Does anyone use a British Airways Amex Premium Plus card?

[whitejeanss]

I just signed up for one as I was booking flights with BA and it was easy. I've heard people saying how worthwhile this card is for collecting Avios if you fly fairly frequently.

Just wondered how people use theirs? I've never used a credit card to make daily / monthly purchases but it seems like this would be sensible. I was wondering about adding this card to my Ocado account (if they accept Amex) and then doing a direct debit each month to pay it off.

I am busy with family life , busy job etc so really don't want to give myself more monthly admin and accidentally forget to pay it off one month, so I'm hoping I can set something up which just happens seamlessly, and means I can earn a decent amount of Avios.

Can anyone suggest how they use theirs each month?

All grocery shops, John Lewis, Costco, B&Q now takes it, tied to Amazon, tied to PayPal, in the phone wallet and literally any chance I get. Some vendors won't take it and you will need another card, no big deal.

We have one and use it for all our day to day expenses, groceries, socialising, holidays and some DDs.

I have a DD set up to pay the balance in full just after payday each month. You don't get as long interest fee credit as you do with a usual credit card but that doesn't worry me.

We save up our air miles for bigger trips by business class so let some companion vouchers lapse, finding the avios harder to collect in sufficient volume. You pay taxes and fees for BC flights so they still cost a fair bit, usually comparable to the cost of an economy.

I haven't really done the sums but it feels like it works well for us, I do love a BC long haul flight.

We put everything we can on it and then pay off in full each month - set up a reminder if necessary but one bill is easier than multiple payments to my mind. There are also occasional promotions where you get double or triple avios if you really want to max out. The most valuable reward is the companion vouchers where someone can travel with you for zero avios, though you still pay taxes.

Thanks for this. How do people manage the logistics of this in terms of salary / income and direct debit? At the moment I've got income coming in to a main account and then immediately going off to separate pots for things. I don't want to spend too much or go over monthly budgets. I might just stick to one area of spending e.g. groceries so I don't lose track of everything to begin with.

I use mine for everything, although I have one that gives you 1.25% cashback rather than Avios as I know I'll use it. Paid off in full every month by direct debit. I wouldn't risk paying it off manually as if you forget it costs a bomb.

Time to invest in YNAB! it's an amazing budget app for pulling in all of your spending on different cards and assign it in there to your pots rather than physically moving it.

Once you've spent something on the card, move it out of whatever pot you've spent out of into a "credit card payment" pot.

Aaah this is starting to sound like a lot of extra admin! 🙈

I think it depends on how tightly you need to manage your budget. I don’t do any extra admin, but we do review spending once a month relative to budget. I have extra in the bank if I need the contingency, so if I am a bit over it is fine and I just try to correct that next month. If you need to manage your budget down to the pound then credit cards in general are a bad idea unless you are very disciplined, though not sure how the level of admin would be different from managing it all via bank account.

i have one credit card and one debit card. Everything that can go on the credit card does and is paid in full each month. The direct debits from my bank are mostly pretty standard recurring payments, so virtually all of my variable spend (barring the odd purchase where AE isn’t accepted) is on the credit card.

I don't do any extra admin either.
Except I guess when the bill comes in, I have a fortnight to make sure I have enough in my current account to cover it. Usually I do, because the bill is just my normal monthly spends, but if I have paid off a holiday or something, I usually have to make transfer out of savings. Which is no different to what I would have needed to do otherwise!