Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

25% bonus on TopCashback transfers to Avios – and get 625 Avios when you join for free

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TopCashback is a site which allows you to earn a small amount of cashback from your day to day shopping by clicking through to participating online shops from its site.

It is very similar to Quidco if you are a member of that site.  British Airways and Virgin have their own shopping portals as well, except that you earn miles instead of cash.

When Tesco Clubcard pulled out of their partnership with TopCashback recently, there was much gnashing of teeth.  Converting your cashback from your internet shopping to Clubcard meant that you were effectively buying Avios for 0.4p each.

TopCashback 350

When the Tesco deal ended, you could still transfer your TopCashback cashback directly to Avios points.  It wasn’t very attractive, however, because you were effectively paying 1p per Avios point.  This is more than I am willing to pay unless I have a definite use for them.

On Friday, TopCashback launched a 25% bonus for converting TopCashback money into Avios points.  I am assuming that this is a permanent offer.  I am also assuming that British Airways is funding it in an attempt to make up the loss of revenue from people who converted from TCB to Tesco to Avios.

For every £1 of cashback you transfer to Avios, you will now receive 125 points.  This means that you are paying 0.8p per point.

0.8p is a lot more interesting to me than 1p.  My threshold for doing anything to gain Avios points is that the points must cost less than 0.75p.  I know I can hardly fail to be better off when I redeem.

Of course, my target of 0.75p is lower than the 0.8p you pay here.  However, I don’t need to do anything apart from telling TCB to send my cash to British Airways instead of my bank account.  It’s not as if I will be eBaying a pile of LEGO to end up with points for 0.8p …..

TopCashback is therefore officially ‘back in the game’ as a way of accumulating Avios points efficiently.  All of those readers who said that were switching to Quidco (‘more reliable’) for their cashback may decide to change their minds …..

Get 625 Avios points for joining TopCashback

Until 10am on 3rd October, you can get 625 Avios points when you join TopCashback via a referral link.  This is a great opportunity to pick up some easy points.

You can join TopCashback by using this link.

Until 3rd October – when you use our referral link – you will receive £5 into your TopCashback account as a bonus when you have earned £10 in cashback.  This will convert into 625 Avios with the new ‘25% transfer bonus’.

If you sign up using the general link on the TCB website then you will not receive the £5 bonus.  It is only valid if you are referred by a friend.

There are two membership levels at TopCashback – a FREE version and a £5 annual fee version. The £5 level pays slightly higher cashback and has improved customer service if you have any problems.  To be honest, I would start at the free level until you have decided that you like the site.  You will need to change your account settings once you have signed up to move yourself onto the free version.

We also receive a bonus for referring you which helps keep Head for Points ticking over.

You may NOT see this offer advertised on the TopCashback site.  However, you will definitely get your points as long as you use a refer-a-friend link to join.

How do I receive my 625 Avios points?

The way this works is a little complex.  You need to earn £10 in cashback before you receive the £5 but there is NO TIME LIMIT on this.

Once you have earned £10 commission, £5 will be placed in your TopCashback account.  If you transfer this to Avios, you will receive 625 points.  You are also free to withdraw it as cash.

What next?

If you are not already a TopCashback member, you should open a TopCashback account now and use it as the starting point for your day-to-day online shopping.

If you are already a member, consider referring your partner or adult children.  Do not open a second account for yourself as that is against TCB rules.

You can start earning cashback immediately through some of their ‘free money’ offers.  For example, Confused.com pays £2.40 for getting a free car insurance quote.  Money from confused.com cannot be moved to Avios (BA blocks some merchants who conflict with its own partners) but does count towards your £10 for triggering the £5 bonus.

Conclusion

As long as the new ‘25% bonus on transfers to Avios’ is permanent – and there is no sign that it isn’t – TopCashback is a good way of picking up an unlimited amount of Avios points for 0.8p.  You obviously need to generate enough cashback in the first place but there are plenty of high paying offers on products such as home and car insurance.

If you currently use Quidco then you should move across to TCB, at least until you have earned enough to trigger the 625 Avios bonus.

Our refer a friend link is here.  The deadline to sign up and receive the £5 bonus is 3rd October.


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 (63)

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

  • Brian says:

    And probably explains why my claim was rejected…Thanks.

  • bryan says:

    OT: I have 53256 MR points and an amex green card (downgraded from a PRG to keep my account live and avoid the £140 fee) I was thinking i should cancel my account and sign up again in 6 months for the PRG but have a couple of questions before I make a decision

    1) I mainly collect avios (also got the BA card), how often is there a MR to avios conversion bonus? Would I be better waiting?
    2) Is there any bonus amex would give me to sign up for a PRG or a Platinum card even though I have had the PRG previously and already have a card with them?

    • harry says:

      1. never in living memory (OK not quite but it ain’t going to happen)
      2.cancel – wait 6 months and re-apply for another welcome bonus on GC

    • TGLoyalty says:

      You could get the welcome on a BA or SPG card now while you wait 6 months for a Gold Card

      • bryan says:

        Hi

        I have the BA already, not sure on the SPG as mainly concentrating on IHG for my hotel collections, was thinking a virgin card with a transfer to IHG while i wait to sign up for amex again.

    • harry says:

      no chance

      • Rob says:

        You say that, but there have been bonuses in the US, Canada, UAE and Spain in the last 2 months ….

        • harry says:

          I guess I’m not a soothsayer & nor is anybody else for that matter

          just made my own luck: 15000 Avios or equiv for 5 mins work

          and that’s without the fully flex

  • Mr Dee says:

    Tested in Chrome, Safari and Firefox. Virgin tracked 100% of over 50 transactions so it wasn’t a browser/cookie issue.

    I also like the Avios shopping portal which seems reliable too.

  • Roger says:

    Sorry the second statemnent should read via holidayextras.co.uk using official airport carparks.

  • harry says:

    yep that ‘rule’ is not a rule at all

    many of the better-paying merchants do actually allow you to cash out in Avios

  • Andrew H says:

    Wordpress test. Ignore!

  • Rob says:

    It WILL hopefully go to pending in that scenario but you cannot put in a claim if it doesn’t.

  • Mr Dee says:

    Used incognito and still no tracked transaction on the last purchase

    • Genghis says:

      Im certainly no technical expert but I thought an incognito browser blocks cookies, the very cookies needed for cash back to track?

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

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