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Tesco replaces its Avios-earning gift card promo with …. the same thing

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If you didn’t see Shopper Points yesterday, you won’t know that Tesco has been acting oddly.

We mentioned last week that Sunday was the last day to earn 150 Clubcard points when spending £50 on gift cards at Tesco.

This very generous deal – which allowed you to pay for a lot of your non-Tesco spending using gift cards bought in Tesco – was rarely promoted and had run for around three years.  Given that these transferred into 360 Avios or 375 Virgin Flying Club miles, it was a good opportunity to pick up some miles.  Then, out of the blue, Tesco added an expiry date to the gift card promotion.

Cue a lot of panic buying of gift cards ….

And what did Tesco replace the offer with?

“Get 75 Clubcard points when spending £25 on gift cards.”

However this offer is for a three week period only.

The offer is cumulative.  This means you earn 75 Clubcard points when spending £25, 150 Clubcard points when spending £50, 225 Clubcard points when spending £75 and so on.

This offer ends on 16th October – but you never know, Tesco might just extend it or change the amount of Clubcard points yet again …..

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

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Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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British Airways American Express

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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

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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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.

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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

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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

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American Express Business Gold

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Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Tesco Clubcard, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (83)

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

  • Will Squires says:
    28 Sep28 September 14:27

    John Lewis gift cards in the Rugeley branch too, and Starbucks ones are back after a long absense, £20 value this time round.

    • Rob says:
      28 Sep28 September 14:51

      If JL / Waitrose turn up then I’m laughing!

      • Gavin says:
        28 Sep28 September 15:49

        Can JL be used in Waitrose?

        • harry1 says:
          28 Sep28 September 15:57

          yes

          actually I wonder if Tesco have found an elegant way around selling gcs branded ‘Waitrose’? It doesn’t matter so much with M&S (ie clothes as well) but Waitrose is nothing but a rival supermarket.

          Maybe the gcs just say ‘John Lewis’ but all the cards I have seen elsewhere say both names.

      • Will Squires says:
        28 Sep28 September 21:59

        Definitely just John Lewis branded.

        Argos/Homebase used to do a joint giftcard (when they were both part of Home Retail Group) but Argos couldn’t take Homebase solus ones and vice versa.

        I guess we’ll only know for sure when someone gives it a try…!

      • Barry says:
        1 Oct1 October 16:28

        Just bought a Tesco JL gift card – took it home so I could get a magnifying glass to read T&C’s – and guess what; can be used at Waitrose or JL

  • Kerry says:
    28 Sep28 September 15:29

    A word of caution for people … I have to purchase a new fridge/freezer and washing machine … got £1,200 worth of Currys gift cards from Tesco (£50 per card) – placed an order online via BA 365 shop … only to discover that Currys web site will only accept a total of 5 gift cards per transaction! Net result is that I had to go to my nearest store and place the order there as the items I wanted couldn’t be reserved for collection from store (so that I could pay in store). Still, at least I got the Clubcard points plus 1.5 Avios for using Amex to purchase them! In retrospect I think I could have got a digital card for the total amount – not sure how that works though!

    • TGLoyalty says:
      28 Sep28 September 22:18

      just to clarify i don’t mean 3 per trip just the SA needs to load 3x the GC at a time on to the new gift card

    • Mr Dee says:
      28 Sep28 September 22:56

      Alternatively buying something expensive and then asking them to refund, it will go onto 1 gift card

    • Genghis says:
      29 Sep29 September 00:11

      I’m sure I mentioned this just the other day…

    • Jon says:
      29 Sep29 September 15:22

      I had the same problem at Currys. They informed me I could only use 3 gift cards per purchase. It doesn’t state that anywhere on the gift card t&cs I could see. Luckily the sales assistant knew how to get around it – i.e. Buy a new gift card with three existing, then buy another combining the first new card with 2 other, etc, etc, until all my £25s were combined into 3 cards that could then be used to make the purchase!!

  • Chelseafi says:
    28 Sep28 September 15:45

    Does anyone know if the Spotify GC work on accounts, my son pays (or should I say I do) £5 a month with half price students Spotify premium, could I load the account with £25 to cover next 5 monthly DD?

    • bryan says:
      28 Sep28 September 17:17

      Yes you can do that. I loaded my account with £50 and it just moves your subscription end date back a month.

    • Mr Dee says:
      29 Sep29 September 17:43

      No it doesn’t work for student discounted subscriptions only people paying the full price.

  • Nick_C says:
    28 Sep28 September 17:11

    I can presumably buy £25 GCs for £23.75 using my TSB contactless debit cards (if I buy them one at a time)?

  • kevin says:
    28 Sep28 September 20:04

    anyone know if it’s possible to pay an hmrc tax bill with my tesco credit card AND get clubcard points from Tesco?

    Problem is that I am not buying a good or service, which may be the criteria required for clubcard points.

    • Mr Dee says:
      28 Sep28 September 20:47

      I would assume yes!

    • Rob says:
      28 Sep28 September 20:54

      I think HMRC is NOT treated as financial services.

      • kevin says:
        29 Sep29 September 19:53

        thanks Raffles.

        paying HMRC like paying a debt, so not a purchase, so (maybe) no clubcard points. I can’t find any definite answer through online searches. I did phone Tesco Bank. they were vague but eventually said paying HMRC wouldn’t qualify.

        I’m guessing they don’t have any firm rules about it. might just have to try it and see what happens. or test it out by paying a small amount of the tax first.

  • harry1 says:
    28 Sep28 September 20:13

    sure

  • Nick says:
    28 Sep28 September 20:43

    Sorry but O:T. Harry, do you know of any holiday extra’s tricks around at the moment? I need to book meet and greet for Birmingham airport for mid Oct. I know you have had tricks before.

    Thanks,
    Nick.

    • harry111 says:
      28 Sep28 September 21:49

      you have until 2 Oct to register for the Amex HEX 15% statement credit

      this combines with any other discount you can find

      best I got was moneysavingexpert com /travel /cheap-airport-parking

      2 weeks, ACE M&G, B’ham mid Oct, 20% discount, £82 – but you could leave it hanging for an hour, go back with same search & see if discount increases to 30% (as it often does with HEX)

      use the MSE link, go to payments, don’t pay, drop your booking into Amex link, same price, pay, you get discounted price & the 15% statement credit

      • Nick says:
        28 Sep28 September 22:03

        Thanks harry111. You’ve changed your name again????

        • harry1 says:
          28 Sep28 September 22:15

          not really – some other dude was posting as harry – then Wordpress was playing up

          but if that other guy wants harry I can be harry1 for now

          • Nick says:
            28 Sep28 September 22:23

            I did see something on another post so I did have some idea. harry1 sounds good to me. Thanks for your help.

          • Genghis says:
            29 Sep29 September 00:15

            Even if you were both called harry, I think we could tell you apart by your discernible writing style.

  • Mark says:
    1 Oct1 October 00:52

    Your image has a BHS card in it- you may want to find a new one.

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