No more sign up bonuses on Sainsbury’s Nectar credit cards

The Sainsbury’s Nectar Credit Card offered a way of getting a one-off hit of 8,000 Nectar points, worth 5,000 Avios, due to its sign-up bonus.

It certainly wasn’t a great credit card for day to day spending, as I will explain, but arguably 5,000 Avios as a sign-up bonus on a free credit card was worth thinking about.

You no longer need to think about it. Sainsbury’s has pulled the Nectar Credit Card for new applicants and no longer offers a sign-up bonus on any of its credit cards.

Sainsbury’s Bank issues a number of credit cards with different features. All have the same earning rate per £1 spent.

Only one card – the Nectar Credit Card – came with a sign-up bonus.

This has now been removed from sale, to be replaced with the ‘Nectar Dual Credit Card’. This appears to be the same as the old Nectar Credit Card, but without any sort of sign-up bonus.

Why don’t we recommend Sainsbury’s cards for daily spending?

The earning rate on the Sainsbury’s cards is 1 Nectar point per £5 for general spending and 1 point per £2 for spending in Sainsbury’s, Tu Clothing and Argos. This is exceptionally bad.

Points are earned ‘per transaction’. This means that a £4.99 purchase outside of Sainsbury’s will earn nothing. A £9.99 transaction would only earn one Nectar point. Given that the return is so poor in the first place, this is astonishing penny-pinching.

What is a Nectar point worth?

In virtually all circumstances, a Nectar point is worth 0.5p.

1 Nectar point per £5 charged to any Sainsbury’s credit card is equivalent to a 0.1% rebate on your spend.

In reality, it is worse than this because your spending is rounded down to the nearest £5 per transaction before points are awarded.

With 1 Nectar point worth 0.625 Avios, you would earn 0.125 Avios per £1 spent outside Sainsbury’s. Inside Sainsbury’s and Argos you would earn 0.312 Avios per £1.

This is a joke compared to, for example, the free Barclaycard Avios credit card. This earns 1 Avios per £1 spent. You can transfer these to Nectar and get 1.33 Nectar points per £1, worth 0.66p.

Astonishingly, the free Barclaycard Avios credit card earns you 6.6x the rewards of a Sainsbury’s credit card. This is before you factor in the annual Barclaycard / British Airways upgrade voucher too!

Conclusion

The Sainsbury’s Nectar Credit Card had a half-decent sign-up bonus and we recommended it for a one-off hit of 5,000 Avios – as long as you promised to cancel it once you’d done that!

The on-going earnings rate of 1 Nectar point per £5 spent was always very weak. Even the ‘improved’ rate of 1 point per £2 spent in Sainsbury’s, Argos or Tu Clothing is a bit of a joke.

With no sign up bonus at all on the new Sainsbury’s Nectar Dual Credit Card, you don’t need to bother looking at the Sainsbury’s credit card range any longer.

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

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 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:

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.

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:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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.