Are points calculated per transaction or per statement? 5 September 2022 at 9:38AM in Credit cards 6 replies 151 views

gowerc

Been looking for ages but haven't been able to find a clear answer for this.

Was looking at the Tesco credit card which pays 1 point per £8 spent in non Tesco stores, my question is are the points calculated per transaction or per statement (i.e. total amount spent in a month).

As in if I buy 10 items for £7 each am I getting 0 points (because no transaction was over £8) or am I getting 8 points (£70 / 8 = 8.75)?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Ebe_Scrooge

It's per transaction.  So yes, if you make lots of transactions for £7.99 each then you earn no points.  When I'm buying petrol, for instance, if I'm not filling up then I put in a multiple of £8 - so I'll buy £48 or £56 pounds-worth for instance, to make the most of the points.  I know it's peanuts at the end of the day, really, but every little helps, as they say

gowerc

If that's true then the break point makes a pretty big difference on expected return. As in Tesco in particular with such a big cut off of £8 means you are likely to be quite badly short changed compared to say Amazon with a break point of £2 I think

Ebe_Scrooge

I know Tesco is probably not one of the best in terms of rewards, but it is essentially free money - and for me, it's something that is actually useful for me (as opposed to air miles, for instance).  But there are dozens of reward cards out there - it's really just a case of finding one that gives rewards that are useful to you and going for that one.  I don't think any of them will make you rich, but if you can get even a little something back in exchange for everyday spending, it's better than nothing.

WillPS

I'm lucky enough to have their (now closed to new applicants) Premium card which is 'multiples of £4' outside Tesco; but even so I have a different cashback card for £3.99 and lower transactions.

I honestly don't think I could justify the normal 'everywhere else' rate; best case it's one eighth of a Clubcard point per £. I tend to value Clubcard points as 2.5p each so the effective rate is 0.3125%, but that would rely on every transaction being a multiple of £8 which is vanishingly unlikely. More likely you'd get around 0.2-0.25% effectively; at that point you may as well just take one of the straight forward 0.25% cashback options or 0.3% at Asda.

gowerc

I ended up going with the Halifax 0.25-0.5% cashback card. Seemed like the best offer to me outside of amex. We were on John Lewis but they are moving providers and offering a worse rate now

WillPS

gowerc said:

I ended up going with the Halifax 0.25-0.5% cashback card. Seemed like the best offer to me outside of amex. We were on John Lewis but they are moving providers and offering a worse rate now

Same rate as the previous product (which itself changed to 0.25/1.25% back from 0.5/1% a couple of years ago).