Best credit card in Ireland?

C

Chewbacca

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I know , people will say depends. Been back in this country 2 years have a basic AIB card with a low limit €2k (inn my opinion v UK) An Post just approved a card with a fab limit of €1,500...... I find these levels really low compared to UK typical card limits £5-10k useful for purchases transfers etc.

I will see if I can get an AIB Platinum card which I think had card transfer options but are there better options?

I'm thinking Irish credit card market is not as advanced as elsewhere, not sure why. I used collect air miles in UK with Amex etc but only comparable here is BOI with limited rewards and a fee that doesn't justify the benefit....

A good balance transfer card would be god if better than AIB..... I more than qualify for their platinum card so I don't consider income a constraint apart from only being back here 24 months.
 
Your best bet may be with your old bank in the UK - ask them for a Euro denominated CC.
 
BOI card gets you benefits many times the cost of the fees
 
money_man said:
BOI card gets you benefits many times the cost of the fees
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Can you elaborate? I was looking quite a bit but couldn’t see anything extraordinary.

but talking about BOI: anyone here using the Aer Credit Card? i do travel/fly quite a bit (not necessarily with AerLingus though). 8 Euros per month (96 per year) plus stamp duty is not insignificant. There seems to be quite a few T&Cs attached to the travel rewards, hence pondering if it i s worth it.
 
newirishman said:
There seems to be quite a few T&Cs attached to the travel rewards, hence pondering if it i s worth it.
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I am giving up on most "rewards". When travelling abroad I often stayed in an Accor Hotel, such as IBIS or Mercure or Adagio etc.

I had signed up to their rewards and accumulated quite a lot of reward points to be used against future stays.

However last December, Accor wiped all points from people's accounts who had not stayed in one of their hotels the previous 12 months as per their T & C's. Very few people were travelling due to Covid. It was such a sneaky move. Many other hotel chains extended the life of their rewards but not Accor.

I will make a huge effort never to stay in any of their hotels again.
 
@money_man same question can you elaborate on BOI? I'm not sure whether I'm allowed post links or refer to other sites (so can edit this post if I'm not) One of the better UK travel rewards websites did a review of BOI Avios card in July 2020 and concluded it wasn't worth the money, you can google Headforpoints Bank of Ireland credit card. Irish credit market seems very limited compared to UK maybe that will change in time.
 
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Horatio said:
Your best bet may be with your old bank in the UK - ask them for a Euro denominated CC.
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Bizarrely I retained my UK GBP Amex but their Euro card can't be applied for if in Ireland (EU?) Similar weirdness with HSBC I can have a Euro currency account but not a debit card with it.
 
For me I have the BOI platinum card which comes with the travel insurance, yes there's a annual fee of €76 but I feel it's worth it
I've compared travel insurance over the years (admittedly it's a while since I've done it) and have yet to find as good a travel insurance policy
It's there in the background and once you pay for at least 50% of the travel you're covered so no shopping around for the best deal or policy
One of the things I do like about it, is it covers you for 90 days travel on a single trip whereas most other policy's are a lot shorter and you're not restricted to the amount of travel in the year
 


I know the post your talking about Chewbacca, I've also followed that site for years. Have to disagree with them on this one though.

I discount the cost of stamp duty as an Irish person if you want a CC you have to pay it no matter what card you have. At €8/month the cost of the card is €96 a year.

For that you get fairly decent family travel insurance that lines up with what you'd get for about €60. I had to claim a fairly large amount against this after the first Covid lockdown. It all went very smoothly. This is worth more to you the older you are as the cost of insurance ramps up (and the age limits are higher than standard policies so can be worth quite a lot to you in retirement, upper limit on the policy is 80 I think)

The big benefit is obviously the flights. Later this year I am traveling to Spain. Return flights were costing €490, the cost to me with the flights on the card was €60. Last year was similar, flights to the Canaries costing €540 cost me €70 (my parents also got the card on my recommendation and have similar savings).

The smaller nice to haves, Fast Pass through security x2 (€15) Lounge access x2 (€40) you may not pay for if you didnt get but they are very nice perks going through the airport. Smallest perk is earning Avios. The most conservative value of this is earning €13 of avios per 10k spent (if you use them to "part-pay" for your flights, you could do much better if you paid for a business class flight with them, though you need to be earning avios from other places for that)

So for the last couple of years I've had average benefits of €578 and I paid €96 in fees
 
Interesting, for clarity, if you book flights on Aer Lingus using the BoI Aer Lingus card, are you saying you get a reduction?

Looking into a new credit card at the minute, concern I have with the Aer Lingus one is the minimum spend per year of €5k(I think) to get the free flights
 
You get the flight costs of 2 tickets for a return flight from/to Europe refunded. Note: this does not include taxes and charges! those depend on the airports involved, but seem to be around 50 euro total for such a return flight for 2.
not sure what about things like luggage fees, seats, etc.
 
+1
I used to be AIB but then they dropped the travel insurance.
 
No reply from CEO, reemailed CEO and Cork South Mall, where they moved all closed banks.... get a reply from South Mall , CEO address not right hence no reply, yes you can get a Platinum card someone will call you by Thursday to verify that you actually want it.... still waiting for the call....
Seriously 9-5pm Monday - Friday, it's 2022 not 1972
 
I have AIB platinum credit card for past few years.
I am looking for discounted flights and cheaper access to airport lounges.
Could you please recommend a credit card for this purpose?
 
masterboy123 said:
I have AIB platinum credit card for past few years.
I am looking for discounted flights and cheaper access to airport lounges.
Could you please recommend a credit card for this purpose?
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The "best" if you want to call it that is the BOI Aer Credit Card.
I wouldn't say I recommend it, but you get 2 somewhat discounted flights, 2 x lounge access (if you fly with AerLingus) plus 2x fast track per year.

Unfortunately, I haven't found a credit card offer in Ireland that includes unlimited airport lounges for personal customers.
For Business customers, if your company is big enough to be served by Danske, I can strongly recommend their MasterCard Corporate Platinum.
Comes with essentially unlimited Lounge Access incl. one guest.
Had one in my previous job, and missing it big time.
Couldn't find anything comparable in the Irish market for consumers.
 
masterboy123 said:
I have AIB platinum credit card for past few years.
I am looking for discounted flights and cheaper access to airport lounges.
Could you please recommend a credit card for this purpose?
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Ask AIB if they’ll sell you their Executive Corporate Visa card. €200 a year in fees but you get a PriorityPass card giving you access to loads of lounges worldwide (not just the few Aer Lingus ones) as well as AA HomeStart and a decent travel insurance policy.
 
Thanks guys.
Actually I am not traveling that much to avail of lounge access.
But thank you for the heads up.
 
Is that even advertised? Just looked at their application form and one could potenitally apply as a sole trader in the absence of having a company though. That's a very good deal, the close thing I'd see to that would be Amex Platinum in UK which is about £500 now has more reward and the lounge pass includes a free guest (not sure Euro version can be applied for in Ireland) but for the Irish market that AIB card looks pretty good.
 
They did ask for Company Registration Number (CRO No. or Non ROI equivalent) or Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) or Tax Reference Number (TRN).
 
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