Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get 30 Nectar points (19 Avios) per £1 at eBay TODAY

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As we trailed last week, eBay is bringing back its ‘Power Hour’ promotion for Valentines Day.

Between noon and 1pm today (Tuesday 14th) you will earn 30 Nectar points per £1 spent at eBay. This converts to 19 Avios per £1. If you value an Avios at 1p, it’s a 19% rebate.

Here’s the small print:

  • you MUST register in advance
  • you only earn the bonus on the first £300 you spend. Your Nectar earning will be capped at (£300 x 30) 9,000 points which would convert into 5,625 Avios.
  • there is a £10 minimum spend
  • you only earn the bonus on ONE ITEM
  • only ‘Buy It Now’ items will qualify

If a seller if offering a bundle of items for a flat combined price – eg ’10 historic FA Cup Final programmes for £50′ then this still counts as ‘one item’.

The standard eBay rules on excluded categories apply. Full details of excluded categories are here but in summary, you won’t earn on:

  • Cars, Motorcycles and Vehicles (parts and accessories are NOT excluded)
  • Holidays & Travel
  • Property
  • Gift Vouchers & Coupons
  • Baby Feeding: Formula

‘Gift vouchers’ is a key one to note.

Don’t leave it too close to 1pm. Some readers had issues last year when, buying at the last minute, eBay decided that they had booked the transaction just after 1pm even though the customer pressed ‘buy’ shortly before.

The registration link should be on the eBay home page is here. If not, it may be on on this special eBay / Nectar page which is the same page you need if your Nectar and eBay accounts are not linked.

(If you don’t see the ‘Activate’ button online – and I see it at the top of the home page on mobile – then go via the Nectar app.)

Note that you cannot add your Nectar number at check out – the accounts must be linked before you start.

If you can’t see a registration link above, look in the Nectar app or the Nectar website (log in required).

And remember …. don’t buy anything after 12.55 if you want to be certain of getting the bonus.

PS. If you don’t have the Nectar American Express credit card, take a look at our review here.


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.

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.

Comments (121)

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

  • David says:

    Activation was a bit of a palaver, but once the confirmation email arrived now showing as 9,579 points. So Allison good. For now…

  • Aston100 says:

    Amused, but not surprised by the hike in prices for this specific event.

    • Rob says:

      What are you on about?! Are you seriously suggesting the multi-thousand eBay sellers in the UK have put their pricing up for an hour 🙂 ?

      • Deb says:

        The item I bought had 20% discount and was the same price before, during and after the Nectar event.

  • Damien says:

    Spent £635 using the CATCH10 discount code. Points showing just now for this transaction 20,599. They haven’t been applied to the Nectar total yet though. Just showing on their own line in the “ebay.co.uk/nectar/home” page

    • Rob says:

      Interesting interpretation of the £300 cap there!

    • Supergers49 says:

      Bu88er… I thought stacking CATCH10 with the 30x wouldn’t work. Hopefully the VA statement credit will track though.

  • strickers says:

    Activated previously, bought something, no bonus points showing so cancelled the order.

  • Jack says:

    Can’t get the activation link. Not in offer hub / not on ebay home page. Annoying.

  • phantomchickenz says:

    Finally got it to work by clicking the link in the T’s and Cs in the Nectar app

  • Adam says:

    This is how I got it to work: previously, my eBay account was only linked to collect Nectar, not spend. Plus bonus point totals always were seen on eBay checkout (e.g. 9000 instead of 300). Something has been enhanced recently and I could no longer see my eBay nectar transactions where previously there was a ledger showing transactions and points collected. So, I relinked my Nectar account to my eBay account – this time to collect and spend. Now, I can see all the transactions again in a new style ledger. I then activated the 30x promotion – which has its own line in the ledger. I then purchased the item – only 299 points were showing on checkout but I went ahead anyway. Returning to the new style ledger, the transaction is correct – stating just under 9,000 points. My partner did the same. On her account, the Nectar (collect only) had been delinked. Reactivating for collect and spend seems to be the key – at least for us. And going forward, the checkout does not reflect the bonus points but the new style ledger does.

  • byronlewis says:

    As far I know this promotion has not worked for me. Far too complicated – the link on the ebay page did not work each time I tried it, I did make a purchase which I was making anyway but nowhere are the points showing apart from what I’d have got usually. They’d have been better doing the activation before the actual day. Bit of a faff really.

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