Credit Card Cashback - not what it seems

jyugin

My colleague's Barclaycard offers a tiered cashback of 0.25% on the first £200 spend, then 0.3% on the next £1300, and then 1% on the rest (up to an annual cap of £20,000 spend).

So if he spends £20,000 in a year he expects to get 1% cashback on most of it (on £18,500 in fact). But Barclaycard don't calculate it like that.

They look at each month's spend - so if you spend your £20,000 evenly over 12 months, say £1,650 each month, you will only get the 1% on £150 each month.

The difference over the year (using the above figures as an example) is between the £190 that you would get if they calculated cashback annually, and the £78 you will actually get, because they calculate it monthly..

So the way to get maximise cashback and get anywhere near the advertised figure, is to spend a fortune in one month, and nothing at all in other months. Not exactly practical.

Dave101t

...so what...

thenudeone

It's still better than nothing, which is what most cards offer.

lisyloo

...so what...

Well they do have an obligation to be clear about their terms and conditions.