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Tesco Visa gift cards DO now qualify for 150 bonus Clubcard points on £50 spend

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For a surprisingly long time now (over six months) Tesco has been offering 150 bonus Clubcard points when you spend £50 on gift cards in-store.

Here is the Tesco webpage which outlines the deal and here is one of my earlier articles on it.

There were two exceptions to which gift cards counted for this promotion. You were not allowed to buy Tesco gift cards (makes sense!) and you were not allowed to buy Visa debit cards.

Tesco has now changed the rules. The Visa debit cards DO now count for the 150 bonus Clubcard points bonus.

In-store signage has not been changed so you will still see notices showing that they do not count. However, it is on the Tesco web site. Go here and scroll down to the section on Visa gift cards, and you will see:

Do I get Clubcard points when I buy a Visa Gift Card?

If you’re a Clubcard customer, you’ll earn 150 Clubcard points for every £50 you spend in a single transaction on Branded Gift Cards (including the Visa branded Cards) at the time of purchase.

I have done a test purchase this morning at Canary Wharf and can confirm that it works. 150 Clubcard points were showing on my receipt.

Visa gift cards come with a huge list of terms, conditions and fees. However, there are only four things you need to know:

A £25 card carries a £2.95 fee, a £50 card carries a £3.95 fee

Tesco limits you to £2,000 of purchases per year (not sure how this is tracked) and 5 cards per transaction

You need to register the card before you can use online or by phone, presumably to put a name on file to match up with the card details the retailer enters, but for face to face transactions it can be used immediately. (When you have registered one card, adding additional cards is very quick and painless.)

It is treated as a debit card when you use it

1 hour after buying a £50 card, I was able to use it to pay £50 off my tax bill and it was treated as a debit card with no fee.

How can I benefit from this?

Let’s assume that you have payments for which debit cards are accepted but credit cards or Amex cards are not.

When you buy a £50 Visa debit card, the maths looks like this:

Fee paid: £3.95

Avios points earned from Tesco: 150 Clubcard points = 360 Avios

Avios points earned from BA Premium Plus (as eg): £54 spend = 81 Avios

Total Avios points earned = 441 Avios, or 0.895p per Avios

This is not a bad deal. However, there is an extra benefit – you can use it to put additional spend through whatever American Express card you use in Tesco, which may help you hit a target for a sign-up bonus.

You would also get an even better deal if you saved the Clubcard vouchers for an Avios (or indeed Virgin Flying Club) conversion promotion.

There may be a better deal as well

Reader Andrew emailed me to say that Tesco is now selling a different sort of Visa gift card. This one is designed exclusively for online shopping.

The pack contains an authorisation number which you input into a website after purchase. You then receive a ‘virtual’ credit card number which can be used online.

Andrew says that these cards do NOT come with a purchase fee! A £25 Visa debit card costs just £25, which you can pay with your Amex in Tesco! He said that he had managed to successfully pay part of his council tax bill online using one.

I have tried to track down one of these ‘virtual’ cards to test it, but I can’t find them. However, I have only been in a couple of Metro stores. Keep an eye out for these ‘virtual’ gift cards next time you are in Tesco.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 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

Get 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

30,000 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 30,000 Avios. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 80,000 Avios! The spend requirement is changed to £10,000 in six months for this offer. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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The Platinum Card from American Express

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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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 9th December 2024, there are EXCLUSIVE sign-up offers for our readers on the two Capital on Tap small business Visa cards. You can earn 20,000 points on the Business Rewards card and 30,000 points on the new Pro card. Click here to apply.

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Capital on Tap Pro Visa

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There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

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

50,000 points when you sign-up 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.

Category

Tesco Clubcard

Comments (133)

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

  • Squillion says:
    1 May1 May 17:40

    So far the points from yesterday have not posted to my Clubcard a/c. Seems a bit slow, the points would normally be there within 24 hours. Can others kindly confirm that the points on the till receipt are making it to their CC a/cs?

    • Rocky says:
      1 May1 May 18:26

      I’m still waiting for my points to post it usually takes about 48 hours from past experience

    • jonny says:
      3 May3 May 23:23

      yes, I got mine, took a day or two.

  • Steve says:
    3 May3 May 00:14

    I went to the nearest big Tesco to work on my way home tonight – they only had 1 £50 card, but had 17 £25 cards.
    Through the til they went, 1200 cc points plus another 893 miles for using my Amex 🙂
    And there was a nice council tax bill waiting for me when I walked through my door!

    Surprisingly enough though, there was space on the rack for another 80 or so cards that had obviously been taken already.

    • Steve says:
      3 May3 May 00:41

      ~Just realised that after 2 of the cards got rejected (1 x £50 and 1 x £25) I wasn’t charged for them….. but the lady gave them to me anyway!………… not quite sure what I’m meant to do with them now :S

  • Singing Dwarf says:
    3 May3 May 10:21

    Six £25 cards obtained from my local Tesco yesterday and a bonus 450 points showing on the till receipt – neither those nor the ‘standard’ points for the remainder of the shop credited to my account online yet though. Successfully managed to use a £12 off an £80 shop voucher that Tesco kindly sent me in the post the same day.

    Scottish Power see these cards as credit cards and so want to apply a credit card surcharge for paying the bill via this means. Neither have I been able to fund my Tesco Savings account via the debit card method – the transaction shows as declined on the 3Vprepaid website.

    It looks as though I will be able to successfully fund a sharedealing account using the prepaid card (using it as a debit card), as the pre-authorisation £1 charge was approved by 3Vpreapid.

    • Simon says:
      3 May3 May 10:54

      In my experience all in-store Tesco transactions take 2 days to show on your account, I got 2 cards on 1st and they showed on my account online on the 3rd.

  • K SMITH says:
    3 May3 May 11:07

    I bought 4 £25 cards today used 2 towards Council Tax, wanted to use the others for T-mobile but can’t find CVV2 number, tried last 3 of activation code and last 3 of pin, no use. Can anyone help.Thanks

    • Roger says:
      3 May3 May 11:12

      The CVV2 number on the Visa gift cards is the 3-digit number to the right of the signature strip. It worked for me with HMRC a few moments agio.

      (With the 3V certificates, the CVV2 number is e-mailed on registration of the card.)

      • K SMITH says:
        3 May3 May 11:20

        Thank you very much, hadn’t checked email! Done now.
        Thanks for quick response.

  • Michelle says:
    5 May5 May 17:51

    I’m having trouble paying my water bill online as its asking for the name on the card…so tried my council tax bill…also asks for name on card, PLUS the postcode that the card is registered to, does that mean i cannot use it for either bill 🙁 bought £100 worth to try out, then wanted to pay a couple more hundred on CT bill

    • James Ward says:
      5 May5 May 19:17

      I paid off a chunk of my council tax putting my name and postcode where requested on the card details paid. It worked just fine. Have you tried doing this with your bills? It’ll probably just work.

    • Rob says:
      5 May5 May 20:12

      Works fine. When you register the 3V card, you need to give your name, address and postcode. Use the same details when you make your payment and it will be fine.

      • Alan says:
        5 May5 May 20:14

        I’ve managed Sky OK but Scottish Gas didn’t seem to like it. Will try again another day – they offer Visa, Visa Debit, Visa Delta all as options. First two were rejected and by the third one it said I could only try three payment attempts a day. May just use the card elsewhere.

      • Michelle says:
        5 May5 May 20:33

        Thanks for that raffles

  • Michelle says:
    5 May5 May 20:31

    Thank you i managed to pay 4 x £25 off my council tax, i already had an account with 3V so went and double checked my addy ect was correct, which it was and used them for the CT 🙂 going to pay more off next week

  • Joe says:
    6 May6 May 12:19

    Does anyone know, if you buy the card with your Tesco Clubcard Credit Card do you just still get the basic 150 points, or do you get the 4x bonus?

    • Scott says:
      7 May7 May 20:46

      I would assume you get only the 150 bonus points as you get 0 points for the £50 spend in the first place.

      • Alan says:
        7 May7 May 20:55

        Indeed so. I just bought one of the £50 VISA cards (no 3V restocking, perhaps as expected, and had a discount voucher to use!)
        Grocery spend = £35.05
        £50 VISA card + £3.95 fee = £53.95
        Grand total = £89.
        ‘Tesco Clubcard Qualifying Spend’ = £35.05 – ie neither the VISA card nor the fee are eligible (but obviously you do get the 150 bonus points).
        However despite not qualifying for Clubcard spend it did count for my “save £7 when you spend £50) voucher plus I still received a 10p off fuel token for spending >£60 🙂

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