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Introducing Yonder: a credit card that rewards Londoners with experiences

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This article is sponsored by Yonder

Yonder is a new rewards credit card on the market which is probably unlike anything you’ve seen before. It is “the rewards credit card for Londoners”, offering a very high rate of return on spending to redeem at selected London outlets.

We wanted to take a look and see how it might fit in with your credit card points strategy.

If you apply for a Yonder card, you will get your first month of membership for free and will immediately be credited with £50 to spend with one of four Yonder dining partners around London, with no spend limit to hit first.  If you like dining out then it’s basically free money, so you may want to give the card a try.

You can find out more on the Yonder website here.

Yondercard

The interest rate on the card is 64.0% APR variable which includes the fee, based on a notional £1200 credit limit.

What is Yonder?

The Yonder card itself is a metal card, vertically set using a dark navy or ‘slate’ colour base. 

Yonder is a lifestyle credit card with a points-based reward system. So far, so familiar. However, rather than convert the points to airline miles or hotel rewards, Yonder points are redeemed for fully paid meals (up to a limit) at a range of ever changing local restaurant and dining partners around London.

The restaurants are some of London’s most highly-rated venues, and not the Pizza Expresses and Giraffes typically available in loyalty programmes. Angelina, Kricket, Lina Stores, and Gunpowder are just a few of the well-respected and popular London restaurants where you can redeem your Yonder points. 

Though the main focus of their rewards is dining, they have also partnered with Secret Cinema, 1Rebel and most recently HumanForest eBikes. 

Currently, all partners are London-based, but Yonder does plan to expand. 

How the Yonder credit card works 

You earn 1 point (roughly 2.5p of rewards) for every £1 spent using the Yonder credit card.

You’ll earn up to 5 points per £1 (roughly 12.5p of rewards) when you use the credit card with selected Yonder partners. 

1 Yonder point equates to approximately 2.5p of value, so spend £1000 and you’ll have £25 to spend on a Yonder experience. 

Other Yonder credit card benefits 

Alongside the rewards aspect of the Yonder card, it comes with some additional benefits: 

  • Travel Insurance: comprehensive travel insurance is included as a free benefit for all members (backed by AXA) and includes £0 excess, worldwide cover for the whole family, ski cover, car hire rental excess, baggage delays, medical, accidents and more
  • It’s a Mastercard: it is accepted almost everywhere you can use a credit card, unlike American Express
  • No foreign exchange fees: Yonder doesn’t charge any additional fees or charges while you spend abroad. You get the Mastercard rate

Yonder has a good reputation on Trustpilot, with almost all of their reviews being five stars based on strong customer service and the app experience. 

Yonder has all of the other features you’d expect from a modern credit card, such as real-time transaction notifications, in-app freezing and unfreezing (handy if you think you’ve lost your card) and the ability to integrate the card with Apple Pay and Google Pay as soon as you’ve been approved. 

Is there a Yonder credit card monthly fee? 

Yes. Yonder costs £15 per month. However, anyone who downloads the Yonder app and applies via this link will get a one month free trial. 

You will also get a £50 credit to spend with one of four selected Yonder partners. These are: 

  • Kricket 
  • Morito 
  • Lina Stores 
  • Mr Foggs 

Unlike other card sign-up bonuses, you can spend your £50 credit straight away rather than waiting to hit a spend target. 

How do you apply for a Yonder credit card? 

The first thing you need to do is download Yonder’s app using the link here. You will be asked to go through an eligibility checker to see if you meet the Yonder criteria and once you’ve passed that, you go through a short application process. 

Conclusion 

There’s no getting away from the fact that Yonder has a clear demographic in mind and that demographic is a London-based young professional with cash to spend.

It is a simple proposition – Yonder is willing to give you roughly 2.5% of your card spending back in rewards, far more than any travel rewards card, as long as you are willing to spend those rewards at its carefully selected partners.

The £50 free credit for signing up has no strings attached. As the first month is free, it could be worth giving the card a go. Of course, as with all credit cards, only sign up if you intend to fully pay off the balance every month. 

To ensure you get the one month free trial, please use this link here to download the Yonder app and apply. 

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

Comments (93)

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

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    Wonder how many comments in it will be before:
    1) complaints about Londoncentricity
    2) someone asks if you can rinse it with bendy and whether it’s treated as a cash advance.

    Saved you the trouble 😀

    My worry would be that it’s like an upmarket Groupon. (There’s a well known effect where you can tell which mid-market restaurants are struggling and going to close in a few months as they appear on Groupon with desperate offers before finally pulling the plug).

    • Brian78 says:

      1) haha. There’ll be dozens of uppity comments from the usual suspects by lunchtime

    • Can says:

      :)))) so true

    • Gary says:

      Was in Morito Hackney last Sunday & wouldn’t say they are “struggling.”

    • Entitled says:

      If playing comment bingo I would opt for: can I cancel after three months?

      The sponsored article doesnt cover this for obvious reasons but the website says “cancel anytime”. Worth checking the T&C’s for redemption penalties (which I have not done because I have no interest in the card).

  • Olly says:

    Filled out the pre-registration and got “added to the waitlist”. Not the best start

  • Can says:

    Applied. Haven’t received an instant approval for some reason. “Waiting to hear” from them.

  • Entitled says:

    Spend £1,000 to earn £25 at a small selection of restaurants. Or spend £1,000 on your credit card of choice to earn your points of choice and earn £15 (the fee saved) to spend anywhere you like on anything you like. It’s a tough one…

    • Olly says:

      It seems to be more like spend £3500 to get £100 at one of the restaurants (or £85 less the monthly fee). Given the quality of restaurants, that’s not a bad offering.

    • Andrew J says:

      Agree, this has to be one of the more pointless credit cards I’ve come across.

  • Froggee says:

    This sounded so compelling that I was considering moving my family to London until I got to the no Pizza Express bit.

    • Rob says:

      Can’t move for Pizza Expresses. I’d guess I’ve personnally done 20 different ones. Not many Giraffes though …

    • The Urbanite says:

      Last time I went to a Pizza Express I realised I was in Pizza Express and hadn’t procured any kind of discount (major fail I know). When joking about this with the staff, they said the company had done away with the aggressive discounting. And there seems to be some truth to they, they no longer appear on every discount / rewards portal like they used to!

      • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

        It’s all about the Pizza Express app-based rewards scheme now. You can still do well out of it if you happen to normally order what you’re getting recurrent discounts for.

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        Pandemic was a lifesaver for the chains like pizza express. Allowed a great reset, getting them all out of the rut you describe – was no other way they were getting away from it.

        Much like DFS presumably cannot sell a damn thing the three days a year they don’t have a sale

      • Tracey says:

        Still with Tesco

        • zapato1060 says:

          also comes in handy having unidays/studentbeans/totum discounts as a “student”

      • Erico1875 says:

        Still get 3 for 1 via Tesco Club Card

  • Alex Sm says:

    This bit is slightly misleading:

    “ Of course, as with all credit cards, only sign up if you intend to fully pay off the balance every month.”

    It is not a requirement (like with some Amex cards), so you should leave it to a customer to decide how and when they repay their balance.

    • Nico says:

      There are better cards out there (with lower rates) if you do not intend to pay full balance

      Is that the only thing that you retained from this piece !

    • Callum says:

      If you sign up with the intention of holding a balance on it then you’re financially inept, and Rob is very correct to advise you not to do so.

      The only caveat I’d add is it’s not with “all” credit cards, there are plenty with 0% deals where holding a balance is fine.

    • Alex W says:

      Standard statement on all the credit card reviews. Even the Sainsbury’s one with 0% on purchases. With 0% cards if you’re paying it off every month then you’re not maximising the value you can get!

  • Manya says:

    I don’t think it’s a compelling proposition.

    Assuming you spend £1000 a month and you’ll have £25 to spend on a Yonder experience.

    Offsetting the £15 a month fee it’s only a £10 benefit. Spend £2k and it’ll be £35 and so on….

    Id rather stick to one of Amex/ HSBC/ Barclays.

    • lumma says:

      It will be interesting to see how the redemption works too, is it like an amex offer where you just pay the bill and you get the discount or is it like “I’ve got a coupon to redeem”?

      • Reney says:

        https://www.yondercard.com/rewards

        sounds like work like amex but with a cap. Don’t see why they need to impose a cap on redeeming points you have already earned.

      • Tim says:

        Hey lumma – redemption works by just paying with your card (you don’t need to save offer to card) and then just swiping in-app after you get a push notification that you’ve visited the experience. No coupons, no save offer to card!

    • Reney says:

      I’m being very dim, where is the list is partners? Not sure I would sign up without knowing where I can spend the rewards.

      e-bikes rental are very popular at the moment and the article mentions one of them. Could work out for someone’s commute.

      • Tim says:

        Hey Reney – list of partners is available on the website (we could do a better job listing them out though), and they include Arcade, Angelina, Gunpowder, Granger and Co, Taylor & Elementary, KIP Holidays. The e-bike partner is Human Forest and all our members get £10 free monthly credit (in addition to the first 10 mins free per trip)!

  • lumma says:

    Travel insurance backed by AXA

    If it’s the same one that Curve use, I claimed for a replacement screen on my phone and got told it’d currently taking them up to 30 days just to look at claims currently.

    • Tim says:

      Hey lumma – so can’t comment on ‘gadget protection insurance’, but we audit the claim rates of Axa’s travel insurance and they’ve been very good (claim rate % data is available publicly online alongside other benchmarks). Axa is the underwriter for most travel insurance providers – e.g. coverwise

    • Jonathan says:

      Does anyone still use bendy now ?

      It’s hardly ever mentioned these days here on HfP

      • WaynedP says:

        Either you’ve been inhabiting a cupboard under the stairs recently (at least two variant Bendy threads featuring continuously on the first page of most recently active forum threads in the last week alone) or you’ve delivered another example of cracking irony @Jonathan 🤣

        Today’s HfP is turning out to be a veritable mood lifter for those of us depressed and dejected (again) by recent developments and the dark economic prospects facing those of us who aren’t billionaires with a govt connection and Made-in-Chelsea clone kids in the market for a new home.

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

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