The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 7th April

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• 747_Brat says:

  7 Apr7 April 16:18

  I reckon there was some discussion here last month, where Halifax Rewards was mentioned as a good current account to have. Well, Halifax is now offering a switch incentive for their Ultimate Reward and Reward Current accounts. And having switched to them last year, I can confirm they payout pretty quickly compared to others.

  https://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/landing/switch.html

  • lumma says:

    7 Apr7 April 16:27

    To get the £5 monthly reward, does paying a credit card bill count as debit card spend?

    • Toaster says:

      7 Apr7 April 16:36

      Yes

      • Genghis says:

        7 Apr7 April 19:39

        Indeed. It’s how I earn 2 x £5 pcm. Every little helps.

    • Chris says:

      7 Apr7 April 16:40

      AFAIK Yes. I get my reward for paying into an NS&I account (and previously into my S&S ISA) from my two Reward accounts (you wont be able to open two as this is a legacy situation).

      • Toaster says:

        7 Apr7 April 17:20

        I have three. Have you tried to open another?

        • Chris says:

          7 Apr7 April 17:28

          How long have you had 3? From before they launched the current £5 /month reward?

  • Chris says:

    7 Apr7 April 16:43

    Looks like the offer is without need to have Direct Debits on the switched accounts. Might open a new Ultimate Reward Current Account (£17/month … already have two of the £3/month /free if you pay in £1500) and move my M&S account over (will be closed later in the year) then downgrade as soon as they pay out.

    • Toaster says:

      7 Apr7 April 17:34

      I had one from several years ago when it was a different process to earn the reward then when it was revamped I opened two more. It won’t let me open any more reward accounts now, only ultimate reward.

  • Harry T says:

    7 Apr7 April 18:17

    Thank you! I meant to switch to them later time but they ended the offer early. Seems low hassle for £5 a month and £100.

    Does anyone find Halifax current accounts get offers for a rebate at coop? I could use that for my council tax payments.

    • 747_Brat says:

      7 Apr7 April 18:49

      I meant to say that you are right, they pulled the offer early last year!

    • Harry T says:

      7 Apr7 April 20:38

      Thanks 😊

• Princess says:

  7 Apr7 April 16:28

  Wise people I need your opinion. Rumours say that China will possibly reopen for tourism in October to prepare for the winter Olympic.
  How realistic you think is this info? I need to decide if to move my cancelled London-Beijing flight before the one 1year deadline validity flying something like 15-30 October and make my life easy o prepare mentally for a battle to move it to April next year.
  I’ve called twice BA first and they said they can’t move it past end of October. I read all post from people that managed it and also the suggestion of going through MCOL route but I feel a bit overwhelmed as never done it.
  Of course I’m so interested to keep it because it was booked in first class with 50% avios and is connected to a companion voucher and return in business (4 tickets almost impossible I find availability again)

  • Lee says:

    7 Apr7 April 16:49

    No chance give China has 0 tolerance of case

  • Red Flyer says:

    7 Apr7 April 19:32

    I applied 2 weeks ago as upgrade from free card so wonder if I’ll face the fee after month 1???

• LST says:

  7 Apr7 April 16:37

  Just had an email from HSBC advising that WE fee has been waived for the next year as I haven’t been able to use the travel benefits of the card.

  • Waddle says:

    7 Apr7 April 16:58

    Same. December renewal date here so won’t be hit with a fee until end of 2022!

    • Mark says:

      7 Apr7 April 18:00

      Me 2 renewal is September fees just got waived till September 22

  • Tariq says:

    7 Apr7 April 17:03

    Same, fee was due in June, so must be a blanket thing.

  • BP says:

    7 Apr7 April 17:11

    Nothing here. Renewal due September.

  • Youllnever says:

    7 Apr7 April 17:19

    Haven’t got an email for January renewal – wonder what this means.

    • Tariq says:

      7 Apr7 April 18:05

      That global email isn’t a reliably instant distribution medium?

    • meta says:

      7 Apr7 April 18:09

      I received an email and have January renewal. No fee till January 2023.

  • Colin says:

    7 Apr7 April 18:30

    Yes, waived until jan23. Notice the lounge access is not prominent in the listed “ extras”

• KBuffett says:

  7 Apr7 April 16:40

  Are there any gift cards at Morrisons that can be used on Nike’s website?

  • Sean says:

    7 Apr7 April 16:47

    my local sells nike gift cards and assume can be used online

• mutley says:

  7 Apr7 April 17:02

  My son and wife (early 30’s) are embarking on ISA savings, as I have a hopeless track record on this sort of thing, I am drawing on the collective wisdom of Hfpers.

  What companies/ funds do you recommend?, I’ve seen HL and Vanguard touted on here before. Looking at relatively high risk, saving about £15-20k annually between them initially.

  • AJA says:

    7 Apr7 April 17:07

    I’m with HL. Not the cheapest with fees of 0.45% per annum but decent number of investment choices. Website and app are excellent and easy to use and hardly ever have any downtime, not sure when they do maintenance.. Have done well with my choices. HL is designed for making your own choices. If unsure what to do or what to invest in then consulting an IFA is possibly worthwhile.

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    7 Apr7 April 17:19

    For active funds, look at BG Managed growth – lower fees at HL and 80% equities.
    For passive funds, you can’t go wrong with vanguard life strategy, to start with. You can later change the allocation after getting comfortable with differences in funds.

  • Yorkie Aid says:

    7 Apr7 April 17:37

    If they are interested in just dripping the money in monthly I would suggest a core holding should be RIT Capital Partners (RCP). It’s effectively the Rothschild family office and has been traded publicly since 1988 since when it has returned an average 11.7% per year. Doesn’t sound like much but due to the power of compounding £10k would have turned into £366k in 33 years. Obviously future performance cannot be guaranteed but it has been very good to me and will always be a core ISA holding. I would also suggest looking at ii once each portfolio is worth upwards of £50k as its fixed fee platform can then work out quite a bit cheaper than most of the others.

  • Joe says:

    7 Apr7 April 18:13

    Fineco Bank. Great platform – very cheap platform fee (0.25% max), no fund dealing fee, share dealing £2.95 per trade (v cheap).

    The app is easy to use, and I’ve had absolutely no issues with them at all.

  • Harry T says:

    7 Apr7 April 19:33

    I like Vanguard. Low fees, easy to use. Just be aware that a flat fee broker may be more sensible when you get to 50k or more invested. Also you can only buy Vanguard index funds and ETFs – not a problem for me but something to bear in mind.

    Monevator has a broker comparison table and a lot of articles you may find helpful. I certainly found them useful.

  • Steve says:

    7 Apr7 April 19:34

    If they’re ok to wait until retirement:

    – As under 40, look into LISAs
    – If they have a workplace pension then salary sacrifice into the pension is the best bet

    • mutley says:

      7 Apr7 April 20:33

      Thanks all, appreciate your advice.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      7 Apr7 April 22:55

      I would never consider a LISA. It’s a red herring.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      7 Apr7 April 22:57

      Re workplace pension then I agree and I would max out anything your employer will match.

      ie if you add another 2% so will they. I’d personally never put in more the amount they will match. Deferred taxation sounds great except there’s a cap and you don’t know when your expiry date is either.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    7 Apr7 April 21:07

    A simple self select ISA will be all they need (iWeb etc)
    ETFs are an exceptionally low cost way to invest.
    99% of investors are better off with passive tracker funds and hammering down costs wherever possible ( avoidance of cost is guaranteed risk-free compounding return!)
    Something like FTSE Developed World ETF (VEVE) is a decent starting block for their first few years; or iShares hedged version (IWDG) costs a little more but hedges to remove currency risk (I’d not overthink this beyond macro trends; just buy the unhedged version if £ at $1.90 and hedge at $1.20/£). They can get into esoteric stuff and asset allocation once portfolio big enough to justify the effort..

• memesweeper says:

  7 Apr7 April 17:03

  HSBC WE question: their email suggested I check my benefits, which I did, and saw this:

  “For an annual fee of £60, you can get an additional credit card for up to 3 members of your family or friends to your card account. They’ll earn points and enjoy unlimited airport lounge access, too.“

  is that £ 60 each, or £ 60 for up to three?

  • NC says:

    7 Apr7 April 17:26

    each

    • memesweeper says:

      7 Apr7 April 17:51

      Thanks. I’ll not be getting any sups then 🙂

      • Tariq says:

        7 Apr7 April 18:06

        Well, as they’re deferring annual fees… wonder if a supplementary added at this point would also benefit…?

        • Memesweeper says:

          7 Apr7 April 20:30

          Oooooh … maybe

  • Rob says:

    7 Apr7 April 19:14

    Each. Excellent deal for the lounge access – give them to trusted friends for Christmas 🙂

    • Anuj says:

      7 Apr7 April 22:34

      I wish I knew someone with a platinum or HSBC WE. I’d happily pay for the supplementary. I guess one method that would work is getting the platinum supplementary and only having the lounge card posted to me and the online account made. That way there’s far less risk if any

• Eldar says:

  7 Apr7 April 18:04

  Between 7 April 2021 and 28 February 2022, you can get Star Alliance status by converting bank reward points into KrisFlyer miles. You will get 1 Elite mile for every 5 KrisFlyer miles converted. You need 50,000 Elite miles for Star Alliance Gold status and 25,000 Elite miles for Star Alliance Silver statys.

  This means that anyone with a HSBC Premier Mastercard can get Star Alliance Gold status by converting 500,000 rewards points into 250,000 KrisFlyer miles. Similarly, Amex card holders can convert 375,000 membership points to achieve Star Alliance Gold status with Singapore Airlines. Converting Marriott Bonvoy loyalty points into Krisflyer miles should also generate Elite miles at a ratio of 5 to 1.

  If another conversion bonus comes along before February 2022, such as the 15% bonus offered at the end of 2020, the number of points required will obviously be lower.

  • Rob says:

    7 Apr7 April 19:11

    Or, erm, convert 181,000 UK Amex points to an IDC Amex and get 250k SQ that way 🙂

  • Memesweeper says:

    7 Apr7 April 20:36

    If SQ want speculative transfers in then they should ditch the 36 month hard expiry

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    7 Apr7 April 21:42

    Or do the conversion before 27 April and get it for half that!

    • Rob says:

      7 Apr7 April 22:33

      No – not true. Only shopping points are doubled by 27th, not card transfers.

      • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

        8 Apr8 April 07:56

        Actually, Rob’s right, on re-reading the small print it looks like the bonus does not apply to points transfers so ignore that!

• Aston100 says:

  7 Apr7 April 18:09

  So looking at these enhanced referral bonuses on Amex cards, is there anything wrong with referring my wife for as many cards as possible, and then cancelling them after a month? She isn’t anywhere near 24m on BAPP or Gold and has never held any other Amex.
  I’d get 12k a shot from my BAPP and PRG cards, and there are several cards in scope for the referrals. Wonder if it would cause Amex some annoyance?

  • Travel Strong says:

    7 Apr7 April 18:24

    Personally, I choose the free/low cost cards, and keep them much longer. I’m sure you could game it more, but it hasn’t ever seemed neccessary to me.

    • Aston100 says:

      7 Apr7 April 18:46

      I don’t really game it at all.
      We switch between each other’s BAPP cards once the companion voucher is obtained.
      We tend to also hold one PRG at a time, mostly for the offers, and switch between each other before the free year ends.
      Not sure if that counts as gaming.

      So was thinking of referring her for a Plat, a BAPP, and anything else I can get 12k MR or Avios for, and then cancelling after a month.
      We will never go 24 months between cards.

      • Aston100 says:

        7 Apr7 April 20:48

        Good stuff.
        Sounds so obvious now I think about it.
        See? I don’t try very hard at playing the game. Hence my question the other week about how many avios or MR people had been earning when they were actively exploiting every opportunity under the sun. Think it led to some outraged replies 🙁

      • CH says:

        8 Apr8 April 00:04

        Ha! People who replied very much fell into two distinct camps on that thread!

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