Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get £20 for free when you load £50 on a Moneycorp prepaid Mastercard

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Foreign exchange group Moneycorp, who you will be familiar with if you travel from Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Southend or Bristol on a regular basis, has launched a new prepaid explorer Mastercard for holidaymakers.

As a special offer, Moneycorp is offering a £20 bonus to new customers who order a card and load it with at least £50.

Full details are here.  This deal is branded as a Facebook offer because it is primarily being promoted on there. Moneycorp has confirmed to me in writing that anyone who applies via this link will definitely get the bonus despite not clicking through from Facebook.

The explorer Mastercard can be operated in £ or six foreign currencies:

  • Pound Sterling
  • Euros
  • US Dollars
  • Australian Dollars
  • New Zealand Dollars
  • Canadian Dollars
  • South African Rand

If you have a balance remaining on the card after your trip, you can convert it into a different currency in preparation for your next trip.

There are no foreign exchange fees when using the card as long as you are buying something in the same currency which is loaded to your card.

The full list of fees which do apply are here.  You will not incur any fees if you do not use the card at an ATM, use it in the UK, or use it in a different currency to the one loaded on the card.  There is no fee to order the card.

The exchange rate used to load the card is the same as that used by Moneycorp for online foreign currency orders.  In a test yesterday it was offering me €1.1565 per £1.

Some people like the security of prepaid travel money debit cards.  Regular readers of Head for Points will know that I am personally not a fan because it is an extra level of complexity over using your standard credit or debit card.  However, the incentive of a free £20 credit for ordering a £50 card means that this is a good opportunity to give them a try.

You must be a UK resident aged 18+ to apply and you can only order one card per person.  Cards take 7-10 days to arrive.  You can change the PIN at any UK ATM.

The ‘free £20’ offer is available for applications until 31st August.  The application page is here.

PS.  The small print says that the £20 free credit may take up to 90 days to be added to your card, so do not expect it immediately


best travel rewards credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2024 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 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

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.

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

Huge 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 Business Rewards Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) and NO FX fees 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

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

Get 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month* Read our full review

Comments (123)

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

  • harry says:

    I think I could live with 3% quite happily if I’m getting £20 free (Pay at merchants (e.g. shops, restaurants and online) – UK – 3%)

    Amazon giftcard?

    • Nick says:

      Sorry but O:T, I’ve checked to Tesco stores in the last few days, one being in Bicester and the largest in the UK (apparently) for Amazon gift cards but have found none. Anyone else having problems finding them?

      • Guesswho2000 says:

        Afaik, Amazon gift cards have never been available in Tesco?

        • Fenny says:

          Definitely not available, or the extra club card points would go through the roof.

          • Nick says:

            Thanks. I bought some in 2014 but it must of been a different shop.

          • Fenny says:

            Sainsburys sell them. But you can’t use any “Save X on Y spend” vouchers with them. I’ve seen them in other places, too. But if I need Amazon vouchers, I just order them online direct, because there never seems to be any way of reducing the price of the physical versions.

          • Genghis says:

            Morrisons?

          • harry says:

            Indeed Morrisons for free petrol, RIP

          • Mr Dee says:

            YES AT MORRISONS, Tesco have never stocked them or at least not in the past few years, I expect it to change in the future however.

            The petrol vouchers that has now ended meant up to 10% back through fuel depending on the amount of fuel you brought but now its changed to points so you effectively get 2500 points (£2.50) for every £100!

          • Genghis says:

            Inside info on Tesco stocking Amazon vouchers?

      • Mr Dee says:

        Morrisons give 2.5% back in points so it’s worth it if buying a lot

      • World Traveller says:

        In the last couple of years I’ve only ever seen Amazon giftcards in Boots and Sainsburys.

        • Scallder says:

          Now Boots is one gift card you can get in Tesco…

        • Sarah Murray says:

          BP had Amazon £50 gift cards when Amex had £5 off £50 spend at BP (multi-use..)

      • Andrew says:

        Buy them through an employer’s scheme?

        Mine is currently only offering a miserly 1% “WOW” points (worth 1p each) at the moment (with a 50p per order debit card charge) – although they have been up to 3% “WOW” in the past. It’s not so bad if you buy them at the same time as Boots (8% “WOWS”), Tesco (4% “WOW”) or M&S (7% WOW”.

        When Virgin were running their “Little Red” domestic flights, I was buying their gift cards with “4% WOW” using my Diamond Club Visa (1 Avios per £1) with a 1.5% surcharge. It was a bit of a faff booking flights by phone rather than on-line. As the flights were on expenses, I’d then get the full invoice value back.

        The average flight cost £150
        Pay £152.25
        Earn 152 Avios
        Earn 600 “WOW” points
        Earn 2000 Virgin Miles

        I make that as Virgin paying me 2.5p per Avios.

  • John says:

    ATM fee £1.50, so could you just load it with £51.50, wait a while and then withdraw £70 from an ATM?

    • harry says:

      That’s exactly how it worked last time round – there was a very similar card through avios.com about 2 years ago.

      Just free money. Small risk as it’ll come by post & could get pinched by Fingers the postman, but I guess that’s their risk not yours.

    • Alan says:

      Looks like only whole pounds allowed so £52 needs to go on it, still £2 to get £20 is still a decent deal!

  • Waribai says:

    My thoughts……….along with everyone else up at 6:30 on a Sunday too! Surely they must be guarding against this!

    • harry says:

      Not really. They have a budget to acquire new customers. It will be a way short of £20 each. For a start, some people will never collect the £20. Then the 3% or ATM fee etc reduces the net cost further. Some people won’t ever even use the initial £50 and over time Moneycorp will erode that in further fees. And you’ll get a few emails from Moneycorp about their other services, some of which some of us will take up.

      So there is no such thing as ‘abuse’ of this offer, even if you get one each for all the family. The costs are built in already.

      Indeed, if (say) there are an extra 250 cards sold this week thanks to HFP, the bods in Marketing will be patting themselves on the back thinking what a great success – they’re hitting their recruitment targets and by the way most of us are from a highly desirable, difficult to target demographic – so there’s high quality included.

      • Erico1875 says:

        Its a while since iv been called “highly desirable”

      • Mr Dee says:

        Money Corp seem to know what they are doing and will have an idea of how much a customer is worth to them in the long term.

  • vol says:

    Thanks Raffles

    Just seen some small print – this offer is not available to those who already hold a moneycorp money transfer account.

    Moneysupermarket.com are also doing a £750 + free £51 load with the same Ts and Cs

    • harry says:

      MasterCard prepaid card from FairFX – very similar offer through one of the rags, I saw yesterday

    • Raffles says:

      Yes, I saw that – but £20 on £50 seemed more attractive!

  • Penfold says:

    Don’t think it’s mentioned in the article… I believe the card doubles up as a loyalty card type thing and gets you an enhanced rate at their bureaux in the future, even for buying notes rather than loading the card.

  • Duarte says:

    Can we pay with Amex?

  • Sandgrounder says:

    OT: Revolut now accept Visa and MC for topups, with a 1% fee. Amex support not available ‘just yet’. Its not a manufactured spend opportunity for most of us with a 1% fee, but could be a good way to earn points cheaply on foreign spend due to the excellent rates offered.

    • Joe says:

      Has anyone tried this yet and seen whether the charge hits your card as a purchase or a cash advance?

      • Raffles says:

        Moneycorp in branch used to treat Amex as a purchase but the last report I saw said that had changed. No definitive answer.

        • Genghis says:

          I think I’ll wait and let some pioneers report back. Who’s taken / taking one for the team?

      • Alan says:

        Revolut support just confirmed to me that it would be charged to the credit card as a purchase. No timescale yet for Amex acceptance.

        • Genghis says:

          Good info Alan. I ordered my Revolut card this morning.

          • Alan says:

            I found them much more efficient than Supercard at posting things out – helpful customer support chat too, nice packaging, card support NFC, decent app – obviously need to preplan slightly more in that you need to preload with currency and 1% fee on purchases if using credit card but in many respects a slicker experience than Supercard.

          • Genghis says:

            I’ve given up on Supercard. No response to them blocking my card a couple of weeks ago despite some chasers. Useless.

          • Brian W says:

            +1

            Both wife and I have Revolut cards and they worked flawlessly in Florida at the start of the month. Easily 150+ transactions over the fortnight and never declined once. It’s a great feature that you can instantly swap money from one card to the other as well with the app. It worked perfectly as well in Paris in June also. I took my Supercard to the States and used it once to test that it worked properly but with all the silly additional amounts for the slight change in rates being reported I just stuck to Revolut. As Alan says, the app is decent as well. Solid product compared to others.

    • Alan says:

      Yep, mentioned this in Bits yesterday – given £500/mo allowed for ATM withdrawals it could be a good option. It would likely go through as a purchase although haven’t tried it yet myself.

  • Sunny says:

    Does applying for these prepaid cards leave a hard search on your credit file? I’d think not since you’re not borrowing but I’m not sure.

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

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.