Sorting out our Credit Card

MonkeyUK

Hi all

Long time lurker, finally registered and this is my first post!

I'm trying to find the best credit card for cashback or rewards for my generic monthly spending (as below). I've compared cards on here but am confused as ever!

Monthly expenses:

£400 train fares
£430 food
£230 petrol
£300 misc shopping


Also in the new year I'll be having a house extension and loft conversion done, I'll be telling the trades I will be buying the materials, I think around £30k will be spent over a period of 6 months

grumbler

>> Cashback Credit Cards

Santander 123 Cashback CC (£2 monthly fee) pays 3% on train and petrol, but, unfortunately, it's limited by "combined spend of up to £300 a month".

enthusiasticsaver

The Santander 123 credit card is very good for petrol, food and department store spending but the retailers are limited and certainly your home building material providers will not be on the list. There is also a £24 fee although I got the first year fee free. I use that for everyday spending for food and petrol but use the John Lewis one for all other spending as that gives 0.5% on everything and 1% in John Lewis and Waitrose. No fee.


I think the one offering a good 5% introductory cashback at the moment is Amex everyday but not all retailers accept it so best check which providers you will be using for your 30k spend and check which one will give best deal. Tesco clubcard, marks and spencer are all worth checking out so look at best buys.

twotonealex

Just to throw another spanner in the works, Amex are offering a Preferred Rewards Gold, it's a charge card so the balance must be repaid in full each statement.

They have a ridiculously good offer of 23000 Membership points if you spend 2K within 3 Months, and then offer tiered points rewards for each £ you spend, in different places eg, shopping, fuel etc. You can redeem the points against SO many things, like airmiles with loads of airlines, vouchers for shopping, and much more.

Plus it's free to use abroad, you get complimentary lounge access 2 single times once a year at various airports, plus all the usual benefits of AMEX.

It's £105 a year, but free for the first year so you can cancel after that if you didn't use it!

Hope that helps!
Alex

MonkeyUK

Thanks for the posts, I was thinking about Santander 123 but previous experience of that company is making me think twice!

What do you think of the John Lewis card?

Interesting idea about Amex, only issue is I don't like flying

twotonealex

Hi Monkey,

The advantage is that you can transfer the points to loads of different things, like cashback, vouchers, shopping, and of course various travel schemes.

On the Rewards Gold I'm talking about, if you spend £2K within 3 months (which you would based on your spending), you get 20,000 points to redeem against what you like.

Type in Membership Rewards AMEX on google to find the options, be sure to hover over 'Use your points' in the top left to see what you can do.

Cheers
Alex