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New 1,000 Clubcard points sign-up bonus on Tesco Mastercard

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For the first time in 18 months, Tesco Bank is offering a sign-up bonus on the Tesco Clubcard Mastercard.

This deal is not being advertised on the Tesco Bank website but is being advertised on comparison sites.  This is the link you need.

The card has a representative APR of 18.9% variable.  There is no annual fee.

If you apply via the link above, you will receive a bonus of 1,000 Clubcard points when you make your first purchase within two months of receipt.  This is worth 2,400 Avios or 2,500 Virgin miles.

There are a number of different versions of the Tesco Clubcard Mastercard available.  The 1,000 points is only available with the ‘purchases’ version.  This offers 0% interest on new purchases for the first 17 months.

The Tesco Mastercard is no longer as good a deal as it was.  The earning rate was recently halved to one Clubcard point per £8 spent.  Even worse, the ‘per £8’ is on a transaction by transaction basis and rounded down.  A £7.99 purchase earns you nothing.  A £15.99 purchase only earns 1 point.

The card is only an OK deal when using it in a Tesco store, where you will receive 1 point per £4 spent.

For long term spending, the earnings rate is as good as you will get – unless you qualify for HSBC Premier – on a FREE Visa or Mastercard:

0.125 Clubcard points for £1 (and in reality you get less because of the rounding down) is 0.3 Avios points per £1 spent

When used in Tesco, you get 0.25 Clubcard points per £1, which is 0.6 Avios per £1 spent

This isn’t a great deal but it is the best you will find.

The sign-up bonus IS OK

Even if the card is a poor deal for day-to-day spending, you may want to get one purely for the sign-up bonus and the ‘0% interest on new purchases for 17 months’ deal.

1,000 Clubcard points are worth 2,400 Avios points or 2,500 Virgin Flying Club miles.

It is not a life changing amount, but still not a bad bonus for a free credit card application.

If you take advantage of the 0% interest deal, you won’t be too bothered about the low Avios earning rate anyway.  The real value in a 0% on purchases deal is to spend up to your credit limit, put enough money in a high interest bank account to cover the bill, hide the card in a drawer and then settle the bill just as the 17 months interest free period is about to end.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current 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

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

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

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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

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

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Category

Tesco Clubcard

Comments (20)

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

  • Nick says:
    15 Dec15 December 06:51

    Do you know if there are likely to be any issues Raffles if you’ve had any of the Tesco MasterCard’s in the recent past and cancelled?

    • harry says:
      15 Dec15 December 06:55

      You’re allowed to take out this card IN ADDITION to holding an existing Tesco M/C, so you won’t run into any issues.

      Ie we can ALL apply for it on top of any existing Tesco card. They describe it as a ‘purchase card’ for some reason, maybe Raffles can comment.

      • Rob says:
        15 Dec15 December 08:44

        There are 4-5 different Tesco cards if you look on their site. All physically the same but the benefits differ – one has a low APR, one has a generous balance transfer deal, one (this one) has a generous deal on interest on new purchases etc.

  • Sideysid says:
    15 Dec15 December 06:53

    Off topic, has anyone sorted out the 20% Avios cc transfer bonus yet? My account is still showing a bonus of 480.

    • Dean says:
      15 Dec15 December 07:35

      Yeh mine too! But I received double aviois by mistake from tesco and they still haven’t taken my Avios for my inbound from my 241 redemption that I purchased over a month ago so don’t really want to push it!

      • Anon says:
        15 Dec15 December 10:35

        Raffles told me its a known issue which Tesco are working on, no need to phone BA/Tesco just yet.

        Speaking of which, I wish BA allow us to talk to people living in Britain (regardless of their ethnic origin)

  • Ola says:
    15 Dec15 December 07:38

    There also seem to be a targeted email campaign (see below) from Tesco Bank regarding the 1,000 bonus clubcard points for taking out their credit card as i received an email from them yesterday evening.

    Hi xxx,
    As a Clubcard customer, we thought you might enjoy the benefits of our No Balance Transfer Fee or Purchases Credit Card.
    If you have balances on other credit cards and you’re paying interest, then our No Balance Transfer Fee card could help you to reduce your balance with no interest to pay for the first 21 months.
    Or, if you’re looking at a bigger purchase, like a holiday, our Purchases card could help to spread the cost with no interest to pay for the first 21 months.
    Whichever card you choose, you’ll earn Clubcard points, plus all your usual points when you shop at Tesco. Plus, if you apply by 24th January 2016 using the link below, are accepted, and make a balance transfer or purchase within the first two months, you’ll collect 1,000 extra Clubcard points. See below for additional terms and conditions.

    Did anyone else receive this email?

  • Rob says:
    15 Dec15 December 08:45

    Someone else mentioned this to me recently, annoying.

  • Sanjay says:
    15 Dec15 December 13:35

    Pretty bad idea to sign up to a credit card in my opinion purely for it’s sign up bonus. If you do this more than a few times in a year, it will have a detrimental effect on your credit rating and your ability to get the best mortgage deals on the market. Lenders also look at your spending patterns and how you use credit in much more detail these days.

  • Cameron says:
    15 Dec15 December 15:23

    Hi, would you recommend this as the best mastercard for collecting Avios though? I use amex usually but on occasions when they don’t accept amex is this the best alternative? Thanks!

  • Andrew H says:
    15 Dec15 December 20:47

    Raffles, thanks for the mention. As soon as I am back in the land of the gainfully employed,I will be getting this card (providing the offer is still running).

    • harry says:
      15 Dec15 December 21:35

      They don’t really have a good way to check your earnings – so your credit history is more important than anything else, then they check your declared income meets the hurdle/criterion required, so no point applying if you’ll be declaring lower.

  • Andrew H says:
    15 Dec15 December 21:14

    Off topic, is everyone aware of the Marriott tweeting promotion? I started doing it on Friday and I’m up to 550 points already.

    Just tweet once a day with a photo using the hashtags #summerself and #MRpoints and you earn 50 points. Or just retweet someone else’s. Make sure each tweet is 24 hours apart. You earn some bonus points at the start when you connect your social media profiles.

    It’s a long haul to earning enough points for a stay – you’d have to tweet every day for five months to earn enough points for a 7500 Category 1 hotel – but there is very little effort involved, so why not?

    There is a thread about it on Flyertalk: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/1705324-earn-marriott-rewards-points-tweeting-posting-instagram.html

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