M&S credit card - 10% cashback, misleading?

bonsoirbonsoir

I'm a tad confused - I've received an email from M&S which says that I can get 10% cashback, to a maximum of £50 per month, but in order to get this I have to spend £800 per month. But... 10% of £800 is £80 which would mean that the cashback is in fact 6.25% (if my maths is correct). 

I honestly wondered whether the email was fake (phishing), but it isn't - is it me, or is this misleading?

Brie

Do you already have a connection to M&S in any way?  Does the email address look legit??

I'd suspect it's a scam trying to get you to click on the link as there's nothing about this that I can see on their website.  There is the £5 in vouchers per month for the first 6 months if you spend £100 min and some other deals but nothing about £50 cash back.  In fact I can't see anything about cash back at all.  

I could of course be wrong but I'd ring them to check before you click on anything.  

SiliconChip

It looks to me like you don't start to get the 10% cashback each month until you've spent £800 on the card in that month. But I'm sure if you read the full T&Cs (assuming it's not a scam) it'll be explained there.

35har1old

bonsoirbonsoir said:

I'm a tad confused - I've received an email from M&S which says that I can get 10% cashback, to a maximum of £50 per month, but in order to get this I have to spend £800 per month. But... 10% of £800 is £80 which would mean that the cashback is in fact 6.25% (if my maths is correct). 

I honestly wondered whether the email was fake (phishing), but it isn't - is it me, or is this misleading?

It would appear that you have to spend £800 to qualify you then receive £50 if you spend a further £500.Roughly 3.85%

voluted

bonsoirbonsoir said:

I'm a tad confused - I've received an email from M&S which says that I can get 10% cashback, to a maximum of £50 per month, but in order to get this I have to spend £800 per month. But... 10% of £800 is £80 which would mean that the cashback is in fact 6.25% (if my maths is correct). 

I honestly wondered whether the email was fake (phishing), but it isn't - is it me, or is this misleading?

Seems fine to me.

They're paying 10% cashback on the first £500 with an £800 minimum spend threshold.

GrumpyDil

HSBC who provide the M & S cards have a similar offer. Mine is to make 15 transactions and then I will get 10% on those 15 contributions plus any further contributions in each month up to 50.00.

So I suspect once OP hits the spend level they will also have hit the maximimum cashback. 

gdrforest

Its not a scam. I have just been talking to various bots and call handlers to find someone who actually knows about the offer.
After spending £800 you start qualifying for 10% cashback on any additional spend. So to get £50 cashback you need to spend 800 + 500 = 1300 in the month. It is misleading. I asked the last call handler if you could feedback the ambiguity to M&S.

NoodleDoodleMan

Thanks for clarification.

J63320

I’ve had a similar email but my offer is for extra Reward points. It starts by telling me I can earn 5 times the normal reward points. Then it says “Spend £800 each month to earn extra points”. Then it goes on to say that I will only earn the extra points on spending over £800. So the first sentence is misleading and the second is untrue.
Bit of a marketing fail - I was pleased when I started reading the email, but very disappointed by the time I got to the end.

The_Money_Saver_2

I’ve received the same offer albeit I need to spend £400. 

Sarahspangles

Related? M&S recently admitted they are experimenting with their Sparks scheme. They’re sending offers to people signed up to Sparks, but different groups now get different sets of offers. It was spotted because people who liked to use the offers talked, and realised they weren’t consistent. People needing to hit different levels of spend to get the cashback listed in this thread is another example.

Of course products and marketing are designed to sell stuff but I’m increasingly uncomfortable about the way individuals’ spending is being analysed so companies can hit a sweet spot where they maximise our spending with the minimum incentive. Sainsburys also guilty here. It’s motivating me to shop elsewhere.