Ikea Family credit card review

Earn points on spending at Ikea and elsewhere.

This brand new credit card from Ikea could pay you more than many other reward and cashback cards, though earning enough to redeem them at Ikea could take a while. Here’s everything you need to know.

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What is the Ikea Family credit card?

This card from Ikea offers a couple of features: 0% interest on Ikea purchases and the ability to earn points on spending at Ikea and elsewhere.

There’s no annual fee for the card, though you’ll pay interest on balances that aren’t covered by the 0% offers or where other balances aren’t cleared in full each month.

How much can you earn?

There are two levels of points with this card. If you use it at Ikea alongside the free Ikea Family card, you’ll get double points for every £5 you spend. That means you’ll have two points rather than one in the most part. Note you’ll only earn the points when you spend a full fiver.

If you shop elsewhere you’ll get a single Ikea Reward point for every £10 you spend. Again, that’s only earned on a full tenner spent.

Points are applied to your card with seven days of making the purchase.

How much are Ikea points worth?

This is where it gets a little complicated. There’s no set value of a point, as it varies depending on how you redeem it.

So for instance, 200 points is worth £20 off large order delivery charges, but you’ll need 250 points to get the same discount in store. Or you can redeem points for money off food, for instance 68 points allows you to buy a salmon meal in the cafe for 50p.

A point will last 18 months, so you’ll need to be sure you’ll earn enough and have a reason to shop in this time to avoid losing them.

Here’s the full breakdown on redemptions:

Home delivery	Meals	Purchases
50 points: get £5 off delivery	22 points: get a Daim cake for 10p	125 points: save £10 when you spend £11 or more
100 points: get £10 off delivery	33 points: get a 9-piece breakfast for 50p	250 points: save £20 when you spend £21 or more
150 points: get £15 off delivery	45 points: get one meal of 8-piece meat or plant balls for 50p	500 points: save £40 when you spend £41 or more
200 points: get £20 off delivery	68 points: get a salmon meal for 50p
	94 points: get two meals of 8-piece meat or plant balls for 50p

How much do you need to spend?

The minimum redemption is 22 points, getting you a Daim cake for 10p. You’ll need to spend £110 in Ikea to trigger this, or £220 for spending at other retailers.

For a discount on deliveries you’ll need to earn at least 50 points, which requires a spend of £250 at ikea or £500 elsewhere.

For money off in the shop itself, the lowest swap rate is 125 points. That’s £625 or £1,250 respectively.

There are other ways to earn points. Since the Ikea Family Card itself also earns a point per £5 spent, you can actually half these totals for Ikea spend. They remain at the rates above for spending elsewhere.

And of course, if you have a mix of spending, it’ll be a hybrid of the two.

What’s the ‘real’ cashback rate?

Points can getting a little confusing, so I find it helps to view it as an equivalent cashback rate. However, since there are different earning levels depending on where you shop, there are actually two of these for this card.

Let’s assume you’re shopping at Ikea, where you’ll earn an extra point for each £5 spent. I’m not including the point that comes with the Ikea Family card itself for the same spend as you’d get that without this credit card. Here’s how that looks using the £20 off uses of points as an example:

• 250 points for £1,250 spend at Ikea = £20 off in store = 1.6% back
• 200 points for £1,000 spend at Ikea = £20 off delivery = 2% back

2% sounds pretty decent – and it’s a lot higher than you’ll get from any other cashback credit or debit card.

And if you use the card elsewhere, it also stands up well against other cards. You’ll get one point per £10 spent elsewhere, which works out as:

• 250 points for £2,500 spend elsewhere = £20 off in store = 0.8%
• 200 points for £2,000 spend elsewhere = £20 off delivery = 1%

1% back on a non-Amex card sounds great. What’s not to like? Well in reality it’ll be a less. Remember that you only earn the points on full £5 or £10 spends. So if you spend £4.99 at Ikea you’ll get no points. And if you spend £9.99 you’ll only get one.

For large purchases that won’t be too much of an issue. For simplicity, lets assume you’re using the points to save on purchases in store, meaning you need at least 125 points for £10 off.

• 50 points for £250 spend at Ikea = £5 off in store = 2%
• 50 points from £254.99 spend at Ikea = £5 off in store = 1.96%

• 50 points for £500 spend elsewhere = £5 off in store = 1%
• 50 points from £509.99 spend elsewhere = £5 off in store = 0.98%

The problem is, you could easily cumulatively spend £500 on the card and earn far fewer points. For example 51 purchases at £9.99 outside of Ikea would mean you’ve spent £509.49 in total – but you won’t have earned a single point.

So in reality I’d put the actual earnings at a lower rate.

0% purchase offer

You can also get interest-free offers on some spending with Ikea. It’s only on spend above £99 and below £2,000, and the length of time at zero per cent varies on how much you spend:

• 3 months at 0% if you spend between £99 – £299
• 10 months at 0% if you spend between £300 – £1,199
• 20 months at 0% if you spend between £1,200 – £2,000

You’ve 10 days after purchase to apply the offer. Don’t forget to make at least the minimum repayment each month, otherwise you’ll get charged interest or have the offer removed.

Using your Ikea points

In your Ikea Family account you’ll be able to swap earned points for a voucher. Once you do this, you’ve 30 days to use the voucher. Make sure you know you’re going to use the voucher as you can’t swap it back.

How to get the Ikea Family credit card

As long as you’re over 18 and a UK resident, you’ll need to download the Ikea Financial Services app to apply. You’ll also need to be an Ikea Family member, but that’s free and easy to join via the Ikea website.

You’ll be credit checked on application, so use the option for an eligibility search in the app first to get an idea of whether you’ll be accepted or rejected.

If you are approved, you’ll get a virtual card to start using straight away, and this can be added to Apple or Google wallets.

Alternative ways to earn cashback at Ikea

Though a potential 2% rate will be appealing, it’s possible to save more via discounted gift cards. The likes of Jam Doughnut, TopGiftcards, HyperJar and Cheddar offer between 3% and 5.3% cashback on these at the time of writing.

So buy a gift card via one of these and you’ll get the cashback straight away, and you can spend it how you want.

There are a few caveats you need to be across, including the lack of consumer protections, and we’ve covered these in our guide to discounted gift cards.

And if you’re new to any of these apps, we’ve got some great cashback site welcome offers (up to £20) that’ll help you save more on your first shop, whether at Ikea or another retailer

Is the Ikea Family credit card worth it?