The best offers and promotions for credit cards from 0% interest through to introductory bonuses.
Used responsibly, credit cards can help you earn money on purchases, give you stronger consumer protections, make holidays cheaper, help you clear debts or spread the cost of a big purchase.
Everyone’s situation will be different, so these are just the best cards out there – you might have to settle for a shorter deal or lower rate of cashback.
This list is updated at least every month – check the published date to see when this last happened.
Some articles on the blog contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund the blog. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or the blog’s independence. Read more here.
The best cashback card welcome bonuses
When you’re opening a card, especially a cashback or rewards based card, it’s worth seeing if there’s a welcome offer. And even better, checking to see if it’s boosted.
Barclaycard Avios Plus: boosted 50,000 points
New Barclaycard customers who apply for a Barclaycard Avios credit card (here’s my review) will be eligible for a welcome offer. And until 30 May 2023 these are doubled in value.
| Card | Fee | Requirement | Normal bonus | Boosted bonus | Additional points from spending | Total value as Nectar points |
| Barclaycard Avios | £0 | Spend £1,000 in first three months | 5,000 | 10,000 | 1,000 | £73.33 |
| Barclaycard Avios Plus | £20 a month | Spend £3,000 in first three months | 25,000 | 50,000 | 4,500 | £363.33 |
If we assume you’ll swap the Avios earned for Nectar points (here’s how), the boosted bonuses and points earned from spending are worth either £73.33 on the free card or £363.33 on the Plus card.
However, the Plus version of the card does have a £20 monthly fee. Assuming you cancel the card once you’ve hit the bonus, and assuming that takes three months, this gives you a real profit of £303.22 from the bonus and spending points. It could obviously be less if you keep the card longer.
If you decide to keep either card after triggering the bonus you can get an Avios upgrade voucher when you spend £20,000 on the Avios card and £10,000 on the Avios Plus in 12 months.
You won’t be able to get this card if you already have a Barclaycard, or it’s been less than six months since you held one (24 months if you’ve previously had an Avios Barclaycard card).
Virgin Atlantic Reward+: 30,000 bonus points boost
If you collect Virgin Points rather than Avios this offer until 13 June 2023 will earn you double the usual points.
| Card | Fee | Requirement | Normal bonus | Boosted bonus | Additional points from spending |
| Virgin Atlantic Reward+ | £160 a year | Spend £3,000 in first 90 days | 15,000 | 30,000 | 4,500 |
You’ll get 15,000 points with your first purchase with this card, and the same amount again if you spend £3,000 in the first 90 days. You’ll be eligible for the bonus as long as you’ve not held a Virgin Atlantic card in the last six months.
There’s also a upgrade voucher to Premium or a 2-4-1 companion voucher if you spend £10,000 across a year.
Bear in mind there’s a £160 annual fee, and you won’t get a refund if you cancel it after getting the bonus.
John Lewis: Triple points for 90 days
If you apply for a new John Lewis Partnership card you can earn a triple points on spending at John Lewis or Waitrose for the first 90 days. This is the equivalent of 3.75% back.
You’ll get a £5 voucher once you have earned 500 points.
There’s no set end date for the offer.
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+ Get a £17 Quidco bonus (new members only). More details
Get the best of Andy’s money saving content every Thursday, straight to your inbox
Get a £17 Quidco bonus (new members only). More details
Sainsbury’s Bank: £40 boosted Nectar offer
Open a new Nectar credit card from Sainsbury’s Bank (it’s different to the Amex one) and spend £400 in the first two months at Sainsbury’s, Argos, Habitat or Tu to receive 8,000 bonus Nectar points, worth £40
Occasionally the offer is increased to 10,000 points.
Best American Express welcome offers: Up to 60,000 points
I’ve more details on the latest offers in my dedicated guide to American Express offers, but here are the top picks for the bonus available for new cardholders.
Boosted Amex welcome offers
- American Express Platinum – 60,000 Amex Reward points + £200 travel credit (more)
- British Airways American Express – 10,000 Avios
The latest Amex offers
Check out this article with details of boosted referral bonuses and other extra offers with your American Express card.
Andy’s podcast
Listen to Cash Chats, Andy’s award-winning podcast. Episodes every Tuesday.
Best fee-free travel welcome deals
Most credit cards are expensive to use overseas, but a few are fee-free on transactions and withdrawals.
Halifax Clarity: £20 cashback
Sign up for a new Halifax Clarity credit card and make a transaction within 90 days to get a £20 bonus added to your card.
The Halifax Clarity won’t charge you for spending or using an ATM, but it will charge interest on cash withdrawals.
Best 0% Purchase & Balance Transfer welcome deals
Before you get a 0% balance transfer card make sure you read my guide to how to properly use them to reduce the cost of debts.
Bonus cashback: Up to £25
Cashback sites Quidco and TopCashback offer between £20 and £30 to successful applicants for credit cards from Tesco, TSB, HSBC and Barclaycard. Rates can change, so check out both sites.
For balance transfer cards this could work out better than the no-fee option. So for example, the Barclaycard Platinum transfer fee is 0.9%. Transfer £2,222 or less and the cashback wipes out the fee.
These rates can change so it’s worth checking each site to see which pays first.
New to cashback sites? Get an additional bonus of up to £17
Quidco new members can get £17 when they spend £10, while TopCashback new members can get £10 when they spend £10. Find out how to get these bonuses
Best credit building credit card welcome deals
If you’ve got a poor credit rating then spending on a credit card and then clearing the debt completely each month can help boost your score.
I’ve written in detail about this type of card, so make sure you check it out.
Barclaycard Forward: £20 cashback
If you’re eligible for the Barclaycard Forward card then apply via Quidco or TopCashback to get £20 cashback.
Tesco Foundation: £25 cashback
You can get £25 cashback when applying for the Tesco Foundation card via TopCashback.
Get paid to switch bank
Check out the latest bank switching incentives, plus the current accounts with the best rewards, cheapest overdraft and highest interest.
Looks like John Lewis may have extended their Triple Points offer. The landing page (still) says “Earn up to 3.75% in points ,,, for the first 90 days”. If that’s correct this, together with the 6 months interest free purchases, makes a decent 2nd installment in my stoozing campaign (following on from my 12 months interest free M&S card). Confusingly, if you click through to the terms & conditions, there’s a section entitled “Triple points offer 2022” but there’s no specified end date as far as I can see.
Llyods and Halifax don’t have the cashback cards anymore
Hello,
Re John Lewis new Credit card and triple points for first 90 days.
I applied for the new card (swopping over from the old John Lewis card), but I do not recall there telling me that triple points can be obtained. Don’t recall seeing it in any of their correspondence. I might have missed it of course.
Also, a word about the letters sent out. John Lewis will send you a letter containing a code for you to use to verify who you are. Prior to any online application.
This code does not always work. Did not for me, and I had to apply without using the code sent in the letter, going through more security checks because of it.
The additional checks worked, and I was awarded my new card. But people need to know that applying for this new card is not straightforward.
Thank you.
End.
Hi Andy, looks like there’s a new player in the Avios rewards credit card market which could become your top recommended. It’s also a Mastercard which has an additional bonus over Amex.
https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal/avios
Yep, going to write it up later this week and put a video on YouTube too. It’s got potential!
Not sure if you’re able to ask Barclaycard press office in time for your article whether the Welcome bonus rules on Barclaycard Avios are the same as Amex in terms of the 2 year waiting period between welcome bonuses. Their terms are unclear on this:
“3.2 We’ll only apply one Avios Welcome Bonus in relation to your card to your BAEC account during the lifetime of your card account. If you close your card account after you receive your Avios Welcome Bonus and then open another Barclaycard Avios card account within 2 years after you closed the original account, you will not be eligible for another Avios Welcome Bonus.”
For me, this is unclear – does it mean the 2 year waiting period starts from 2 years waiting period starts from a) the date I last earned the welcome bonus during the previous period of card ownership or
b) the date on which I cancel the card during the previous period of card ownership
I read this as the same as Amex. So you’d need to cancel and wait two years before you can get another welcome bonus.
The Amazon Card is now giving a 30 pond voucher
Thanks!