Marks and Spencer £25 cash back. Is it?

MrMoore

I was told by MS that after spending cumerlative spend totalling £100 that I would not get cash back or refunded to my MS credit card. It will be in the form of a voucher that can only be spent at MS. How can this be described as cash?

etienneg

Well, if by "cash" you are just thinking of notes and coins, then it isn't. But by this criterion, neither is the cashback that you get on a rewards credit card, for example. You never handle notes or coins there, do you?

Many words have slightly different meanings, depending on the context. So "cash" can mean just notes and coins, or it can mean a payment method that doesn't involve credit - such as a cheque or debit card or faster payment. If I buy a car "for cash", I just mean I don't take out the garage's finance - I won't be handing over the price in notes!

I accept that one normal attribute of "cash" is that you can spend it anywhere you choose - as long as the seller takes cash (by no means universal now, especially since Covid) - which clearly is not true of the M&S cashback. But you can spend it on what you want at M&S, which these days is quite wide (food as well as clothes). It's not like a voucher for a refund (say), that's restricted to being spent on a similar replacement basis. It's all in the T&Cs.

If you never, or rarely, shop in M&S then don't get their credit card. But you should not rely on reading just the headline for their offering and filling in the blanks with your own assumptions.

MrMoore

etienneg said:

"I accept that one normal attribute of "cash" is that you can spend it anywhere you choose "

I rest my case!

pbartlett

Never really thought about it until now, but you are right - cash has a legal definition and this does not include 'M&S vouchers' so not sure cashback should be used.