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MBNA Smart Rewards – the new credit card cashback scheme – is now live

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Back in November, we tipped you off about the upcoming launch of MBNA Smart Rewards.

This is MBNA’s attempt to compete with Amex’s market-leading cashback offers. It is now active.

Many HfP readers have an MBNA credit card because at one point it issued 13 different airline cards.

MBNA Smart Rewards

With the introduction of the cap on interchange fees, MBNA decided to withdraw from the affinity market and put itself up for sale, eventually being purchased by Lloyds Bank.

When those cards closed, most cardholders were offered a market-leading card called Horizon with no foreign exchange fees and 0.5% cashback. I think most people who got offered it decided to keep it, because it is a decent option for overseas spend.

How does ‘Smart Rewards’ work?

At present, MBNA Smart Rewards is only available via the website. It is apparently coming to the app soon. This is good news because, as the app is OK, I hadn’t used the website for well over a year until I was researching this piece yesterday.

There is more information here on their website and a FAQ here.

When you log in to the website, you will see a reference to ‘Smart Rewards’. Click on that and you will be asked if you want to activate it or not.

As with Amex, you need to manually opt in to each offer that you think may interest you.

Cashback will be added to your card balance once per month. You will be able to see ‘pending’ payments online so you will know that an offer has successfully triggered.

I have seven offers showing at the moment:

  • Paul – 10% back
  • Huel – 10% back
  • Trespass – 10% back
  • Byron – 5% back
  • Europcar – 5% back
  • Land’s End – 15% back
  • Fortnum & Mason – 5% back

One obvious problem is that, as the screenshot shows, it is not immediately clear that you need to opt in. You need to click the little ‘down’ arrow for the registration box to show. I can imagine a lot of people not realising that registration is required.

This clearly isn’t a life-changing selection but, given the current lockdown, it would be unfair to judge how it will develop.


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Comments (45)

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

  • The Urbanite says:

    Just got Huel so far. If it’s near enough the same as the Lloyds Bank card rewards that’s ok as some offers that come through are quite appealing.

  • Lee says:

    I have none. 🙁

  • Sarah R says:

    I don’t have these offers and can’t see on the app how to apply for them

  • Emma S says:

    Anyone else get the £175 Amex free money offer for Waitrose etc.?

    • Mitpat says:

      Yes! Perfect thanks

    • AndyS says:

      Oh yes I have – I don’t usually get anything decent – so I guess this has been given to everyone on platinum to make up for the fact that you can’t get any other value for your 550 annual fee!

      • Andrew says:

        *£575 annual fee

      • RussellH says:

        IIRC one could never apply for the card. It just turned up when one’s airline card stopped giving miles.
        [As I had LH Visa + Amex, I got two Horizon cards, which they sensibly merged into the one a/c, as soon as I pointed that out to them. I imagine that others will have been in the same situation.]

    • Nicholas says:

      Yes. £175 back at Waitrose, selfridges and Harvey nicks. Great deal.

      • IanM says:

        Don’t see anything on my Platinum card yet, when did it appear?

      • Fraser says:

        Great deal, much better than X% off. But surely the last one of these we’ll see for a while, given you have until July to redeem it

  • memesweeper says:

    Kicking myself for closing Horizon…

  • Rob says:

    Works on top of the 0.5%. Unlikely to work with Curve.

  • T says:

    MBNA was a subsidiary of Bank of America. Was the interchange the reason for the sale or part of a bigger refocus?

    • Rob says:

      Almost all of their business was affinity cards and that model was broken with the interchange caps.

  • Stu says:

    Only four offers… (Same as Rob minus F&M and Paul). Let’s hope it improves…

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

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