Is Avios Recycling a decent way of earning points?

It is over a year since I last looked at Avios Recycling, so I thought it was worth revisiting it again to see if it offers a decent way of earning extra Avios points.

The site is run on behalf of Avios by a firm called Anovo, who operate a number of gadget recycling businesses including Weebuy. Initially only accepting old mobile phones, they now accept digital cameras, consoles, laptops, MP3 players, sat navs and tablet PC’s.

In theory, these services SHOULD be a good deal for you. Why? Because Anovo presumably buys Avios from avios.com at a highly discounted rate (lets say 0.5p per Avios) and you value them more highly. In a perfect world, this service should thefore be a better deal than taking cash from a competing recycling service.

In reality, it didn’t work like that.

You should never do a trade like this before looking at the excellent Mobile Valuer site, run in conjunction with MoneySavingExpert. Here are a few tests I did:

Blackberry Curve 8520 – £37.25 from MobileCashMate or 3,000 Avios (so 1.24p per Avios)

Apple iPhone 4S 16gb – £210 from RPC Recycle or 20,000 Avios (so 1.05p per Avios)

Canon IXUS 900 Ti camera – £24.50 from Asda or 2,150 Avios (so 1.14p per Avios)

These are not terrible results, by any means – the effective price per Avios is less than you would pay if you bought them from avios.com directly. However, I am not a buyer unless the price drops below 0.75p per Avios, because I know at that level that I will always come out ahead.

It will, at the end of the day, depend on how much you need the Avios points as to whether Avios Reycling is worth a look. And, of course, it depends on how you plan to use them – someone who redeems for ‘Upgrade Using Avios’ is likely to value them more highly than someone who uses 100,000 outright, without a 2-4-1 voucher, to fly to San Francisco in Club World for example.

My old post on ‘What Is An Avios Point Worth? is here.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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 Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

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 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

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.