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Big changes to Tesco Clubcard – with no notice – as many redemptions dropped or cut in value

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Tesco announced a pile of changes to the Clubcard scheme yesterday.  We have covered these in detail on Shopper Points today – click here.  We covered them for The Guardian as well – see here.

In general, the changes are bad.

Some little-used ‘two times’ deals will now give 3x face value, but a lot more deals which used to give 4x face value are dropping to 3x.  This mainly impacts restaurant and days out vouchers.

From a travel perspective, it is actually positive to neutral:

National Express, Megabus and redspottedhanky.com (train tickets) credit now gets you 3x the face value of your Clubcard vouchers, up from 2x

There is no change to the Avios or Virgin Flying Club conversion rates 

You have also gained Uber and hotels.com as new 3x face value redemption partners this year.  Uber is now my preferred redemption as we use it heavily and it is a genuine ‘3x’ value.  If I took Avios instead I would be giving up £3 of Uber for every 240 Avios I earned which means I would be ‘paying’ 1.25p per Avios – and I don’t value them at that.

To do this without ANY notice at all stinks, however.  It particularly stinks that we are just 9 days from the end of the current Clubcard collection quarter.  People have 10 weeks of points locked up inside Clubcard which cannot now be spent at the old 4x redemption rate.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (October 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

Get 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

30,000 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

50,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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

10,000 points bonus – plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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

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

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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 (257)

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

  • JamesB says:

    Really gone mainstream today between this and the Guardian 🙂

    • Rob says:

      And Radio 5 Live in about an hour apparently ….

      • Lady London says:

        link, please?

      • Rich says:

        I heard it and Anika gave a very good interview on 5 live tonight, although I don’t know what all the fuss is about! (Says the person who exchanges for Avios each quarter!!)

  • S879 says:

    I cancelled my Platinum AMEX a month ago. If someone refers me, would I be able to get it again now (I know I won’t get the sign up bonus) or do I have to leave a gap? I have a multi city holiday with the family coming up and the airport lounges and travel insurance alone would be really worth having.

    Also, I have an SPG Amex for which my partner has a supplementary. Could a supplementary cardholder refer someone for Amex Platinum and get the 5k SPG bonus? Thank you.

  • Jonas says:

    Has anyone found Amex more strict now on applications? I’ve been declined after applying again following the 6 month break. My credit score on Experian is 999.

    Their letter states that their decision takes into account ‘past and current Cardmember information’.

    Maybe churners are no longer welcome?

    • Alan says:

      I last applied for a card in September and that went through OK. Won’t know for another month or two whether we will have any issues with my wife’s next card.

      Interested to know whether others have faced more issues with their applications though.

    • Mike says:

      I have just received my new Amex Gold after having previously held an account 7 months ok.

  • Eli Gold says:

    nice one!

    I’d like my fury and anger to make in on the Beebs about BA silently changing the Baggage policy when one part of a return journey is Business and not the other.
    i booked a flight with outward leg on club world (using Lloyds avios upgrade) just so that i could get the baggage allowance. but unlucky to me, by the time i went through my inbox to your article about it, it was too late.
    I wrote to BA and they gave me such a pathetic response, completely ignoring my point, that they didn’t announce it publicly and i had intentionally booked club for that specific benefit.

    Further RAGE against BA slashing yet another one of their unique services

  • Sarah Gregory says:

    Re Amex Preferred Gold card. I cancelled mine on 23/07/17 so does that mean on 24/01/18 (6 months later) I could re-apply and get the bonus again or would I need to leave it a bit longer? Worried if I leave it any longer then the top post above about not getting bonus if new rules come into affect will mean I don’t get the bonus?

    • mark2 says:

      I usually leave it for another week, but I think I have cut it finer than that and have never missed out.

  • Sarah says:

    I phoned them recently to reapply and was told I’d have to wait 2 YEARS after to cancellation to be eligible for the welcome offer again

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

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