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The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 28th September

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General

Comments (515)

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

  • HughM says:
    28 Sep28 September 11:42

    The sergeant-major style of Creation Customer Services is often a source of free amusement, so here is the latest (it refers to the free IHG card):
    “We note that your account hasn’t been active for a while and in the interest of data security, we don’t keep customer data longer than necessary. Therefore, we are providing 60 days’ notice for you to make transactions on your account otherwise it will be closed after this period had elapsed.
    Once your account has been closed, you will not be able to use your card or reactivate your account. If after this time, you want to apply for credit, you will have to make a new application which will be subject to the same credit and fraud checks as a new customer…”
    At least they found my name this time, and it wasn’t a text message. Progress.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      28 Sep28 September 13:38

      Data security?! I’d buy credit risk or fraud risk, but I’m not convinced that closing your account will help with data security.

    • Lady London says:
      28 Sep28 September 15:37

      Seems a bit pathetic.

      Is Creation in such a precarious financial position that they need to manage issued credit lines this closely? And they have no more sophisticated tools that give them statistical predictions for what % of issued credit will actually be used?

      As a non-finance person is this not a bit worrying? Who owns Creation? Is it BNP?

  • Jamil says:
    28 Sep28 September 11:46

    Quick question: Any news or likelihood of BA extending companion vouchers considering mine expires soon?

  • Anuj says:
    28 Sep28 September 11:55

    If you extend a 241 voucher using the ftv method, what date is it extended to? Mine currently expires feb 2023

  • Anna says:
    28 Sep28 September 12:02

    Can someone please remind me – spend on the premium IHG card for Spire, is it card year or Calendar? I have a £12k final payment on a car due next April, I was going to start paying it off in chunks but may leave till Jan as we are both already Spire for 2022.

  • Bobri says:
    28 Sep28 September 12:06

    What us the right tactics to have the 195 fee for the HSBC premier card refunded? Chat was not helpful, call centre is?

    • Reney says:
      28 Sep28 September 12:10

      I called and have a nice word with them saying I heard they were waiving fee due to lack of travel. Apparently mine has been waived but it won’t show till next statement LS reported seeing it the next day.

    • HBommie says:
      28 Sep28 September 12:50

      is this for a new cardholder or existing?

      • Reney says:
        28 Sep28 September 14:01

        Existing holders are being waived, I’m new.

      • Reney says:
        28 Sep28 September 14:02

        They were sending cards out with fee= £0. Not sure if that was still happening.

        • Hotinnewcastlesays says:
          28 Sep28 September 16:25

          Was the £0 quoted on the upgrade letter that you have to return to HSBC when you request the upgrade from the free Card to the paid card, or is this on a separate letter they send when the card has been approved?

        • Bigmaggot says:
          28 Sep28 September 17:41

          I took a chance and applied this month, letter said £0 annual fee. Phoned Saturday and asked why I’ve been charged £195, hard to email copy of letter to agent, fee showing as refund on card today. 🙂

          • Hotinnewcastlesays says:
            28 Sep28 September 17:50

            Lets see if i have any luck, applied this month too, awaiting card! Good to know, they accepted your challenge but easier with proof

  • Sprout says:
    28 Sep28 September 12:11

    Email just received from ba exec..
    That seems to be a very long period!

    We wanted to let you know that we’ll shortly be carrying out some planned improvements to the Executive Club, which means you’ll be unable to access your Household Account during the period below.

    Between 4 October 2021 and 17 November 2021 inclusive, you’ll be unable to complete the following actions on ba.com or by calling us:
    Add another Member to your Household Account
    Remove a Member from your Household Account
    Amend personal or contact details of any Members in the Household Account
    Set up a new Household Account

    If you do need to make any updates to your account, please do so before 4 October 2021, or after 17 November 2021. We appreciate your patience while we make these improvements to the Executive Club.

    With best wishes,
    Your Executive Club team

    • Anna says:
      28 Sep28 September 12:15

      This makes me really annoyed as they should really be concentrating any IT improvements on making it possible again to get refunds online and also to be able to use FTVs without spending an hour on hold on the phone 😡

    • Aston100 says:
      28 Sep28 September 12:16

      Six weeks to implement some IT changes?

      • Anna says:
        28 Sep28 September 12:28

        It’s making me think now that there may be some kind of audit planned. Maybe focusing on people who suddenly start making amendments to their accounts in the next week? I could be overthinking it though!

    • Toby says:
      28 Sep28 September 14:28

      Just got this too – it’s bananas. What are they doing?

      How does it take so long? It’s not like I’ve done any of those things for years, but I’m gobsmacked at how long they need to do IT work.

      • CarpalTravel says:
        28 Sep28 September 15:00

        Just had mine through. Feels to me more like a blockout period, as if they are trying to avoid people combining accounts, making it slightly harder for people to make use their Avios as they won’t be able to club together.

        Really short notice for a long duration. Find it hard to believe it is it audit related, they will have a separate datawarehouse they could use for that sort of thing. IT change wise, well if they had to freeze this then there would be a lot of other things that would need blocking too.

        Thing is it is BA IT related, it could be that they have an app running on a WinXP machine and need to migrate it….

    • Lady London says:
      28 Sep28 September 15:57

      “planned improvements” to BA Exec Club?

      Uh-oh.

      • Mikeact says:
        28 Sep28 September 16:47

        No problem for me at all…if it’s improvements, including security and weeding out any particular ‘naughty’ behavior, then so be it. Whatever, there will be loads of moans on here, before….(now)…..and after,…inevitable.

  • James says:
    28 Sep28 September 12:16

    My BA 77W seat map on the seat selection screen has CW from rows 5-24 but I can’t seem to find any seat map on seat guru which corresponds to this. Anyone able to point me in the right direction? It’s a 4 class setup.

  • Augustiner says:
    28 Sep28 September 12:22

    Any views on the quickest way to hit the £6K target on the Amex platinum? I’ve reset the 24 months recently so am free to sign up but on current outgoings could take a while to hit 6K

    • Anna says:
      28 Sep28 September 12:30

      Council tax, if applicable. Gift cards. Amazon credit Xmas isn’t that far off.

    • Rosie says:
      28 Sep28 September 12:39

      You can do PayPal friends and family however one would be careful doing this , 1 off is ok however if you do this numerous times PayPal/Amex could close account

      • Augustiner says:
        28 Sep28 September 13:13

        Has anyone done this for a one off large transaction?

        • Vit says:
          28 Sep28 September 16:24

          Yes, 1st time £900 paying a guy on Facebook marketplace. 2nd time, £1500 paying an electrician. They are one year apart though.

    • CarpalTravel says:
      28 Sep28 September 13:33

      HMRC tax bills, if applicable.

      Pay via Billhop (2.95% charge) so do your sums to see if it is worth it Vs the monthly cost of the card, assuming you want to cancel ASAP and get the pro-rata refund.

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