Any decent (Non Amex) rewards cards out there?

Jlawson118

I’ve currently got the Amex Gold charge card and Amex Nectar credit card, which I use for my everyday spending.

 I’ve always liked to have a Visa/Mastercard to earn rewards where businesses don’t take Amex. I used to have the Barclaycard rewards card until they changed to the new scheme.

The best I’ve seen recently is the Chase current account at 1% returns on everyday spend. Which I find good but the offer only lasts a year from when I signed up for it in April.

Every time I jump on a comparison site they’re mostly recommending Amex.

Am I missing some good offers? Or are they just not out there at the moment?

Marchitiello

Since the change in what CC companies can charge merchants in fee (Amex is excluded by the legislation), it is extremely unlikely to find good MasterCard /Visa rewards cards.

Maybe the Barclaycard Avios is potentially the better option right now, as even if you do not want to collect Avios per se to claim on flights, it can still be exchanged for nectar giving you a return of about 0.67% (was 0.8% until very recently).

there are Other rewards scheme like NatWest/RBS but to make the most of it you need to have linked products and use specific promotions 

NoodleDoodleMan

"I used to have the Barclaycard rewards card until they changed to the new scheme."

We have the Barclaycard Rewards - wasn't aware of any changes.

https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal/credit-cards/barclaycard-rewards

WillPS

Cashback:

• Natwest/RBS Reward Credit Card - 1% cashback at supermarkets, 0.25% elsewhere (annual fee which is waived if you hold a Reward current account, which itself will earn you an easy £3/month).
• Halifax/Lloyds Cashback Credit Card - 0.25% cashback up to £4000 pa, 0.5% above
• Barclaycard Rewards* - 0.25% cashback + no FX charges
• Co-operative Members Credit Card* - 1p cashback per £2 at Co-op food, 1p per £3.33 elsewhere (requires a Co-op Bank account)
• Santander All-in One - £3 monthly fee, 0.5% cashback flat rate, no FX charges.
  

Rewards:

• Asda Money (issued by Jaja)* - 1% back in Asda Rewards credit at Asda, 0.3% elsewhere
• John Lewis Partnership Card (issued by New Day) - 1.25% back in JLP vouchers at John Lewis and Waitrose, 0.25% elsewhere
  
• Avios Barclaycard - 1 Avios (== 0.67p worth of Nectar) per £, improved fee paying version available
• Virgin Atlantic - 0.75 Virgin point per £, improved fee paying version available
• Tesco Bank - 1 clubcard pt per £4 at Tesco, 1 pt per £8 elsewhere (calculated per txn and rounded down)
• Sainsbury's Bank, M&S Bank - so rubbish I'm not even going to look it up

* denotes issued as Visa, otherwise issued as Mastercard

[Deleted User]

Lloyds/Halifax do a card which is 0.25% cashback for up to £4000 and then 0.5% over that, it's Mastercard for both

dcfc67

Virgin is a good back up for AMEX if you convert points to Avios.

WillPS

dcfc67 said:

Virgin is a good back up for AMEX if you convert points to Avios.

How do you convert Virgin Points to Avios?

The_Urbanite

The question is what rewards do you want to collect? Might as well pick one that works with a scheme you are already in. 

Not much point collecting Avios if it’s going to take 20 years of spend before you get enough to redeem a flight to Paris in Economy. However if you’re the type of person who can run £200k a month through credit cards then get as many as you can 😁

Marchitiello

The_Urbanite said:

The question is what rewards do you want to collect? Might as well pick one that works with a scheme you are already in. 

Not much point collecting Avios if it’s going to take 20 years of spend before you get enough to redeem a flight to Paris in Economy. However if you’re the type of person who can run £200k a month through credit cards then get as many as you can 😁

I know it may have been an exaggeration but for a flight to Paris you only need 4750 Avios in Economy, leaving aside that it would be the worst use of Avios ever. 

Avios is not bad if you have a strategy and focus on it between Amex MR and BA cards, Nectar conversion, NatWest/RBS Vouchers, Barclays Avios Rewards (with the latest deal, between the wife and I have made 200,000 Avios at once), Avios Shopping portal, HSBC Cards, affiliated travel partner conversion etc  you can easily rack up enough Avios every year for a long haul premium cabin (best return for Avios, golden reward ticket being Sydney).

having said that, without a proper strategy and/or way to maximise as the above, it may not be useful for everyone, but in the OP case, as he mention having Amex Nectar card, thus may be interested in Nectar points, the Barclaycard Avios to BAEC to Nectar conversion, returning 0.67% on all spend (excluding cash like) may be indeed his best bet. 

SiliconChip

The Pulse card pays 0.25% cashback up to £150 per year (i.e. £60,000 of transactions), although at the moment I believe it is only available to people who held an Amazon Mastercard, which it is replacing.

WillPS

SiliconChip said:

The Pulse card pays 0.25% cashback up to £150 per year (i.e. £60,000 of transactions), although at the moment I believe it is only available to people who held an Amazon Mastercard, which it is replacing.

There's tonnes of offers better than the ones upthread; unfortunately they are either closed to new applicants (i.e. Aqua 0.5%, Hilton Honors, Tesco Premium) or are only available to a minority of customers (i.e. HSBC's Premier cards).