Spend to earn! (ipoints.co.uk Credit Card)

Member Name: Boonoiy

Product:	ipoints.co.uk Credit Card
Date:	26/10/01 (166 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good APR, Earn ipoints as you spend on the card, Easy online application

Disadvantages: None

The Halifax are joined together in wonderful partnership with my favourite reward site to bring the chance of earning ipoints offline. I've had a lot of trouble with geting hold of a credit card from the Halifax in the past but my credit rating has finally improved enough to be accepted! (about time too!).

A little intro to ipoints:
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Ipoints.co.uk are a loyalty programme on the internet, they give away points for using the net to buy from certain sites (eg. BOL.com, 101cd.com) and from signing up for stuff (eg. myoffers, AOL), as you gain more ipoints you get to redeem them for stuff like CDs, Books, vouchers all the way up to flights abroad and hotel breaks. I've had a few things off them already and love the site. Trust me - www.ipoints.co.uk - look out for it!

The Card:
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The card has a competitive rate of interest, nowadays you see a lot of introdustary offers and the Halifax's ipoints card is no different. The first 5 months are fixed at 3.9% rising to 17.9% thereafter. There's no annual fee - always a bonus, compared to such cards as Capital One, easy to be accepted for and easy to get hugely in debt with as the fee of £18 p.a. and larger interest rates the Halifax is much beter.

It is a Visa card, choice of 2 designs (both ipoints adverts) - The Duck (as seen at the top of this page!) or the Bubbles - basically an ipoints logo with a lot of bubbles around it. They're quite nice if you ask me, I don't mind a silly looking card if the rates are OK and the REWARDS KEEP COMING!

The most exciting thing about the card is the fact that you can earn ipoints for using it - Ipoints.co.uk is a great site and with the use of a visa card you can add to your ipoints total. The ipoints earned for use of the card are broken down as 100 ipoints for activating the card and 1 ipoint fror every £10 spent. I use the card quite a lot, put my subscription
to Sky TV on it and (as I've only just got the card) will be getting 3 ipoints per month for this use.

I have not received my ipoints for the activation of the card yet and have emailed the Customer services, apparently they update the ipoints monthly on the 17th and cover the last full month. This means I'll get the points next month for this month's use, this is a bit of a wait I'll admit but the usual ipoints policy applies here, they update once the company reports on the points to be put on. The Halifax apparently report on the 17th of the month.

Service:
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Along with the card you get all the Halifax's support - a 24/7 hotline for lost/stolen cards, automatic insurance of items, internet security and travel insurance.

Conclusion:
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I've had a lot of bad experiences with credit cards before, introductory offers get you sucked into the contract and my credit rating has never been that good, now I've been accepted for this card I'll use it that bit more sensibly, thankful for the introductory offer and getting it paid ASAP (never my strong point). I'll be getting the ipoints for my normal use of the card each month and I'll get my bonus soon.

This card is attractive, convenient and has a good rate of interest, it is a very worthwhile card to get as the ipoints will now be getting accumulated while I spend offline.

Great if you ask me.

Summary: