TopCashback now paying in Tesco points – a gamechanger? (Part 1)
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First, a (sort of) apology for being a week or so late in writing about this. Blame the holiday plus the launch of the new site. This has, however, allowed me to draw on quite a lot of experimental data from other people to present some good suggestions.
So, what is all the fuss about?
For a long time – I have been a member since 2006 – Quidco has been the UK’s leading cashback site for online shopping. It was reliable and it had good customer service. Only the £5 annual fee counted against it, but that did pay for a responsive customer services team.
TopCashback launched a few years ago and has been making aggressive strides in the market. Most in the industry expect it to overtake Quidco at some point.
Historically, TopCashback had three benefits over Quidco:
- It paid 1% more on all sales (ie £1.01 instead of £1 – not a great improvement)
- There was no £5 annual fee (although, when you earn £500 a year as I do, saving £5 is not a major reason to move)
- You could withdraw money as soon as it was received (although Quidco pays fortnightly, and the £1 minimum is not a major barrier)
For a lot of people, including myself, it wasn’t worth the trouble of moving from Quidco. Now, though, TopCashback has rolled out a new feature which, frankly, makes a massive difference:
TopCashback will now pay your cashback into your Tesco Clubcard account.
This dramatically increases the value of TopCashback cashback versus Quidco. Let’s assume that you value an Avios at 1p. This means that £10 of cashback, when transferred to Tesco Clubcard, is worth £24 of Avios.
If you assume that Tesco will have another 40% bonus on transfers to Avios at some point, your £10 of cashback would get you £34 of Avios.
(Put another way, TopCashBack allows you to ‘buy’ up to £50-worth of Avios for 0.42p each, each year. If you assume there will be a 40% conversion bonus, it is letting you buy £50-worth for 0.3p each!).
In reality, you will receive even more Avios than I indicated above, because TopCashback gives you a 5% bonus on top of your cashback if you agree to transfer it to Clubcard. (In reality, they could have offered 5% less and it would still be a great deal!)
There are very few conditions, except:
You are capped at £50 per year (a year runs from the date of your first Tesco transfer, not the calendar year or from the date you joined)
You can choose for each individual transaction whether it is paid to you as cash or paid into Clubcard.
As you cannot split up each individual transaction, do NOT do a transaction that earns you more than £50 cashback, as it is impossible to split it to send £50 to Clubcard and the rest to your bank account.
TopCashback accounts are strictly limited to one per person. Extra TCB accounts at the same address would require separate Clubcards. It is not yet clear if the Clubcard name must match the TopCashBack account name.
How do I join TopCashback?
TopCashback offers a £5 referral bonus if you refer a friend, payable when your friend earns over £10. The link above includes my referral code.
I am grateful to anyone who chooses to help support the blog by using this link. You will not get a better deal if you sign-up directly on the TopCashback website. Thank you!
What’s next?
Nothing stops you opening a TopCashback account now and using it for your day-to-day online shopping instead of Quidco.
In Part 2 of this article, I look at some of the sites that can help you earn the £50 as quickly as possible, with the minimum cost and effort.
How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (March 2024)
As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!
In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.
You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:
Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard
Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review
Barclaycard Avios Mastercard
5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review
There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:
British Airways American Express Premium Plus
25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review
British Airways American Express
5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review
You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold
Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review
The Platinum Card from American Express
40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review
Run your own business?
We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.
Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa
Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review
You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.
British Airways Accelerating Business American Express
30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review
There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.
SPECIAL OFFER: You receive a huge 120,000 Membership Rewards points if you apply for American Express Business Platinum by 9th April 2024. You receive 80,000 points for spending £12,000 within 90 days and a further 40,000 points if you retain the card for 14 months. Click here to apply.
SPECIAL OFFER: You receive 60,000 Membership Rewards points if you apply for American Express Business Gold by 9th April 2024. Remember that the card is FREE for the first year. You receive 40,000 points for spending £6,000 within 90 days and a further 20,000 points if you retain the card for 14 months. Click here to apply.
American Express Business Platinum
Crazy 120,000 points bonus (to 9th April) and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review
American Express Business Gold
Huge 60,000 points sign-up bonus (until 9th April) and free for a year Read our full review
Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.
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