Finally got my year evaluation.
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What d’ya reckon the chances of them weighing in with something like this? British Airways Credit Card | Travel | Rewards | Chase
UK terms would translate to about 75000 Avios for spending £3000 in three months, 1.5 Avios per pound, fee about £60. Some travel benefits though not the CDW that I’d like.
I don’t know how they’d manage that honestly, especially when they’d have to split a smaller interchange fee across more parties
I’m just thinking of how they’d do it and the only way I think it would work is cobranding a visa/mc or an AmEx
But I don’t think there’s enough money in British credit cards to do any of that unless they also rollout a regular credit card where people actually pay interest on it
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Zero.
- Amex have the British Airways license in the UK, recently renewed
- Barclays have the Avios license and a fairly extensive deal with Avios that is going nowhere.
- The only other air miles scheme with anything remotely comparable with UK consumers is Virgin Atlantic, which is tied in long term with Virgin Money.
- The fee would have to be far higher to offset the lack of interchange revenue (no more than 0.3% in the UK, compared to potentially 2+% in the US) - see the Plus version of the Barclaycard Avios card which has a £20/month (or £240) fee.
In terms of overall rewards generosity, the market leaders on this are Amex (who over somewhere around 1% with an under £50 fee) and Barclaycard (who offer 0.66% and are almost certainly making a loss on each txn value as a result). I’d be very surprised to see Chase going further beyond what they already offer on their current accounts, but to be honest they could get away with less and still be easily a best-buy.
One intriguing possibility for them is that Tesco Bank is understood to be for sale - if Chase could get a deal done which allows them to keep using the Tesco brand and right to issue Clubcard points, and they’ve a stomach for losing money short term to buy up market share, they could come up with something very compelling. Sainsbury’s Bank could be another possibility. It’d be a break from their current approach of starting from scratch in the UK, though.
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The chargeable BA Amex card offers pretty much exactly this, so it is viable financially.
Chase also have an Avios licence in the UK as Nutmeg have offered Avios for investments.
Sainsbury’s, Barclays and Amex all issue Avios so the licence isn’t exclusive.
The BA Amex is £250 for the 1.5 Avios/pound etc., yes, possibly higher fee than the US version.
I do like that. It seemed obvious at the time Tesco stopped Avios that Sainsbury’s would take it up as I think Argos had previously issued Avios. Roll on Chase Avios 
The license to offer a BA branded credit card, or an Avios branded credit card, is exclusive tho. It’s those licenses which offer a route to making the whole thing sustainable as the partner brand offers marketing in support, and might even be amenable to discounting the wholesale purchase rate in exchange for the marketing they get by having their brand printed on cards, added loyalty etc etc. You’re also not going to get the airline specific benefits without a license.
HSBC also offer a path to Avios on credit cards btw, as did Natwest Group until last month. It’s not impossible Chase would do something similar, I doubt it it, but either way you aren’t going to be earning 1.5 Avios per £ leave alone all the other benefits that card offers.
I suppose they could potentially do something with Qatar Airways or another Avios-earning airline as a workaround, but the benefits would then be specific to that airline and not BA.
Argos never issued Avios directly. They might have been on the Avios cashback portal thing.
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There was also FlyBE which issued and accepted Avios yet had nothing to do with BA. I gather that they bought Avios to do this.
Just like HSBC, Chase US also have travel cards which have points exchangeable into various airline and hotel point schemes just like the non-BA Amex cards. Chase Sapphire do this and it would be nice to see them issue that.
They could but God knows why, would be annoying to go anywhere not in Middle/Southern Africa or East of Qatar. Britain is better placed for Europe and Americas
Dream on, I’m afraid.
Doesn’t really matter that much which Avios airline they used as you can do instant transfers between them. In some cases, it’s better to collect on one airline rather than another as their schemes aren’t identical.
Sapphire will come, but probably not as the first UK issued card.
It will be interesting to see how much the interchange charge affects the overall offer.
What interchange change? They’re not lifting the cap lol
It doesn’t say interchange change 
What are you basing this very confident speculation upon? So far as I can tell nothing about Chase UK’s product range looks even vaguely similar to their US range.
Maybe they will have a product called Sapphire, but you’re not going to be getting a 1/2/3% cashback offer on a card with a $100 fee (half of which is given back in hotel credit each year!), never mind all the other benefits.
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If this does become a thing I think Chase would probably make the entire British banking sector go under in the process
Unless they’re massively lobbying behind the scenes to make rewards viable to provide I guess
Their long-term plans appear to be heading in the direction of a full service bank. Some blog entries on Nutmeg lately imply that they’ll be going down the wealth management route in due course. Sapphire would appear in the context of a higher net worth offering I think - similar to a UK Premier account.
I think it’s unlikely to appear soon but I’d be quite surprised if it weren’t to arrive in around 5 years or perhaps a little longer.
Hello, does anyone know how Chase calculate the exchange rate on purchases abroad, particularly on weekends? And if there is somewhere you can check the rate prior to purchase?
I notice the rate is varying considerably on purchases made only a few minutes apart.
I asked Chase in the app chat and they say they use the Mastercard rate but it doesn’t match. Mastercard publish it as a daily rate used for the entire day. Chase’s rate seems to change minute by minute.
I’m especially confused by this on weekends because the foreign exchange market is closed and the mid-market rate doesn’t change at all between about 10pm Friday and 10pm Sunday (UK time). But the Chase rate is still changing and is even different for purchases made minutes apart during this time.
Any insights will be appreciated, thanks!