Tandem Cashback ending 9th March

rawhammered

Interesting. Both me and missus applied and received ours couple of days ago. Do wonder if0.5% cash back will be pulled ��

epm-84

Nick_C wrote: »

Why do people expect Tandem to provide a loss making product indefinitely? Loss leaders are to draw the customers in. Tandem are in business to make money.

This opportunity has finished. Move on and stop griping.

I think most people expect that incentives which are used as bait to get people to sign up can be changed or withdrawn but normally you would expect a financial provider to allow people to continue to use the product with reduced benefits e.g. automatically converting the cashback cards to journey cards for people who don't opt in to upgrade.

DanMar

Like a lot of others on here I’m looking for a decent backup card for anywhere my main Amex card isn’t accepted. Tandem was handy as a cashback and travel card in one, but I’ll use curve to front whichever card I eventually decide on for the same benefits (plus have the Halifax clarity card to beat curve weekend fees). I thought I’d share a few options I’ve considered and see if anyone has other alternative suggestions.

RBS/NatWest Reward
0.25% cashback (1% supermarkets excluding petrol stations)
£24 annual fee but refunded if you have any ‘reward’ current account (from £2 monthly fee but pays £5 with 2 direct debits and app login)
The 1% on supermarket spend isn’t a draw for me personally as I get 4/5% discounted gift cards via my work for most supermarkets, but the cashback seems as good as you’ll get for no fee.

On a side note they also offer a black reward credit card with a boosted 0.5% base cashback rate, the annual fee is £84 (£12 more than tandem) it’s mastercard & offers fee free transactions abroad, however stings you with a 3% fee if you withdraw cash.

Santander All in one
0.5% cashback
£3 monthly fee so £600 monthly spend to break even.
A £1200 spend will earn an identical £3 cashback (after the fee) as the 0.25% card above, so this card is only worthwhile if you’ll spend more than £1200 on average each month.
No foreign fees on spending however once again 3% or min £3 for cash withdrawals.
For use as a backup card the spend needed to justify the fee is far too high for me, plus for anyone that spends a lot in supermarkets the break even figure will be even higher due to double supermarket cashback offered on the card above.

John Lewis Partnership card
0.5% everywhere 1% at JL/Waitrose, paid as store vouchers.
If you get the card by 29th Feb there’s also a bonus £30 voucher when you spend £250 at JL/Waitrose within 90 days, plus double points on JL/Waitrose spend for 90 days meaning you’d get an extra £5 voucher with that same £250 spend.
A few others have mentioned this in the thread already and if you don’t mind the fact you’re paid in John Lewis/Waitrose vouchers then it’s a decent return rate for no fee. The fact this won’t be my main spending card makes me much less concerned that it isn’t true cashback, and If you go for the intro offer and spend £250 in store you get the equivalent of 14% back as vouchers. If you wouldn’t spend that then consider buying amazon vouchers etc at Waitrose for places you would spend the money anyway, plus it’s worth a shot at an extra 5% back at Waitrose via airtime rewards.

jbryce

DanMar wrote: »

Like a lot of others on here I’m looking for a decent backup card for anywhere my main Amex card isn’t accepted. Tandem was handy as a cashback and travel card in one, but I’ll use curve to front whichever card I eventually decide on for the same benefits (plus have the Halifax clarity card to beat curve weekend fees). I thought I’d share a few options I’ve considered and see if anyone has other alternative suggestions.

RBS/NatWest Reward
0.25% cashback (1% supermarkets excluding petrol stations)
£24 annual fee but refunded if you have any ‘reward’ current account (from £2 monthly fee but pays £5 with 2 direct debits and app login)
The 1% on supermarket spend isn’t a draw for me personally as I get 4/5% discounted gift cards via my work for most supermarkets, but the cashback seems as good as you’ll get for no fee.

On a side note they also offer a black reward credit card with a boosted 0.5% base cashback rate, the annual fee is £84 (£12 more than tandem) it’s mastercard & offers fee free transactions abroad, however stings you with a 3% fee if you withdraw cash.

Santander All in one
0.5% cashback
£3 monthly fee so £600 monthly spend to break even.
A £1200 spend will earn an identical £3 cashback (after the fee) as the 0.25% card above, so this card is only worthwhile if you’ll spend more than £1200 on average each month.
No foreign fees on spending however once again 3% or min £3 for cash withdrawals.
For use as a backup card the spend needed to justify the fee is far too high for me, plus for anyone that spends a lot in supermarkets the break even figure will be even higher due to double supermarket cashback offered on the card above.

John Lewis Partnership card
0.5% everywhere 1% at JL/Waitrose, paid as store vouchers.
If you get the card by 29th Feb there’s also a bonus £30 voucher when you spend £250 at JL/Waitrose within 90 days, plus double points on JL/Waitrose spend for 90 days meaning you’d get an extra £5 voucher with that same £250 spend.
A few others have mentioned this in the thread already and if you don’t mind the fact you’re paid in John Lewis/Waitrose vouchers then it’s a decent return rate for no fee. The fact this won’t be my main spending card makes me much less concerned that it isn’t true cashback, and If you go for the intro offer and spend £250 in store you get the equivalent of 14% back as vouchers. If you wouldn’t spend that then consider buying amazon vouchers etc at Waitrose for places you would spend the money anyway, plus it’s worth a shot at an extra 5% back at Waitrose via airtime rewards.

Also bear in mind that all the supermarkets I know of take Amex so you can get your 1% cashback anyway.

Nessie23

jbryce wrote: »

Also bear in mind that all the supermarkets I know of take Amex so you can get your 1% cashback anyway.

Amex is good for cashback, just bear in mind that you need to spend a minimum of £3000 per year (which equates to £250 per month) to get cashback. Less of an issue nowadays as many of the supermarkets and larger stores accept amex and some smaller stores too. In my case I'm finding 60-70% of the shops/stores I visit accept amex and the rest I use a visa/mastercard alternative.

rob_cb

DanMar wrote: »

I thought I’d share a few options I’ve considered and see if anyone has other alternative suggestions.

I did some research as well and eventually went with the Amazon Platinum Mastercard for my AMEX backup, as I spend a LOT on Amazon. Effectively it's 1.5% cashback for Amazon Prime shoppers and 0.25% cashback elsewhere. Unfortunately, I couldn't double up the cashback via Curve cashback but still using it directly the 1.5% is better than Tandem and makes sense for me. There are lots of bad reviews (as well as good reviews) for NewDays (who run the Amazon credit card) but so far I've not had any problems. My application was referred and took a few days for them to approve it but after that everything is working fine, direct debit setup and got a comfortable credit limit for spending and certainly higher than what Tandem offered.

I still have the Nationwide cashback credit card (0.25%) and can use that overseas for free, instead of the Amazon card (not free).

jimroy

rob_cb wrote: »

I did some research as well and eventually went with the Amazon Platinum Mastercard for my AMEX backup, as I spend a LOT on Amazon. Effectively it's 1.5% cashback for Amazon Prime shoppers and 0.25% cashback elsewhere. Unfortunately, I couldn't double up the cashback via Curve cashback but still using it directly the 1.5% is better than Tandem and makes sense for me. There are lots of bad reviews (as well as good reviews) for NewDays (who run the Amazon credit card) but so far I've not had any problems. My application was referred and took a few days for them to approve it but after that everything is working fine, direct debit setup and got a comfortable credit limit for spending and certainly higher than what Tandem offered.

I still have the Nationwide cashback credit card (0.25%) and can use that overseas for free, instead of the Amazon card (not free).

Thanks for that. I've just done the same thing for the same reasons now that I've definitely decided to let Tandem go next month.
And thanks also for the info re Curve. That'll come in handy when I get my card through. I'll just use it directly with Amazon and not register it to my Curve Card then.

Just to clarify, are you saying that when you use your Amazon card as the underlying card you don't get Amazon points as well as Curve Rewards/Points when using it at selected retailers? I thought that would work? My Curve card works with my Tandem and Barclaycard Cashback cards points/cashback wise.

rob_cb

jimroy wrote: »

Thanks for that. I've just done the same thing for the same reasons now that I've definitely decided to let Tandem go next month.
And thanks also for the info re Curve. That'll come in handy when I get my card through. I'll just use it directly with Amazon and not register it to my Curve Card then.

Just to clarify, are you saying that when you use your Amazon card as the underlying card you don't get Amazon points as well as Curve Rewards/Points when using it at selected retailers? I thought that would work? My Curve card works with my Tandem and Barclaycard Cashback cards points wise.

Yes, I think so. One of the first transactions I did was with Amazon via Curve. I got cashback from Curve instantly, but I calculated from the total reward points balance (which takes 2 days to update) on the NewDay/Amazon app the rate was just 0.25% for all transactions.

However after you asked just now, I noticed it has come up as "Crv*Amznmktplace London Gbr", but sometimes it was "amazon.co.uk" with Tandem. So now I wonder if the market place spend doesn't count.

The T&Cs say "eligible purchases at Amazon.co.uk" but I can't find it's definition of eligible purchases. I'll try testing with an item sold by Amazon.

crumpetman

If you spend at Amazon via curve then the underlying card will be charged by curve, not Amazon so you won't get the 1.5 points per pound.

If you spend a lot at Amazon then it might be worthwhile finding another way of getting a discount. For example, purchase gift cards from eBay, check if your employer has any discount schemes.

ruflonger

Applied and recieved AMEX card. After switching them on in the Amex app have had instant purchase and payment notifications through it. Disappointing that the Amex card is not that good for travel abroad but Starling and Halifax Clarity card will cover that. Shame about Tandem which was OK while it lasted but disappointed by their poorly executed membership scheme. Whist companies offer incentives to sign you up then make adjustments to make the product sustainable it does seem a strange business model not to downgrade the product or move the user to a slightly less attractive one just throws away a customer base by closing their accounts.