How much do you make from bank Cashback/Rewards?

TheBanker

I'm just curious really - no specific reason for asking...

I've got the Natwest Premier Rewards account so I get £10 per month (£4.50 each for two Direct Debits and £1 for logging into mobile banking). The account costs £2 so a net gain of £8.
I put about £500 a month of spend through my Chase account which nets me about a fiver cashback
I get a couple of quid from my Natwest Reward credit card (mainly used where I want Section 75 cover)
Recently I've been making £10 a month by using my Nationwide debit card in supermarkets, but that's a time-limited offer. 

So in a typical month I make between £15 - £20 depending on how much I spend, with no real effort.

I think I could improve on this by opening more accounts but I don't want to make things too complicated! I've been looking at the Santander Edge account to get cashback on some of my bills - but taking into consideration the monthly £3 fee, I'd only just break even. The card cashback's no benefit since it's more restricted than Chase, so the only advantage would be access to the 4% savings account. 

So how much do you make in cashback (excluding interest and one-off swich incentives)?

WillPS

Halifax Rewards x3 = £15, no fee
Natwest Reward = £5, £2 fee
RBS Reward = £5, £2 fee
(Fiancée also has all the above, so we get a total of £50 between us on these, £42 after fees)

Joint Natwest Reward = £5, £2 fee
Joint RBS Reward = £5, £2 fee

Santander 123 Lite = £8ish, £2/month fee

I make that £56 ish between us most months.

I also have a TSB account about half the time doing another £5/month, and Barclays Premier Avios which earns £13.75 worth of Nectar points for £12/month, but not strictly cashback. Stretching it further we have 3 Club Rewards accounts which provide two magazines and Disney+ (or rather will from next month).

For clarity we have a packaged 'Ultimate Reward' account between us with Halifax too which costs £12/month (£17 - £5 reward).

Not including spend from credit cards, both because spend fluctuates and I tend to churn so much that it varies month to month what I'm doing. My default choices until recently were either a Nectar Amex (basically 1% reward) and a Tesco Premium Card - but the latter will soon be closed since Tesco have nerfed their scheme, and I'll probably use an Avios Barclaycard and convert to Nectar instead.

PloughmansLunch

Regular monthly cash rewards:
Halifax Reward = £5
Natwest Reward =£3 after fees
RBS Reward = £3 after fees
Santander 123 Lite = approx £6-7 after fees

Non-cash reward:
Barclays Blue Reward = £breakeven / access to decent saver
Club Lloyds - £breakeven / access to decent saver & cinema tickets

Limited time:
TSB Spend and Save x 2 = £10 (3 months left, then one account will become switching fodder, followed later by t'other in October once £75 switch T&Cs have been met)

datz

TheBanker said:

so the only advantage would be access to the 4% savings account.

You can qualify for the Edge Saver account without ever paying a fee on the Edge Current Account - just don't add any Direct Debits to the current account (refer to [3] in the key facts document: 'The monthly fee will only begin to be charged once you have paid in £500 and set up 2 active Direct Debits for the first time').

Nebulous2

I'm an amateur compared with many on here.

About £5 a month from 123 lite, £2-3 a month from Chase, cinema tickets from Lloyds.

I've just started a Halifax reward account to get the switching bonus, and have qualified to be paid £5 next month. 

To put all that into perspective,  it would pay about three nights fees on a campsite, but not the fuel to get there or a takeaway while we were there. 

WillPS

datz said:

TheBanker said:

so the only advantage would be access to the 4% savings account.

You can qualify for the Edge Saver account without ever paying a fee on the Edge Current Account - just don't add any Direct Debits to the current account (refer to [3] in the key facts document: 'The monthly fee will only begin to be charged once you have paid in £500 and set up 2 active Direct Debits for the first time').

Very interesting! Thank you, hadn't spotted that!!

Katiehound

PloughmansLunch said:

Regular monthly cash rewards:
Halifax Reward = £5
Natwest Reward =£3 after fees
RBS Reward = £3 after fees
Santander 123 Lite = approx £6-7 after fees

Non-cash reward:
Barclays Blue Reward = £breakeven / access to decent saver
Club Lloyds - £breakeven / access to decent saver & cinema tickets

Limited time:
TSB Spend and Save x 2 = £10 (3 months left, then one account will become switching fodder, followed later by t'other in October once £75 switch T&Cs have been met)

if you pay in £2 k per month then you will get the account for free.
The money only has to touch base - not actually reside there!!

and you could have Halifax reward x 3 accounts

WillPS

Katiehound said:

PloughmansLunch said:

Regular monthly cash rewards:
Halifax Reward = £5
Natwest Reward =£3 after fees
RBS Reward = £3 after fees
Santander 123 Lite = approx £6-7 after fees

Non-cash reward:
Barclays Blue Reward = £breakeven / access to decent saver
Club Lloyds - £breakeven / access to decent saver & cinema tickets

Limited time:
TSB Spend and Save x 2 = £10 (3 months left, then one account will become switching fodder, followed later by t'other in October once £75 switch T&Cs have been met)

if you pay in £2 k per month then you will get the account for free.
The money only has to touch base - not actually reside there!!

and you could have Halifax reward x 3 accounts

I don't think there's a route to 'breakeven' on the (vanilla) Club Lloyds account unless you pay in £2k is there?

ForumUser7

datz said:

TheBanker said:

so the only advantage would be access to the 4% savings account.

You can qualify for the Edge Saver account without ever paying a fee on the Edge Current Account - just don't add any Direct Debits to the current account (refer to [3] in the key facts document: 'The monthly fee will only begin to be charged once you have paid in £500 and set up 2 active Direct Debits for the first time').

Fantastic spot! I’ll make a note to ensure I only keep a penny in there. 

How are we interpreting this clause - £500 total deposit into the account over any time period, or £500 deposit in any 1 calendar month.

EDIT: Never mind about that actually, I can just never set up the Direct Debits - it’s been a long day, I keep not reading stuff properly!

OP in response to your question, I’m only set up for the single Halifax rewards £5 so far.

I’m setting up RBS and NatWest direct debits to prepare to upgrade to their reward accounts though.

I hope from June it’ll be:
RBS £5 (excl £2 fee)
Natwest £5 (excl £2 fee)
Halifax £5

£11 total.

A few months down the line, I may open another Halifax account and upgrade to rewards, but I’m being careful with LBG.

PloughmansLunch

Katiehound said:

PloughmansLunch said:

Regular monthly cash rewards:
Halifax Reward = £5
Natwest Reward =£3 after fees
RBS Reward = £3 after fees
Santander 123 Lite = approx £6-7 after fees

Non-cash reward:
Barclays Blue Reward = £breakeven / access to decent saver
Club Lloyds - £breakeven / access to decent saver & cinema tickets

Limited time:
TSB Spend and Save x 2 = £10 (3 months left, then one account will become switching fodder, followed later by t'other in October once £75 switch T&Cs have been met)

if you pay in £2 k per month then you will get the account for free.
The money only has to touch base - not actually reside there!!

and you could have Halifax reward x 3 accounts

Lloyds is my actual proper bank account and my salary cancels out the fee. I’d love an extra two Halifax reward accounts to milk but the computer says no, and I don’t want to risk the wrath of LBG by pushing it

Band7

Over £7,000 in the last 8 financial years from all cashback, rewards, referrals and switch offers, minus any unavoidable charges (mainly Santander 123 and Nationwide FlexPlus). There were related benefits, such as savings for travel/gadget/breakdown insurances and preferential interest rates but I don't have a figure to hand for these.

I expect it to slow down quite a bit as I now don't qualify for most switch offers any longer but cashback will hopefully continue: £25 from Halifax Rewards, £6 from Natwest, £6 from RBS, approx £5 from Santander, approx £15 credit card cashback, so around £57 a month. In addition, hopefully still £50 a quarter from yougov.finance. Still looking at £700 - £900 for the year.