Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

How to earn 7+ Avios per £1 at Next, via Directory and in-store

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For non-UK readers, Next is a hugely popular mid-market chain of clothing and homeware stores, possibly best known for the huge crowds which always attends its sales.

If you spend at Next, there are two ways of earning a lot of Avios points for your shopping.

Via Next Directory

Many people don’t know that you can pay off your Next Directory account using Next gift cards.  This page on the Next website explains how.

Next gift cards can be bought at Tesco.  They are one of the most common gift cards they sell – a tiny Tesco Express may only sell 3-4 gift cards but Next is often included.

As most Head for Points readers know, you earn 150 bonus Clubcard points for every £50 you spend on giftcards (excluding Tesco gift cards) in Tesco.  Their website confirms it here.

This means that you are earning (150 x 2.4 =) 360 Avios per £50 of gift cards you buy (7.2 Avios per £1).

If you have an Amex Gold, you would also earn an extra 1 point per £1.  Supermarket shopping in your first year earns 2 Amex points per £1 whilst Next usually earns 1 Amex point per £1.

You can overpay your Next bill to empty out each gift card in full.  The balance sits on your account as a credit.

Via Next shops

You can use the same method when purchasing good in-store at Next by buying gift cards from Tesco in advance.

That is a bit risky, of course, because you might get to Next only to find that they don’t have anything you want to buy!

If you have been a Next Directory customer for more than six months, there is an alternative.  You can ask for a Next Directory Card.  This allows you to buy items in-store and charge them to your Next Directory account – from where you can pay the bill at your convenience using Next gift cards from Tesco.

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.

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.

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.

Category

Tesco Clubcard

Comments (69)

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

  • Molefe jacob says:
    15 Feb15 February 10:15

    How to use my card and get points?

  • Molefe jacob says:
    15 Feb15 February 10:28

    How to get points? 🙂

  • Andy says:
    15 Feb15 February 09:32

    Im sorry for being stupid, but coukd someone break down the ‘This means that you are earning (150 x 2.4 =) 360 Avios per £50 of gift cards you buy (7.2 Avios per £1).’. Where does the 2.4 factor come from? Do you earn all the miles through Tesco. or get some from Next? Thanks!

    • Dave H says:
      15 Feb15 February 09:39

      For every £2.50 club card voucher you can exchange for 600 avois, so basically each club card point can classed as 2.4 avois

  • James Ward says:
    15 Feb15 February 09:48

    I still buy 3V vouchers at Tesco and use them to buy John Lewis vouchers which I spend at Waitrose.

    • Polly says:
      15 Feb15 February 10:27

      Janes are you getting 3v or the new pay.com cards? Am needing some v fast right now!

      • mark2 says:
        15 Feb15 February 10:53

        I think that the new cards are still a rumour, although allegedly they should be out this month. There are still a few of the old ones lurking, but you will be lucky to find any.

        • John says:
          15 Feb15 February 12:01

          The Tesco rack filler I talked to said that they’d been told that the new cards were due imminently. Presumably stores are clearing old stock they’ve searched out in store rooms (it not as if they can discount the old season cards when the ones with the new look arrive).

          Initially wondered why anyone would want to buy the 3V business at all. Presumably the profit margin in is breakages, ie balances not redeemed.

          But have come to the conclusion that, unlike in most cases, this rebranding may well be a success.

          A casual gift card purchaser looking at the rack may not grasp what 3V is supposed to mean. Pay.com is a lot clearer (am surprised the brand wasn’t already in use) and should increase sales, leading to wider availability for those of us who read this site.
          Imi

  • Georgie says:
    15 Feb15 February 14:33

    I do this as am a Next Directory Customer. Didn’t know about the account card. Last year I must have put £1000 through as bought an oak coffee trunk and nest of tables that came to £575 when refurbishing, plus other related spends.

    Maybe Raffles singled out Next as with the directory you can pay in gift cards before you trade them against spend. Not sure how many store accounts have that flexibility. You can use 3V as well if you can get hold of them, but it’s more faff. I’d call Next a very successful company by today’s standards, the stores always seem to have people in them who are buying which is more than you can say for a lot of other places.

  • oyster says:
    16 Feb16 February 07:59

    To clear things up regarding my opening comment on impact on credit ratings.

    If you are making a few credit applications in the same time window then this could mean you get rejections. It’s not hard to rack up enough applications to impact – couple of credit cards, new phone contract, switch a couple of bank accounts for incentives etc.

    The key question is this. Applying for a Next storecard might get accepted and allow you to grab a few hundred extra Avios, BUT if this is the credit application that tips your file over the edge then is it worth doing in place of an Amex Plat application that may net you nearly 100k Avios?

    • The_Real_A says:
      16 Feb16 February 09:51

      There is a relativity to your income and other debt also – If you earn £20k a year you might be concerned about a NEXT account, however if you pay higher rate tax its hardly a concern provided you manage your debts well.

  • Mick says:
    16 Feb16 February 20:02

    My local Tesco has 4 racks of cards and the Tesco in the next town is similar !! ( just outside Glasgow ) I will buy a couple if hundred tomorrow and test over the phone with council tax … And on line with Scottush Power … If it works then that’s a couple of grand towards the AMEX spend.

    Is there a difference when the new ones come along ?( fee/ spend restriction )

    • Mick says:
      16 Feb16 February 20:04

      I don’t suppose BA accepts them to pay off holidays? I have about 1.5 to pay ?

      • Rob says:
        16 Feb16 February 21:19

        Pretty sure BA Holidays does take them, I have covered this before. Do a search on the site.

    • mark2 says:
      16 Feb16 February 20:39

      no problem with Scottish Power; council tax varies.
      Also gift cards for supermarkets from HSV.

      • Mick says:
        17 Feb17 February 19:38

        Hey guys, just tested my first 3V cards, one on BA Holidays and the other on Scottish Power.

        BA went through fine with £24 out of the £25 going through. Scottish Power, I paid £24.64 (minus1.5%) but they never took the 1.5% still 36p on the card.

        Couple of questions:

        How long does the £1 take get refunded to the card by BA, theres another 56 of them to go through lol

        On BA website it states I need to travel with the cards I used to pay….. will I have to take all these cards and activation receipts with me, or will my BA Amex that I Used to pay the deposit be fine?

        How do i Transfer the change from the cards to Amazon?

        Thanks Guys

        • mark2 says:
          17 Feb17 February 19:50

          You should never pay the credit card surcharge as 3V are Visa debit cards; make sure you select this if asked.
          You send yourself a gift card from Amazon for the change (not sure about 36p but try it). You have to add the card to your Amazon account and then delete it after use. When the second email arrives click on the link and it will add it to your gift card account which will be used first when you make a purchase. You need to clear each card separately.

          • Mick says:
            17 Feb17 February 20:00

            HMM.. sounds a bit confusing ..but im sure il get it …… 3V also state that you can transfer funds back to your account using an IBAN number ?

            Do you know how long the BA refund takes?

          • Alan says:
            17 Feb17 February 20:06

            3V charge a fee for transfer out. Just buy a gift card from Amazon (with yourself as recipient), enter the card details as usual at checkout and then delete the card from your account once you’ve redeemed the gift cert 🙂

          • Mick says:
            17 Feb17 February 20:08

            Its asking for a claim code which include letters? Am I at the correct bit?…. sorry fr being a pain

          • Mick says:
            17 Feb17 February 20:29

            and Allan!

          • Mick says:
            17 Feb17 February 20:23

            GOT IT!!!!!! and it works perfectly…. thanks Mark for all your help !

  • Mick says:
    16 Feb16 February 21:44

    thanks guys i’l do a tester with a few tomorrow. ….. just when I thought the devaluation would close one door……. these cards open another …lol.

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