Best for spending long term, paying full balance - Tesco for me?

scarletjim

Hi all, I always pay off my CC every month in full, but have recently been thinking about which CC will give me the biggest benefit on my spending when doing that. Several cards offer cashback, but it's fairly minimal, or it's a good rate but only in the short term. Others offer miles / points, but in most instances I calculate these to be only worth about 1% to me personally (depends what rewards you would use etc). Best I can see for me, spending (I'd estimate) about £3-5k per year, is Tesco:

For every £1000 I spend, I would get 1000 points, which converts into £10, but that's £40 in Clubcard Reward Vouchers, which I would definitely use in places like Pizza Express etc - so to me that means I would get 4% 'worth' of rewards for my long term spending on that card.

Does my logic make sense?

Does anyone have any other 'points' schemes that I might want to consider for my long term spending credit card?

Thanks.

Careful_ly

You have got the calculation wrong for the amount of points you would earn.
For spending outside Tesco its 1 point for every £4
For spending at Tesco its the normal 1 point per £1 + 1 extra point for each £4 spent. This applies for Tesco fuel too (except esso)
We use one of these and its okay, although I make sure I spend £300 per month which gets £5 reward on my Halifax rewards card.
Tesco is 15month 0% at the moment, so you can earn some interest by paying the minimum each month and putting the rest into a savings account.

scarletjim

Dammit, trust me to get the maths wrong, well that's a pointless application completed last night then... lol

I just looked for the Halifax card, but the website no longer mentions the £5 for £300 deal, so I assume it's not open to new customers. I already do have a Halifax account where I just move £1000 in and out each month to get a free £5, pity I didn't look into credit cards when I opened that account as I prob could have got same deal as you then.

Thanks for correcting me.

Gromitt

If you know someone with a Tesco card you can get 1000 points just for getting the card (recommend a friend offer), so it can be worthwhile, plus they were recently doing a 300 points offer just for inquiring about insurance. So I got 1300 points and changed them for £50 of Hungry Horse vouchers. Thats 5 juicy steaks and no washing up

Other than that, the 0.25% 'cash back' on the Tesco CC isn't really worth it. It's better on Tesco fuel (5 points per £4 spent compared to 2 points per £4 spent on a clubcard), but I always seem to find that Tesco are 1p more than any competing supermarket, so I just use those and then use a 2% cash back card to pay for it.

Careful_ly

Ok, if you have a Halifax account you can still apply for the Rewards credit card, but it has to be done in branch according to their website.
http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/low-rate-no-fee/clarity-card/?pagetabs=4#Clarity_Rewards_Credit_Card

HTH

scarletjim

I applied yesterday evening before I knew that, what a pity, a free meal out would've been good

EDIT: That was a reply to Gromitt obviously, what are the chances of us both posting at exactly the same time when it's after midnight! lol ok thanks I'll check the link and go into my branch, it's only 10 mins walk, thanks.

EDIT2: The link still doesn't mention the £5 for £300 thing though, perhaps it only applies for people who got the card at a certain time?

Careful_ly

I think it gives the £5 per month as it still calls it the Clarity reward account, rather than the Clarity, which is available if you don't have a current account.