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Tesco Bank makes big changes to the Tesco Premium credit card – will it re-open?

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The Tesco Premium credit card was closed to new applicants in June.  Tesco Bank has just announced major changes to the benefits package for existing cardholders which makes me think that it may be reopened to new applications at some point.

The Tesco Premium credit card was a surprisingly aggressive offering:

  • £150 annual fee
  • Comprehensive travel insurance
  • 5,000 bonus Clubcard points (12,400 Avios) for spending £5,000 in Tesco per year
  • 1 Clubcard point (2.4 Avios) per £1 spent with Tesco
  • 0.25 Clubcard points (0.6 Avios) per £1 spent elsewhere

This was a real ‘Marmite’ card.  For people who spent a lot at Tesco – and fuel purchases were included in the £5,000 target – it was a decent deal and a very good Visa / Mastercard option for collecting Avios.  If you couldn’t spend £5,000 per year, it wasn’t worth it unless you needed the travel insurance.

Tesco Bank pulled the card from the market shortly after Tesco Direct was closed.  Tesco Wine closed shortly afterwards.  I think that a lot of people had been relying on Tesco Direct spending to reach the £5,000 target and these people were now stuffed.

Tesco Bank has announced that the card will be relaunched for existing cardholders from February 2019.  Your benefits will change on your next card anniversary after 1st February, which means that some people will remain on the £150 package until January 2020.

Details are on the Tesco Bank website here.  In summary:

  • the annual fee drops to £36
  • the travel insurance benefit is removed
  • the bonus is realigned to offer 2,500 bonus Clubcard points (6,200 Avios) for spending £2,500 in Tesco per year
  • 1 Clubcard point (2.4 Avios) per £1 spent with Tesco (unchanged)
  • 0.25 Clubcard points (0.6 Avios) per £1 spent elsewhere (unchanged)

I think, if you can hit the £2,500 of annual Tesco spend – which many people could do just on fuel, even without buying any food – this looks pretty good.  The £36 fee is easily justified by the 6,200 bonus Avios for spending £2,500, and you have the added benefit of earning 0.6 Avios per £1 on all your other Visa / Mastercard spend.

It is less clear cut if you collect Virgin Flying Club miles.  The free Virgin Atlantic credit card, which currently has a 10,000 mile sign-up bonus for another 10 days, earns 0.75 miles per £1 spent, is better.  For day to day spending, it trumps the Tesco Premium credit card.  You could still justify using the Tesco Premium credit card purely for Tesco spending as long as you knew you’d hit the £2,500 annual target – but it does mean another card in your wallet.

For clarity, there is no certainty at the moment that Tesco Bank will reopen the Tesco Premium credit card to new applicants from February.  If they do, however, it will become the best Visa / Mastercard option for many Head for Points readers.

PS.  I did a segment on Radio 4’s ‘You and Yours’ yesterday lunchtime, discussing the recent changes to petrol loyalty with Esso dropping Clubcard and BP dropping Nectar – which Esso is joining!

You can listen by clicking here (log-in required) and fast-forwarding to 29:25.

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Category

Tesco Clubcard

Comments (140)

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

  • Voltron says:
    4 Dec4 December 12:00

    I’ve pretty much switched to costco for main shopping, and use asda / tesco for bits not available at costco.
    New card would of been appealing if tesco direct still running, but no way I would ever spend £2500 in a year at tesco now, as even get fuel from costco which is much cheaper.

  • SimonW says:
    4 Dec4 December 12:02

    O/T – Heathrow T3 – Whats best option using my Priority Pass – Club Aspire or Number 1 – at 8 to 10am midweek?? Will be 3 of us, so I think I will be charged for one person either way. And is it worth paying the fiver to reserve 3 spaces in Number 1 ? Thanks for any advice

    • Graham Walsh says:
      4 Dec4 December 12:09

      Prefer No.1, probably not worth paying for £5, never had an issue.

      • Shoestring says:
        4 Dec4 December 12:54

        No1 is better but it would be £5 EACH to reserve.

        If you’re going to be paying for 1 anyway, you could save £5.80 by buying their pass & reservation separately using code.

        No real need to reserve as Club Aspire is perfectly OK alternative and doesn’t normally turn people away except at very busiest of times.

  • Qwerty Bertie says:
    4 Dec4 December 12:13

    Is the 1 clubcard point per £1 spent at Tesco in addition to the 1 point per £1 gained by using an actual clubcard?

  • Qwerty Bertie says:
    4 Dec4 December 12:27

    I’m sorry to have missed out on that card under the soon- to-end deal then. The fee would roughly have been met just by our last year’s annual spend at our closest supermarket and its petrol station/we’d have picked up the bonus.

  • Moktar says:
    4 Dec4 December 12:38

    OT but related to Amex offers: Does superdrug sell giftcards of other retailers (Amazon/M&S/JL)? I tried a couple of stores and couldn’t find any.

    • Nick says:
      4 Dec4 December 12:52

      Yes but find that it is only certain stores, got Amazon vouchers at Fenchurch Street hidden in a corner but not my local branch. Staff seemed not very familiar in processing them

      • Simon says:
        4 Dec4 December 16:48

        oh really I walked around this one hunting everywhere! will look again. THanks

        • Nick says:
          4 Dec4 December 20:15

          From memory they were on a shelf facing nearer the larger set of tills toward the back of the store. Racks pretty empty but think as other said it was Apple, Amazon and a restaurant type one

        • Simon says:
          5 Dec5 December 13:21

          I think I was looking in the wrong one! (couldn’t find them in the one on the corner of Fenchurch and Mark Lane, but found them in the one at Fenchurch Street station, thank you). They had £50 amazon. Also some topshop, asos,itunes and the restaurant one.

    • Tom1 says:
      4 Dec4 December 13:09

      Yes – quite hard to find and varying selection. The ones I found were near the batteries if that helps!

    • Peter K says:
      4 Dec4 December 13:23

      Hard to find (almost hidden) but two local stores to me have them. Very limited, mostly Apple, Amazon and some eating out ones.

    • Zana711 says:
      4 Dec4 December 13:29

      I got mine at the Charing Road Cross branch of Superdrug (2 mins walk from Tottenham Court Road station). The stand of gift cards is hidden away in the back end of the store where the cold & flu medication is. Got a good selection including Amazon, iTunes etc. I only bought 2 X £25 Amazon to trigger the promotion.

    • BLT says:
      4 Dec4 December 13:51

      My local superdrug have no idea how to activate them, so given up with this offer.

    • FlyUpTop says:
      4 Dec4 December 14:02

      Yes, best to ask a store assistant as I found the rack tucked away at the back of the store.

    • Rob Walker says:
      4 Dec4 December 14:24

      Bought Next vouchers with the Superdrug, Wiko and WH Smith offers. Used my Amex cards and hers and was able to pay off ‘our’ Next Directory bill.

      Incidentally Next Directory credit accounts are payable with Amex. Always strikes me as strange that they let you pay what is effectively a credit card with another credit card.

    • Lee says:
      4 Dec4 December 14:44

      They only sell £25 and £50 Amazon gc, so bought 5x£40 Superdrug gift cards, then used Superdrug gift cards to buy 4x£50 Amazon gift cards.

  • Rich says:
    4 Dec4 December 13:06

    O/T Amex Plat benefits – I’ve managed to upgrade my hotel accounts by giving my existing details, but car rental is proving difficult.

    Only option is to register for a new account at Hertz and Avis. Amex on phone can’t help, only email India to ‘see if they’ll allow an offline registration’

    Any suggestions?

    • Charlieface says:
      4 Dec4 December 14:14

      For Hertz try just adding the Amex Plat CDP to your account and waiting a couple weeks, that usually works.
      For Avis, not sure, a direct email to Avis may help. At worst you can status match from Hertz.

    • RakishDriver says:
      4 Dec4 December 14:32

      For Avis, email them at database.northern@bsc.avis-europe.com and tell them you are a amex platinum card holder – I didn’t have to give my card details as already saved in my account.

      And then request a tier upgrade – I got elevated to President’s club , status match with sixt. I suspect also down to the amount of custom Avis have been getting from me.

    • Rich says:
      4 Dec4 December 15:03

      Thanks both.

      Oddly my Hertz account has shown Five Star for a while. I thought it was from rentals last year, but possibly it’s because I have the Amex CDP still in there from last time I had the Plat. Surely it needs more than that though? Anyone can put the CDP in their profile. I was never asked for to show the card even when I had it.

    • Nic says:
      4 Dec4 December 15:52

      I already had a Hertz account so I called the (UK in my case) customer helpline. I ignored all the numbered options and pressed “0” hoping for for an unlisted operator option in the phone tree. It worked.

      I then pressed “1” for “a new case”, whatever that was, and got through to an operator.

      I explained I had a Plat card and should be at Five Star tier. She changed it as we spoke. Didn’t ask for my card number or CDP or anything. (Although I had already entered my Plat number in their system.)

      • tartan says:
        4 Dec4 December 17:57

        I’ve just been through this myself. I ended up creating a new Hertz account via the amex Platinum link. I then emailed customer services (customer-relations-uk@hertz.com) and they closed my old account and migrated my existing points over to the new one. Took about 3 days

    • DaveL says:
      4 Dec4 December 18:13

      Don’t forget, Priority Pass gives you Avis Preferred Plus… So, better to email them with your PP number and request upgrade than simply go for Preferred via the Plat…

  • John says:
    4 Dec4 December 13:32

    O/T

    Referred family for Amex Plat – so they should get 35000 bonus on £2k spend – the spend threshold was reached last week, but only the regular (non-referral) bonus 30000 was applied

    should the extra 5000 be applied at the same time, or is there usually a delay?

  • pauldb says:
    4 Dec4 December 13:40

    BA adding Ljubljana (reviewed here?) and Montpelier for next summer. Flights apparently loaded though I haven’t checked for an avios flush.
    http://mediacentre.britishairways.com/pressrelease/details/86/2018-247/10366?ref=Home

    • Sussex Bantam says:
      4 Dec4 December 13:56

      Ljubljana is lovely – I got quite excited until I read that it was only mid July to end Aug…

    • Simon says:
      4 Dec4 December 14:49

      just back from Ljubljana last Sunday. Shame BA won’t fly during December – the xmas market and lights were really great. Sure it’s a fab place to visit any time of the year but my wife and I had a really good time last weekend. Easyjet flights ok, and the intercontinental with the ambassador voucher was a lovely treat, and the main reason we chose the destination.

    • Lyn says:
      4 Dec4 December 19:18

      Thank you very much.

      Montpellier timetable doesn’t seem to be available yet but apparently 4 days a week instead of the 2 days a week last time they tried this route. Fingers crossed the route stays this time.

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