What do you think of the BoI AER credit card?

Has anyone taken up the new AER bank of Ireland credit card? I know there is a yearly charge for it but it would appear that it is better value overall than the Platinum card for which there is also a charge. The attraction with Platinum for me was the travel insurance but someone told be that it only covers those up to 50 years of age!! I've long past that so perhaps this is no good t me. I travel a lot so I think the AER card could be a better bet. Anyone have one?

I have one, I find it pretty good. They give you travel insurance up to the age of 80, thats actually one of the best features of the card (if it applies to you), travel insurance starts getting expensive over 65.

You're not going to make a killing on avios with the card because the earnings rate is only 1 avios/€4 but every little helps I suppose.

If you are smart about how you book your "free" flights you can definitely make significant saving. You still have to pay taxes/charges so short routes to the UK (for example) where a large portion of the fare is the fees means you dont save much. Longer distance journeys are where you make your savings. I saved probably four times the annual fee on the flights i booked this year. (the booking process is a bit painful though, you have to request dates and they get back to you and tell you if they are available)

Thanks money man ...that's very useful.
My new platinum card arrived a few days ago and my other half made a purchase on it today so I guess I am stuck with this for another year if I don't wish to incur another €30 annual fee. Pity as I was thinking seriously of switching.

Don't let that stop you changing. If you close a card mid-way through the year the bank can issue you with a letter saying you paid stamp duty. You can then give it to Bank of Ireland and they wont charge you stamp duty on the Aer Card in April

O, that's great to know money_man. Will get that sorted shortly. Am with BOI anyway. Thanks again.

I got an AER credit card a few months ago and it was a fairly seamless process as I already had a BOI credit card. Everything transferred over automatically to my new card, even the PIN remained the same. I had to contact some (but not all) the companies that I had accounts with where I was using my credit card for payment, but this was relatively straightforward. The main attraction is the travel insurance, for which I was paying a lot more than the monthly fee and this was for a policy that provided less comprehensive cover. The Avios points and the free flights, free airport lounge passes and free fast track are bonuses, although I haven't availed of these yet.

Broadcaster, I don't think you'll have any problem changing from a Platinum card to an AER card.

Well, that's even better Homer, that everything transferred over automatically. Will get that sorted so. Many thanks for the feedback.

Broadcaster said:

The attraction with Platinum for me was the travel insurance but someone told be that it only covers those up to 50 years of age!!

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Can anyone confirm that this is true? I, too am a BOI Platinum card holder and even though I (quickly!! ) have scanned the documents, I haven't come across this one.

Armada said:

Can anyone confirm that this is true? I, too am a BOI Platinum card holder and even though I (quickly!! ) have scanned the documents, I haven't come across this one.

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I dont think that's true. They just have limits on the amount of cover when you're in your 70s

The biggest restriction seems to be that you need to put at least 50% of the cost of the travel on your platinum card for the journey to be covered. That isn't something you need to do with the Aer Card, you are covered for all trips

Just to update on this. I went online and did as Homer suggested...all transferred over to Aer card seamlessly. Looks like the insurance covers anyone up to 75 yrs. thanks for the advice Homer.

Just to update about the 'free' flights, I went online to do this last week.

It took a few days to have my request approved and I had to pay just over €168 in taxes and charges for two return flights to Faro. But this compares to just over €500 if I had paid full price and around €450 if I had booked similar flights with Ryanair. So overall, a pretty good deal, but should really only be used for flights during or near high season (subject to certain dates not being available) if you want to make a decent saving.