Reader Andy wrote to me about some of the savings he was getting from his RBS account, so I thought it was worth a look at what you can get with some bank accounts for travel perks.
RBS Black Account
To qualify for an RBS Black account you need to be aged 18 or over, and a UK resident with either £100,000 sole income to be paid into the account, a Royal Bank mortgage of at least £300,000, or £100,000 in Royal Bank savings and investments. You can find more on the black account benefits here.
The account costs £27 a month which is pretty steep. For this you receive the following travel related benefits amongst others:
- Worldwide travel insurance
- Travel Service – discounts on flights and holidays
- Preferential Rates on Travel Money
- Worldwide Airport Lounge Access – Priority Pass
- Mobile phone insurance
- UK Car Breakdown Cover including Homecall
- 24/7 Concierge service.
There is also a slightly cheaper Platinum account which does not include the lounge access or Concierge.
Is it worth it?
As with all things, you need to work how much you, personally, would use all of the benefits weighed against the £324 a year. The travel service and the lounge access will be of most interest to frequent travellers. The Travel service actually has some good discounts such as 10% off Qatar Airways including sale fares and ex EU. It does, however, exclude the tax portion of the fare for the discount. If you were to buy 2 business class tickets a year using this it could potentially pay for the account fees on one trip.
The Priority Pass membership is worth around £259 on its own and is useful if you travel in economy, don’t have airline status, or travel with more people than you can guest in using your airline status. £15 to guest someone is pretty reasonable compared to most lounge charges of around £25-35 a visit. You could also get this benefit from the Amex Platinum card but that comes with a much steeper fee, albeit with a big miles bonus and some high tier hotel loyalty status.
Overall this could be worth the monthly fee if you would use even one or 2 of the benefits but you would need to weigh out carefully versus something like the Amex Platinum charge card.
HSBC Premier
The HSBC Premier account is pretty tricky to qualify for but if you can, or could qualify, it is worth considering. You need to
1) have savings or investments of at least £50,000 with HSBC in the UK; or
2) have an individual annual income of at least £100,000 and one of the following products with HSBC in the UK:
- a mortgage;
- an investment, life insurance or protection product;
Interestingly, there is no fee for the account but if you apply for the HSBC Premier World Elite Credit card, which is the main perk of the account, you will pay a £195 annual fee.
The main perks of the account are:
- Worldwide Travel Insurance
Worldwide Travel Insurance available to the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man residents under the age of 70, to give you some peace of mind if the unexpected happens. Subject to status and meeting HSBC’s UK proof of address requirements. - If your credit cards are lost or stolen, replacements within 36 hours. Or if your cash is lost or stolen, up to US $2,000 emergency cash transfer.
- HSBC Premier World Elite Credit card (£195 annual fee) which offers:
- Points that convert into Avios, Etihad Guest, Asia Miles and Singapore Airlines Krisflyer miles at 2 points to 1 mile
- Free lounge access with membership to the LoungeKey programme, with complimentary access to over 750 airport lounges worldwide just by showing your credit card
- Additional cardholders will receive unlimited airport lounge access for an annual fee of £60.
- Complimentary, unlimited Wi-Fi via iPass with over 50 million Wi-Fi hotspots,
- Receive a £20 Uber promo code every time you purchase airline ticket(s) (value of £500 and above) using your HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard.
- 10% discount on selected hotels booked with your Premier Credit Card through Expedia and Agoda. Cardholders also benefit from 12 months complimentary Expedia+ Gold Membership.
- 40,000 Reward Points when you spend £12,000 or more on your Card within the first 12 months of card membership.
- A range of benefits applicable to the Mastercards UK Elite cards with exclusive privileges and elite benefits from over 40 global travel and lifestyle brands with VIP Status, Room Upgrades and Car Hire Upgrades, including Mandarin Oriental, Savoy, Raffles, Sofitel, Radisson, Hertz.
- HSBC Premier Credit card (no fee)
- Earn up to 1 point per £1 spent in Sterling. 2 points = 1 airline mile
The HSBC comes with one big advantage, the HSBC Premier World Elite Credit card. The card offers Avios at a much better rate for Mastercard than other UK Avios cards along with a host of other benefits.
The earning rates are as follows:
- Earn two points for every £1 of eligible spend in sterling currency and earn four points for every £1 of eligible spend in non-sterling and redeem against vouchers for frequent flyer miles. 2 points = 1 Avios
You can also receive points worth an extra 20,000 Avios if you spend a total of £12,000 in your first year. These only are paid into your account until after your 12 months of membership. Personally, if I was only spending £10-12k a year on credit cards and only really wanted the Avios from the card, I would go for the Premium BA Amex card as a 2-4-1 voucher would potentially save you a lot more than 12,000 Avios. However, the other perks and sign up bonus may make the difference.
Is it worth it?
The main perk is the Mastercard with a good miles earnings rate but it would only be worth it if you go are likely to need to spend a considerable amount on MasterCard instead of Amex. Most Amex cards offer a better miles earning rate. The lounge access is also valuable if you will use it but not as good as Amex Platinum where you get a free guest on every visit.
Barclays Travel Pack Plus
This is an add-on to an existing Barclays current account and comes with
- Worldwide multi-trip family insurance for you and your family
- UK and European RAC comprehensive breakdown cover
- 6 airport lounge passes
- Airport parking and hotels discounts
The fees are pretty hefty at £15.50 a month with a minimum of a 6 month sign up. If you would use all the benefits this may well just about justify the fee but it will be pretty close. Of course, you could just sign up for 6 months and use all 6 lounge visits before you cancel, making it better value. Free travel insurance often precludes many medical conditions so it is always worth seeing if the insurance is actually suitable for you. You can find more information here.
Conclusion
Out of the 3 accounts, I would probably be tempted to go for the HSBC account due to the lower costs and the additional Avios and the other benefits, but it is a tough criteria for most people to meet.
Do currently hold one of these accounts? Have you found the benefits to outweigh the costs of them? Let me know in the comments or via scoial media?
Disclaimer: Turning Left for less is a journalistic site and does not offer financial advice. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. TLFL does not feature all offers, bank accounts, credit cards etc and readers should do their own due diligence. Any credit cards or bank accounts featured are discussed solely in terms of the travel benefits to the reader and should not be construed as financial advice.
