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No more Avios from mortgages as Tesco Bank puts its portfolio up for sale

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It is no longer possible to earn Avios points from mortgages.

There has only been one way to earn Avios from your mortgage, and that was via Tesco Bank.

Tesco Bank quietly entered the mortgage market back in 2014.  We never covered it much because there are many factors to consider when taking out a mortgage.  Whether or not you will earn Avios or Virgin Flying Club miles via Clubcard points should be very much at the bottom of your list of considerations.

Tesco Bank mortgages

It was all very simple:

You earned 1 Tesco Clubcard point (2.4 Avios) for every £4 of your monthly mortgage payment.  This applied to both the capital and interest elements.

You earned 1 Tesco Clubcard point (2.4 Avios) for every £4 of any overpayment you make, as long as it does not fully repay your mortgage

If you were making monthly payments of £1000 you would be earning 250 Clubcard points.  This is worth 600 Avios, so about £5-£6 of value.  It was not enough to move the needle on which mortgage provider is cheapest.

This deal is no more.  Tesco Bank announced yesterday that it is pulling out of the mortgage market. It is no longer accepting new applications and, more importantly, the existing loan book will be sold to another lender.  Once the sale is complete it is virtually certain that Clubcard points will no longer be available.

It isn’t clear what the future holds for the rest of Tesco Bank. It has not made much of an impact in the current account market, and the credit card arm is also underpowered.  When it launched the current account, Tesco claimed that it was deliberately uncompetitive so that it could offer good customer service.  Several years on, that excuse no longer washes.

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Tesco Clubcard

Comments (184)

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

  • David S says:
    22 May22 May 09:35

    My UK passport has worked very well on e-gates in every country in the world we have travelled that allows it apart from two.
    USA- 100 % failure- always send me to have a chat with an agent for my interrogation on why I am trying to come to their country and it has never been pleasant. (Maybe profiling in practice)
    The second one is Heathrow- the egates have failed me about 80% of the time. The agents have always been friendly and I have even seen some smile!!!!
    So unless they increase the gates and sort the glitches, it is going to be chaos.

    • Derek Broughton says:
      22 May22 May 09:44

      You’re having us on about the smile 🙂

    • Fc99 says:
      22 May22 May 10:41

      I’ve never been too bothered about whether I’ve been stopped for questioning because of profiling or quotas etc but it’s always better when the staff ask you questions politely rather than act like power hungry, rude oafs

  • Michael Jennings says:
    22 May22 May 09:47

    OT: I used a Curve Card to pay for some groceries at the self-checkout in Tesco on Monday. When I tried to use contactless, the machine beeped and said something like “Contactless not available”. I then used chip and pin with the same card, and the transaction went through. I now find that both Curve and the underlying card are showing I have been charged twice. This is the second time something like this has happened and I have had duplicate transactions appear. (The last time was in December and I have run many Curve transactions since with no problem,

    Have other people seen things like this?

    • George says:
      22 May22 May 09:51

      Curve will treat anything *it* authorises as settled from the get-go regardless of the end terminal, but after about a week when the authorisation drops off it’ll generally refund the money back to your card.

    • Michael says:
      22 May22 May 10:00

      Had something similar happen in the hard rock cafe in Paris the other day. Got charged £15 twice – not sure if it’s possible to chase it up either.

    • Nick M says:
      22 May22 May 10:23

      Same thing happened to me on Monday afternoon – small transaction at a self-service till in a Co-Op… Curve said the merchant had already recognised the double charge and reversed it – will check the underlying card in a few days

      • Michael Jennings says:
        22 May22 May 10:56

        Last time it happened to me it was actually an online transaction – I was booking a (prepaid) hotel room on Accor’s website. The first time I tried it I got a message saying the transaction had not gone through. I then did it again and it worked. I got charged twice. I sent Curve a message and they said it would reverse itself automatically in a few days. This didn’t happen, and after a further to and fro with Curve I eventually had to request a chargeback. I got my money back, but it was a nuisance. Hopefully this one is reversed without any intervention from me.

  • Nick M says:
    22 May22 May 10:20

    I have a mortgage with Tesco; rate was competitive, but importantly they were the only lender to lend us the amount we needed…. When the book is sold I will, however, be writing them a letter letting them know that the 15,000 CC points I was expecting to earn was a key factor in my decision making process

    • Pug206 says:
      22 May22 May 10:29

      O/T – fyis, flew to Singapore last week en route to Bali. We were in club and daughter in economy. When got to BA lounge politely asked, if they had room, could my daughter who is flying economy be alllowed in lounge. Wait for it… he said “yeah, no problem bring her through”!! Not sure if he was expecting a 13yo rather than a 26yo tho’!!

    • Michael says:
      22 May22 May 10:37

      Too right you should!

    • honestsausage says:
      22 May22 May 18:13

      My thought exactly….surely if you are not getting clubcard points anymore they are removing a benefit/selling point of the mortgage they sold you.

      Time will tell, maybe we will all be offered a bit of a sweetner when they sell the mortgage book

  • nick says:
    22 May22 May 10:22

    Have to be honest, but I am struggling to keep track of articles on HfP because of the emails coming at all times and being out of sync with the “3 daily articles”. All getting a bit clunky TBH

    I normally have a quick read, and then leave it for the late evening to make sure I pick up all the comments.

    Perhaps, go the route of a single daily round-up email – and just end up having new articles posted website, whenever?

    • Nick M says:
      22 May22 May 10:25

      Posts may appear on the website earlier, but emails are still sent in the morning…? You could always just log onto the website in the evening and look at the most recent posts, checking the dates?

    • Rob says:
      22 May22 May 10:29

      But we can’t do that, because it requires someone to actually be ‘on duty’ all the time. It just happens that I am in the office this week, all week, so I am happy to drop time sensitive stuff on. Next week we’re away, and even if nuclear war breaks out you won’t be hearing about its impact on redemption availability until the usual 4/5/6am publishing slot. Quality would also suffer if we felt oliged to publish stuff quickly.

  • Jtz says:
    22 May22 May 10:34

    OT done spend on plat yesterday and it is showing processed today, no sign of the points yet, anyone know how long they usually take?
    Thanks

  • GH says:
    22 May22 May 11:25

    Just had an email from BA advertising club world . All pictures were of new cabin. No mention it will be three years before full roll out !

  • Russ says:
    22 May22 May 11:39

    OT, has anyone passed through the new terminal at Muscat and knows if you now have to pass through immigration to get Lounge access or, just from the Qatar/Emirates arrivals/departure gates? Thanks.

    • Alex says:
      22 May22 May 11:45

      that would be Rob.

      • Russ says:
        22 May22 May 12:29

        Thanks Peter K. Rob was my first thought however he may have flown directly in and out (Oman’s 787 is long haul). It’s travel through from Doha-Muscat-Dubai I’m interested in as I’d like to get through on a transit visa if possible.

    • Jac says:
      22 May22 May 16:03

      Last month i travelled to.Muscat and visited the lounge after going through customs

  • Ant says:
    22 May22 May 12:15

    OT: i still have one pass on my Lounge card which I got through the Gold Card. if I take a guest what is the charge?

    Also which is the best lounge at LGW North?

    Thanks

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