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12,000 Avios (5,000 Clubcard points) for Tesco Life Insurance is back

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It’s back – earn 5,000 Tesco Clubcard points when you take out Tesco Life Insurance.

Six years ago, Tesco Life Insurance was a licence to print Avios (or BA Miles, as they were then). You got 4,500 Clubcard points per policy, you could take out as many policies as you wanted, and you only needed to make one £5 payment before you received the points. 

The offer today has changed considerably, although it still lets you buy Avios points at 0.5p each.  Note, though, that you no longer get all the points upfront. You will be waiting a year to get the full lot.

You are also now banned from taking out this deal if you have cancelled a Tesco Life Insurance policy in the last 12 months.  It doesn’t stop your partner signing up. You could also sign up for Tesco Critical Illness or Tesco Mortgage Protection cover if you are blocked from the life insurance deal.

And here are the key things you need to know:

The minimum premium is £5 per month, so £60 over the year

If you are over 50 Tesco will steer you towards their separate over-50’s policy here which also offers 5,000 Clubcard points

The 5,000 Clubcard points are awarded in quarterly chunks of 1,250 points, with the first batch awarded after you have paid three premiums

You must be over 18 and a UK resident

Maximum two applications per household – so they are happy for you and your partner to both apply. Note that the points will only be issued to a Clubcard in the same name as the policy holder, though, so you would both need your own Clubcard.

You may be asked to go for a medical before you policy is accepted if you disclose any existing health conditions. Even if you disclose no previous health issues, you may be randomly selected to attend a medical.

There is quite a bit of paperwork associated with this promotion.

The application form is here and you need to use code L5000B when applying.

Enter £5 per month as the amount you want to pay, and select a short period of, say, 5 years for the policy. You can still cancel at any time. However, the price is locked in for the period you select.

You will see from the Tesco website that the same 5,000 Clubcard points offer is also available for Tesco Critical Illness cover and Tesco Mortgage Protection. The Critical Illness policy has a higher risk of being called in for a medical before they will offer coverage – I would stick with life insurance unless you are blocked under the ’12 months from cancelling last time’ rule.

All in all, it is not a bad deal, although far from the bonanza it was in the past.  You will receive (5,000 x 2.4 =) 12,000 Avios for your £60 of premiums. 0.5p per Avios is pretty good deal. The downside is the paperwork you need to complete, of course.

If you collect Virgin Flying Club miles, your 5,000 points would get you 12,500 miles.

The closing date for applications under this offer is 1st December.


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 (25)

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

  • cheekychappie says:

    Anybody got a decent handle on when many of us are likely to have cancelled policies last time around?

    This article https://headforpoints.com/2013/08/19/12000-avios-12500-flying-club-miles-with-tesco-life-insurance-back-again/ is dated 19 August 2013 so I reckon most of us will be in the clear. If it WAS indeed the last time Tesco ran the promotion.

    • Jason says:

      I cancelled early this year. We both applied for 2 policies, got accepted along with the bonuses as well.
      I’ll see if the points post, if they don’t I’ll cancel the policy

      • Tilly71 says:

        Tesco usually will accept you for most things like this first then not pay out the points when required if you didn’t meet their terms. You will have to wait three full months from now to find out if they pay out, I suppose it’s OK if you willing to lose £15 on a chance.

  • cheekychappie says:

    I’ve got a mortgage renewal coming up so I could do without the 2 x credit checks until after that is sorted. Not helpful to the credit score.

    I reckon I will have cancelled roughly August/ September 2014 so we might as well hang on a couple of months.

    • Dom says:

      In same situation. I thought life insurance was month by month policy therefore no credit? Am I wrong?

      • cheekychappie says:

        There will invariably be a credit check for life & house ins policies, finance provided – or not..

        Not sure why, to be honest. Waste of their time when there’s no finance and you should in any case avoid any insurance policy that involves a finance agreement.

  • James67 says:

    Does the over 50s policy also attract the 5k points? Just wondering if I can have parents sign up. Alsi, can one individual sign up for both mtg protection and life policy?

    • Liz says:

      Yes it does but the minimum premium is £7 for the over 50’s policy

      • James67 says:

        Thanks Liz, that makes it 0.7ppavios then so will give it a miss as I’m usually only buying at <0.6p.

        • Liz says:

          I am over 50 (not by too much) and applied for the normal policy @ £5 per month.

  • Tom says:

    OT – The BA Amex card – Do Avios transfer automatically to your BAEC account or do you need to trigger manually? Do you receive extra Avios for supp card holders (as per the old Amex Gold offer)?

    • Alan says:

      With the BA Amex they transfer across automatically (unlike Gold or Plat MR cards where you obviously have a choice of partner redemptions and therefore have to initiate them manually).

      Earning rates for the main and additional cardholders are the same.

    • nick says:

      They transfer automatically on a monthly basis unless the name on your amex account doesn’t match the name on your ba account. They can’t transfer the points or the 241 if the banned don’t match. Irritatingly, the date of transfer is not aligned to your credit card statement date.

  • erico1875 says:

    Mine transfer automatically

  • Oliver says:

    I missed this last time but got it now 😀

  • Nick says:

    Does anyone know of any other ways of getting Avios via any other companies for life insurance policies? I cancelled my Tesco life insurance last month with Tesco after last years offer.

  • doog1000 says:

    Obviously there are separate policies all earning 5000 points – can you say take mortgage cover and critical illness cover for the same person and club card as this would be under the two per household requirement?

    • cheekychappie says:

      Not really. You need to find a second person. Eg your mum would do fine, she can use your address for correspondence if she feels like it. You can get her a clubcard account in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. You might even pay for her insurance yourself as a kind gesture.

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