MBNA Smart Rewards credit card cashback offers get slightly more interesting

Back in November 2020, we covered the launch of MBNA Smart Rewards. This is a new in-store cashback scheme which pays out when you use your MBNA card in participating shops.

Many HfP readers have an MBNA credit card, primarily the (not available to the general public) Horizon card.

For the benefit of new readers, MBNA used to dominate the ‘air miles’ credit card market in the UK. At its peak, it issued cards for:

• American
• bmi British Midland (many versions!)
• Emirates (x 2 versions)
• Etihad
• Lufthansa
• United
• Virgin Atlantic (x 2 versions)

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.

Most people who held one of these cards were offered something called the Horizon card. This is, frankly, an amazingly good piece of plastic:

• It’s a Visa card
• which gives 0.5% cashback
• and which has no foreign exchange fees

You don’t earn any points, but for non-UK spending it is a great product.

When Smart Rewards launched, I thought it would make a great card even better. I was wrong. The selection of offers has been shockingly poor, at least given my purchasing patterns.

Current retailers on my list include such high profile retailers as GO Outdoors, Apex Hotels, shopDisney, Weird Fish, Q-Park, tails.com, Ann Summers and Mainline Menswear. I have earned a grand total of 31p cashback so far.

It seems that things may be picking up though. A HfP reader sent me the following screenshot of offers which appeared on his card this week:

I can only dream of such offers, but if you haven’t looked at your MBNA Smart Rewards options recently it may be worth checking again.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – January 2022 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our January 2022 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus. 

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals.

There are special sign-up bonuses on both of the BA American Express cards until 28th February 2022. The bonus on the free card is doubled to 10,000 Avios and the bonus on the Premium Plus card is increased from 25,000 Avios to a huge 40,000 Avios.

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.

The bonus on the Capital On Tap card is increased from points worth 10,000 Avios to 30,000 Avios until 4th February 2022.

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 on your spending.

Apply 31st March 2022 and your cashback will be increased to 2% for the first three months.