MySpree: New way to earn 5% cashback on your shopping

The MySpree card allows you to earn 5% cashback on your spending at certain stores. But be warned: it's neither a debit nor credit card!

There’s a new way to earn 5% cashback on your shopping – but you’ll need your employers’ help.

P&MM Motivation has launched the MySpree card, a reloadable prepaid MasterCard, offering 5% cashback on the money spent, whether in-store or online, at more than 40 big name retailers (as well as 3% at Sainsbury’s).

Where you can earn cashback

The retailers taking part include:

• Argos
• Marks & Spencer
• John Lewis
• Boots
• Debenhams
• Ernest Jones
• TOPSHOP
• Domino’s Pizza
• Toys R Us
• Evans
• Wallis
• River Island
• Debenhams
• Waterstone’s
• Marriot
• Homebase
• B&Q

You can get a full list here.

A prepaid card

An important thing to note here is that this card is a prepaid card, not a debit or credit card.

In practice, this means that you need to put cash onto the card before you can use it in any of the participating retailers. This can help with budgeting – if you know you don’t want to spend more than £50 at M&S, then don’t put more than £50 onto the card.

But spending on a prepaid card is not as safe as doing so with a credit card (so long as you make a purchase of more than £100) thanks to the protection offered by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. You can find out more about his protection in How Section 75 can protect you.

Where your employer comes in

These cards are not available to us willy nilly. Instead, they are offered to employers, who can then offer them to their employees as a voluntary benefit. As P&MM points out, at a time when pay rises may not be affordable, a benefit like this card could help to improve the workforce’s morale.

Hmmm.

There’s also a £4.99 fee to take into account.

Prepaid cashback options

The MySpree card is the second prepaid cashback card to be launched in the last month, following the unveiling of Incahoot PLUS.

Incahoot PLUS offers a separate card for each participating retailer, which just makes the whole thing even more complicated. For a full explanation of the package, check out A new way to earn cashback and save money on your shopping.

Cashback websites

The most common way to earn cashback on the money you spend is via a cashback website.

It’s dead easy. Before you do any shopping, you head to a site like Quidco or Topcashback and search for the retailer you want to spend money with. If that retailer has a deal with your cashback website, there will be a link to the retailer you can follow. As a result, the money you spend at the retailer is tracked, meaning you get a percentage back in cashback.

So for example, Quidco currently pays 3% cashback at Marks & Spencer. If I follow the link from Quidco to the M&S website and spend £50, I should get £1.50 back in cashback.

Read How to be a cashback king! for more.

Cashback credit cards

However, in my view, the best way to earn cashback is with a cashback credit card. For starters, you aren’t limited to earning cash only in the shops with a link-up to your cashback website of choice – you earn on every single penny you spend on the card, no matter where you spend it.

There are three main cashback credit cards to consider:

American Express Platinum Cashback

For the first three months you enjoy a rate of 5% on the money you spend with the American Express Platinum Cashback card, though cashback is capped at £100. After that you get a flat rate of 1.25% cashback, with no cap. However, so long as you spend £10,000 a year, you enjoy a double cashback rate of 2.5% for a month to mark your anniversary with the card.

There is an annual fee to bear in mind of £25.

Capital One Aspire World

A similar card comes from Capital One with its Aspire World. There’s a 5% cashback rate in the first three months, again capped at £100. After that, the cashback rate you earn is tiered, depending on how much you actually spend.

Spend less than £6,000 and you’ll earn 0.5%. Spend between £6,000 and £9,999 and you’ll earn 1%, while a rate of 1.25% is up for grabs if you spend more than £10,000.

There are two big selling points to the Aspire World that I can see. Firstly, it’s a MasterCard, so it’s accepted in far more places than an American Express. And then there’s the fact that there’s no annual fee to worry about, eating into your annual return.

Santander 123

There are three different rates of cashback on offer with the 123 card from Santander. You earn 1%  on your spending at supermarkets, 2% on your spending at department stores and 3% on the money you spend at petrol stations (capped at £9 cashback).

Unlike other cashback cards, the cashback is paid monthly rather than annually. There is a fee to pay though of £24.

More on moneysaving tips:

Tennis: the cheapest ways to get Wimbledon tickets

How trade union membership can save you money

How to make money from tourists

Make money in the evening

Easy new way to earn cashback when shopping online