1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

Who is paying for all these great offers on using cards?

 

The merchants.  They pay a percentage (in the case of Amex, a relatively high percentage, I believe) of the purchase price to the card provider (eg, the bank), which I believe is split between the provider and Amex/Mastercard/Visa etc).

32 minutes ago, jack said:

 

The merchants.  They pay a percentage (in the case of Amex, a relatively high percentage, I believe) of the purchase price to the card provider (eg, the bank), which I believe is split between the provider and Amex/Mastercard/Visa etc).

 

MOre or less :-)

 

It has been Euro-regulated recently limiting merchant fees to iirc 0.4%. But that does not apply to self-issued Amex cards, only ones where third parties use their brand. VIsa and MasterCard seem to be pulling their horns in a little after regulation reduced the fees (imo the 0.4% ceiling was an EU wheeze to transfer profit from the American Visa and MasterCard to European retailers).

 

You can pay your taxes with Amex cards at 0.4% ish and get your cashback or air miles or Amex points. I will be paying my stamp duty for the current house purchase direct and seeing if that works.

 

It can get humongously complicated, but that is part of the fun and I only dabble.

 

It is paid from the merchant fees, but the same goes for low interest rates etc. THe trick is to use the right benefit in the right place. If you are using benefits cards then the golden rule is to pay off in full always as the interest rates or fees are high to pay for the benefit package.

 

 

1 hour ago, daiking said:

 

I have just signed up for a

platinum everyday card (or whatever it is called). Just the one to start with.

 

although you sound an ideal source of matched betting gnomes ?

 

NIce card with little downside if it is the one I think. YOu should get £100 back in the first 3 months on £2k of spend plus £70 a year if you spend 10k on it, plus special offers through their website and promotions. No charge. IF you cancel wait until after the year end when they send the cash back.

 

Review here:

http://www.headforpoints.com/2016/08/10/american-express-platinum-cashback-card-rewards-cut/

 

I have the old version of the other Platinum Cashback one, which gives me 2.5% cash back in the anniversary month if I have spent 10k on it during the year. Guess when I will be buying big items (other discounts not adding an extra 2.5% etc)?

 

A nice one to have is the Hilton Hotels Platinum Visa, which gives you a free night at any Hilton Property in the world just for spending iirc £2500 on the card, and no charges. I used mine on the 32nd Floor of the Sydney Hilton this autumn. Superb.

 

But I am not recommending as that would require me to b regulated,

 

F

 

 

Note sure if this is the correct thread. I have just received a Christmas card from Electricfix with a £10 voucher enclosed. No minimum spend that I can see. Worth checking before throwing it away as junk mail.

27 minutes ago, Alphonsox said:

Note sure if this is the correct thread. I have just received a Christmas card from Electricfix with a £10 voucher enclosed. No minimum spend that I can see. Worth checking before throwing it away as junk mail.

So have I.

 

What a shame that first thing this morning I submitted an order. I now have until the 18th to make another order, large enough to get free postage, in order to use it.
 

Use code XMAS20 at Robert Dyas to get 20% off when you spend £100. Ends midnight tonight.

£5 off when you spend ovef £40 at T'station http://www.voucherslug.co.uk/toolstation-codes?vid=3982152

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

£5 off when you spend ovef £40 at T'station http://www.voucherslug.co.uk/toolstation-codes?vid=3982152

So they take Amex?

15 hours ago, Onoff said:

£5 off when you spend ovef £40 at T'station http://www.voucherslug.co.uk/toolstation-codes?vid=3982152

 

Thanks Onoff.

 

But did anyone get this to work? I have £45 in my trolley, applied promo code (TS268FEB), but computah says "The promo code is invalid". Voucher expires tonight. Smallprint does not state any restrictions.

 

Anything to save a £5...

14 hours ago, daiking said:

So they take Amex?

 

yes.

Got a new code, valid till the 19th for T'station, £5 off £40

 

SAVE5DEC16

Just used my £10 Electricfix voucher. Most unimpressed.....had to use the peasant's counter!

Why was that?

 

Did you go to "the other side" first to get your cup of coffee, then take it to the peasants side?

 

I so rarely go to the trade counter as it's so far from me, I almost always order on line.

 

EDIT a few weeks back, SWMBO was going into town, so I gave her the "special card" so she could use the Trade counter. But she didn't bother with the free coffee.

 

12 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Why was that?

 

Did you go to "the other side" first to get your cup of coffee, then take it to the peasants side?

 

I so rarely go to the trade counter as it's so far from me, I almost always order on line.
 

I pass my local one every day near enough. I think they were short staffed.  There was one lad in trade with a customer and one on the main counter keeping an eye on some undesirables!

 

Quidco and TopCashBack have services where their cashback is applied to instore purchases without us needing to show a card or anything at the till. Is using this facility?

 

The process is to register your payment card to QUidco or TCB, and then when you use it in a store they detect the transaction and cashback gets paid.

 

The Topcashback service is called Oncard:

https://www.topcashback.co.uk/OnCard/

 

The Quidco one is called HighStreet:

https://www.quidco.com/quidco-high-street/how-it-works/

 

Given that it is easy to get a *lot* (I get several hundred a year) back with cashback sites, is anyone using these services?

 

While eg Screwfix or B&Q might only give 1-3%, someone like Argos may give up to 10%.

 

There is the handing over of data etc, but this seems to me to be quite attractive.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

Edited December 9, 20169 yr by Ferdinand

On 12/8/2016 at 13:06, daiking said:

Got a new code, valid till the 19th for T'station, £5 off £40

 

SAVE5DEC16

Thanks for that Daiking - this one worked!

Re the Electrific £10 voucher.

 

You can NOT redeem it against a "click and collect" order.

 

SWMBO is going into town tomorrow so I will get here to pick up some stuff and spend the voucher. I was going to do it as a click and collect but thankfully I had a read of the T&C on the back and it specifically excludes that.
 

Had exactly that with a Screwfix credit note (long story ...)

 

All I did was collected the order then asked them to return the lot, whilst standing and reordering it at the counter .... and then paid with the credit note !

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

Re the Electrific £10 voucher.

 

You can NOT redeem it against a "click and collect" order.

 

SWMBO is going into town tomorrow so I will get here to pick up some stuff and spend the voucher. I was going to do it as a click and collect but thankfully I had a read of the T&C on the back and it specifically excludes that.
 

"Oh yes you can!"

 

(Well it is Christmas! )

 

I did it yesterday. Ordered whilst working up in London for collection at my local branch, put the voucher code in online and it took the tenner off. Picked up on the way home.

Edited December 9, 20169 yr by Onoff

Booklets of Tesco Vouchers

 

Is anyone in receipt of these? I currently have one which gives £13 off a spend of £90 this week, then 9 and 9 for the next 2 periods.

 

Not being a big Tesco shopper except for incidentals and Tesco Direct cases of reasonable wine when they are half price, I buy some minimal groceries (=Pournot so I can make a real London Fog cocktail this evening with the correct liqueur).

 

So I bought £100 of Amazon gift cards instead with £13 off the total, and will load them into my Amazon account for my next purchase. I can do that on most of the weeks as I spend about £500 to £1000 a year with Amazon. With the various vouchers it is perhaps worth £100 or £200 a year. You can do that with other gift cards - but make sure you will spend them and check the expiry terms which are usually 12 or 24 months.

 

I do not the know gift cards are supposed to be in the strict terms of the offer but it seems to work Best at larger Tescos and at weekends when part time staff are on, and when you have gift cards in an order of groceries.

 

Works even better in a 3x air miles offer period and paying with a reward card. That can stack to about 20% of face value.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

Edited February 4, 20179 yr by Ferdinand

We do most of our shopping a Tesco. the clubcard points earned pay for our joint personal RAC membership with recovery. Last year, the vouchers left over after that annual purchase on a 4 for one offer bought a new laptop pc. We had to pay the £12 shortfall because we didn't have quite enough points.

 

so an (almost) free lappy and RAC membership just for doing our shopping.
 

On 15/06/2016 at 10:45, Ferdinand said:

I think that is not quite right, as UK law requires credit card companies to apply payments to the type of balance with the highest rate of interest first.

http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/wm_documents/Good news for credit card.pdf

 

For the record, there is also TopCashBack which is similar.

They have different deals for different retailers.

Ferdinand

I used asda credit card 1% at asda, .5% anywhere else.

I combined this with quidco where possible including wicks.

You really have to watch paying online or payment at store, quidco only works paying on line (tracked) but if you can get the wicks 10% discount online (or any other discount scheme) rather than going to store, you get the best of both.

 

Quidco has clocked up in my favour around £200 so far (11months). Plus credit cash back (average £10 per month) some of which was personal expenditure.

 

American express works well for the first 3 months  up to 5% cash back (new card) cannot generally use with smaller suppliers.

 

For most big purchases, Best deals are negotiated, then pay with credit card.

Someone was looking for a generic cheap drill a little while back? In B&Q earlier:

 

 

 

Discount Programmes with Hospital Cash Plans eg Westfield Health

 

This thread has been quiet for a bit, but I have a good new one.

 

For some time I have gone green when employees talk about the savings on their staff reward programmes (iirc via "RewardGateway and similar) at various retailers. I seem to recall figures of 5-10%, whereas the rest of us are at about 3% on Quidco.

 

I have been looking for something for self-employed and not-employed-due-to-building-a-house.

 

Anyhoo, Hospital Cash Plans seem to offer similar programmes. These are those plans where you pay £x per month, and get a grant when you buy glasses, a grant when you buy teeth, a sum for each inpatient day hospital etc. Examples are Westfield Health and NHSF (formerly Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund). Usually you get nearly 100% back by just claiming the common grants (there must be a tax shelter or subsidy in there somewhere).

 

Westfield Health offer for example Westfield Rewards, a programme which gives discounts on 600 retailers, including:

 

Boots -15%

Sainsbury -4%

B&Q -10%

Wickes -10%

Halfords -10%

M&S -7.5% 

etc

 

It operates via a preloaded cashcard where you get a 10% discount on face value when topping up. So that should stack with topping up using Reward Credit Cards etc. So you may not want to have too many of them as it seems to be a card per retailer, but for the ones where much is spent it looks like a good opportunity.

 

Feedback on other Hospital Cash Plan providers would be useful.

 

I am also looking for a way for non-employees to access the Easy Cash Saver card, which is similar to the above but gives a single card for umpteen retailers saving 7.5%. It is usually a perk in Employee Benefits programmes.

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited March 25, 20179 yr by Ferdinand

This does seem fairly cheap?

 

http://www.screwfix.com/p/mira-apt-exposed-thermostatic-mixer-shower-chrome/5898t?