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Tesco opens an online gift card store – which can generate cheap Avios

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Tesco has launched an online gift card store just in time for Christmas!

The bad news is that 3V gift cards are not available.  The fee paying Visa gift cards are not available either.  On the positive side, it is now very easy to order a wide range of retailer gift cards and generate some cheap Avios points.

The online store includes, amongst other High Street names, Pizza Express, Nando’s, Pizza Hut, Prezzo, Zizzi, Café Rouge, ASK, iTunes, Waterstones, Book Tokens, Ticketmaster, Currys, Cineworld, WH Smith, Facebook, Halfords, Spotify, House of Fraser, New Look, BHS, Gap, Oasis, Warehouse, Fat Face, Accessorize, H&M, Argos, Homebase, Mothercare, Toy’R’Us etc.

Apart from 3V, I spotted that Next and Starbucks were missing from the ‘typical’ Tesco in-store selection.

There is a fee to pay when you order the cards to cover postage:

£1.50 under £50

£2.95 between £50 and £100

£4.95 if you require a signature on delivery

On the upside, you will earn 150 bonus Clubcard points for every £50 you spend.

The maximum order is £100.  This would generate 300 Clubcard points or 720 Avios points for £2.95 – a pretty decent deal.

For many people, of course, it is easier to buy the gift cards in a Tesco store and save the postage fee.  This would also allow you to earn additional bonus points by using the voucher in the Tesco Christmas magazine.

For anyone who lives a long way from a Tesco store with a good gift card selection – or if it would cost you more than £2.95 in time and travel costs to get there – this is not a bad option.

The page to order gift cards is here.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 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 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 card

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 £15,000 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

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 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.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus 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.

Comments (85)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Robert Stevenson says:

    if you can get on Tesco’s site that it.. its been swamped and down most of the morning #BlackFriday

  • oyster says:

    Agghh please don’t mention the Tesco Christmas magazine! There’s only 3 people in the country who got hold of it and they have a skip load each!

  • Adam says:

    Surely the fees to pay cancel out most of the value of the points. Easier to pop into a store and purchase, no fees and no chance of being stolen in the post.
    Amazes me how they can come up with this offer when HSV sends these out with no fees attached.

    • Rob says:

      Yes they do, but not everyone has easy access to a Tesco which sells gift cards. The Avios are still pretty cheap factoring in the fee.

  • Boi says:

    Luckily hubby picked up one mag when in tesco last weekend. He’s not a HFP convert and couldn’t understand why I was excited from his random act!

    • squills says:

      I thought I’d be reasonable about it so just grabbed about 50.

      Always leave some for the next guy, is my motto 😉

      • Boi says:

        Can you use more than 1 in a single transaction?

      • Erico1875 says:

        Its far more enviromentally friendly just to tae the vouchers. I took 10 yesterday

        • Mark2 says:

          I just used six cake vouchers that I has copied and a HH voucher and a £15 off £100 so for six 3V I got £15 off in cash + 1050 points.
          Mind you I had to go to a second store to find six 3V (and only left 3).

  • frank says:

    Can I use the currys card(s) for a £180 purchase via their website?

    • Brian says:

      For Curry’s purchases, you might find you’re better off with TopGiftCards, which give you 5% back and can be reloaded. Especially if you have 3V cards, which are sometimes accepted there…

    • Mark2 says:

      My experience is that you cannot use Currys gift cards online only in store; also Argos.
      Also it is difficult to use 3V cards on TopGiftCards unless you amalgamate them. But it is worth using another credit card to get the 5% if you have time.

      • Fenny says:

        If the cards are reloadable, can’t you buy a £25 Currys card with 3V, then top it up several times with more lots of £25?

        • Johnny5a says:

          correct, it’s what I do. It’s also advisable to load with the minimum amount, get it delivered for free. then top up as much as you can permissable

  • chris says:

    ELITE? please explain?

  • frank says:

    I’ve got a handful of vouchers from the Tesco Xmas Mag and I was trying to work out the maximum CC points I can get my hands on.

    The aim is to buy a £180 washing machine from Currys using Curry gift cards purchased from Tesco using the 350 bonus points if i spend £50 as well as the 100 points voucher from the mag for each £20 I spend.

    I believe the gift cards are only available at £20 each so the maximum points I think I can get is 1,950.

    Is this right?

    Is there a better system?

  • Kipto says:

    If using a helping hand coupon and buying £50 of gift cards would you still trigger the extra 150 points if not buying anything else as the total spend would be less than £50 ?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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