Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

150 Tesco Clubcard points (360 Avios) for buying a £50 gift card

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Here is a very interesting Tesco promotion …..

This page on the Tesco website shows you the wide range of gift cards you can buy in Tesco stores.  They cover a huge range of outlets – Next, House of Fraser, Starbucks, Pizza Express, Cineworld, Facebook, B&Q, Comet, Toys R Us and many more.

In the small print on this page, it says:

150 Clubcard points awarded when you spend £50 on selected gift cards in store, excluding Tesco Gift Cards and Visa branded cards. Points will appear on your next available Clubcard Statement.

Now this is not at all bad.  Giftcards usually have a long expiry date, so you have plenty of time to use them up.  We go through about £50 a month at Pizza Express alone, for example, and could easily divert some spend into House of Fraser.  And we have a Starbucks literally on the corner of our road!

The B&Q one has an extra advantage, because B&Q is (I think) the last major UK chain that does not accept Amex.  Buying a B&Q gift card at Tesco has always been a roundabout way of using an Amex card for B&Q spend, and now it becomes increasingly attractive.

Remember that this is the last quarter that you can receive 2,000 bonus Avios for converting £6.50 of Tesco vouchers into Avios which makes those 150 bonus points even more attractive.

If you have had a Tesco money-off coupon through the post recently (£5 off £50 spend for example) you may find that it also works on gift card purchases, although I don’t think it is meant to.  You will also receive standard Clubcard points for your purchase, albeit at the reduced rate of 1 Clubcard point per £4 spent on gift cards.

It is worth adding that not of all of these gift cards activate immediately.  Some do, but some – eg Argos – take 2-3 days to go live.  You cannot, therefore, necessarily walk into a Tesco, buy a gift card and spend it 10 minutes later in another shop.  It works most of the time, but not all the time.


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 (9)

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

  • ups says:

    Isn’t there a fee for these gift cards?

  • Gibraltar Airport Flyer says:

    Gift cards can also sometimes be a good way of meeting spend requirments for credit card signup bonuses in a short space of time. Or just to advance more of your spending into any initial period where a creditcard earns at a higher rate. [Assuming of course, that you will/do actually shop wherever you are getting the gift card for!]

    • John says:

      You can also top up people’s Oyster cards, and buy vouchers on eBay , such as for Amazon, which you can usually get at a 5% discount or so. A lot of non-perishable groceries are available from Amazon, if you have met your Tesco spending requirements.

  • Badger says:

    Waterstones will exchange a book token for waterstones gift card, which you can use on their website and many of the prices match amazon. May be of use to some!

  • Mariusz says:

    Do you know if someone could exchange their clubcard points just by typing my Membership no?Both accounts(ba and tesco clubcard are in different names and addresses.

    • Raffles says:

      No. Usually needs matching surname and address, although sometimes it goes through on just one of the two matching. If you could do what you suggested, people would be buying vouchers on ebay like crazy.

  • Mariusz says:

    thanks Raffles. I think I’ve just wasted £10 worth of clubcard points…

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.