Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

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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.

  • Liz says:

    OT For anyone who has taken up the recent Amex offer to add a supp cardholder to their Platinum account and receive 5k MR pts – how long does it take for the points to post? Thanks

    • Lawro says:

      I’ve had 3 different answers from Amex on this. Ranges from 31 days from applying for supp to within 60 days or within 90 days…

    • Tom says:

      Hi Liz, just wondering where you saw this? I don’t appear to have the same offer. Perhaps it’s targeted.

      • Nick says:

        Send Amex an email and ask if you’re targeted.

      • Rob says:

        Yes, it was emailed to those who were targetted. 3k for Gold.

        • Lawro says:

          Not only those who were targeted
          Emailed them along the lines that I had seen the promo and assumed I was eligible, simply wanted to confirm I would receive the bonus. Confirmation via secure message that I would.

      • Liz says:

        Yes we were targeted. Hubby upgraded from Gold to Platinum in his name only as we were only going to spend the £1k and cancel but he wasn’t charged the fee so we decided to keep it a bit longer. Then we got the email to add supps for 5k which we did!

    • LEE says:

      not had my points yet either

  • Nick says:

    Sorry for another OT comment, Does anyone know if the Tesco Home Insurance promo code H4000GR for 4000 CC points is still working?

    • Rob says:

      See the Tesco article today and scroll to the bottom – there is a link to an article. Running to 31st August but code changed IIRC.

  • James says:

    I’ve just brought one using my curve card. A 1.95% master card surcharge was added which I did not see as I had scrolled down to input the rest of my details. Still I’ll be £17 up for a few mins work (assuming I can get the £70 out of a British ATM).

    • Nick says:

      Exactly what I’m hoping. I used my IHG CC which means that I get 10000 IHG points even easier.

    • Genghis says:

      Good shout using Curve. Fees are added for cc regardless so might as well use Curve where bound to track as a purchase. £52 GBP card ordered.

    • Genghis says:

      Do you know if it’ll go through on your Plat cash back card as a purchase and therefore not engage cash advance charges and interest?

      • Alan says:

        Taking a chance – fingers-crossed!

        • Genghis says:

          Good luck. Please report back on what happens.

          • Alan says:

            Will do – showing up as TTT Moneycorp £53.01 so far in pending. Will see what happens in a couple of days when it moves to become an established transaction. May make an extra payment of £53.01 by debit card to my Amex account anyway in case they treat things like Halifax Clarity do when making cash transactions that would incur interest.

      • Genghis says:

        When I was playing around with MS opportunities last year I got charged a cash advance fee and interest on Diamond club visa for topping up a post office loading card. Win some you lose some.

    • Alan says:

      Yup I see what you mean, although have also got £10k IHG target and £7k Lloyds so it’s still useful. Of course it may not get anything, we will see!

  • KH says:

    Sounds like a good deal. Moneycorp charges £3 for inactivity per month (after 12 months) – is it possible to cancel the card before the 12 months? Can’t find it in the FAQ.

    • Genghis says:

      They charge £3 pcm if there’s balance on the card. No balance, no charge.

    • Rob says:

      The fee only applies if you have a balance, and I doubt you would leave a balance on it, untouched, for 12 months.

  • scott says:

    tried 3 times to apply but keep getting an error saying unable to verify my identity ? anyone else had this ,given up now £20 just not worth the bother

    • Genghis says:

      Delivery address same as billing address?

      • scott says:

        yes everything matched address on card etc tried amex and a visa debit no dice oh well no biggy

    • Marwan says:

      Same issue here. Not worth the hassle.

    • Johnnycl says:

      Had this too, couldn’t get it to work after trying several times.

    • kevino says:

      I too can not have my identity verified! Using various cards too.

    • RIccati says:

      They might be on the cheap and using the Equifax for ID checks (not both, Experian & Equifax).

      Not all lenders report to Equifax (AMEX and Barclaycard do) — might happen that Equifax does not have any recent searches to confirm identity linked to the address.

  • vol says:

    OT: Rob, I have studied your ‘move Avios from Iberia plus to BA’ at great length, however I am hitting a barrier.

    I have the link that says ‘transfer Avios’ so this is positive. But if I log in through BA, I only have the BA –> Iberia transfer, and if I log into Iberia Plus, I still only have the transfer option going in the direction of BA–> Iberia.

    I have a single Avios account, and a further problem. It’s only offering me Avios to BA.

    Avios = single account
    BA = primary account holder, household
    Iberia = single account

    Help? :-S

    • Genghis says:

      I think last time I did this I ‘pushed’ from Iberia to Avios and then ‘pulled’ from Avios to BAEC.

      • vol says:

        Hi Genghis, thanks but I don’t have the option of transferring Iberia—->Avios either. Just Iberia to BA. It’s a bit odd…

        • vol says:

          haha, I was in thick mode.

          I have done this now – push/pull method as described by Genghis above

          Thanks!

        • Genghis says:

          Try logging into Avios and pulling from IB to avios. I have that option on mine.

    • Rob says:

      The rules are:

      “Members of a Household Account under the Programmes may not use CMA other than (a) from a British Airways Executive Club Household Account to an individual account under the Avios Programme or the Iberia Plus Programme and (b) from the individual account under the Avios Programme to a Household Account under the British Airways Executive Programme. Any other Household account transaction will not be permitted under CMA.”

      What this means in English is:

      A member of a BA household account CAN move Avios to or from their Iberia or avios.com account (as long as the avios.com account is not a household one)
      A member of an avios.com household account CANNOT move Avios to or from BA or Iberia

      so you should be able to move from inside avios.com, as long as all the email, date of birth etc info matches.

  • Tom says:

    Thanks Rob (and Harry),

    I’ve just opened a moneycorp explorer card and a weswap card in both my name and my partners.

    £50.23 per explorer card to buy $65USD for our forthcoming US holiday, £50 exactly on each weswap card.

    That’s a £200.46 spend for a return of £276. Not bad for a few clicks of a mouse!

    Weswap confirmed instantly that we were both in the first one thousand applicants (therefore will receive the £18 bonus).

    Moneycorp warn it could take up to 90 days to add the credit which works for us with a holiday in late October.

    Another great day on head for points.

    • Fenny says:

      How did you get the confirmation of being in the first 1000? I’ve just signed up, but there’s nothing to indicate I’ll get the bonus.

      • Craig says:

        I’ve just signed up and am showing a promo load of £18 in activity. Not showing on the balance yet though.

        • Fenny says:

          I tried loading off my CC, but it kept looping round and not accepting the transaction. I’ve sent a bank transfer through, but that won’t show until tomorrow.

          I may drop them an email.

          • Fenny says:

            Ah! I see what the problem might be. You can load off debit cards, but not CC. When it said Visa or MC, I just assumed they meant CC. I so rarely use my debit card, I forget about it except for cash withdrawals.

      • Andrew says:

        + 1

        I signed up at 13:21 today and in the “My Latest Activities” section of the dashboard I can see “Promo load 18 GBP 31st Jul 2016, 12:21 pm”. So even though “My Travel Wallet” only shows a balance of 50 GBP I assume I should be good for the 18 GBP bonus.

        However, my wife signed up about 5 minutes after me, and she has no such message…

        So did anyone sign up significantly after 13:30 and receive confirmation that they were in the first 1000? And did confirmation come only through seeing the same message or…?

        Thanks!

        • Craig says:

          Just signed up now and it’s showing, she did use the Money Supermarket link didn’t she?

        • Mr Dee says:

          Just signed up and got the message but no balance update.

      • Tom says:

        Hi Fenny,
        Exactly as per Craig’s comment.

        • Fenny says:

          Ta. I’ve emailed them. Others after me seem to have been successful, so I’ll see what they say tomorrow.

  • Talay says:

    OT – is this revolut safe ?

    I see it as potentially ok for paying a bill as there is no warranty to the end product so no use to buy “stuff” you need credit card back up on.

    • Alan says:

      Definitely no section 75 protection with it, but personally I’d be using it more for ATM withdrawals or small purchases using contactless. With Supercard or Curve you’re likely not covered either given the charges go through them as intermediaries.

    • John says:

      Agree with Alan, you really shouldn’t use Revolut, Supercard or Curve etc for anything where there is any chance you’ll need to dispute the transaction later (for reasons other than the payment being recharged incorrectly to your real card).

      So only for things which you are about to consume or have already consumed and know the amount you are going to be charged.

      • Talay says:

        Tried to contact Revolut today and despite their advertising an online function until 6pm today, the whole thing, online and through the app was non functioning.

        Will try tomorrow.

        Probably won’t work for me as their THB FX rate is shockingly bad. Quoting 44.8603 today against an inward TT rate of 45.32625 which is just over 1% but that is a bank rate. At interbank rates, at nigh on flat 46, that is around 1.5% off.

        • Alan says:

          Online chat was OK for me midafternoon, that’s quite frustrating though. Haven’t done any transfers yet myself so haven’t compared their rates yet. Transferwise were fairly good on AUD when I used them before although they’ve sadly introduced some extra charges now for that currency. I’m hoping Revolut add them as a main currency soon so I can load AUD on and covert to GBP or USD (if they’ve got a good rate of course!)

        • Craig says:

          I’ve noticed that Revolut’s transfer rates are reduced at the weekend. Have another look in the morning, it must be a safety catch to allow for volatility when the markets open on a Monday morning.

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