Image Archives - Page 5 of 36 - Be Clever With Your Cash

Updated July 28, 2026 | Best Buy

The best debit and credit cards to use abroad

Trading 212, Monzo, Lloyds, PayPal, 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.

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.

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: PayPal+

The new PayPal debit card offers 1% back at home and abroad with no limits or fees, making it out top pick. If you spend more than £25,000 over a calendar year, the points you earn can be boosted to 1.5% as well as access to further cashback deals. You can also withdraw money for free.

PayPal+ debit card summary

Spending overseas	Fee-free (Mastercard rate)
Cash withdrawals overseas	Free
Other benefits	1%
Card delivery charge	None

Read our review of the PayPal + card

Top pick: Trading 212 card

The Trading 212 debit card pays 1.5% cashback on purchases at home and abroad if you auto-invest your cashback. and pay one subscription.

Trading 212 debit card summary

Spending overseas	Fee-free (Mastercard rate)
Cash withdrawals overseas	Free, but contactless only
Other benefits	1.5% cashback on all spending (capped at £15 a month)
Card delivery charge	£4.95
Welcome offer	Free fractional share worth up to £100*

Read our review of the Trading 212 card

Read customer reviews of Trading 212

When investing, your capital is at risk. Card distributed by T212, issued and provided by Paynetics (UK). Available with an Invest account. 1.5% cashback on all eligible purchases. Get up to £15/€15 cashback every month. Sponsored Link. Terms Apply.

Bank	Free spending?	Free cash withdrawals?	Credit check	Extra info	Reviews	Smart Money People customer score
Top for cashback
PayPal+	Yes	Yes	No		PayPal+ review
Trading 212	Yes, interbank rate	£340 a day (if the ATM is contactless)	Soft	1.5% cashback if meet conditions £4.95 charge for physical card	Trading 212 card review	4.91 out of 5
Top picks for specific countries
Chase	Yes, Mastercard rate	£500 a day and £1,500 a calendar month	Soft	No charges at Chase machines in USA	Chase Bank review	4.94 out of 5
Santander Edge	Yes, Mastercard rate	£300 a day	Hard	No extra charges on Santander machines £3 monthly fee (usually offset by other benefits)	our Santander Edge review	3.73 out of 5*
Decent options
First Direct	Yes, Mastercard rate	£500 daily limit	Hard		our First Direct review	4.68 out of 5
Halifax Reward	Yes, Mastercard rate	£800 daily limit	Hard			4.35 out of 5
HyperJar (prepaid card)	Yes, Mastercard rate	No cash withdrawals	Soft	Not a current account, so no FSCS protection	Not yet reviewed	4.87 out of 5
Kroo	Yes, Visa rate	£200 limit per month	Soft	ATM charges will apply from 30 April 2025	our Kroo review	4.89 out of 5
Club Lloyds	Yes, Mastercard rate	£800 daily limit	Hard		our Club Lloyds review	4.39 out of 5
Monzo	Yes, Mastercard rate	£400 (Europe) / £200 elsewhere every 30 rolling days / Unlimited if Monzo is your ‘main bank’	Soft		our Monzo review	4.92 out of 5
Starling	Yes, Mastercard rate	£300 daily day	Soft		our Starling review	4.94 out of 5
Virgin Money M Plus	Yes, Mastercard rate	£500 daily limit	Hard	Can be opened and managed in-branch or via the phone	our Virgin Money M Plus review	4.15 out of 5

*whole bank score

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.

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: Lloyds Ultra

This Visa card from Lloyds 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.

There’s also 1% cashback on purchases at home and abroad in the first year, decreasing to 0.25% afterwards. That’s great for holiday spending but there are better alternatives for spending in the UK.

You can read our full Lloyds Ultra credit card review for more details

Lloyds Ultra credit card summary

Spending overseas	Fee-free (Visa rate)
Cash withdrawals overseas	Free, though will show on credit file
Other benefits	1% cashback on all spending in year one
	0.25% cashback on all spending from year two onwards
Card delivery charge	Free delivery

Check eligibility for Lloyds Ultra

Read customer reviews of Lloyds

Runner up: Barclaycard Reward

This card from Barclaycard is very similar, just without the higher 1% rate for the first year.

However, if you do get this you won’t be able to get another Barclaycard, such as the Avios earning options.

Barclaycard Rewards credit card summary

Spending overseas	Fee-free (Visa rate)
Cash withdrawals overseas	Free, though will show on credit file
Other benefits	0.25% cashback on all spending
Card delivery charge	Free delivery

Check eligibility for Barclaycard Rewards

Read customer reviews of Barclaycard

Other fee-free credit cards

Card	Free spending?	Free cash withdrawals?	Credit check	Extra info	Reviews	Smart Money People customer score
*Best for cashback*
Lloyds Ultra	Yes, Visa rate	Yes	Hard	1% cashback in year one, then 0.25%	Lloyds Ultra credit card review
Barclaycard Rewards	Yes, Visa rate	Yes	Hard	0.25% cashback
*Other cards for cashback*
Virgin Money Everyday Cashback credit card	Yes, Mastercard rate	No (avoid)	Hard	Earn 0.25% per £1, capped at £15 a month		3.8 out of 5
Santander Rewards credit card	Yes, Mastercard rate	No (avoid)	Hard	3% cashback in first year on limited categories (including petrol, eating out), then 0.25% Requires Santander current account	Santander Rewards credit card review	3.75 out of 5*
Natwest Travel credit card	Yes, Mastercard rate	No (avoid)	Hard	1% cashback on hotels, planes and other travel		4.84 out of 5*
Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card	In Europe, Mastercard rate	No (avoid)	Hard	Earn 0.75% Virgin points per £1		3.8 out of 5
Yonder credit card (free version)	Yes, Mastercard rate	Yes, up to £150 a day (but it’ll still show on credit report)	Hard, but uses open banking too	Earn points that can be used to redeem rewards		4.95 out of 5
*Other fee-free cards*
Halifax Clarity credit card	Yes, Mastercard rate	Yes, but interest is added	Hard			4.11 out of 5

*whole bank score

Featured deal

Santander £240 switch offer

Customer rating 3.9/5

Switch bonus
£240
Perks
8% regular saver
Monthly fee
0
Offer ends
Unknown

FSCS Protected? Yes
Bonus requirements To get the £240 switch offer, you need to complete a full switch with the Current Account Switching Service. Then, within 60 days of your initial switch request, you need to set up two active direct debits, deposit £1,500 into the current account, set up a Santander Regular Saver, and deposit £200 into it.
Regular saver 8% (variable) regular savings account. Includes 5% (variable) bonus for 12 months
Existing customers? You can't have held a Santander account on 1 January 2026.

View Deal

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
Cash withdrawals overseas	Free up to £200 a month, then 2% FX fee on top
Card delivery fee	£4.95
FSCS protection?	Yes (on connected bank)

Read customer reviews of Currensea

The best cashback debit and credit cards

Check out my list of the best cashback cards

Best multi-currency cards to lock in a rate

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	£4.99	Capped at £1,000 exchange per month	4.92 out of 5
Trading 212	Interbank + 0.15%	£200 limit per month	£4.95		4.92 out of 5
Wise	Interbank + min of 0.33% (varies by currency)	£200 limit a month / max 2 withdrawals a month	£7		4.71 out of 5

Updated July 28, 2026 | Articles

Amazon Prime review: is it worth the money?

Andy Webb | Updated by Adil Sheikh

Wondering whether you should shell out for Amazon Prime? Here are the pros and cons.

Amazon Prime is a popular choice of subscription, but it comes at quite a cost. Here’s what you get if you sign up and our thoughts on whether it’s worth getting and when it should be avoided.

What is Amazon Prime?

Amazon Prime is a paid-for membership to the online giant that gives you a series of benefits that normal customers don’t have access to or have to pay more for. There’s a long list of these extras further down.

How much does Amazon Prime cost?

The free trial

Everyone can try Amazon Prime free for 30-days. It’s best to time your trial for when you think you’ll most need free delivery or when there’s a big promo event such as Prime Day, which tends to be in June or July each year; Big Deals Week in September, or Black Friday, which is on the fourth Friday of November each year.

Since every adult in the household can take out a free trial, if there’s more than one of you it’s possible to double up – or more. Once again, you can time these trials for times you’ll need to make more purchases, like ahead of an event or to prep for things like Christmas gifts.

You can repeat your trial a year after a trial has finished, so there’s the potential to do this every 13 months. And sometimes there’s even an offer earlier.

The annual membership: £95 a year

Amazon Prime costs a hefty £95 a year. This is a lot so you’ve got to use at least two or three of the perks for it to represent good value.

There used to be a couple of times a year where you could get the membership for around £59. These were usually in the run-up to Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday, though they’ve not happened in recent years. We always list these on our Amazon deals and discounts page, so bookmark it and check back!

The monthly subscription: £8.99 a month

If you don’t want to pay for the full year then you can opt for an £8.99 monthly subscription instead, which you can cancel whenever you want. It will work out cheaper than the annual plan if you pay for nine months or less, or practically the same for 10 months.

There’s a cheaper £5.99 option but this is just for the Prime Video streaming service and not the other features. This can be difficult to find so we have a guide to find Prime Video.

The student / young person discount: £47.49 a year

There’s a cheaper option for students or young people aged 18-24 who aren’t at Uni. They’ll get six months free, then three years at £47.49 a year. A monthly option costs £4.49.

To get this you need to have a student card or age ID (. Sadly, the loophole where anyone could get a student card is closed, though you might be able to get an alumni card.

Or if you’re 18-24 year olds will also get access even if they’re not at Uni.

Again, each household member can have the trial, so you can easily double up if you qualify.

What you get with Amazon Prime

Here are the key extras you’ll get as part of your subscription.

Free next-day, possibly same-day, delivery

There’s no minimum spend for delivery from Amazon when you’re with Prime, except if you want same-day delivery, where there’s a £20 minimum or a £1.99 fee. If you order from Amazon a lot, the free delivery can be pretty handy.

Normally you’d have to pay extra to get things sent through if the order is under £35, or £10 for books. The minimum amount quietly changed from £25 in June 2024, up 40%. This is standard delivery, so it takes a few days.

Generally non-Prime delivery will cost £3.99 for media (books, CDs, DVDs and games) or £4.99 for everything else.

So if you’re mainly thinking of Prime for delivery, you’ll need to make 20 orders under £35 in a year to break even with the pickup deliveries, or 16 at the higher £4.99 charge.

However, you can sometimes remove these completely or knock them down to £2.99 if you get your order sent to an Amazon “pickup location” such as a locker or newsagent.

Plus, since not everything on Amazon is sold by Amazon, there will still be items that aren’t eligible for Prime delivery.

Two Odeon tickets for £10

Once per month, Prime members can get two Odeon cinema tickets for £10 or two recliner tickets for £15 at Luxe cinemas on Mondays to Thursdays. This can be stacked with discounted gift cards, so for example a 20% off gift card would mean the two tickets cost £8.

There are better Odeon deals and offers available, especially when you consider that tickets at some Odeon venues are typically £5 with myODEON anyway and can be booked with Meerkat Movies, making the tickets half the price.

Exclusive access to flash sales such as Prime Day

Between late June and mid-July, Amazon marks its birthday with Amazon Prime Day. This usually features some big discounts on Amazon products like Kindles, Echos and Fire TV, as well as all sorts of other items. These deals are only open to Prime members.

The Black Friday sale which tends to run for about 12 days, if not longer, is another big sale with extra offers for Prime members.

We find that most of these deals are stock clearance or encourage you to buy things you don’t need. However, there are bargains to be found, especially if you utilise some of the extra vouchers to buy things you actually need.

Early access to ‘Lightning Deals’

As a Prime member, you can buy the daily deals 30 minutes earlier than everyone else. Since stock is usually limited, this could be the difference between getting the item and missing out. Here’s more about how Lightning Deals work.

TV and movies with Prime Video

There are some good exclusive TV shows such as The Boys and The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, and plenty of other box sets.

There are also some decent recent and classic movies. Amazon is making more original movies and has purchased the legendary studio MGM, so we’ll see even more films appearing just on Prime.

You can stream from your computer, smart TV or devices such as a Chromecast or Fire TV stick, or download to your phone.

Don’t forget though that Prime Video costs £5.99 a month on its own (without the other Prime benefits), which might be a better option for you.

You can’t get ad-free streaming, though. Amazon introduced an extra £2.99 monthly charge for ad-free Prime Video in January 2024.

Featured deal

Santander £240 switch offer

Customer rating 3.9/5

Switch bonus
£240
Perks
8% regular saver
Monthly fee
0
Offer ends
Unknown

FSCS Protected? Yes
Bonus requirements To get the £240 switch offer, you need to complete a full switch with the Current Account Switching Service. Then, within 60 days of your initial switch request, you need to set up two active direct debits, deposit £1,500 into the current account, set up a Santander Regular Saver, and deposit £200 into it.
Regular saver 8% (variable) regular savings account. Includes 5% (variable) bonus for 12 months
Existing customers? You can't have held a Santander account on 1 January 2026.

View Deal

Live Champions League Football

Amazon is also increasing the sports you can watch exclusively via Prime Video. Since last season you can watch Tuesday night Champions League football with it, though it no longer offers selected Premier League matches.

You can read more about the cheapest ways to watch football in our summary.

Ad-free streaming with Amazon Music Prime

This included streaming service is better than it used to be. It’s ad-free and has grown to 100 million songs (similar to Spotify) so there’s plenty to keep you occupied if you don’t want to shell out extra for premium music streaming.

The problem is you can only shuffle your tunes. That’s ok if you’re mainly listening to playlists (which you can create), but it can be annoying if you want to hear an album from start to finish.

You can also listen to podcasts ad-free – including our one, Cash Chats.

There is an extra Music Unlimited service which starts at £11.99 a month, and there’s a £1 discount for Prime members on the individual plan.

However, there’s a promo to pay upfront for a year to get Music Unlimited at £109 as a Prime member. You can then hack this as you’re eligible even if you pay for just a single month of Prime and then cancel.

Digital books and magazines with Prime Reading

Every month Prime members get access to a few thousand ebooks and magazines to read via a Kindle, Kindle app, or even your computer. There are a few big titles, such as the Harry Potter series, but otherwise don’t expect to pick up all the novels on your reading list.

The magazine offering isn’t bad, but the titles change every month. It’s better instead to see if you can get digital magazines from your library.

There’s also “First Reads” where you can pick up a free Kindle book each month from a selection of six or so titles. But don’t expect any future award-winners. You can see previous ‘First Reads’ titles here.

Games via Prime Gaming

You’ll get a Twitch channel subscription each month, along with some free PC games to play.

Unlimited photo storage with Prime Photos

Amazon’s cloud-based storage will keep the photos you take safe if your computer or phone is lost or stolen. You also get 5GB of storage for other file types with Amazon Drive – the same you get with Apple iCloud, but less than the 15GB with Google Drive.

Free Deliveroo Plus

You can sign up for a year of Deliveroo Plus Silver, which will save you money on delivery costs, worth £3.49 a month. However, there’s still a minimum spend of £15 per order. Here’s more about Deliveroo Plus.

Access to Amazon Fresh grocery delivery services

Prime members also get to order food from their local Morrisons, Iceland or Co-op and from Amazon Fresh. It’s free delivery for baskets over £60 but charges you £2 for orders between £40 and £60 and £4 if the total is under £40 or if you want the delivery within two hours.

What you don’t get included with Amazon Prime

You’d be forgiven for expecting Prime to give you all the extra services Amazon offers. But no, you need to pay extra for the following:

Amazon Music Unlimited – an extra £11.99 a month
Kindle Unlimited – an extra £9.49 a month
Ad-free Prime Video – there’s an extra charge of £2.99 per month for this
Audible audiobooks – an extra £8.99 a month
Amazon Channels – costs vary for extra TV channels such as Paramount+ and Discovery+

What’s good about Amazon Prime

People obviously love the next-day delivery, and it’s certainly a service that other retailers find hard to compete with. And there’s much more you can get on top.

If you use most of the features that come with Amazon, you’re getting a lot for your money – effectively £7.92 a month if you pay for the year. Here’s a quick comparison of how this stacks up against some key competitors:

Prime Membership	Cost with Prime	Alternatives	Cost of Alternative
Free next-day delivery	£95	Paying for delivery charges elsewhere (three orders a month at £2 an order)	£72
Prime Video (plus ad free)	Included + extra £35.88	Netflix (standard ) at £12.99 a month	£155.88
Amazon Music Unlimited	Extra £109	Spotify Premium at £12.99 a month	£155.88
	*Total* *£239.88*		*Total £383.76*

We’ve assumed three online orders a month with a charge of £2. Often you’ll get free delivery from other retailers, but charges will also vary. And, you might order more or less, and delivery charges might be different too, but this gives you an idea.

With TV and film streaming, Prime Video is cheaper than Netflix, even when subscribed for full Prime rather than on its own, though you do have to pay more to avoid adverts now.

And even with the extra charge for Music Unlimited, it’s cheaper than buying the same service with Spotify if you are also using the other parts of Prime.

Prime members can also get access to extra vouchers and discounts, which are great if you are going to spend the money with Amazon anyway.

What’s bad about Amazon Prime

There’s a reason that Amazon packs so much into the membership. It doesn’t want you to spend money elsewhere. If you’ve already paid for delivery with Prime, you’re not going to want to make orders with other retailers and pay for delivery, or get it later than you could with Amazon. This stops you from shopping around. And you could easily end up spending more money as a result.

In part, that’s because Amazon isn’t always cheaper. Across my year without Amazon in 2021 I actually saved money on his purchases – even when you factor in the delivery costs.

Plus, you’re much more likely to buy more because you have Prime. Not just because you’re more likely to be on Amazon more often and open to more temptation, but also because those extra discounts encourage you to make unnecessary purchases — such as on Prime Day and during Black Friday.

You also lose the friction that added delivery costs can add to your purchase, which might usually make you think twice before buying something you don’t need.

Let’s also look again at the table above. Yes, it’s potentially a huge difference in spending, but that’s assuming you don’t also pay for the other services elsewhere.

If you do want Disney+ or Netflix, then also having Prime for film and TV won’t be saving you cash – it’s an extra cost. It’s only cheaper if you ditch the others.

And if you need to shop elsewhere (not everything is on Amazon) you’ll pay for delivery on top.

Featured deal

Santander £240 switch offer

Customer rating 3.9/5

Switch bonus
£240
Perks
8% regular saver
Monthly fee
0
Offer ends
Unknown

FSCS Protected? Yes
Bonus requirements To get the £240 switch offer, you need to complete a full switch with the Current Account Switching Service. Then, within 60 days of your initial switch request, you need to set up two active direct debits, deposit £1,500 into the current account, set up a Santander Regular Saver, and deposit £200 into it.
Regular saver 8% (variable) regular savings account. Includes 5% (variable) bonus for 12 months
Existing customers? You can't have held a Santander account on 1 January 2026.

View Deal

Is Amazon Prime worth it?

So, does Amazon Prime offer good value for money? Well, it can, as long as you use at least a couple of the services. Most people will get enough use from the free delivery and exclusive discounts on Prime Day and Prime Video to justify the £95 fee.

However, if you end up buying more and not shopping around because you have Prime, you’re likely to spend more money having Prime rather than not having it.

Don’t forget you can still shop at Amazon without Prime. You might pay between £2.99 and £4.99 for items under £25 (it’s under £10 for books) but you could get it free if you’re happy to collect from a locker. Even if you are charged, you’d need to order something under that threshold roughly every fortnight to cover your £95 fee. Do you order low-cost items that often from Amazon?

And of course, you need to consider where else you shop. It ultimately comes down to whether you are dedicated to Amazon or happy to shop and stream elsewhere.

If you don’t want to stop completely, then maybe you could cancel your annual membership and go monthly. And then pick and choose the months you need to use it. So perhaps it’s just around Prime Day, Black Friday and when you want to binge on some new box sets. Just see how you go!

My year without Amazon

Why I cancelled Amazon Prime membership

I actively chose to go without Amazon in 2021, so I obviously cancelled my Prime membership – even though I was paying just £39 a year.

This was largely a step to proactively support other retailers (ideally on the high street). But I also wanted to make sure my money didn’t help Amazon continue to grow its profits while it manages to (legally) avoid paying a fair rate of tax here in the UK and elsewhere.

Of course, you might think that going without isn’t possible, but I’d urge you to give it a try. I found it so much easier than I thought I would, and I’ve been surprised by how much less I bought and how much less things cost at the same time.

You can read more about my year without Amazon and how much money I saved.

How to cancel Amazon Prime

Watch this video to see how you cancel – and why you might want to think about using Amazon less.

Other ways to save at Amazon

Make sure you check out our Amazon deals and offers. This is where we’ll list flash sales, gift card bonuses and other extras. For example, you can often get a free top-up when you buy a gift card. All this and more via the link below.

Updated July 28, 2026 | Deals

Apple discounts & deals

BCWYC Team | Updated by Adil Sheikh

Save when you buy tech, apps, music or anything else from Apple

Apple gift cards can be used in the Apple Store (online or on the high street), on Apple Music, the App Store for iCloud or anything else paid for via your Apple account.

This article might 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.

Apple gift card sales and deals

Apple: 10% back on gift cards at Asda (ended)

Until 5 March 2025, Asda Rewards customers (it’s free to sign up) will get 10% back to their Asda Rewards Cashpot on Apple gift cards over £50.

You can buy in store at Asda or online. If it’s the latter, make sure you use the same email address that’s used for your Asda Reward account.

Get Apple Gift cards at Asda

Featured deal

Santander £240 switch offer

Customer rating 3.9/5

Switch bonus
£240
Perks
8% regular saver
Monthly fee
0
Offer ends
Unknown

FSCS Protected? Yes
Bonus requirements To get the £240 switch offer, you need to complete a full switch with the Current Account Switching Service. Then, within 60 days of your initial switch request, you need to set up two active direct debits, deposit £1,500 into the current account, set up a Santander Regular Saver, and deposit £200 into it.
Regular saver 8% (variable) regular savings account. Includes 5% (variable) bonus for 12 months
Existing customers? You can't have held a Santander account on 1 January 2026.

View Deal

Apple: £10 bonus with £100 gift card (ended)

If you buy a £100 Apple gift card at Amazon, you get a £10 Amazon bonus. Use the discount code APPLELSPRI24 at checkout.

This will end on 25 March 2024.

Get a boosted Apple gift card at Amazon

Updated July 28, 2026 | Deals

Tastecard & Gourmet Society trials & offers

BCWYC Team | Updated by Adil Sheikh

A Tastecard membership gives you 2-4-1 and up to 50% off meals and cinema tickets across the country

Tastecard, Gourmet Society, Dine Card and Hi-Life Dining are the leading restaurant discount schemes, which often also come with savings at the cinema. Here are the latest offers, as well as more about how the memberships work and whether they are any good.

The bulk of these offers are for digital memberships, which means you access your card via the app on your smartphone. However, at times there are a couple of deals which come with a physical card – but do check when you click through.

Top Tastecard offers

Most Tastecard offers are 2 for 1 or 50% off food. For when there aren’t any free trials of Tastecard, it’s got a monthly membership option, which means you can still give it a go without paying for a full year.

Tastecard: 50% off & £20 Pizza Express voucher

There’s currently a low price offer through the link below where you can get a Tastecard membership for £29.99. Alongside this you get a £20 voucher for Pizza Express

Offer ends 23 November 2025.

Get a Tastecard

Tastecard: Free 90 day trial with Lidl+

If you have the Lidl+ app then you can get a 90 day free trial of Tastecard. You’ll need to click through via the app. This is available until 19 January 2026.

Get the Lidl+ app

Tastecard: 60 day free trial

There’s currently a free trial on offer through the link below where you can get a Tastecard membership free for 60 days. The membership will auto-renew at £29.99 at the end of the trial unless you cancel it, which you can do at any time.

Unfortunately we don’t know when this offer is ending.

Get a Tastecard free trial

Tastecard: £2.99 per month

If you want to give Tastecard a go without committing to a full year, then you can opt for the monthly membership for £2.99 per month, but remember to cancel it if you don’t use it.

Get Tastecard for a month

Tastecard: One year for £29.99

Here’s a reduced option for a whole year if you know you’ll want it for a full 12 months. Sometimes there are offers to lower this further.

Get Tastecard for a year

Tastecard: Free with Totum student card

If you’re a student, or if you’ve ever had a Totum card from NUS or graduated in the last three years, you can buy an NUS Totum card which now comes with a free Tastecard. You’ll also get discounts at Apple, Co-op and more.

How to get a student card when you’re not a student

Top Gourmet Society offers

On the surface, Gourmet Society looks like a similar offering. But the deals can be different. For a start, it tends to offer 25% off the full bill including drinks, which could work out as a bigger saving for you. So do check the restaurants and deals before deciding which is best for you.

Gourmet Society: 60-days free membership

This free trial will get you 60 days. When the deal ends it will auto-renew at £5.99 a month.

Get Gourmet Society free for 60 days

Gourmet Society: Free with Club Lloyds current account

You can get a year of Gourmet Society membership as a ‘Lifestyle Benefit’ via the Club Lloyds bank account. However, you might be better off choosing free cinema tickets or a magazine subscription. More details here on the account and the different benefits.

Compare different Club Lloyds lifestyle benefits

Other dining club deals

These are similar, if not the same, as Tastecard and might represent better value depending on where you live and places you eat at.

Meerkat Meals: One year for £1(ish)

If you buy a one-day travel insurance product via Compare the Market you get access to both Meerkat Movies and the new Meerkat Meals. It’s more restrictive than Tastecard and Gourmet Soc, but it’s not a bad deal when paired with the movie offer. We’ve written more in detail about what you get with Meerkat Meals and how it compares.

What is Tastecard?

Tastecard restaurant offers

Tastecard is a membership scheme primarily offering money off at restaurants in the UK.

There are thousands of restaurants listed on Tastecard, from your local Indian to chains such as Pizza Express and Prezzo. They offer up to 50% off or 2 for 1 discounts. Do look for exclusions such as weekends or the number of people you can use the membership for on a table.

The membership is digital only, which you access via the Tastecard app. You simply show the card in the participating restaurant, normally before you order and certainly before you ask for the bill. Some restaurants require you to book in advance and to tell them you are using Tastecard. If this is the case, it will be listed on the specific restaurant tile on the app.

Tastecard + cheap movie rentals

A recent addition to Tastecard is the ability to get £1 off e-vouchers to use on movie rental site Rakuten.

Tastecard + cinema deals

You can get discounted tickets at Showcase, Odeon, Vue, Picturehouse and Cineworld. Though do compare the discounted price with the box office price – it’s not always cheaper!

Gourmet Society and other schemes

Gourmet Society, High Life and Meerkat Meals are all run by the same company as Tastecard, and have a lot of similar deals. But each offers a slightly different discount and a few different restaurants, so it’s worth comparing them all to see which is best for you. Read our comparison of Tastecard, Gourmet Society, High Life and Meerkat Meals.

Are dining membership cards worth the money?

At full price (£79) I don’t think a Tastecard is worth the money, but around £30 isn’t a bad price as you’ll be even after a couple of meals out. Then the savings start. I’d definitely try a trial offer first just to see whether you’re likely to use it.

Before buying, check the Tastecard site to see what restaurants are included near you. If that looks good, take advantage of the offers below and go grab it!

For more details check out my comparison of all the different restaurant cards.

Cancelling your Tastecard

In the past, there have been issues with people forgetting to cancel before their free trial or annual membership ends.

Tastecard auto-renews your membership but you can cancel at any time in the app. To be safe, do it more than four days before your renewal date.

Updated July 28, 2026 | Articles

Is it worth selling old books, DVDs, games and CDs online?

Nicky Selwood | Updated by Adil Sheikh

We review which site is best for selling DVDs, books and CDs

Over the years I’ve accumulated hundreds of CDs, books and DVDs. Yet thanks to Spotify, Netflix and my Kindle they’re just gathering dust. So if you want to sell books, CDs or DVDs then trade-in apps may be your answer. We put the market favourites to the test to see if you’ll make pennies or pounds from your unwanted items.

Sites to sell CDs, books, games and DVDs

I looked at three different companies which all promise to buy your unwanted physical media and also compared these to what you could potentially make on eBay and Amazon Seller.

The apps I used were:

Music Magpie
We buy books
World of Books (known as Ziffit at the time of writing)

All three also work by entering details into a website if you don’t want to use a phone.

I also looked for others out there and it seems that MoMox and Zapper are not currently up and running.

How these buying sites work

Just scan the barcode with your phone and instantly receive an offer (or not) for your media.

Reach the minimum amount – one of the frustrations with some of these apps is you can’t trade in until you reach a minimum amount. This figure ranges from an achievable £5 through to £15, and when many items are offered to you for 10p, that’s quite a few to sell before you reach the threshold.

Package and post – once you’ve accepted the figures for the trade, you need to box the titles up. Most allow you to drop the box off, though some will collect by courier. There isn’t usually a charge for this.

Wait for payment – you only get paid once the items have been received and checked. With CDs, DVDs and games in particular this involves a condition check. If they aren’t of the desired quality you might get less cash, or even none at all.

How the trade-in apps fared

Having just moved house, I was still clearing out as I unpacked boxes and found books, CDs, DVDs and sheet music books that I hadn’t touched in years. So I grabbed five of each and used the apps below to see just how much money I could make. You can sell computer games too but I didn’t have any to sell.

I’ve summarised the results in this table so you can see how Ziffit (now World of Books), Music Magpie and We Buy Books compared:

Trading app	Amount offered (for 24 items)	Minimum payout	Extra incentives
We Buy Books	£3.92	£15	10% extra with code APP10
World of Books (was Ziffit)	£3.41	£5	10% extra for new traders with code WELCOME10
Music Magpie	£1.52	£5	10% extra with code GET10EXTRA

We Buy Books

We Buy Books accepted a few more items than the others (10 out of 20) but offered slightly lower individual prices. And the funny thing is, quite contrary to their name, they didn’t accept any of the five books I tried to sell! That said, I’ve used them to sell books before and had some success, mostly 10p offers but I did get a random £6 offer for a grown-up version of a Where’s Wally book!

I was disappointed this time with their offer prices for the sheet music books. Most offers were around 50p which I guess is better than the price they offer for most books, but the one I found could possibly sell for around £25 on Amazon, they only offered just 12p for!

Summary: OK for sheet music books and DVDs but didn’t accept any of my reading books. It would take quite a lot of products to get to the £15 minimum for payout, so not great if you only have a few items to sell.

World of Books (was Ziffit)

Ziffit, as they were known as at the time of research, were good for their offers on the sheet music books and DVDs but only offered 10p on one book and made zero offers on the CDS. In total, they made offers for 9 out of the 20 items with prices ranging from 10p to 50p, so nothing to shout about.

Summary: Good for sheet music, although don’t expect any offers higher than 50p. The £5 minimum payout is much more achievable and good if you have fewer items to sell. Not great for CDs or books in this particular case.

Music Magpie

Music Magpie would only take 7 out of 20 the items and the prices they offered were very low – in fact the best offer they gave was 40p for a Shawshank Redemption Blu Ray. They didn’t accept any of the books and offered just pennies for the sheet music books. They gave more offers for CDs than the other apps, but don’t expect anything big, the maximum was 22p.

Summary: Better than Ziffit and Music Magpie for CDs, but low prices across the board. £5 minimum payout is easier to achieve, so good if you’ve only a few items to get rid of.

Are these trade-in apps worth it?

From my test the answer is generally no. This kind of physical media just doesn’t hold its value, and with people also not really buying these items second hand, these websites don’t always offer a price which makes it worthwhile.

But you will get larger amounts for special editions, rare items, recent releases and textbooks, though you’ll probably get more for them on eBay.

And if you’re struggling for extra cash and don’t think you have the time to eBay your unwanted items, then these sites may just be the quick answer you’re looking for.

Featured deal

Santander £240 switch offer

Customer rating 3.9/5

Switch bonus
£240
Perks
8% regular saver
Monthly fee
0
Offer ends
Unknown

FSCS Protected? Yes
Bonus requirements To get the £240 switch offer, you need to complete a full switch with the Current Account Switching Service. Then, within 60 days of your initial switch request, you need to set up two active direct debits, deposit £1,500 into the current account, set up a Santander Regular Saver, and deposit £200 into it.
Regular saver 8% (variable) regular savings account. Includes 5% (variable) bonus for 12 months
Existing customers? You can't have held a Santander account on 1 January 2026.

View Deal

Are Amazon Seller and eBay better?

Since none of the buying apps came up trumps, I thought I’d compare their offers to what I could get elsewhere. CEX doesn’t buy books, but you can list these on eBay and Amazon (through Amazon Seller).

Obviously this is based on an estimate of what you could potentially make. For eBay, I looked at the same items and what price they are currently offered for. And for Amazon Seller, they give you the price after fees for the lowest price the item has sold at.

Other things to take into account are the photos, listing and packing for making Ebay sales, which all takes time and it would have to be done for individual items (although you could possibly sell in bulk). For Amazon Seller, if you go down the route of FBA (fulfilled by Amazon), then there are the storage fees to take into account if the products don’t sell.

And with both eBay and Amazon, there’s no definite sale. You could be holding on to the items for months or even years.

That could be an issue, unlike with the apps mentioned above where you have a definite income (once the products have been received and assessed).

How much could I make?

So what can I potentially make from Amazon Seller or eBay? Amazon Seller to me seems the best to go with but it requires some work. For the 20 products I’m planning to sell I could potentially make around £70 and on eBay about £60. But neither of these estimates are reality until the products sell.

Both estimates are a lot higher than the £3 odd offered by the buying apps above. The biggest difference in price I found between the trade-in apps and Amazon, was for a City of Angels music book. This was worth 43p on Ziffit and 12p on both We Buy Books and Music Magpie, yet Amazon predicts it could sell for £24.65.

That said, both Amazon Seller and eBay do require a lot more effort and man-hours than the trade-in sites, but I could make more money from them if my items go on to sell. But for convenience, the question is whether I should just take the £3.92 offered by We Buy Books!

Updated July 28, 2026 | Deals

How to watch BT Sport for free and deals to save

BCWYC Team | Updated by Adil Sheikh

BT Sport isn’t the cheapest channel out there but it is possible to pay less, and sometimes even get it for free.

BT Sport is now TNT Sports

TNT Sports replaced BT Sport in 2023, following a merger with Warner Bros Discovery. We’ve got a page with the latest TNT Sports deals and offers so you can carry on watching your favourite sports for less on that channel.

Watch TNT Sports without a subscription

All the latest TNT Sports deals

The cheapest ways to watch BT Sport are if you’re a BT broadband / TV or EE mobile customer. There’s a pay-as-you go option for those with different internet and mobile providers.

Here are the best offers right now to save you cash.

Pay as you go passes

BT Sport month pass – £30.99

For the first time, BT has introduced a monthly pass at £30.99 a month. This means you don’t need to have any other service with BT or to sign up to a long contract – though you will have to cancel to stop the subscription rolling over to a new month.

The pass lasts for 30 days and includes all the BT Sport channels and discovery+, including 4K and HDR options if your TV supports it.

Sadly there’s no day pass as you get with NOW TV.

* The price increased from £25 on 17 February 2023

Get a BT Sport month pass

30-day pass via Virgin Media Stream – £16.20

If you get your broadband from Virgin Media then you can pay £18 a month on a rolling 30-day contract (so effectively a monthly pass), and get 10% credited back to your bill. You will need to buy a £35 Virgin Media Stream box though (here’s my review).

Get it with your broadband

If you get your internet services from BT or Plusnet then you can get the BT Sport channels for an extra charge each month. This starts from £15 a month and you can watch via the BT Sport App. It goes up if you also add other BT TV channels and get a Freeview Box to plug into your TV.

If you’re adding it to an existing BT contract then it could mean you start a new contract for all your BT services. Shop around for deals that’ll bring the price down, such as using cashback sites for an added bonus.

Get it via Virgin Media

Virgin Media Stream: £8 per month

You can currently get BT Sport channels for £8 a month via Virgin Stream. It’s a 30-day rolling contract so you can cancel at any time. You’ll get the price for 18 months max, when it will then revert to full price (currently £18).

However you do need to be getting broadband via Virgin Media and there’s a £35 one-off set up charge (this can often be haggled to zero if you call up).

Check out our review of Virgin Media stream to find out more.

Get Sky Sports via Virgin Media Stream

Get it with your mobile

If your mobile phone is via EE you can buy passes to watch on your phone using the BT Sport app. You’ll get access to BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, BT Sport 3, BT Sport/ESPN and BoxNation channels.

There are add-ons that let you watch it via the BT Sport app on your TV or improve picture quality to 4K.

Three months free with EE

EE customers can get the BT Sport app free for three months by texting SPORT to 150. Unless you cancel after this you’ll move on to the monthly paid subscription.

£10 a month mobile pass via EE

Access to the BT Sport app costs £10 a month. You can only watch it on your device and this is just for EE customers.

£15 a month to use BT Sport app on TVs and smart sticks via EE

The next level up is £15 a month the BT Sport Large Screen package lets you watch it on a TV via devices such as a Chromecast, Xbox, Amazon Fire Stick and some smart TVs.

The step-up to UHD/4K viewing is a package called BT Sport Ultimate which costs £20 a month.

10 months Big Screen & BT Ultimate for £15 a month via EE

This season pass lets you watch the channels on your TV and also upgrades picture quality to 4K. It’s £15 a month, so you’re saving £5 a month on the Ultimate package – but you are committing to 10 months.

There’s an early cancellation charge if you want to stop early, which you’ll also be charged if you switch away from EE for your SIM. To get this text SEASON to 150.

“Free” with EE Swappable Benefits

If you have a reasonably expensive “Smart Plan” contract with EE you can choose BT Sport as one of your swappable benefits. However I’d say you’re probably better off shopping around for a cheaper SIM-only deal.

You can pay £5 more to upgrade to the Large Screen package.

Three months BT Sport and Chromecast for £40 via EE (out of stock)

The BT Sport in a Box promotion gives EE customers (on a 12-month SIM-only contract or pay monthly tariff but not 30-day SIM-only deals) three months of BT Sport Large Screen and get a standard Google Chromecast (RRP £30) for £45.

You’re effectively getting a free Chromecast with this deal, though you might want to check out offers for the new Chromecast instead.

If you’ve not had the free trial, those three months will automatically be added to your account when you sign up.

Get the BT Sport In a Box bundle

BT Sport on YouTube

Watch the Champions League final for free

For the last five or six years, BT has shown the Champions League final and Europa League final for free via BT Sport’s YouTube channel and on the BT Sport website for free! So anyone can watch without paying.

In 2023 the games are as follows:

31 May: Europa League Final (Sevilla vs Roma)
7 June: Europe Conference League Final (Fiorentina vs West Ham)
10 June: Champions League Final (Manchester City vs Inter Milan)

Featured deal

Santander £240 switch offer

Customer rating 3.9/5

Switch bonus
£240
Perks
8% regular saver
Monthly fee
0
Offer ends
Unknown

FSCS Protected? Yes
Bonus requirements To get the £240 switch offer, you need to complete a full switch with the Current Account Switching Service. Then, within 60 days of your initial switch request, you need to set up two active direct debits, deposit £1,500 into the current account, set up a Santander Regular Saver, and deposit £200 into it.
Regular saver 8% (variable) regular savings account. Includes 5% (variable) bonus for 12 months
Existing customers? You can't have held a Santander account on 1 January 2026.

View Deal

Free Discovery+ with BT Sport

If you get BT Sport via BT TV, EE or Plusnet, you can get the Discovery+ package for free, which includes Eurosport. This is worth £5.99 a month for £59.99 a year.

This should include the monthly BT Sport pass, but not if you pay Sky and Virgin Media direct for BT Sport. You’ll need to activate the offer here.

Sky Sports and NOW deals

All my ways to save on this dedicated Sky Sports passes article

How to watch BT Sport on your TV

So how do you get these options on your TV?

Check for an app on your TV or smart device

You can watch BT Sport on your TV if you have the BT Sport app. This is available on

Samsung Smart TVs
Amazon Fire Sticks
Chromecast
Roku devices
NOW sticks
Xbox
PlayStation
Apple TV
Netgem

Buy an HDMI cable

As long as you have a laptop with an HDMI connector, you can just buy a cable to connect to your TV. This should be the cheapest option – but I prefer the smart stick options!

Sport on other channels

You can watch sport on Sky, Eurosport and Premier Sports. Here’s my guide to the ways to save on each of them.

The best deals

Find our picks of the best offers in our dedicated deals library

Updated July 28, 2026 | Deals

Cashback site welcome bonus offers

Zoe Roddy | Updated by Adil Sheikh

Get new member bonuses of up to £43 combined

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 close to £50 in free cash when you first buy something.

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: £18 bonus when you spend £10

You can get an exclusive £18 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 2026.

Quidco: £18 bonus when you spend £10

The best deal is for subscribers to our free newsletter who get access to an exclusive £18 first-time bonus when they spend £10. 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.

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.

Read our review of JamDoughnut

Cheddar: £3 for signing up

You can get £3 when you sign up for cashback app Cheddar using the referral code CLEVER3 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.

Read our review of Cheddar

Airtime: £2 when you sign up

Another decent cashback site is the app Airtime. New member bonuses are much smaller. You’ll get £2 for signing up with code FGUHNUQH when you spend £5 within seven days. Sometimes these are boosted.

Get the Airtime welcome promo code

Quidco: £10 back when you spend £5

If you’d rather not get our newsletter then you can get £10 back with a £5 spend via the sign-up link below.

Featured deal

Santander £240 switch offer

Customer rating 3.9/5

Switch bonus
£240
Perks
8% regular saver
Monthly fee
0
Offer ends
Unknown

FSCS Protected? Yes
Bonus requirements To get the £240 switch offer, you need to complete a full switch with the Current Account Switching Service. Then, within 60 days of your initial switch request, you need to set up two active direct debits, deposit £1,500 into the current account, set up a Santander Regular Saver, and deposit £200 into it.
Regular saver 8% (variable) regular savings account. Includes 5% (variable) bonus for 12 months
Existing customers? You can't have held a Santander account on 1 January 2026.

View Deal

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.

Updated July 28, 2026 | Articles

The corner shop stamp rip-off

Andy Webb | Updated by Adil Sheikh

Watch out when you’re buying your stamps – some retailers will be adding a hefty markup.

With most things I buy, I expect prices to vary from shop to shop. Bigger retailers will often try to undercut each other to attract your business. Smaller shops might have to charge more due to bigger overheads.

Now, I don’t have a problem with this. I’ll usually shop around for the cheaper price, but if I have to go to a smaller, convenience store, then I appreciate it’ll cost me more. Except that is for stamps.

Stamps should cost what stamps cost. Right? Well, I’ve found that’s not always the case, and I expect lots of people are unwittingly paying over the odds for postage.

And with recent price hikes from Royal Mail, it’s even more important to make sure you’re not paying too much.

How much do stamps cost?

Most stamps don’t have a price printed on them, making it hard to know how much they cost! The current price of stamps are as follows:

How much is a First Class stamp?

A 1st Class stamp is £1.65.
Large 1st Class stamps are £2.60

How much is a Second Class stamp?

A 2nd Class stamp is 85p
Large 2nd Class stamps are £1.55

How much is a book of stamps?

There’s no discount for buying a book of stamps, so just multiply the individual price by the number of stamps (usually 6 or 12).

Overcharging for stamps in small shops

A few years ago at Christmas I picked up a book of 2nd Class stamps from a small shop. I’ll call it a corner shop even though it wasn’t on a corner. But that should give you an idea of the kind of shop I mean – an independent off-license/newsagent/random groceries store.

Now we were in a bit of a rush, so just asked for £10ish worth of stamps (we were taking advantage of the Amex Shop Small offer which used to be you spend £10 and get £5 back). At the time (before the multiple price increases since!), a book of 12 was £9, so we asked for two more stamps to take us over the £10 spend we needed.

Since it had been so long since I actually bought any stamps, and without a price printed on them, I just thought they’d gone up in price. A lot.

But, actually they hadn’t. The price, as set by Royal Mail at the time was 56p (remember this was a few years ago). So I should have got 18 stamps for £10.08, rather than 14 for £10.50. It represented a huge 34% markup.

Now, with our £5 credit back on the purchase, we still saved money on those stamps – but most people won’t have.

So was this just a mistake? Or a one-off?

Featured deal

Santander £240 switch offer

Customer rating 3.9/5

Switch bonus
£240
Perks
8% regular saver
Monthly fee
0
Offer ends
Unknown

FSCS Protected? Yes
Bonus requirements To get the £240 switch offer, you need to complete a full switch with the Current Account Switching Service. Then, within 60 days of your initial switch request, you need to set up two active direct debits, deposit £1,500 into the current account, set up a Santander Regular Saver, and deposit £200 into it.
Regular saver 8% (variable) regular savings account. Includes 5% (variable) bonus for 12 months
Existing customers? You can't have held a Santander account on 1 January 2026.

View Deal

Even bigger markups elsewhere

To get an idea I asked the price of a stamp in three similar “corner shops” around the London Bridge area on the same day.

The first only sold 1st Class stamps and charged 90p. But this stamp – at the time of the research – should have been 65p, so the increase was a massive 38%.

The second charged 70p for 2nd Class, while the third wanted 70p for 1st Class. Though the markups were smaller, the shops still charged more than if you got your stamps at the Post Office.

Watch out for Amazon too

It turns out the same issue occurs online too. Expecting Amazon to be a useful place for people to buy stamps (and top-up orders for free delivery), I was shocked to see overinflated prices there too.

Of course I shouldn’t have been surprised. A huge amount of items sold on Amazon are not sold by Amazon. Instead smaller retailers use the online giant as a middleman. And it’s these shops which are selling stamps above the set price.

Here’s one from March 2023. The listing says you’ll get a 12% discount on four 1st class stamps. But at £5.69, you paid £1.43 per stamp. That was already well over the odds, even before the price increases we’ve seen since. So be really careful!

Can shops sell stamps at a higher price?

That’s the big question really. If they can, then they aren’t doing anything wrong by doing this. But there’s something about stamps that didn’t ring true. My instinct was this is illegal.

First I checked the Royal Mail website. The terms and conditions for authorised stamp sellers are they cannot sell stamps for more than the set price. So that’s pretty cut and dried.

However, it turns out selling above the set price is allowed. This rule only counts if the retailer has purchased the stamps direct from the Royal Mail. If they’ve picked them up elsewhere – a cash and carry for example – the shop can charge what it wants.

When this first happened in 2017, I also asked Royal Mail for confirmation, and here was its response:

“Any retailer who buys their stamps direct from us for resale must, under our T&Cs, sell them at face value or lower. This also applies to retailers who buy from us and sell stamps online.

“However, if a retailer has acquired stamps from somewhere else, we cannot bind them to this condition.

“There isn’t a way of knowing whether someone selling stamps has bought them from us or not, and we don’t provide signage to retailers. However, there are approx. 50k outlets across the UK where customers can buy stamps at the correct price.

“If a customer has any concerns about the price of the stamps they have been sold, they should contact our Customer Services team on 0345 774 0740 who can check if the retailer is a customer of ours and get in touch with them to remind them of our T&Cs”.

The best deals

Find our picks of the best offers in our dedicated deals library

Where to buy your stamps at a fair price

Ideally the safest place to get them at the right price is at a Post Office. Shops such as WH Smiths also sell at the correct price, as do all the major supermarkets.

If you are buying from a smaller or independent store, it makes sense to always ask how much a stamp is first. If it’s more than expected, I’d challenge them to see if they’ll charge the lower price. Otherwise, walk away and find somewhere else.

Make sure the stamp has a barcode

Since January 2023, standard stamps have a barcode, as shown in this article’s main image. If you’ve any older ones you can send them off to be exchanged for the new versions.

If you have picture stamps without barcodes, such as Christmas ones, then you can keep using these.

You also don’t need to worry about the stamp having the Queen rather than the King on display. Both will work just fine.

When do stamp prices go up?

If stamps are to go up in price it tends to happen in the last week of March or early April each year, though it can sometimes happen at other times. Fortunately, you can still use a stamp bought in a previous year for the postage marked on the stamp.

The best savings accounts

Check out our list of the highest paying regular, easy-access, fixed and ethical savings accounts

Updated July 28, 2026 | Articles

The best ways to use and earn Tesco Clubcard points

Nicky Selwood | Updated by Adil Sheikh

You can get up to double value of your points

If you shop at Tesco, you probably already have a Tesco Clubcard. But how do you spend the points to get the best value?

What are Tesco Clubcard points worth?

You’ll get one Clubcard point for every £1 you spend at Tesco.

If you spend them in-store on your groceries, 100 Clubcard points are worth £1, so that means they have a base value of 1p each. And if you’ve got 1,000 points then that’s worth £10. And so on.

1 Clubcard point = 1p
2 Clubcard points = 2p
100 Clubcard points = £1
200 Clubcard points = £2
500 Clubcard points = £5
1,000 Clubcard points = £10
2,500 Clubcard points = £25
5,000 Clubcard points = £50

This means earning Clubcard points is the equivalent of getting 1% back on your shopping at Tesco.

But they can worth more through Reward Partners (previously called Clubcard Boost). Here you swap your Clubcard points for vouchers to spend elsewhere.

There used to be variable boosts. Some doubled your points, some tripled and some even quadrupled. However, this changed in June 2023 so points are now doubled when swapped with reward partners.

How to get a Clubcard

Tesco Clubcard is a free reward scheme. You can sign up on the Clubcard website or download the Tesco app.

How to use Tesco Clubcard points

You can’t spend Clubcard points until they have been converted into Clubcard vouchers. And to do this you need a minimum of 150 Clubcard points (the equivalent of £1.50). Points will only be swapped in multiples of 50.

You used to get sent these in the post with your Clubcard statement, which is sent every three months in February, May, August and November.

However this moved online for most customers in 2022. If you’ve used Tesco online you’ll get your statement and vouchers via email, unless you actively tell Tesco you still want them in the post.

A better way to convert points to vouchers is via the Faster Vouchers process as you don’t have to wait for the statement. You’ll only get a digital voucher via this method. Again you’ll need at least 150 points to convert them.

Whether paper or digital vouchers you can spend them in any Tesco store or on the Tesco online as part or full payment towards your shopping.

If you swap them with a Reward Partner you need to do this via the Clubcard website. These boosts will often have minimum levels (e.g. 50 points), and you can only swap increments of that amount (e.g. if you have 120 points you can only use 100 points).

How long do Clubcard vouchers last

When you’re issued a Tesco Clubcard voucher it’s valid for 2 years. Faster vouchers last 21 months from when they are exchanged.

You can check if you’ve any vouchers and their expiration dates in your Clubcard account.

Clubcard deals and promotions

There are a few ways to use your Clubcard to save more money at Tesco.

Tesco Clubcard coupons

Some customers have access to personalised coupons via the Tesco app. These coupons are tailored to your shopping, so hopefully that means you’ll see discounts for products you buy. They won’t all be money off, some could be extra Clubcard points. If you do get the vouchers, you’ll find them via the Clubcard tab, in a section called coupons.

Tesco Clubcard Plus

This premium service costs £7.99 a month, and benefits include 10% off two shops every month. It looks like a good scheme for regular Tesco shoppers. Here’s a full review of Clubcard Plus, including details on how to get it.

Tesco Clubcard Prices

Tesco lets you use your Clubcard to access lower prices for selected groceries in-store and online. You don’t need any points on your Clubcard – you just need to have one.

See the latest Clubcard Prices deals at Tesco

The best ways to spend Tesco Clubcard vouchers

There are actually hundreds of options, so we’ve scanned through them to find the best uses of your Clubcard points.

Charities

New to Clubcard is the choice to donate your points to food poverty charities Fareshare and The Trussell Trust. You can also give to the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research and Diabetes UK.

Sadly Tesco doesn’t boost these donations as they do with other offers, which I think is a shame. Still if you have at least 50p in vouchers you can swap them.

Disney +

You can swap £15 worth of points for a three month standard Disney+ subscription or £9 worth of points for a three month standard with ads subscription. Both new and existing Disney+ users can take advantage.

Sometimes the offer is temporarily improved, for example, six months for the same price. Here are other ways to save on Disney+.

Days out

Fancy paying less when going to the zoo? A theme park? Museum? All these are available at a discount.

A lot of the “days out” used to be quadruple points and have been reduced to double – but they still represent decent value. It’s worth checking to see there isn’t a better offer out there, though one saving which is hard to beat is using your points for double credit towards an English Heritage or RHS membership.

It’s worth checking out other ways to save on days out if you go out a lot, as some discounts might be greater.

Cinema tickets

You can use your points to get cut-price cinema tickets, again at double value. So 50p in vouchers will get you £1 to spend. It’s only for Cineworld or Picturehouse.

You can also use your points towards the Cineworld Unlimited pass.

Check out our list of other cinema discounts and deals

Theatre tickets

You can sometimes get theatre tickets. The 2x value applies to vouchers to use on the booking page of the show.

Check out our list of other theatre ticket offers

Railcards

If you regularly travel by train then a railcard can save you money every time you travel, and one of the cheapest ways to get one is by using your Clubcard points.

You can trade £2.50 in vouchers to get £5 credit towards your railcard. It works for most types of railcard.

Featured deal

Santander £240 switch offer

Customer rating 3.9/5

Switch bonus
£240
Perks
8% regular saver
Monthly fee
0
Offer ends
Unknown

FSCS Protected? Yes
Bonus requirements To get the £240 switch offer, you need to complete a full switch with the Current Account Switching Service. Then, within 60 days of your initial switch request, you need to set up two active direct debits, deposit £1,500 into the current account, set up a Santander Regular Saver, and deposit £200 into it.
Regular saver 8% (variable) regular savings account. Includes 5% (variable) bonus for 12 months
Existing customers? You can't have held a Santander account on 1 January 2026.

View Deal

Bonus airline points

If you already save airline points, this is a great way to get more. You can convert your Clubcard points (with a minimum value of £1.50) to Virgin points at twice their value, that is 1 Clubcard point is worth 2 Virgin points.

There are often bonus offers when you sign up to auto-exchange your Clubcard points to Virgin points for the first time, so it’s a good idea to wait for one of those before setting up the auto-exchange.

Magazine subscriptions

You can convert a minimum of 50p in Clubcard vouchers to get a £1 voucher to go towards a subscription.

So if you wanted to sign up to a year of Empire completely (at a cost of £69.99) via Clubcard points you would need £34 in points, and top it up by another £1.99 from your bank account.

Of course you can get other subscriber deals elsewhere which give good discounts. A quick search for Empire shows you can pay £55, so the Clubcard deal really saves you just £21.

It’s a similar story for other magazines available via Clubcard, including Good Housekeeping, Elle, Garden Answers, Golf and Esquire.

This isn’t the best way to save on magazines though – you can get them for free! Read about our hack to get free digital magazines

Tesco Mobile bills

You can use your points to reduce the cost of your mobile bill. It’s only 1:1 rather than double, so you may as well use your points in-store.

At Tesco

There was a time, not too long ago, that you’d be a fool not to swap Clubcard points with a reward partner. But in the last few years the best offers have disappeared.

There are still lots of options, but whether they’re worth it comes down to two factors. One: Do you want or need what you’re swapping for? Two: Can you get that partner offer discounted elsewhere?

If it’s no for the first, or yes for the second, then you’re most probably better off using the points at Tesco – at least you’ll actually need food and drink!

Clubcard deals to avoid

Though you can save money by boosting your points in these areas, I think you can get similar savings elsewhere – meaning you should boost your points on the more valuable discounts listed above.

Restaurants

Even when these were 4x value, we advised that you could spend your points better elsewhere than at the chain restaurants included in Clubcard Boost. And now they are double instead, the deal is worse.

That’s because you can get decent discounts for the likes of Pizza Express and Bella Italia elsewhere. A simple google often brings up voucher codes for 40% off or two for one. Plus you can save at more places more often with a Tastecard trial.

So let’s say you’ve gone to Pizza Express and the final bill came to £30, it would have cost you £15 via Clubcard vouchers, or £15 via Tastecard or another voucher.

You may be able to double up these discounts though there’s no guarantee.

List of Tesco Clubcard restaurants:

Ask Italian
Bella Italia
Brew Dog Bars
Cafe Rouge
Chef & Brewer
Hungry Horse pubs
Pizza Express
Prezzo
Zizzi

Hotels

It’s similar with converting your Clubcard vouchers to spend on hotels. Though you can get double value on points to spend at Hotels.com and one or two other brands, you’re locked into booking direct with those websites, which might not offer the best rates available. We think you’re better off searching for the lowest prices elsewhere, and then using your points at one of the options above.