Earn 1% back on spending.
The Santander Edge cashback credit card has had a revamp for new customers. You’ll now earn less and pay more. Here’s what you need to know, and whether we think it’s worth getting.
Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.
Santander Edge credit card features
1% cashback rate
The Santander Edge credit card pays 1%. Sadly the boosted 2% rate in the first year was removed in July 2025 for newbies.
1% isn’t bad. It matches the equivalent rate on the American Express Nectar card (two points for every £1 spent), and is higher than the 0.5% to 0.75% you’ll get on the next best options. But, as we’ll get to, this 1% is before fees are taken into account.
Every month, there’s a £10 cap on cashback you can earn. This means you’ll only earn money back on the first £1,000 you spend each month.
A month is defined as between statements. So if you get your statement on the 12 of a month, your spending total resets to £0, and you’ll keep earning until the next statement date or you reach the cap.
Cashback is added to each statement and will come off what you owe – so if you decide to close the card down make sure you do this just after you’ve had a statement so not to lose out on earnings.
What can you earn cashback on?
Most of your everyday spending is going to be eligible for cashback. However there are some exclusions:
- Balance transfers and money transfers
- Buying foreign currency or travellers’ cheques
- Withdrawing cash from a cash machine or over the counter at a bank
- Gambling, including internet gambling and buying lottery tickets
- Direct Debits and standing orders
Fee free spending abroad
The other key feature for the Santander Edge credit card are zero foreign transaction charges for using it overseas, whether on spending or to withdraw cash.
However, there will be a 3% charge (minimum £3) added if you do use it to take money out of an ATM, at home or abroad, along with interest charges. So it’s not a good idea to use the card for this. Here are our alternative options.
How much does the card cost?
This is where that attractive cashback rate suddenly looks less appealing. The card has a £4 fee every month, adding up to £48 a year.
Prior to July 2025 this was £3 a month, so you’ll be earning £12 less each year as a result of the hike.
There’s no easy way to wipe this fee out, though the bank has been known to run promotional offers that remove the fee for a short welcome period.
Who can get the Santander Edge credit card?
The only criteria are you’re over 18 years old, be a permanent UK resident and earn more than £10,500 a year. From July 2025, you no longer need to have a current account with Santander in order to get the card.
As with most credit cards you can ask for additional cards to be added (up to four) and these will be in your name, so there’s no requirement for the people you give these to to also have a Santander current account.
There’s an eligibility search option on the Santander website, which is worth using before applying. This’ll tell you your chances of getting accepted without appearing on your credit report. If you decide to proceed, then a hard search will be made on your credit file.
Get the best of our money saving content every Monday & Thursday, straight to your inbox
Plus an exclusive £20 welcome bonus for new Quidco members (Terms apply)
How much cashback can you earn with the Santander Edge credit card?
Ok, so what could you actually make from the card?
First there’s that £4 monthly fee. That’ll eat into the profit from the card. Each month you need to spend at least £400 to cover the fee.
Then there’s that £10 monthly cap. You’ll reach £10 each month if you spend £1,000. Any spending on the card above this level will reduce the effective cashback rate you earn further.
This tables show what you’d get from a few different spending amounts once the fee and cap are factored in.
| Spend | 1% cashback after fee (month) | Effective cashback rate |
| £100 | -£3 | -3.00% |
| £250 | -£1.50 | -0.60% |
| £400 | £0 | 0.00% |
| £800 | £4 | 0.50% |
| £1,000 | £6 | 0.60% |
| £1,250 | £6 | 0.48% |
As you can see the most you can actually earn after the fee is 0.6%, and that’s if you spend bang on £1,000 each month. Go above this and your effective rate decreases.
You need to be spending at least £800 every month to match the 0.5% you can get from the free Amex Everyday Cashback card.
And spend less than £400 on the card and you’ll be losing money!
Should you get a Santander Edge credit card?
Andy’s analysis
It’s great to have a higher paying cashback credit card out there, especially one that isn’t American Express.
However, you’re never going to actually reach 1%. If you spend the maximum £1,000 a month where cashback is applied you’ll actually get 0.6% back. Less than the top free cards and less than the top paying cards with low fees (e.g Amex Nectar, Amex Cashback).
Plus, if you’re eligible for a welcome offer from American Express that’s likely to be more lucrative and a better option. You can see if any of these offers are currently boosted in our Amex deals page.
Of course, if you want a non-Amex cashback credit card, the two cards you’re comparing against are the Barclaycard Rewards (0.25%) and Barclaycard Avios (0.5% if you swap your Avios into Nectar). So a monthly spend of £530 would match the first card, and a spend of £800 would equal the second. I’d say these two are better options
Ultimately, I think it’s a risk to pay this £4 fee when there’s a chance you won’t need to spend much on it. Really it’s only for those you want Section 75 consumer protection and regularly spend at retailers that won’t take Amex.
What do people think of Santander?
Since this is a relatively new card, there are no reviews of the product over on our sister site, Smart Money People. However you can see what customers think about the bank itself and it’s other credit cards.
- The bank scores 3.75 out of 5
- The 123 credit card scores 3.92 out of 5
- The All in One credit card scores 2.46 out of 5
Summary
Santander Edge Credit Card
| Fee | £4 a month |
| Card issuer | Mastercard |
| Cashback | 1% back |
| Restrictions | £10 maximum cashback earnings each month |
I love this credit card product – I’m nearly coming up to one full year using it so am getting the 2% cashback rate on nearly all spend, but with Chase’s removing everything bar essential spend for just 1% cashback, then this card is actually worth it for year one only after the £3p/m fee. I’d bin it after year one though and go back to an AMEX Platinum non fee cashback card instead, which I think is 0.5% of all spend.
Is the £3 fee in addition to the £3 fee already for the Edge account?
yep