Published: 13/05/2009

The top cards for the following circumstances are currently as follows:

1. 0% Balance Transfers – Virgin Money MasterCard offering interest free balance transfers for 16 months (subject to a transfer fee of 2.98% min £3)
2. 0% on purchases – The BT Visa Credit Card offering interest free purchases for 3 months
3. Cashback – American Express Platinum Cashback card – pays a massive 5% cashback on purchases in first 3 months up to a maximum reward of £100. It’s especially good for big spenders as the cashback levels reach 1.5% for annual spending above £10,000
4. Fee free foreign transactions – The Zero card from Abbey

Credit Cards with reward benefits

If you spend on a rewards based credit card you’ll be rewarded for your loyalty in the form of points that you can use to redeem against meals out, flights, trips or in some cases receive a cash rebate instead.

However be aware that transactions, such as balance transfers, and cash withdrawals generally won't count towards your points. Reward cards are designed to encourage us to spend, and the more you spend the more points you build up.

So how can you pick the card that’s right for you? – Well, it depends on your shopping habits, where you tend to shop and the type of reward that appeals to you. So let’s take a look at some of the options and how much you can earn – just by using a specific credit card for your day to day shopping and expenses.

Tesco Clubcard Credit Card

How many points do you get?

Shopping at Tesco or Tesco.com you get 5 points for every £4 spent and for shopping elsewhere you receive 1 point for every £4 spent.

So how much could you earn in a year?

So whilst vouchers for £69.00 or £112.50 off your Tesco shopping is great for doing nothing, if you use the vouchers to buy deals from the Tesco deals catalogue, the vouchers are worth 4 times their face value. So how does £276 or £450 worth of hotel accommodation, restaurant meals, flights, holidays or days out grab you? There’s a whole load more to spend your vouchers on, check out the link below for more details.

http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/

John Lewis Partnership Card

How many points do you get?

Shopping at John Lewis or Waitrose (including online) you get 1 point for every £1 spent and for shopping elsewhere you receive 1 point for every £2 spent.

So how much could you earn in a year?

Whilst £80 in rewards isn’t going to change the world, it’s certainly not to be sniffed at. To put it into perspective, you would only earn £80(net) interest on your savings at 2.5% if you kept a balance of £4,000 in your account for a full 12 months.

So why not take advantage of this ‘something for nothing’ opportunity and use the vouchers to treat yourself, or perhaps use them as Birthday or Christmas presents for friends or relatives.

Other reward deals worth a look:

MBNA Platinum Rewards Card – collect 1 point for every £1 spent, and exchange your points for shopping vouchers, wine, entertainment and travel offers or if you prefer you can convert them to cash

SkyCard MasterCard – gives you 1 point for every £1 spent which can be used against Sky digital subscription, Sky box office movies, pay per view events and Sky merchandise.

Important information

Cashback and reward credit cards are a fantastic way to get something for nothing as long as you pay your statement balance off in full every month.

If you don’t clear your card balance every month the interest charges could more than wipe out any benefit you’ve accrued in rewards or cashback.  If this applies to you then you should look for low interest cards or those with 0% introductory rates.

Happy shopping!

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