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What should replace your Tandem Money credit card, which is being closed?

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Whilst it doesn’t offer any miles or points, we have recommended the Tandem Money cashback credit card on numerous occasions.

It really had everything (apart from miles):

  • no annual fee
  • no foreign exchange fees

Tandem Money Credit Card

  • 0.5% cashback on all spending
  • operates as a Mastercard so widely accepted

Unsurprisingly, since I cannot imagine any scenario under which Tandem was making money from this product, it has been pulled to new applicants.  The website also seems to imply that the clock is ticking for existing cardholders too.

You can find out more on the Tandem website here.

My preferred Visa / Mastercard cashback product is probably now the John Lewis / Waitrose one.  This DOES have FX fees, but you also get 0.5% back on third party shopping and 1% back at John Lewis and Waitrose.  There is no fee. All rewards are paid in shopping vouchers.  There is currently a £30 sign-up bonus too.

The Aqua credit card also has 0.5% cashback – and paid in real cash – but capped at £100 per year.  It DOES NOT have FX fees.  I am not a fan of this product because it is aimed at people with credit defaults and is advertised as such.  This means that you will get a low credit limit and it isn’t necessarily one to wave around in the pub.  I know some HfP readers use it and are happy with it, however.

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best travel rewards credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current 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

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher 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

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up 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

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

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

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

Get 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month* Read our full review

Category

General

Comments (153)

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

  • tony says:
    7 Dec7 December 11:12

    Why is the article suggesting the LH sale fares will be charged in EUR? They will go through as GBP as they are ex-UK, so no need to worry about an FX fee free credit card….

    Also, what the deal with MBNA Horizon that I seem to be missing? I have one sitting in the draw and was about to get rid of it.

  • Anna says:
    7 Dec7 December 11:43

    OT – just enjoying a cocktail in the Qantas lounge – thanks to HFP for yet another trick for making travel pretty awesome! We got here just as the Qantas flight was starting to board to now got it pretty much to ourselves!

    • Jill (Kinkell) says:
      7 Dec7 December 12:01

      Enjoy the Drinkies! Qantas has the best coffee of any of the lounges and Cathay has a better view Out of the Windows! Have a lovely tme in Vienna.

    • Louise says:
      7 Dec7 December 12:03

      Enjoy, we are off to Vienna on Thursday so plan on doing the same thing

  • Roger says:
    7 Dec7 December 12:01

    Traveling from LGW North Terminal.
    Any chance of using Grain Store with PP?

    Traveling just after lunch at home so buying some food for early dinner

    • Jack says:
      7 Dec7 December 13:10

      Grain Store is in South Terminal, so no.

      • Shoestring says:
        7 Dec7 December 13:14

        but it’s only a few mins to get from one terminal to the other, given you can get 2x £15 each, could be worth the time invested

        • Jack says:
          7 Dec7 December 13:31

          Yes but if ticket is for a flight from North then shouldn’t be able to get Airside in South?

          • Lady London says:
            7 Dec7 December 13:44

            I would also be interested in a solution to that one. Would make at least one use of my Priority Card this year worthwhile. I’ve decided not to renew due to poor quality of PP lounges overall.

        • Shoestring says:
          7 Dec7 December 13:46

          OK good point 🙂

          in LHR you *can*, time permitting, go to other terminals airside (eg T5) once you are airside (eg T3) – you can say it’s for shopping DF etc

          I wonder if Gatwick allow the same?

          • Roger says:
            7 Dec7 December 13:54

            Hmmm… Didn’t think about that.
            Looks like the answer is NO.
            Just looked up on the App and it does say Location after security.
            So unlikely to get past.

            Well will use one of the lounge at North Terminal.
            Any recommendation?

          • Lady London says:
            7 Dec7 December 15:35

            in LGW North Terminal, definitely Aspire for breakfast (go early as some days they keep it empty because they have a Qatar contract). Otherwise No. 1 even if it is a bit of a zoo now. Mylounge only if you need to but there are a couple of corners where you can work.

  • Munch says:
    7 Dec7 December 12:14

    OT Booking Hilton hotels in Canada for Feb 2020. Is there likely to be any sales coming up?

    • Lady London says:
      7 Dec7 December 13:49

      Your timing sounds like skiing/ school hold peak time. So I would advise you to make a cancelable booking that you can live with then swop to a better offer if you find it. IIRC if you can afford it, i believe you are likely to find better value in top end hotels at this time in ski places. Why not see what Emyr can do for you!

  • Shoestring says:
    7 Dec7 December 12:44

    100 free Avios as well (put in your Iberia number & fill in the getting to know you better section)

  • James M says:
    7 Dec7 December 13:28

    O/T: Curve – are they actually charging for cash withdrawals?

    I’ve maxed my £50K spending limit (thanks to NS&I) but have pretty much all my cash withdrawal limit available; if I was to withdraw £1000 / day are they going to charge a fee?

    • Harry T says:
      7 Dec7 December 16:25

      Perhaps not, but they will close your account, as you would be violating their specific T&Cs against cash recycling.

    • Ashish says:
      8 Dec8 December 01:14

      What card did u use with curve to pay 50 grand into national savings?

    • The Urbanite says:
      8 Dec8 December 10:40

      Although the app doesn’t imply this, cash withdrawals actually come out of your main spend allowance so this probably won’t work.

      This was definitely the case a year or so ago, not sure if it has changed since.

  • Roger says:
    7 Dec7 December 13:51

    Virgin Black

    Anyone with low credit limit managed to top up / pay-off statement balance in between statement and reuse the available credit limit?

    • Go says:
      7 Dec7 December 14:02

      I was given a stupidly low credit limit with the rewards+ card. Regularly spend the limit multiple times per month by repaying spend on the card throughout the month

    • stevenhp1987 says:
      7 Dec7 December 14:15

      Yes, I have done this with the Reward+ just fine.

    • Harry T says:
      7 Dec7 December 15:57

      I too received a credit limit significantly below my Amex and Halifax ones. I have often repaid the entire balance off a few times a month. The problem is if you clear the balance after your statement is generated, they then add any new purchases to your direct debit. They don’t reduce your direct debit to zero like Amex do.

  • rams1981 says:
    7 Dec7 December 13:58

    OT is it just me that hasn’t received Avios from the groupon IE via AerClub? Put through last Sunday and still nothing.

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      7 Dec7 December 20:42

      @Rams1981:
      I purchased a voucher last sat, it didn’t credit until Wed.
      I’ve been waiting over 3 x weeks for IB Groupon AVIOS voucher to credit😭

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