The HfP chat thread – Thursday 15th July

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

• Amy says:

  15 Jul15 July 09:50

  Received my first US credit card, but unfortunately I can’t travel there. Is there a way to MS spend from here in the UK to achieve sign-up bonus?

  • Bill says:

    15 Jul15 July 09:53

    Amazon vouchers ?
    Book hotels on cheap tickets com

  • Ross Parker says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:05

    Paying for web services (hosting, VPNs, storage) can normally be done in dollars.

  • John says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:07

    Why can’t you use it in the UK?

    If you know the numbers add it to curve and you can use it in physical locations

    • Harry T says:

      15 Jul15 July 10:11

      Curve hasn’t worked with Amex for a long time now…

      • Rui N. says:

        15 Jul15 July 10:14

        No one mentioned amex 🙂

    • TGLoyalty says:

      15 Jul15 July 10:28

      Most USA cards have 0% FX fees too

  • Reney says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:27

    I have several non amex US cards, add them to curve and you can spend normally plus pay taxes, ernie and depending on how your bank process payments overpay the mortgage.

    Can I ask how you managed to get a card here, they won’t let me apply for one without a US address.

    • Amy says:

      15 Jul15 July 11:19

      I have a US Green Card and a residential address. I lived there for quite some time but wasn’t into miles and points back when I was living there. I am now kicking myself for missing the opportunity to milk US credit cards!

  • Amy says:

    15 Jul15 July 11:21

    Thanks all for the lovely suggestions.
    I didn’t know Curve works with non-UK cards. I think I read it somewhere that only UK issued cards can be added to Curve. I will give it a try and report back.

    • Reney says:

      15 Jul15 July 11:35

      I have no problem using my US Chase card with curve, also did manage to add my Capital One card. Depending on whether your card is forex fee Curve let you decide if you want to use curve exchange rate or the card’s own exchange rate. M-F I find curve FX is a bit better than Chase, sometimes I forget to change it back in the weekend thou.

      I would love to benefit from the new Chase offer but not sure if i can get a card sent to the UK.

      • Lady London says:

        15 Jul15 July 19:04

        Looks like Chase will be here in the autumn.

        Dare we hope, with Chase Sapphire sometime.

        Alongside a platform it looks like Chase bought Nutmeg for the customer base Nutmeg had reached. I can’t imagine cross-selling not following. Hopefully to perk up the UK credit card market

    • Mr. AC says:

      15 Jul15 July 11:50

      Yes, Curve works beautifully with non-UK cards. Note however that some issuers charge for “foreign payments” even when they’re charged in local currency. If you have a UK-issued Curve and add a US card, it will be charged in dollars from the UK. Some banks (in particular my credit union…) charge 1-3% for that.

      • Jon G says:

        15 Jul15 July 11:58

        You can select the currency under the card settings to always charge in £, if your non-UK card has no forex fees. I do this for my US and SG cards.

        • Sam G says:

          15 Jul15 July 12:48

          SG nearly all charge ~1% these days though even if charged in SGD which is a pain

        • John says:

          15 Jul15 July 18:30

          Some Australian cards charge a foreign transaction fee if the merchant is outside Australia even if it’s in AUD. Curve’s location is London.

          Hotels.com charges from Australia when you set the currency to AUD (but no need to use curve for that).

          My Hong Kong cards often have a promo for foreign spending and HKD charges from curve count as foreign.

  • Jon G says:

    15 Jul15 July 11:56

    I exclusively use my US HSBC Premier Elite card for my day to day spend (I’m not a US resident) via Curve for 1.4 – 4.2 Avios/£ as there are no FX fees.

    I have been able to deposit ££ into various brokerages (vanguard, trading212, IG) without deposit fees via curve apple pay

  • bafan says:

    15 Jul15 July 18:19

    If you have all the details and an iPhone I have been able to add all my cards to Apple Pay which is taken in most places these days.

• FCP says:

  15 Jul15 July 10:01

  anybody have experience funding share accounts with Curve and Virgin Atlantic card?

  I had no problem with Curve and the Miles and More, but currently with ii the transactions get declined.

  Only got the card to spend this way. If you use a different broker and are able to bill to VS card, appreciate sharing the details.

  • Reney says:

    15 Jul15 July 11:00

    I personally think this is not possible after 5 August, the T&C changes were very explicit re depo into investment. Jury is out re ernie.

    FWIW, I can’t get AJbell to accept any combo, curve or che.

    • FCP says:

      15 Jul15 July 11:33

      Interactive Investor will take Curve, no problem. It’s then the underlying card that I really want a points earner. Miles and More Mastercard was fine. MBNA Horizon also ok, but not a points card.

      • Travel Strong says:

        15 Jul15 July 11:52

        MBNA Horizon stopped working for me with ii very recently.

        • FCP says:

          15 Jul15 July 13:08

          My last transaction was 2 July. That was fine.

      • Toppcat says:

        15 Jul15 July 15:31

        Agree – ii works for me with Curve. Fidelity also.

    • John says:

      15 Jul15 July 18:31

      I think it’s still ok as long as your “real” transactions exceed your ms

  • aDifferentSimon says:

    15 Jul15 July 13:24

    virgin used to work until sep/oct ’20 -declines ever since.

• Ross Parker says:

  15 Jul15 July 10:04

  A cheeky one. If LHR T5 are now charging for drop-offs, is it possible to make use of the 20 minute drop-off grace period at the T5 Sofitel?

  • Doommonger says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:16

    Yes, or alternatively;

    1) Drive into the Thistle hotel get dropped off and then wait by the gate to the car park and tailgate next person through the gate to the adjacent car park to get on the free pods to Terminal five.
    2) Get dropped off by the entrance to the pod car park 1 minute walk to pod entrance and then enjoy the scenic 4 minute ride in the pod to Terminal Five.
    3) Get dropped off at the barrier of any of the car hire outlets on the Bath road and take the free shuttle bus to whatever terminal you are flying from. If you go to Hertz while you are waiting utilise the excellent toilets and free coffee. 🙂

    Doomster

    • MattB says:

      15 Jul15 July 10:31

      Heathrow website says pod car park is closed so doubt the pods are running.

  • Ghosty says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:18

    It’s a quarantine hotel, so I don’t think they expect ‘quests’ to be dropped of by car

    • TGLoyalty says:

      15 Jul15 July 10:29

      No but they will probably be being picked up

  • Andrew says:

    15 Jul15 July 15:06

    There a 30 minute free stay at T5 Long Stay car park.

    It’s where I usually go to pick-up friends and family. Go over 30 minutes and it’s still only £8 for up to 2 hours.

    • Ross Parker says:

      15 Jul15 July 15:43

      Thanks. I think I once did this in pre-COVID times to avoid the “lingering” fine on the forecourt, but it’s been so long since I flew now that I forget all the tricks.

• JA says:

  15 Jul15 July 10:14

  Hi

  Question on Marriott and Hilton stays.

  When does the year end for stays to retain status?. Is it December?.

  Thanks

  • Rob says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:21

    31/12

• TGLoyalty says:

  15 Jul15 July 10:26

  Anyone noticed Croatia is on the green list but FCDO still advise against all but essential travel … (as they do for Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania)

  Yet Austria, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, USA have no such advice …

  • JDB says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:39

    Yes, there have been these discrepancies since the introduction of the traffic lights, and I don’t think it will change, so people need to be very careful re travel insurance which is usually based on FCDO advice.

    • Jonathan says:

      15 Jul15 July 11:02

      Yeah the whole amber and green list countries module just makes working out which insurance companies will cover you and which ones won’t has just caused a complete shambles. You’ve essentially got to call up any insurance company you’re interested in buying from to check whether or not your policy is worth anything at all (other than a paycheque to them if you buy

    • TGLoyalty says:

      15 Jul15 July 16:22

      Exactly but if FCDO advise against when you’re book you might not be covered.

      Even though lots of people probably booked travel to Croatia yesterday/today …

  • Anna says:

    15 Jul15 July 11:58

    Didn’t FCDO advice change for mainland Spain and others when the quarantine rule changes for the double jabbed were announced? They might just be catching up. But yes, need to be really careful about booking anything till it changes.

  • Mark says:

    15 Jul15 July 12:51

    Sorry where can I see the list of countries that FCDO advise against vs OK to travel?

    Maybe I’m blind but I went on here: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice , and then Spain, but don’t see anything specific.

    • Sukes says:

      15 Jul15 July 13:59

      You have to check each country page separately there is no overall list published. If FCDO has an advisory in place you will see it near the top of the ‘summary’ sub-page of a country. For example on the page for Croatia it states ‘The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) advises against all but essential travel to the whole of Croatia based on the current assessment of COVID-19 risks.’ If you don’t see such message on a country’s ‘summary’ page then there is no advisory in place. You can sign up for email alerts per country if you wish to be notified of any FCDO changes.

      • Mark says:

        15 Jul15 July 14:12

        Amazing, thank you! France/Spain are not against the advice so slight peace of mind being covered by HSBC WEMC travel insurance.

• Nick says:

  15 Jul15 July 10:26

  Any hotel suggestions for Solihull? Other than the voco, which would be my default but has decided not to reopen until at least the autumn…

  • TGLoyalty says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:29

    It’s a quarantine hotel

  • Peter K says:

    15 Jul15 July 12:21

    Depends how far you want to travel. The Hilton Metropole near the NEC was not bad, but the lounge (pre covid) was a bit naff. The crowne plaza NEC was awful.

    • Tariq says:

      15 Jul15 July 21:23

      I feel like the Metropole is really run down. In that area I prefer the HGI BHX. Close to the Birmingham Intl station car park which is reasonably priced.

  • Lady London says:

    15 Jul15 July 19:11

    If you do an external Google search on HfP for Redditch some nicer options were mentioned about 5 days ago. You’d need to check the roads to the airport for your time of day though

• peter says:

  15 Jul15 July 10:28

  On etihad Amex offer £150 off £650 it says “valid for flights from UK”, would Amex know if the flight is from UK or not?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:30

    Actually they would since flights are one of the things they can the full detail for in the transactions. Think that’s an Amex quirk

    • DeB20 says:

      15 Jul15 July 12:19

      This quirk is true for Mastercard, Visa, and..er..Diners Club. It is based on each card company’s ability to capture the required amount of data. True for VAT in the UK and Germany, possibly a few other European countries too.

  • Anuj says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:31

    I think as long as you’re charged in £ you should be fine. Sometimes airlines make you pay in the origin destination’s currency in which case you won’t pay in pound

    • meta says:

      15 Jul15 July 11:43

      I wonder whether it would work on redemption bookings where you purchase extra miles during booking.

• Tom H says:

  15 Jul15 July 10:32

  Has the ability to see your pin for curve card gone from the app?

  • Youllnever says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:38

    It’s still there for me

  • MD says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:49

    Nope, still there. Account>show PIN.

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