Earn as much as 5% back when you spend from the likes of American Express, Chase and Barclaycard.
Pretty much every time I spend money I am earning money. Ok, only a little bit but it all adds up. Don’t roll your eyes. It really does. The way I do this is through a cashback credit or debit card, or more accurately, through a couple of these cards.
Rates aren’t as good as they were a few years ago, and there are fewer cashback cards available, but even if you’re only getting 0.25% I think it’s worth having one or two in your wallet. Fortunately, it’s possible to get as much as 1.25% – and more on top with introductory offers.
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Cashback debit card vs credit card
In most instances the best option is the one that pays the best rate. And if you’re worried about managing a credit card it makes sense to use a debit card more.
However, there are reasons why I think it’s worth having a cashback credit card either as well or instead.
Primarily they’re handy if you are buying something that costs more than £100 and want the added consumer protection that comes with credit cards. They can also be useful abroad when hiring a car or when a hotel needs a holding deposit (though you’ll want to ensure it’s fee-free).
Points vs cashback
There are two types of credit card which earn you money as you spend. Cashback credit cards pay you back in cold, hard cash. Well, it’s usually credit to your card, but you get to spend that as you want.
Reward cards are slightly different as you get points, which are usually then transferred into vouchers at the linked retailer.
There are more reward and points based credit cards than ones offering actual cash, and in some cases they’re better paying. But there are some useful benefits of choosing a cashback card.
First, you can use the money you make however you wish, without being tied into spending vouchers as specific stores or airlines. Second, there’s no redemption threshold which is something you often see on reward cards (e.g. you need to earn 500 points to get a £5 voucher).
Check out my list of the best paying cards that earn points rather than cash
Andy’s cashback credit card rules
Below you’ll be able to read more about the best cashback credit cards. But first, a really important rule if you are using a cashback credit card.
Always pay off the balance in full every month
There’s no point using a cashback credit card if you’re going to get charged interest on your purchase. So make sure you set up a Direct Debit to clear the full balance.
If you can’t afford to do that, then a credit card probably isn’t your best option except for emergencies. I’ve written more about clearing credit card debts, so do read that.
It’s also worth doing an “eligibility check” before you apply if you can. This gives you a sense of whether you’ll be accepted, though not a guarantee.
Read more about these credit card rules.
Best cashback debit cards
There are a handful of debit cards which offer money back on your spending. I’ve not included cards which offer money back from time to time on a changing list of retailers. Occasionally there’ll be a short lived cashback offer, and we list them on our banking deals page.
Chase Bank
There’s only really one debit card that offers cashback that I’d go for and it’s Chase Bank. You’ll get 1% back on most of your purchases. Check out our full review here.
What you can earn:
- 1% on most purchases (capped at £15 a month)
Fees and details:
- No annual fee
- Mastercard
- Must pay in £1,500 in each proceeding month
- Read our Chase Bank review
- Read customer reviews of Chase on Smart Money People
Santander Edge
You can also earn money back at supermarkets and some commuting costs (petrol, trains, buses etc) via the Santander Edge debit card. Personally I wouldn’t bother as it you won’t earn on other spending. Check out my full review here.
What you can earn:
- 1% on supermarket and travel costs (capped at £10 a month)
Fees and details:
- No annual fee
- Mastercard
- Read our Santander Edge review
- Read customer reviews of Santander on Smart Money People
Trading 212
Trading 212 is an investing platform, but it also offers a cashback debit card on spending with uninvested cash. You’ll only get 0.5% (boosted to 1.5% until 1 January 2025) so it’s more a back up that replacement for the other options.
You’ll be charged for a physical card, though you can add virtual ones to your phone’s wallet. Here’s our full review of the card.
What you can earn:
- 1.5% back on spending until 1 January 2025, then 0.5% (capped at £20 a month)
Fees and details:
- No annual fee
- Mastercard
- Read our Trading 212 card review
- Read customer reviews of T212 on Smart Money People
Best Amex cashback credit cards
Most American Express cards will earn you points (more on these here), but there are two cards which will pay actual cash to your account.
American Express (Amex) Cashback Credit Card
Up to 1.25% back
Great for the highest cashback rates
This card will earn you 0.75% for every £1 you spent, increasing to 1.25% once your annual spend goes over £10,000. The welcome bonus is 5% on the first £2,500 spent in the first three months.
You’ll get paid in cash rather than points for spending on this card, giving you the flexibility to use the money saved through it how you want. It’s credited to your card around your 12-month anniversary.
Though this card comes with a £25 fee, there are frequent offers for newbies that will wipe this out. And you’re also able to get £25 (at the time of writing) extra back through applying for the card via cashback site TopCashback (check Quidco too).
What you can earn:
- 5% for the first three months (up to £2,500 spend) – worth up £125
- 0.75% on spend up to £10,000 – worth up to £75
- 1.25% on spend over £10,000 – no cap
- Additional cashback offers you can add to your card throughout the year via your account
- More on this and other American Express credit cards
- Read customer reviews of Amex over on Smart Money People
Fees and details:
- £25 annual fee
- Get a bonus £25 cashback when you go via a cashback site
- Not joined a cashback site? Get an extra £20 bonus when you sign up
- Got a friend with one? See if they’ve got a referral code to earn you both some cash
American Express (Amex) Cashback Everyday Credit Card
£100 bonus and up to 1% back
Good for lower spenders
Very similar to the Amex Cashback card except you get lower rates in exchange for no card fee. This could be a better option if you are likely to spend less than £5,000 a year on the card – though you must spend more than £3,000 a year to get any cashback.
What you can earn:
- 5% for the first three months (up to £2,000 spend) – worth up £100
- 0.5% after on spend up to £10,000 – worth up to £50
- 1% on spend over £10,000 – no cap
Fees and details:
- No annual fee
- You must spend at least £3,000 a year to qualify for cashback
- Get a bonus £15 cashback when you go via TopCashback
- Not joined a cashback site? Get an extra £10 to £20 bonus when you sign up
- Read customer reviews of Amex over on Smart Money People
Read more about other American Express cashback credit cards.
Extra Amex offers
Check out this article with details of boosted referral bonuses and other extra offers with your American Express card.
Visa cashback credit cards
There’s only one card of note issued by Visa, but it’s a good option to add to your wallet thanks to fee-free spending overseas.
Barclaycard Rewards
0.25% back
Great for regular travellers
There are a couple of benefits to this Barclaycard. First, you will earn the cashback and pay no fees on transactions abroad as well as in the UK.
Second it’s a Visa rather than Mastercard. That shouldn’t really matter, but in the past I’ve been to countries where for some reason only Visa worked.
What you can earn:
- 0.25% on every £1 spent
- No fees for using abroad
- No cap on annual cashback you can earn
Fees and details:
- No annual fee
- Visa
- Check eligibility for the Barclaycard Rewards credit card
- Read customer reviews of Barclays on Smart Money People
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+ Get a £20 Quidco bonus (new members only). More details
Mastercard cashback credit cards
Santander Edge credit card
Up to 2% back
Anyone with a Santander current account can apply for this card, which pays 2% back in year one and reduces to 1% in year two onwards.
However, there’s a £15 cap on how much you can earn each month, and a £3 monthly fee will eat into those earnings. Here’s our full analysis.
What you can earn:
- 2% for the first year
- 1% after
Fees and details:
- £3 monthly fee
- Mastercard
- Check eligibility for a Santander credit card
- Read customer reviews from Smart Money People
Editor’s savings pick
Earn a market leading 5.17% AER from this Trading 212 Cash ISA
Natwest or RBS Reward credit card
Up to 1% back
If you have a Natwest or RBS Reward current account then this card is fee-free (otherwise best avoided), You’ll earn 1% back at the supermarket and 0.25% back elsewhere.
Personally, I don’t see the point as you can get 1% back at the supermarket with the Chase debit card or Amex Nectar AND other retailers.
There’s also a Travel Reward card that gives 1% back on holiday expenses such as flights and hotels though not everyday spending.
What you can earn:
- 1% on supermarket spending
- 0.25% on spending elsewhere
Fees and details:
- £24 annual fee (unless you have a Reward current account)
- Mastercard
- Check eligibility for a Natwest credit card
- Check eligibility for an RBS credit card
- Read customer reviews of Natwest on Smart Money People
Check out my list of the best credit card offers and promotions
It would be good to understand why cards from other providers which offer better rates aren’t featured? Is it because they’re not all FSCS protected, or something of that nature?
E.g. Algbra offered 1.5% cashback for quite some time. Trading 212 also offers 1.5% cashback until the end of October 2024, and Uphold recently had an offer of 5% cashback (paid in GBP, not in crypto) over June and July, and offers an ongoing 1% capped at £100 a month (loads more than Chase’s £15/month cap). I’ve never seen any of these featured and not having them here makes it looks like Chase’s offer is the best on the market when it arguably isn’t always the case.
When they’re short term offers we list them in our banking offers page
Think the .5% for over £4000 with Halifax is gone. At any rate it’s no longer in their literature. The Halifax cashback credit card also connects to Halifax Rewards. This gives higher rates plus the .25% on limited and changing offers. I’ve made £44 on Rewards, but over several years .
Algbra offers a debit card that gets you 1.5% cashback on all transactions made through Google Pay or Apple Pay. The payout can be a bit slow but it does come through!
Hi Andy
I’m wondering why the Co-op members credit card never gets mentioned. Has 0.3% cashback on all spend so better than Barclaycard (without free oversea spend though). I’m thinking of opening one due to more ethical credentials, but don’t see it mentioned much.
Hi Andy, Halifax and Lloyds don’t have the cashback credit card. Do you think the natwest platinium is a good alternative to this cards? I do spread my spending on several supermarkets, but most of them I use gift card websites (4-7% savings). It would be great to have another saving on top of those ones.
what are gift card websites? thx
TopCashBack with the American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday Card is just a £5 bonus now, I’m afraid! Still going to give it a try:-)
Hi Andy,
Thank you for your useful articles. Amex is not working with Curve so I am looking for an all-round non-Amex credit card. Given that I’ve just opened Chase, cashback may not be the most important feature to me in a credit card. What is your thoughts on Santander all in on credit card?
I was looking forward for your May update regarding credit cards. Fantastic as always!
I’m curious about knowing your thoughts in regards to NatWest reward credit card ?
Thanks Yucando! I’ll take a proper look. It could be that with the Amex Platinum cuts it’s a good all-rounder if you go to multiple supermarkets, or ones that don’t offer their own card.
Re John Lewis and M&S cards: Can I pay them back in store at a till or do I have to do a direct debt? Just because it would be easier for me to go into the store and pay these cards back at a till in cash.
M&S cards can be paid in stores (when open). John Lewis is via bank transfer, DD or cheque
Sadly, Tandem is now closed. They have given their 3 months’ notice earlier this month and will cancel their card by Nov 2020.
Yes, I ditched my card earlier this year when they started charging a fee. But it’s a shame their leaving the market.
Re John Lewis Partnership Credit Card
Just received a letter stating that the cashback is going to be ‘updated’.
You will get 5 points with a £4 purchase at JLP and Waitrose – where you are getting 1 point for a £1 spend at the moment -, but spend in other shops is going down to 1 point for a £4 purchase. Not such a good deal any more then. This will come into effect on 4 September.
Thanks Dorit, really useful to know. I’ll update the guide. Andy
Yes with John Lewis you used to get a quite generous number of café vouchers for free tea or coffee and cake. Now it tends to be just one or two vouchers, and that about every four to five months it seems to me. Though of course that is suspended at the moment with Coronavirus lock down.
I think they have also tightened up on the credit period that you could wait for before paying the bill.
Also fully agree with paying the bill every month. Interest can certainly add up if you spend say five or six hundred pounds on the card for some capital item, and you pay it off over two or three instalments. Need to watch that.
Hi Andy,
I used your referral link and the voucher did not process so I emailed Tandem and they require your name and email before the voucher can be processed
How is a tandem card better than a partnership card?
If I spend £100 at Waitrose/John Lewis with a partnership card 1 get £1 cashback
If I spend £100 at Waitrose /John Lewis with a tandem card I get 50p cashback
Everywhere else they are exactly the same 0.5% cashback.
As for using the card abroad there are no fees for using the card but you still have to pay 18.0% to get 0.5% cashback.
Or am I missing something?
Hi Richard. It’s Amex that I think is better to use at John Lewis and Waitrose as you can also get the 1% or more at lots of other places. The Tandem is my back up for those that don’t use Amex. And as long as you pay off the balance you won’t get charged any interest. If you can’t clear the balance then best to avoid credit cards in all cases but emergency (or section 75 protection).
Forget cashback.Much better is to take out a succession of longterm 0% interest cards -pay only the minimum each month (by direct debit) and transfer the balances to 0% balance transfer cards that charge no transfer fee when the interest free period nears its end.Keep the amount owing in an instant access account earning 1.5% Marcus for example and the interest you earn will soon dwarf any cashback or reward scheme.I have been doing this for around three years and now have roughly £15000 “debt” earning £200+ pa. On an annual credit card spend of around £5000 that equates to an ongoing discount of around 4%
With the American Express (Amex) Platinum Cashback Everyday Credit Card you must make purchases of at least £3000 / year “to be eligible to receive your cashback”!
I’ll struggle to do this – recently tried to use it to pay for car insurance – not accepted of course, same story for heating oil.
Hi Eric, oh that’s a shame. £3,000 a year works out as £58 a week. You should be able to use an Amex at the supermarket and most major petrol stations, which hopefully would account for the bulk of it.
Can we use to pay our rent, mobile monthly charge, iCloud, and restaurants and supermarkets?
We don’t get any fee for doing that with this one right?
If the merchant accepts the card then you won’t face any extra charges (the main exception is if the transaction is treated as a cash advance e.g. if used to buy currency or at an ATM). Most landlords won’t accept credit or debit cards though.
Hi Andy, Tandem say they need to know the email address used to set up your card to verify the £10 Amazon voucher referral. Can you help?