourages me to refer people for the free gold.

      • DT says:
        25 Feb25 February 08:00

        You can use your Gold refer link and the person you refer can still choose the platinum card right? Though I’m not sure if they will have the 50k bonus instead of the 35k

        • TGLoyalty says:
          25 Feb25 February 08:16

          I mean they can but why would they

          32k for a good with no fee for year and 10k bonus if they spend £15k in a year.

          35k for a plat with a £50 a month fee (no boost)

    • Harry T says:
      25 Feb25 February 08:44

      Surprised there isn’t an article about this – it’s a slam dunk deal for anyone eligible for the enhanced sign up bonus on Gold.

  • BJ says:
    25 Feb25 February 07:10

    Just received an email (probably targeted) from ebay offering 500 NP for a £5 spend. Needs activation and lasts a week.

    • John says:
      25 Feb25 February 07:21

      I’ve got a 1000 nectar points for £5 offer, possibly because I haven’t bought anything from eBay for at least a decade.

      • BJ says:
        25 Feb25 February 15:45

        A 1p redemption offer might come your way too then, in the past it has been £50 but I only ever got it once.

  • Tom says:
    25 Feb25 February 07:15

    Has anyone got the “iPhone 12” £50 off £500 Apple offer that doesn’t actually specify the iPhone in the T&Cs. Assuming can use this to buy anything including the Refurb store? Cheers

    • BJ says:
      25 Feb25 February 07:22

      Discussed yesterday. Similar offers in past specifying products worked for anything.

      • Andrew says:
        25 Feb25 February 07:29

        Including e-gift cards for the Apple Store so you can split a £1000 purchase across two cards you have the offer on.

        • EwanG says:
          25 Feb25 February 08:12

          You can also spend Apple store gift cards on iTunes gift cards in store, if you want to build up credit e.g. for your subscriptions. You can’t do the opposite.

          It’s easy enough to get discounts on iTunes gift cards (but not Apple store GCs) so I would only recommend doing this to top off some spend!

        • Tom says:
          25 Feb25 February 08:15

          Thx. Wasn’t planning on upgrading to the latest iPhone but you’re saying I could purchase 2x gift cards with 2 AMEX offers and then combine the vouchers to get £100 off. That makes the economics of the upgrade considerably more attractive!

          • Andrew says:
            25 Feb25 February 08:25

            I have an erroneous £1 gift card still kicking around from when I bought a £999 iPhone this way a couple of years ago.

  • Anna says:
    25 Feb25 February 07:28

    Planning 3/4 nights in Boston (probably) in March 2022 and will have 3 IHG credit card free night certificates to use. Any tips for the best IHG hotel? There is an IC and various Kimptons to choose from, as well as several other options! As it’s a short stay we want to be fairly central. We spent a day in the city en route home from holiday a couple of years ago and would love to go back for a bit longer.

    • David says:
      25 Feb25 February 07:50

      IC is very nice including decent offerings in the exec lounge. Treated me very well on a long reward stay as Spire Ambassador for my honeymoon, albeit that was 6 years ago.

    • Ja says:
      25 Feb25 February 07:56

      I’ve been to Boston a couple of times and stayed both times at the IC. Love the hotel. I think it’s about $600 a night so I used free night certificates. You can get a water taxi from Logan airport that stops outside. Far quicker than the first time when I got a normal taxi.

      • Rob says:
        25 Feb25 February 08:03

        I’ve stayed there too, decent hotel – there is a HfP review from about 5 years ago.

      • Anna says:
        25 Feb25 February 08:21

        It’s certainly the best located, I think. We got the water taxi to and from the airport on our day-long layover, it was a gorgeous sunny day in early September so really enjoyed the trip. They store your bags as well at the taxi office if you’re not staying overnight.

        • Sandra says:
          25 Feb25 February 14:00

          Agree IHG, although the last time we were there was autumn 2017, hope to go again next year. Water view room recommended as large, busy fire station across the road on the other side of the hotel. Club lounge was excellent when we were there and also did hot food to order at breakfast (omelettes etc) alongside buffet.

    • Andy says:
      25 Feb25 February 08:12

      Can’t comment on IHG hotels as I stayed at the Four Seasons, however I was surprised at how much the city changed between my first visit in 2013 and 2019. Park Street corner of Boston Common was full of homeless people / beggars, and this was a Saturday with plenty of families walking around the park nearby

    • Harry T says:
      25 Feb25 February 08:36

      Kimptons look better to me but I have no personal experience. One of them has been recently refurbished – cannot recall which one.

    • Louise K says:
      25 Feb25 February 09:35

      Another vote for IC. Very well located, our room was huge with a river view and the bar was great too.

    • ChrisC says:
      25 Feb25 February 11:47

      I stayed in the Kimpton Nine Zero in February 2019. Within spitting distance of Boston Common and around the corner from various subway stations. More central than the IC IMHO.

      I’ve also stayed at the Kimpton Onyx close to North Station but that was several years ago.

      • James says:
        25 Feb25 February 20:50

        +1 much more centrally coated for the city itself, unless you want to touristy things on and near the waterfront, though Boston is an easy city the navigate so not a massive problem. Nine Zero recently refurbished with a much more contemporary feel than the IC which in my view is showing its age (style wise, maintenance is good)… rooms could just do with an update. IC has more of a business feel to it for a leisure stay, but nice location by water. Rose Kennedy Greenway right outside the IC which is good for a walk through the city… think NY Highline but ground level.

  • James. says:
    25 Feb25 February 08:20

    Reached out to Curve recently on issues with Apple Pay. Had my metal card on my iPhone, watch and the wife’s watch. Recently had to delete it off the wife’s watch and when attempting to re-add I was getting a declined message and to contact customer services.

    When complaining to customer services I was actually surprised at the response. I understand Curve doesn’t offer supplementary cards but didn’t realise this also extended to digital wallets.

    To add the card to my wife’s device is a breach of their Terms of Service.

    Additionally, if a dispute needed to be raised for a transaction on your Curve account that was made through my wife’s Apple Pay (e.g. a service dispute, for if you hadn’t received the goods/services for your purchase or a merchant was refusing to refund you), Curve wouldn’t be able to raise chargebacks for this to help me get my money back from the merchant. This is because any discrepancy between the purchaser and the account holder would impact Curve’s ability to dispute the transaction.

    Also, if I experienced fraud on the account through my wife’s Apple Pay, I would be held liable for this, not Curve.

    Clearly I have not been playing by Curve’s rules to allow my wife to use my curve card on purchases

    • Anna says:
      25 Feb25 February 08:24

      This doesn’t surprise me, TBH. No bank will officially allow you to let someone else use a card in your name as this would mean you had disclosed security details to another person, which is always against Ts and Cs. It would make more sense for your wife to get her own card anyway, so you will get double Curve limits between you both.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        25 Feb25 February 09:04

        Exactly.

        Should be no surprise at all that your not covered in these circumstances curve, Amex or bank. That’s why they all offer supplementary cards in the persons name.

        As per above order your wife her own card or just never tell curve it was your wife’s phone/watch

      • lumma says:
        25 Feb25 February 09:54

        £3,200,000 a year?

        • Anna says:
          25 Feb25 February 12:27

          There are some high spenders on here! But also if one of you is unfortunate enough to get the account suspended, you still have the other one to use …

      • James. says:
        25 Feb25 February 18:11

        My wife has her own card is the Blue card, I see no reason for us both to have metal. That means I don’t get the cash back when she uses her account on Uber McDonald’s Etc.

        To be honest I’m going to wait a month or two and then add my card again to Apple Pay as I seem to have stated in my complaint that I’ve released the restriction. We will see

    • JD says:
      25 Feb25 February 10:43

      My biggest take from this is that Curve support actually got back to you!

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