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Exclusive: Tesco Premium Credit Card launched this morning

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UPDATE – APRIL 2025:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

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.

Keep up to date with the latest UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

I was on my way to Starbucks with my little ‘un an hour ago when I got a call from Tesco Bank telling me that the Premium Credit Card was now open for applications.

I am dashing off to Heathrow in a few minutes so a full review will have to wait until Monday.

You can check out the details here.  The representative APR is 56.5% variable, including the fee, assuming a £1200 credit limit.

Tesco Premium credit card

I am interested in your thoughts.

It is not as bad as we first thought, but it is still not great:

5,000 bonus points for spending £5,000 per year IN TESCO is very tough

The ‘£50 off a Club Europe flight’ voucher could be valuable but the code expires after two months

I haven’t looked at the small print of the travel insurance to see if it is comprehensive

The lack of a sign-up bonus means you might want to wait

I will ponder it over the weekend ….

There is one bit of good news though.  The British Airways £50 discount, and the various mentions of Avios and Flying Club miles on the card website, should put to rest any thoughts that Tesco Clubcard will be withdrawing from Avios.

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earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 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

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher 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

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

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

Capital on Tap Visa

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

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

Category

Tesco Clubcard

Comments (59)

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

  • GaryC says:
    4 Jun4 June 19:11

    I spend a lot at tesco – groceries, gift cards, wine, tesco direct – probably £10-15k per annum. I think the card makes a lot of sense with this sort of spend, particularly as the MasterCard rate for places which don’t take Amex is pretty good.

    • harry says:
      5 Jun5 June 20:55

      Really? Going for £10K spend and making it look good (your Tesco points will be a fair bit lower than this because of the rounding down rule), you might target 10,000 points + 5,000 bonus = 15,000 Tesco points. (Just looking at your Premium card points, because you would earn your additional 10,000 ‘Clubcard points’ anyway).

      15,000 points on Premium card that have cost you a focused spend at Tesco (perhaps denying you savings elsewhere, but I’ll ignore that) & the £150 card fee, you get travel insurance included in that £150 which may carry a value for you but I’ll assume the insurance is a ‘nice to have’ but otherwise valueless.

      You pay £150, you get 15,000 Clubcard points = 36,000 Avios = £360 @ 1p (many would give a harsher valuation but we’ll stick with 1p).

      Your net ‘profit’ for focusing £10,000 of spend through Tesco Premium card is £360 minus £150 = +£210.

      If you had used your basic free [£1 = 1 MR point] Amex card instead, you’d have earned 10,000 MR points (=£100) so you might think you’re doing OK with the Tesco card. £110 better?

      However, by doing the simplest of churns, ie 2 x Gold cards (‘his & hers’) per annum, with the same spend to hit bonus targets, you’d have earned an extra 2x 9,000 (referrer) + 2x 22,000 MR points = 62,000 MR points (= £620).

      Suddenly the Tesco Premium card doesn’t look so good.

      Perhaps you are a big spender and could do the Tesco Premium card spend AND the churning. Fine.

      But maybe you have a 2 point Amex card (such as my BMI Diamond Club card or the Lloyds 2 point card [first 6 months]).

      My £10,000 spend in Tesco gets me 20,000 MR points (= £200) vs your £210 ‘profit’. Nothing in it.

      Except I am free to shop wherever I like (that takes Amex) and not ‘tied into’ spending £200 a week at Tesco.

      I guess the arguments could be made about the insurance having a real value etc, but – without a decent starting bonus (7,500-10,000 Tesco clubcard points) – the Premium card is a ‘miss’ for me, a complete non-starter given the spend you need to send Tesco’s way and what looks like fairly paltry rewards.

      • Genghis says:
        5 Jun5 June 21:57

        Good arguments Harry

      • harry says:
        5 Jun5 June 23:15

        Hard to argue with a genuine 3x, eg Eurotunnel.

        If there were a PFS (petrol/ diesel) near us, that would help change my mind – there isn’t.

        Main exclusions unfortunately include Paypoint:
        [7.Points will not be awarded for non-qualifying products, including tobacco or tobacco related products, lottery, stamps, prescription medicines, infant formulae milk, Tesco Gift Cards, saving stamps, in store concessions, Paypoint payments or for purchases of some Tesco Bank products. Other products may also be excluded from the scheme at the discretion of Tesco.]

        But most giftcards are allowed.

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