Cash back credit cards

[Pheo]

Simpo Two said:

Well it hasn't come in yet - last week a travel agent wanted 2% if paying by credit card, and many other places, if not most, add a surcharge now.

IIRC the legislation affects card providers, not retailers - so nothing to stop them continuing to rip you off on fees tbh!

[LordHaveMurci]

Simpo Two said:

Nickbrapp said:

It's dropped to 1% now though, still better than nothing mind.

How long does the 1% last for? In the scheme of things that's very good.

Mine increases to 1.25% once you hit £10k spend, I just about manage it most years despite many places not accepting AmEx.

The CapOne Mastercard paying 1% was far more lucrative as more people accepted it.

[V41LEY]

Pheo said:

Simpo Two said:

Well it hasn't come in yet - last week a travel agent wanted 2% if paying by credit card, and many other places, if not most, add a surcharge now.

IIRC the legislation affects card providers, not retailers - so nothing to stop them continuing to rip you off on fees tbh!

Well if a retailer says there'll be a surcharge to pay by credit card stating that is what the card provider charges them - you'll know they are lying, ripping you off so walk away .

[Ved]

Definately the Amex card. I spend everything I can on it and link it to PayPal where possible too. It made me £580 last year which paid for the car tax on our Subarus. You also get some good deals and offers thrown at you. If anywhere doesn't take Amex I have a Nationwide one that gives back 1%.

It all adds up.

[romeogolf]

We have:

Amex Nectar Card: 2pts/ full £1 spent = 1% cash back in Nectar points. (Spending £1.99 and then £1.01 gets 4 points, not 6) £24 annual fee so approx £2500 after rounding of less-than-£1 transactions.

Santander 1-2-3 [Mastercard]: This gets used mainly for fuel (3% cashback with £9/month limit) and then any other transactions for which Amex won't be accepted. Again it has a £24 annual fee, but if you spend more than £67/month on fuel (and who doesn't?) then you've made it back already. 2% in department stores doesn't get used very much for me, but useful to know. 1% in supermarkets is only useful in Lidl/Aldi which don't take Amex.

[Craikeybaby]

V41LEY said:

New EU cap on fees card providers can charge retailers which in theory makes it cheaper for the consumer. No more surcharge if you want to pay by credit card. Card providers used this fee to offer cash back incentives and reward points for redemption against 'gifts'.
I was speaking with NatWest yesterday and they were telling me that reward points on my Black account will cease soon and any points already accrued will need to be used by the end of the year or vanish into the ether !
Still have a non EU credit card so that will have to come into more use .

Bit more here

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cardsloans/arti...

Natwest have told me that the points/rewards on my card will be stopping next month. I was hoping I would be able to switch to another similar card, but it looks like these deals will be drying up.

[GrizzlyBear]

Centurion07 said:

Raise the limit to £20K for someone that pays it back each month means they have to have £20K "invested" that they won't see any return on.

Raise the limit for someone that DOESN'T pay it back every month & they charge interest on it, meaning they DO see a return on their £20K investment.

The credit card charges the retailer a lot more than the 0.5% or 1% you get in cash back, that is where they earn their money. If they get 0.5% back (after costs) for lending to a good borrower for a month with a very low risk of default, that is very good business. Cash back credit cards tend to be favoured by people who pay off in full each month; a prudent sub-group of people, hence there are significant opportunities for cross selling to people who actually have money and low defaults.

Someone who doesn't pay may rack up charges but that doesn't mean the lender will get any of it back. It takes an awful lot of decent borrowers to pay for the ones that just walks away and the costs to try and recover some money.