CreditCards Blog

At the moment I use my Amex nectar card wherever I can to get nectar points but I am a bit stuck when it comes to places that don't accept amex. I'd like to still be able to get some reward here instead of sticking it on my halifax one card which gives me nowt!!

I have a household income of approx 27k but I am only 20 years old. Have had CCs (all paid in full every month) since I turned 18 except one late payment (silly me) on my nationwide CC in Feb 08. I also have been paying my mortgage since May 08.

I thought about iPoints as Halifax provide this card and I bank with them so I would presume my internal score would count here? (very good, preassessed for an overdraft of 9500).

Are there any other cards which are visa or mastercard that could offer me cashback or points? Not really looking for airmiles as we only go on holiday every few years now.

Some more info: Abbey declined me for their Zero card in April on credit scoring so reluctant to try them again.

Smile at 0.5% looks OK, better than ipoints, right? But is it a hard card to get?

Any help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated :)

Barclaycard Platinum (Oyster & Pay Wave) offers 0.5% on all transactions until late 2009, they sometimes offer upto 2% Back on supermarkets and petrol, and 0.5% on other items, worth calling and asking about that one (I have it at the moment)

Partnership Mastercard offers points value of 0.5% of purchases in John Lewis Vouchers.

Not sure if Nationwide still offer their Gold Cash Reward card to new customers, that also gets 0.5% of cash back.

Points are only every worth having if you will end up using them.

Just worked out partnership card is 0.5% cashback but only in JL vouchers.... I think the Smile card might be better with the cashback coming directly off my bill..

Any other thoughts?

Good news everyone; I applied for and have been accepted for the JL Partnership card! Got an instant online decision which is nice (and never happened to me before). Might phone them up tomorrow and ask about the credit limit as if it's big enough I can just get rid of my other cards :)

I decided against smile as I'm not an existing current account customer but John Lewis don't offer current accounts so I thought, maybe, a bit easier to get whereas smile might favour existing customers.

You could always get a credit card from Sainsbury's which also allows you to earn Nectar points. I don't think it is as generous as the AMEX card but it would be good to have as a back up when AMEX is not accepted.

I have checked out the sainsburys cc before but outside sainsburys it's only 1 point per 5 spend!! Very miserly of sainsburys I think, otherwise I wouldn't have hesitated to go with them

Just worked out partnership card is 0.5% cashback but only in JL vouchers.... I think the Smile card might be better with the cashback coming directly off my bill..

Any other thoughts?

It does work out at 1% for JLP & Waitrose / WaitroseDeliver spend (not Ocado), and the vouchers are the same as gift vouchers so you can use them online or instore.

wot abt
Vanquis Visa Credit Card?

wot abt
Vanquis Visa Credit Card?
And what would that give me apart from more incentive to pay off in full each month (which I do anyway)?

Like I said I have gone with the partnership card, just waiting for my actual card to arrive now, got everything else!