How to collect Avios with Shell Drivers Club – and get triple Avios this Summer
Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission. See here for all partner links.
Shell Drivers Club is the loyalty scheme for Shell garages in the UK. Joining is simple – pick up a card at a Shell station when filling up and register it online.
You earn 100 Avios just for registering your card so it is worth doing this even if you switch to a different reward later.
Full details can be found at the Shell Drivers Club website here.
The scheme is simple – you earn 1 Shell point for every litre of petrol you buy, and 2 points = 1 Avios. As well as Avios, 500 points can be turned into £2.50 of Shell vouchers or £2.50 of Waitrose vouchers. The benefit of taking Avios is that Shell converts (once a quarter) your points in multiples of 20 (ie 10 Avios) with no minimum, unlike the 500 point minimum for other rewards.
A special deal for Summer
Effective immediately and running until 7th July, you can collect triple Avios on Shell V-Power Unleaded or Shell V-Power Diesel performance fuel.
In order to get the bonus, Avios Travel Rewards Programme or British Airways Executive Club must have been selected as your Shell Drivers Club reward prior to each purchase. If you need to update your reward information, log in to www.shellsmart.com and select the reward of your choice in the personal details section.
Is Shell a worthwhile way of collecting Avios?
If we ignore the Summer promotion, I would say ‘not necessarily’. There are two reasons for this.
The first reasons it that, if you buy enough Shell fuel to get to 500 points on a regular basis, you will effectively be ‘paying’ 1p per Avios (since 500 points is worth 250 Avios or £2.50 in Shell or Waitrose vouchers). That is a bad deal as far as I am concerned although I know some people are happy to pay 1p per point.
Secondly, I would not switch from a cheaper garage to Shell purely for the Avios unless my employer was paying the bill. Assuming £1 per litre, you are spending £500 on petrol to get just £2.50 or 250 Avios back! That is a return of just 0.5%.
With this Summer promotion, however, Avios looks like a better deal. It is worth switching away from taking Shell or Waitrose vouchers and into Avios if you can earn triple Avios on your fuel spending until 7th July.
Even if your employer is paying, Tesco offers a better reward structure as I explained in this article on earning Avios when buying petrol.
How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (March 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 Mastercard
Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review
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 £12,000 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
Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers 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.
SPECIAL OFFER: You receive a huge 120,000 Membership Rewards points if you apply for American Express Business Platinum by 9th April 2024. You receive 80,000 points for spending £12,000 within 90 days and a further 40,000 points if you retain the card for 14 months. Click here to apply.
SPECIAL OFFER: You receive 60,000 Membership Rewards points if you apply for American Express Business Gold by 9th April 2024. Remember that the card is FREE for the first year. You receive 40,000 points for spending £6,000 within 90 days and a further 20,000 points if you retain the card for 14 months. Click here to apply.
American Express Business Platinum
Crazy 120,000 points bonus (to 9th April) and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review
American Express Business Gold
Huge 60,000 points sign-up bonus (until 9th April) 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 (44)