If you want to boost your savings when shopping online, there’s a simple way to make money – cashback.
If you’re new to cashback sites, you can nab sign-up offers giving you over £50 in free cash when you first buy something.
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.
How cashback sites afford to give you money
Retailers often pay a commission to websites that help them make a sale. Cashback sites simply pay you a cut of this money if you shop with them.
How to get even more money from the cashback sites
Since there are a few of these sites, they’re all competing for you to shop via them – which means they all give incentives to get you to sign up.
So even if you’ve already registered with one, you can sign up with another and shop away.
They all have different custom cashback rates at different shops, so it’s worth signing up for them all and shopping around for the one which will give you the most money.
Right now you could earn a free £30 for doing your shopping as normal, and get further cashback on top. Here are the best ones:
New customer offers
TopCashback: £20 bonus when you spend £10
You can get a £20 new member bonus. You need to spend £10 via one of the retailers listed on TCB to get this bonus (excluding takeaways). You must go via this link or the button below.
Read the full terms and conditions when you click through. Ends 30 June 2025.
Quidco: £24 bonus cashback when you spend £5 (expired)
**This deal ended 31 May. We hope to get it renewed for early June**
The best deal is for subscribers to our weekly newsletter who get access to an exclusive £24 first-time bonus when they spend £5. You’ll also get the cashback offered by the retailer on top.
Once you sign up, you’ll need to click on the sign up confirmation email that will be sent immediately. If you don’t see it please check your spam folders as it could be there, and then add our email address to your safe senders list.
Then look for a special email that will be sent to you with the exclusive Quidco sign-up link. Make sure to read the terms and conditions on Quidco’s website before making your first purchase to ensure it tracks.
This offer is due to end 31 May 2025, but will hopefully be extended
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JamDoughnut: get £4 for signing up
We’ve managed to snag a cheeky boosted welcome offer for Be Clever With Your Cash readers. You can get £4 extra cashback – double the standard welcome bonus.
It’ll be paid as two sets of 200 points when you make your first purchase.
The first 200 points you get are standard for first-time users of JamDoughnut, while the extra 200 points are for coming through our link. The first 200 points will be instant, while the second ones will take a few days to be added by the JamDoughnut team.
You might be prompted to enter a code. You don’t need to do this as the link will track. But if you want to, then add BCWYC.
You can get £2 when you sign up for cashback app Cheddar using the referral code CLEVER2 and buy your first prepaid card. You’ll also get boosted cashback rates for two weeks.
You have to make the purchase within 14 days of signing up using the invite code to get it.
Another decent cashback site is the app Airtime. New member bonuses are much smaller. You’ll get 50p for signing up with code H9HJCPAY and another £1 when you spend within seven days. Sometimes these are boosted.
If you don’t want to sign up for our newsletter, this short term offer that can get you £12 cashback on any purchase, as long as you spend £5 or more. So if you spend £5 at any of the 4,300 retailers listed on Quidco – which is pretty much all of them – you’ll get this bonus back plus whatever the cashback rate is. This ends 31 July 2024.
New Trading 212 customers get an increase of 0.71% AER to 4.81% for 12 months
More details ▼
Additional Info
Existing Trading 212 customers get a rate of 4.35%
FSCS Protected?: Yes
Allows transfers in?: Yes
Flexible ISA?: Yes
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Existing customer bonuses
From time to time both Quidco and TopCashback offer an extra bonus. You need to activate these deals and they generally only run for a short period of time – often just one day.
Airtime tends to have promo codes you need to enter on the app to get the extra offer.
The best are generic promos which you can gain with any spending. Sometimes they might be for specific retailers or types of service (eg travel or broadband). I’ll share any decent ones I spot here.
Things to watch out for
Cashback is never guaranteed. If your purchase doesn’t track (i.e. there isn’t a record of you buying the item via the cashback site) you won’t get the money.
Here’s how to increase your chances you will get the money:
Read the (short) terms and conditions for the sign-up deals, and also the individual shop promotions.
Be careful using voucher codes. If they aren’t listed on the cashback page they might stop you getting cashback.
Make sure you don’t already have a browser window open for the retailer.
Get free cash when you shop at thousands of shops or other bonuses with these Quidco sign-up bonus offers.
We’re big fans of cashback and – even better – you can often get a bonus when you sign up for the first time.
Quidco is one of the big cashback sites, and we’ll list the best deals here, as well as any other specific cashback deals we think you can’t afford to miss.
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.
What is Quidco?
Quidco is a cashback website that lets you earn money back when you shop through its platform. It works with thousands of retailers across different categories, including fashion, tech, travel and groceries. When you make a purchase through Quidco, a percentage of what you spend is tracked and later paid out as cashback, which you can withdraw to your bank, PayPal, or as a gift card.
First time Quidco user offers
There are regular retailer-specific offers that come and go which could save you £10 or £15 if you buy at those shops. But the two generic offers below are far better as they mean you can spend your money wherever you want on whatever you want.
£24 bonus cashback when you spend £5 (expired)
**This deal ended 31 May. We hope to get it renewed for early June**
The best deal is for subscribers to our weekly newsletter who get access to an exclusive £24 first-time bonus when they spend £5. You’ll also get the cashback offered by the retailer on top.
Once you sign up, you’ll need to click on the sign up confirmation email that will be sent immediately. If you don’t see it please check your spam folders as it could be there, and then add our email address to your safe senders list.
Then look for a special email that will be sent to you with the exclusive Quidco sign-up link. Make sure to read the terms and conditions on Quidco’s website before making your first purchase to ensure it tracks.
This offer is due to end 31 May 2025, but will hopefully be extended
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Get £10 cashback when you spend £5, plus extra cashback (ended)
This is an ongoing offer that can get you the cashback on any purchase, as long as you spend £5 or more. So if you spend £5 at any of the 5,000+ retailers listed on Quidco – which is pretty much all of them – you’ll get £10 back plus whatever the cashback rate is. There are so many shops you’ll definitely find a way to get your cashback.
It’s worth looking for bonus cashback deals which can pop up from time to time. You need to click to activate these offers. We’ll add them below when we see them.
Quidco Flashback offers
Often Quidco has boosted cashback known as Flashback that runs for 24 hours. Sometimes we can share them in advance, although they could change or be cancelled. Always check the Quidco homepage for the full terms and conditions. You might also have to activate some offers.
Some deals will give you money without actually spending any money:
£3 bonus when you install Quidco reminder (ended)
If you use Chrome as your internet browser you’ll be able to earn a £3 bonus by installing the Quidco Reminder extension, then using it to activate cashback while shopping and spend at least £3. There are a handful of retailers excluded which are listed in the terms and conditions when you click through. The offer comes and goes.
Find a free business bank account for your business type
A business bank account is a separate bank account from your personal one that you maintain just for your business. These accounts are more tailored to business banking, so you can integrate accounting tools, make invoices and categorise your expenses. Some accounts are limited to certain types of businesses, so you’ll need to check that your business is eligible to have an account with your chosen bank.
Integration with accounting tools: Fully integrated accounting tools
Invoicing tools: Yes
Cash withdrawals: £1 per withdrawal
Access: Via app
Fee details: After the 3 month free trial, you'll pay a monthly fee depending on how much you deposit each month. Deposits up to £750: £3 per month; Deposits up to £7,500: £9 per month; Deposits over £7,500: £18 per month
Eligible companies: Sole traders or registered limited companies
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Do you need a business bank account?
If you’re a sole trader or just earning extra via a side hustle then you don’t need to have a specialist business bank account. You can make do with a standard (and free) personal account.
You don’t have to use the same one you bank with day-to-day. It’s generally best to separate your business money from your personal cash, so it’s best to open a new account — it’s up to you whether you stick with the same bank you use for your personal banking or try a different one. Keeping them separate will be useful when it comes to doing your tax return and working out which purchases were business-related.
But, if you are part of a Limited Company then you’ll have to have a specific business account.
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What to look out for when searching for a business bank account
When choosing a business bank account there will be a few differences from regular bank accounts that you’ll want to consider.
Fees
You’ll be more likely to come across fees with these bank accounts. We’ve shown the free accounts above, although this refers to whether there’s a monthly fee. The other fees you might come across include:
Initial set-up fee
Cash deposit fees
Cash withdrawal fees
Transaction fees
Fees for payments in
Fees for transfers out
It’s important to consider what your business is likely going to need. For example, if you take a lot of cash payments, you might be more interested in getting free cash deposits, while a company that doesn’t handle cash much wouldn’t be bothered about cash deposits.
Eligibility
Some accounts aren’t available for all businesses. If you have a Limited Liability Partnership, for example, you’ll have fewer choices when it comes to business bank accounts. Check out “eligible companies” in further details above for an overview. You’ll also want to double-check with the bank directly. Generally speaking, sole traders and limited companies should be eligible for all of the accounts above, although there are often excluded business types.
Cash deposits
Many of the business bank accounts listed above are digital banks, which means there isn’t a high street branch for you to deposit cash into your account, however, most of them will let you deposit cash at the Post Office or using PayPoint. Some have associations with high-street banks — for example, Mettle is owned by NatWest so you can pay in cash at NatWest branches.
Integration
A lot of business bank accounts offer integration with accounting software like Xero or Quickbooks. Or, they’ll offer the option to export your transactions to give your accountant or upload them into your chosen software. If you don’t have accounting software, you probably wouldn’t need this, although it may be useful in the future.
Some business bank accounts come with a free trial of accounting software. While this is worthwhile if you think you’ll need accounting software, remember to cancel it if you don’t think it’s something you’ll need.
The latest free trials, vouchers, discounted annual passes and hacks to save money on Spotify.
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.
A couple of times a year there tends to be a new customer deal offering three months for 99p. When these come about I’ll list them below. Otherwise, new customers can always get one month for free.
Four months free Spotify with Just Eat
New customers can get four months free via Just Eat until 28 February 2026. You can cancel anytime or pay £11.99 once the free trial ends.
You need to redeem the offer by 30 November 2025, and it isn’t available to anyone who has tried Spotify Premium before. You need to cancel the subscription afterwards if you don’t want to pay full price as it renews at £11.99 per month.
New subscribers can get three months free if you apply via the free H&M membership.
Head to the H&M app and in the offer section of your H&M account you’ll need to generate a code to trigger the free Spotify trial.
You need to redeem the offer by 4 November 2025.
This isn’t open to current subscribers, and remember to cancel the subscription if you don’t want to pay full price, as it’ll renew at £11.99 per month after three months.
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Previous Spotify customer deals
These offers for ex-customers are rare, but still appear from time to time.
Two months for £5.99 (expired)
This “welcome back” offer usually provides three months for the price of one, though sometimes it’s just two months. It tends to run a two or three times a year, usually April, August and November.
The most recent offer is a little different – it’s two months for £5.99, so roughly 75% off. You’ve got until 19 May 2025 to take advantage.
It’s for those who had a Spotify Premium account but cancelled it more than 30 days ago, which is roughly before the middle of March 2025 (perhaps a day or two earlier). However, if you’ve used one of these offers in the last 24 months you won’t be eligible this time.
Look out for an email offering you this, or you can also log in and see if the offer is displayed in your account. It’s for the individual Premium account only, not Duo, Student or Family.
Here are the previous dates from recent offers to give you an idea of when it might return.
Mid April to 19 May 2025 (for those who cancelled before mid March 2025)
End of November – 31 December 2024 (for those who cancelled before November 2024)
Late Mid August to 17 September 2024 (for those who cancelled prior to 12 July 2024)
Mid April to 14 May 2024 (for those who cancelled before 18 March 2024)
Mid January – 14 February 2024 (for those who cancelled before 1 Jan 2024)
27 November – 31 December 2023 (for those who cancelled before 27 October 2023)
August to 12 September 2023 (for those who cancelled before 16 July 2023)
21 April – 16 May 2023 (for those who cancelled before 19 March 2023)
29 November – 31 December 2022 (for those who cancelled before 28 October 2022)
August/September 2022 (for those who cancelled before mid-May 2022)
April – 19 May 2022 (for those who cancelled before 14 March 2022)
Existing Spotify customer deals
You don’t need to pay full price for Spotify as an existing customer. Here are my top ways to save.
12 months of Spotify Premium for the price of ten (ish)
This is a decent deal from Amazon for existing Spotify Premium customers. It’ll cost you £120 rather than £144, so you’ll get two months free based on the new prices.
You can it as a digital or physical gift card that is sent in the post. Frustratingly you can’t use gift cards with Family, Duo or Student accounts. It also won’t work on Basic plans.
You can stack this with an existing gift card, or buy one now to add at a later date, though you can’t have more than 18 months of credit on your account at any time.
New Trading 212 customers get an increase of 0.71% AER to 4.81% for 12 months
More details ▼
Additional Info
Existing Trading 212 customers get a rate of 4.35%
FSCS Protected?: Yes
Allows transfers in?: Yes
Flexible ISA?: Yes
▲
Downgrade to Spotify Basic
This new, slightly cheaper, version of Spotify started in May 2024. You get everything that Premium offers such as offline listening (downloads) and no-adverts, but you do sacrifice audiobooks. Not all users will be able to get this, so you’ll need to check your accounts to find out. Here’s everything you need to know about Spotify Basic.
Shared Spotify subscription deals
If you live with others who pay for their own Spotify Premium or Spotify Basic you can save cash by combining them via a Duo or Family plan.
Here’s the breakdown per month per person, with annual costs per person in brackets.
Plan
1 person
2 people
3 people
4 people
5 people
6 people
Premium
£11.99 (£143.88)
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Basic
£10.99 (£131.88)
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
PremiumDuo
£16.99 (£203.88)
£8.50 (£101.94)
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Basic Duo
£14.99 (£179.88)
£7.50 (£89.94)
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
PremiumFamily
£19.99 (£239.88)
£10 (£120)
£6.66 (£80)
£5 (£60)
£4 (£48)
£3.33 (£40)
Basic Family
£17.99 (£215.88)
£9 (£107.94)
£6 (£72)
£4.50 (£54)
£3.60 (£43.18)
£3 (£36)
Monthly cost per person on each plan (annual in brackets)
Spotify Family for £19.99 a month and get six accounts
A decent option if there are three or more of you with your own Spotify accounts. Subscribe to a Family pass and you can pay £19.99 all in. So the more of you, the cheaper it gets. You can share with two people but the Duo option will work out cheaper.
Duo is the best option for two people living at the same address, and this is the one we use.
You’ll pay £16.99 a month for Spotify Duo, so £3 cheaper than the family option (£36ish less a year), or £7 less than two standard Premium accounts (£83.88 total less a year). You will be asked to verify your address.
Earn extra cashback from TopCashback with these offers, including a welcome bonus
I’ve earned thousands of pounds through TopCashback and Quidco in the last 10 years – and that’s just by doing some normal shopping.
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.
New member sign up deals
I think the best welcome bonuses are the ones that aren’t linked to a specific retailer. These open-ended offers mean you can get cashback no matter where you shop.
There are sometimes other deals that will pay a similar amount but they are restricted to specific retailers or require a higher minimum spend (eg £30). I’ll share these below if they are better than the generic offers.
You can only get one new sign-up offer.
Free £20 bonus
You can get a £20 new member bonus. You need to spend £10 via one of the retailers listed on TCB to get this bonus (excluding takeaways). You must go via this link or the button below.
Read the full terms and conditions when you click through. The £20 bonus ends 30 June 2025.
From time to time there are special bonuses you can activate. Often it’s £2.50 when you spend a tenner, though sometimes they are higher or linked to a specific type of purchase.
Our top deals
Here are a few ongoing and recent offers you might have missed:
Get Sky Atlantic, Sky Cinema and Sky Sports without getting Sky – and pay less with these great NOW TV offers.
Sky’s NOW TV – or NOW as it’s been rebranded can save you a lot of money compared to paying for TV via your broadband provider, whether that’s Sky, Virgin, BT or TalkTalk.
Despite recent price increases and fewer offers it’s still the cheapest way to get big channels such as Sky Atlantic, Sky One and more.
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.
What is NOW TV?
NOW TV is essentially an on-demand video streaming service, just like Netflix and iPlayer. The big difference is it lets you watch Sky channels. Why bother when you can do this direct? Well NOW TV is so much cheaper. And you’ll see below there are always deals to bring the price down further.
Another great thing is that you can subscribe month by month, rather than tie yourself into a year-long contract as you would if you had satellite or cable TV. Here’s Andy’s take on whether it’s worth the money.
It works best if you don’t watch ALL the different channels. That’s because films, TV and sport are all on different packages. Very cheap if you get one or two, but it can be pricey if you get more. And of course you need to consider if you’d be better off picking Netflix or Amazon Prime instead – there’s not enough time to watch all three!
How much is NOW TV
Here are the full price costs for all the different NOW TV passes – but of course you don’t need to pay this. Check out all the deals on this page for ways to save.
Entertainment Pass costs £9.99 a month
Cinema Pass costs £9.99 a month
The Hayu pass costs £4.99 a month
There are three Sky Sports NOW TV passes
A Day Pass costs £14.99 for 24 hours
A Month Pass is £34.99 a month
NOW TV Boost cost £6 a month or £9 a month
New NOW TV customer offers and deals
The best offers are pretty much always for new customers. If you’ve never used NOW TV before, always start with one of these. If there’s a free or very cheap pass featured further down you can always add that at a later date. We’ve ranked them in the order of how good we think they are.
These offers are only for new NOW TV subscribers. Make sure you cancel before the prepaid package is up or you’ll pay full price for the following months.
At the moment it seems most of these introductory offers are for a minimum of six months, so you might need to weigh up whether you’d be better off paying full price for a single month and using the cancellation trick (more on this further down the page) to hopefully bring prices down without being locked in.
NOW TV Entertainment & Cinema: 30% off 6 months
This new user offer requires you to lock in for 6 months, after which you’ll pay full price but can cancel at any time.
You’ll get Entertainment & Cinema for £13.99 a month (saving around £6 each month).
We’d caution against this package as we don’t feel there’s enough movies on there to warrant six continuous months, even at a discount. Instead, pay full price of each for one month (if you need them both), and then see if you can get discounts when you cancel the passes.
This offer also comes with a 7 day trial of Boost.
If you change your internet to NOW Broadband, you’ll be able to get discounted NOW passes. The cost varies depending when you sign up, we’ve seen it as little as £4 a month.
However, you are tied into the broadband and the NOW membership for 12 months. And it’ll go up to full price once the year ends.
Sadly there are no longer any free trials for the main passes, though they could return. Usually you can trial “Boost” for 7 days though that’s not currently showing.
If you do get a trial and don’t want to keep paying then remember to cancel before the seven days finish to avoid getting charged full price.
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Existing NOW TV customer offers and deals
Most of the special offers are only for new customers, but there are lots of ways existing customers can save each month. Usually this involved either buying a gift card pass, or buying a multi-month pass with a NOW TV box or stick when these are on offer (which happens quite a bit).
With the passes you will get a code which you can enter into your account. Go to the view passes page and you’ll see where to add the code. If you are buying the passes with a NOW TV stick or box then the newer ones have the passes preloaded and are added to your account when you activate the device and log in.
Here are the best deals:
NOW TV cancellation trick
If you go to cancel your NOW TV pass, you’ll be asked the reason you are cancelling. Select the option saying it’s too expensive for you and you might be offered a discount to stay.
If that’s as good or better than the existing customer deals we’ve listed above, then you can accept it and pay less. This will be for a limited time, often three or four months, so don’t forget to repeat this process.
It’s also worth having your email preferences set to allow promotional emails from NOW. They will regularly send promotions with discounts – most recently Andy signed up to four months of Entertainment for £1 a month.
This will only be sent if you don’t have an active subscription, another reason to hit cancel at the start of each month.
Netflix, NOW TV and Freeview box for £20/mth
If you have BT or EE broadband (or sign up for it), you can add on a EE TV package that includes Netflix and NOW at a reduced price. At the moment, you can get it for £20 a month. You’ll need to commit to 24 months, and the price will go up after the six month period and every year. However, it includes:
Netflix Standard with adverts (rrp £5.99 a month)
NOW Entertainment (rrp £9.99 a month)
Discovery+ basic (rrp £3.99 a month)
From March 31 2026 it’ll go up to £22 a month and then to £24 a month the following year.
If you want HD Netflix you’ll have to pay extra – and it’s not clear how much more this is.
Similarly if you want HD and no adverts on your NOW pass that’s another £6 a month. And it’s often possible to get cheaper NOW packages direct with NOW – that might not be the case if you pay via your BT bill.
A similar model box will likely cost you £250, so if you’re looking at ditching pay TV elsewhere, this would be a cheaper way to get hold of it, with the streaming services thrown in (though you won’t keep it if you leave BT in two years time).
You’ll also need to factor in if you can get broadband for less elsewhere, and that you’ll be tied in for two years.
You need a separate pass for Sky Sports via NOW and there are often deals to bring the price down. We’ve listed them on our bespoke deals page for Sky Sports.
Earn as much as 5% back when you spend from the likes of American Express, Chase and Barclaycard.
You can earn cashback or rewards via both debit and credit cards. In most instances the best option is the one that pays the best rate.
If you’re worried about managing a credit card it makes sense to use a debit card more. However, credit cards do have extra perks like added consumer protection or for deposits when hiring a car.
Cashback can be spent as you wish, while rewards normally need to be transferred into vouchers and spent at specific retailers.
We’ve outlined the best options so you can earn as you spend.
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.
Best cashback debit cards
There are a just a handful of debit cards which offer money back on your spending. Chase used to be on all spending but added restrictions in April 2025.
Our top pick is from Trading 212, which is temporarily increased to 1.5%.
Trading 212
1.5% until 6 July 2025 if you auto-invest the cashback
0.5% after this
Max £20 cashback a month (reduces to £15 on 6 June 2025)
We’ve not listed cards which offer money back from time to time on a changing list of retailers. This includes Monzo, Halifax and Santander. These are worth a look but are really just pot luck as to whether something is available when you want to buy something.
Occasionally there’ll be a short lived cashback offer, and we list them on our banking deals page.
Our analysis
After the current 1.5% offer, Trading 212 offers a lower rate of 0.5% but it’s not restricted to certain purchases. You’ll also earn the cashback on overseas spending. It has a cap of £15 a month from June.
The highest ongoing rate on debit cards is via the Chase or Santander Edge current accounts, where there’s 1% up for grabs. Sadly though this is limited to set categories, broadly groceries and travel (trains, buses, ferries and petrol) in the UK on both cards.
There’s also a cap on how much you can earn each month. For Chase it’s £15, which means you’ll earn only on the first £1,500 spent on qualifying categories.
Santander has a lower £10 limit, so it’s only earned on the initial £1,000 each month. You’ll also need to factor in a £3 monthly fee, though you’ll cover this if you also pay your bills from the same account.
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Best cashback and reward credit cards
There are different types of cashback credit card, so we’ve split this section into:
Best American Express cashback cards
Best Visa or Mastercard cashback cards
Best supermarket or retailer cashback cards
Best airline rewards cards
Andy’s cashback credit card rules
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.
The highest paying of all credit and debit cards without restrictions is the American Express Nectar, which earns you the equivalent of 1% back. Of course you are earning Nectar points, but as long as you sometimes shop at Sainsbury’s or Argos that shouldn’t be an issue. It’s free in the first year.
If you want pure cash, then go for the American Express Cashback card. You will pay £25 a year for this, but you can wipe that out in the first year by applying via cashback site. You’ll be earning 0.75% on spending up to £10,000, and then a higher 1.25% if you go beyond this. This resets every 12 months.
There is a free but lower paying (at 0.5% on first £10,000, then 1%) version called American Express Everyday Cashback. However you must spend at least £3,000 a year to get any cashback on that.
Alternatively you could look at the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold credit card. You’ll only earn one Amex point (worth 0.5% if you swap it to a gift card), though it’s boosted for every £2,500 you spend above £5,000, pushing potential earnings to 0.75%. This card is initially free, but very expensive from the second year onwards, so it’s certainly only for one year. I’d also wait for when the welcome bonus is increased.
Best Visa and Mastercard cashback and reward credit cards
If you want a back up credit card that’s not American Express, then the following are worth a look. They’re also all fee-free for spending overseas, which is something the Amex cards don’t offer.
The Barclaycard Rewards pays a solid 0.25% cashback on spending at home or abroad, and is fee free. If you apply before 30 April 2025, new applicants can get double cashback until the end if September.
The Santander Edge credit card can pay more at 2% for the first year, though since you’re capped at £15, you’ll only earn on £750 of spend each month. You also need to factor in a £3 a month fee, which would mean you need to spend at least £300 each month to get the equivalent of 1%. In year two onwards, the fee has a bigger impact and would require at least £400 spend a month to match the lower Barclaycard Rewards card.
I’ve included the NatWest Travel Reward credit card, but it’s only advantage over other cards is you can earn 1% back on holiday planning at home, such as hotels and flights – though you’d get the same with the Amex Nectar as long as the retailer accepts it.
Other cards
NatWest Reward: 1% at supermarkets, 0.25% elsewhere (£24 annual fee unless a NatWest customer) Also available from RBS
Virgin Money Everyday Cashback: 0.25% capped at £15 a month. Fee-free abroad
New Trading 212 customers get an increase of 0.71% AER to 4.81% for 12 months
More details ▼
Additional Info
Existing Trading 212 customers get a rate of 4.35%
FSCS Protected?: Yes
Allows transfers in?: Yes
Flexible ISA?: Yes
▲
Best supermarket and retailer specific cashback and reward credit cards
These cards will earn you a decent rate at core UK retailers and supermarkets like Amazon and John Lewis. You’ll also earn on spending elsewhere, but those rates can usually be beaten by other cards listed above.
Amazon Barclaycard Rewards
John Lewis Partnership
M&S Bank Rewards
1% at Amazon (2% on big sales)
0.5% elsewhere for the first 12 months, then 0.25%
5 points per £4 spent at John Lewis or Waitrose (equivalent of 1.25%)
5 points per £4 spent elsewhere (equivalent of 0.25%)
As well as earning points as you spend, the draw with these cards are welcome offers and 2-4-1 vouchers. However the latter can require huge amounts of spending – and then even more to get enough points to use alongside the vouchers, especially on non-economy seats.
Unless you are going to be spending a lot, or want to save long term for a dream trip, I prefer using cashback card and having the flexibility to shop around for deals on flights.
You don’t need a Sky subscription to watch Sky Sports! Here are the latest deals for pay-as-you-go passes on NOW TV.
We’re big fans of NOW (or NOW TV as it was called). It’s a cheap way to watch Sky channels, and if you’re a fan of the Premier League, golf, cricket Formula 1 or dozens of other sports but can’t afford Sky, it can be a real money saver.
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Sky Sports on NOW TV
If you get your TV via Sky, or even Virgin or BT, then you’ll likely have to commit to a long contract with your TV provider, probably 18 months. And it can be really expensive.
In terms of TV programmes and film channels, it’s almost always going to be cheaper to get those exact same channels via NOW instead.
It’s slightly more complicated for Sky Sports channels. The day passes are perfect for occasional users at under £15 a go (or less if you use a deal). Sadly it looks like the week pass is no longer offered.
The monthly passes however can be expensive. At £34.99 a month, you’ll probably pay more via NOW TV for this channel than with Sky if you have it every single month of the year.
But there are regular deals which bring the price down, often to £25 a month and sometimes as low as £18. This makes the price much more comparable and you have the added advantage that you aren’t committed to a contract. You can stop it or pause it month by month.
What is NOW TV?
Think of NOW (or NOW TV as it was called until spring 2021) as a pay-per-view iPlayer for the Sky TV channels. The sports passes give you access to all 11 Sky Sports channels without a contract, so you can watch per day or per month.
NOW TV can be streamed on your computer, tablet, some smart TVs, games consoles and devices such as the Chromecast, Roku and Amazon Fire Sticks.
The passes don’t include TV or movie channels, which you need to buy separate passes for – though there are plenty of discounts to be found and we’ve summarised the best on our NOW TV deals page.
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Unlike the other NOW membership passes, there’s no free trial for any of the Sports options.
NOW TV Sky Sports day pass offers
Far better than a Sky contract is a £14.99 Day Pass. Despite recent price increases, we think this pass represents decent value for money for occasional viewing.
There used to be frequent discounts to be had, such as 20% off or bundles passes with a NOW TV smart stick. We’ll share any we find on this page but they aren’t as common now.
There are often discounts on the first month or two, sometimes as long as nine or 12 months, which we’ll include when we see them.
These offers are also sometimes emailed with unique codes to previous customers so it’s worth turning on the option for emails.
Don’t forget to cancel the month sports pass (which you can do any time) if you don’t want it to renew at full price.
Month passes also start from the moment you pay, unlike week and day passes which you activate when you want them to start.
You’ll also get one month free of Ultra Boost to stream in full HD on three devices or Boost to stream in full HD on two devices. Both will automatically renew after the first month at £9 or £6 a month, respectively, if you don’t cancel.
Get an Unlimited Sky Sports membership for £27.99 per month (normally £34.99) for six months with NOW TV. The offer is open to new and existing NOW TV customers (for the latter it’s as long as you’re in the last month of an existing offer).
However, you’ll be locked into the full six months – so you can’t ditch it earlier if you want. It’ll also renew at full price if you don’t cancel in the last month.
You’ll also get a month’s free trial of Ultra Boost or Boost.
This offer or similar is regularly offered via emails sent to previous customers, giving 6 to 12 months at £19.99 a month.
It’s either a rolling contract for Sky Sports via NOW TV, or it’ll lock you in for a set period. You’ll save just over 42% on the standard monthly price. Importantly you aren’t tied into the full 12 months. You can cancel at any point. But you’ll pay full price if you restart at a later date.
It’s open to new NOW TV customers and existing customers who either don’t have a pass or are in the last 30 days of a previous offer – as long as you received the email.
NOW TV has a mobile pass which you can only watch via an app on your phone. This makes them a fair bit cheaper – though it’s not always available to buy.
The mobile pass costs £5.99 for a month. It only has five sports channels – Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Action, Sky Sports Arena and Sky Sports News.
It’s worth checking the day pass deals at the top of this page to see if a mobile pass is included, often for a month, if not more.
NOW TV no longer offers the week pass. Whether this is permanent or temporary remains to be seen. Occasionally you can still get the offers which we’ll share below, but chances are slim.
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Sky Sports on Virgin Media
You can get Sky Sports via the standard Virgin Media TV box, or via the Virgin Media Stream box. The latter only allows streaming, not recording.
You can add Sky Sports channels in HD for £34.99 a month without a contract commitment to Virgin Media Stream, but you’ll need to pay the set up fee first.
Sky Sports on Sky
If you don’t want to ditch Sky for NOW, then you can still get Sky Sports channels direct. However, the best prices for the full package will usually require a new 24-month contract, which obviously ties you in, and will be more costly than the options above.
Sadly it doesn’t look like Sky is still offering a cut price deal just for the football channels or just for the F1 channel – but keep an eye out for either’s return.
New Trading 212 customers get an increase of 0.71% AER to 4.81% for 12 months
More details ▼
Additional Info
Existing Trading 212 customers get a rate of 4.35%
FSCS Protected?: Yes
Allows transfers in?: Yes
Flexible ISA?: Yes
▲
Other sports broadcasters
Amazon Prime Video
You can also watch sport on Amazon.
Prime costs £95 a year, or £8.99 a month and includes other Amazon features. However if you just want the video channel for streaming sport, film and TV shows you can get this for £5.99 a month – which means you can pay just under £6 if you only want to watch the games. There’s also a free 30-day trial – just remember to cancel it if you don’t want to keep paying.
Trading 212, Monzo, Starling, Chase, Halifax Clarity and more travel cards compared for overseas spending
If you’re heading out of the UK, using the wrong card for spending and cash withdrawals will mean you’re hit with extra fees on every transaction.
The good news is there are a decent number of debit and credit cards which offer near-perfect exchange rates. Here’s our guide to the top specialist travel cards.
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Our top travel debit cards
The cheapest cards are usually specialist debit cards that come via specific current accounts. You don’t have to switch banks to get these – you can simply open up a brand new extra account, and many won’t perform hard checks on your credit report either.
If this is an extra account you get just for holidays, it’s easy to transfer money across, whether as a lump sum or as you go along, using your online or app banking. Or of course, it could be your main current account where your salary is paid each month.
A benefit of debit cards over credit cards is you won’t get charged interest to take cash out of an ATM, though as you’ll see a couple do have monthly limits on your fee-free spending or withdrawals.
It used to be there were only a handful, but there are quite a few to choose from. However, since Chase ended the cashback on overseas spending, there’s not really much to choose between the bulk of them. Here are our top picks.
Top pick: Trading 212 card
This is our top pick for 2025, though it does have some caveats.
Unlike most of the debit cards we’ve listed, this one from Trading 212 isn’t connected to a current account. Instead you’ll need to open up an investing account. But that doesn’t mean you need to invest at all.
You can simply transfer cash over and hold it in your spending pot, with the added bonus you’ll get 4.35% interest on the money until you spend it. However, if you do opt in to also earn interest on the cash the money then won’t necessarily be protected by the FSCS.
There’s also 0.5% cashback on purchases at home and abroad (temporarily increased to 1% or 1.5% until early July). That’s great for holiday spending but there are better alternatives for spending in the UK.
The major downside is though you’re about to get fee-free cash withdrawals, that’s only with contactless ATMS. There’s not exactly a load of these in the UK, let alone overseas, so you’ll need a back up for taking money out on holiday.
You’ll also need to pay for a physical card, though most of the time you’ll hopefully be ok with adding it to your phone.
Trading 212 debit card summary
Spending overseas
Fee-free (Mastercard rate)
Cash withdrawals overseas
Free, but contactless only
Other benefits
0.5% cashback on all spending (capped at £15 a month)
The following are also fee-free but only worth considering if you’re an existing customer or looking for extras like rewards and travel insurance.
Cumberland Building Society: fully fee-free but requires a £750 a month deposit to the account. Hard credit search
Halifax Ultimate Reward: a packaged account with travel, breakdown and gadget cover that’s got free spending
Santander (other accounts): you won’t be charged for cash withdrawals only if you use a Santander machine outside the UK, but you will pay for spending
TSB Spend & Save Plus: fee-free spending and the potential to earn £5 cashback a month, but has £3 monthly fee
Andy’s Top Tips
When you’re using one of these top travel cards, you’re often best paying in the local currency. If you pay in sterling, it’ll be swapped over at an exchange rate of the local bank’s choosing – which won’t necessarily be in your favour!
Also, though many of the cards we’ve mentioned are fee-free to use in ATMs, that doesn’t mean the local bank won’t add its own fee. So you’ll need to research for any that don’t do this in your destination, or plan ahead by making as few withdrawals as possible.
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Our top travel credit cards
Specialist credit cards can be great for overseas spending as long as you pay off the debt before any interest is charged.
Credit cards are particularly handy for things like hiring a car or putting deposits down on hotel rooms. The money can be held on these without leaving your account. You’ll also get Section 75 consumer rights protection.
With all credit card applications, make sure you check your eligibility first if you can. And remember to clear the balance completely every month to avoid interest charges.
Top pick: Barclaycard Reward
This Visa card from Barclaycard is our top pick for credit cards. It offers fee-free spending and, unusually, ATM withdrawals – and there’s no interest on cash you take out. However, it’s still better for your credit report to use a debit card for cash.
New Trading 212 customers get an increase of 0.71% AER to 4.81% for 12 months
More details ▼
Additional Info
Existing Trading 212 customers get a rate of 4.35%
FSCS Protected?: Yes
Allows transfers in?: Yes
Flexible ISA?: Yes
▲
Best smart travel spending cards
These cards aren’t normal debit cards, though they work just like one when you’re spending. You actually connect your existing current account or card to them via open banking. The conversion is made by the smart card at their exchange rate, which then takes the money from the underlying bank in pounds.
This makes it cheaper to spend overseas through other bank accounts that would normally be very expensive. They can be a great backup card, or even your primary travel spending card if you really can’t be bothered to go through the hassle of opening new accounts. There’s also no credit check.
Sadly, changes to Curve, our previous top pick, means it’s really not worth it. However, you can still get these features from Currensea.
Top pick: Currensea
With Currensea there are three options, but the free “essential” tier has a no extra fees on top of the exchange rates on your first £500 a month. You can take out £200 a month from ATMs for free.
The big issue could be the limits on which banks it works with. Right now that list is only the bigger banks:
Barclays
Bank of Scotland
Couts
First Direct
Halifax
HSBC
Lloyds
Nationwide
Natwest
RBS
Santander
TSB
Ulster Bank
Virgin Money
You’ll also need to pay £4.95 to get the card delivered.
When you sign up via this link you’ll be eligible for a £10 welcome bonus – however you’ll need to spend £150 in a foreign currency in the first six months to get the cashback.
Currensea smart debit card summary
Spending overseas
Interbank/Mastercard rate on first £500 each month, then 1% FX fee on top
The cards mentioned above will convert fee-free, but only on or just after the day you make the transaction. This means you’re not in total control of your budget when you’re away. If the pound were to fall against where you’re spending, you’ll ultimately spend more cash.
But there are options where you can pay fee-free on cards where you’ve already converted your pounds into another currency. Though of course, this could mean you miss out if the rate changes in your favour.
There’s usually a slight markup on the ‘interbank’ or ‘mid-market’ rates. This tends to be lower than the Mastercard or Visa rates, so even with the fee they’re often comparable.
When you spend with them, you’ll spend in the local currency. If you don’t have the local currency, most will let you pay fee-free and convert at the current rate.
However, there are usually quite strict limits on cash withdrawals, so you’ll likely want another card on your trip. Plus most of these will charge you for a physical debit card, so you’ll be relying on virtual cards added to your phone’s wallet if you want to avoid this fee.
The following are ones worth considering:
Provder
Rate
Free cash withdrawals?
Card charge
Extra info
Smart Money People customer score
Revolut Standard
Interbank (+ 1% on weekends)
£200 limit per rolling month / max 5 withdrawals per rolling month
