Get £120 for using this credit card

This new credit card offers a phenomenal return on modest spending

I love to get something for nothing. In the last few months I’ve signed up to all of my local Freegle and Freecycle groups, and I always scour freebie websites in the hunt for some bargains.

I'm sure I'm not alone – most of us love that feeling when we feel like we’ve nabbed a great deal.

That’s why I really like the idea of reward credit cards. It’s all very well going for cards that offer massive 0% periods, but if you are just a sensible user of cards and pay your bills off in full every month then it’s only right that you get something in return.

Whether it’s points, vouchers, cash or Airmiles you’re after, there are plenty of cards out there to choose from. And a couple of the cards on offer just got even better.

Getting some Clarity

I have the Halifax Reward current account, a very clever little account which pays out £5 a month each month that you pay in £1,000, irrespective of what your finishing balance is.

Now, anyone who holds this account can take advantage of an equally clever new cashback credit card.

Find out why packaged current accounts are a waste of your money

The Halifax Clarity credit card will pay you £5 a month so long as you spend £300 over the course of that month. That’s a pretty nifty return for a pretty modest spend. The card also doesn’t charge any fees for use abroad, a useful bonus given that the Nationwide Flex Account – previously a favourite of travellers – will be introducing charges for non-UK transactions from November.

So not only can you use the card abroad, worry-free, but you can also expect a return of £120 thanks to the current account as well.

(Remember, you have to take out the current account to get the card.)

That’s a pretty cracking package in my book.

The Amex Rewards card

And there's more good news on the credit cards front. The American Express Rewards card is probably my favourite rewards card around. You get three points for every £1 you spend in major supermarkets, two points for every £1 spent in department stores, and a point per £1 spent everywhere else.

Once you get to 5,000 points, they are converted into a £25 voucher which will be on its way in the post to you. And the 13 stores where you can spend these vouchers are pretty good – Marks & Spencer, iTunes, Amazon, Waterstone’s, HMV, Homebase and Boots, just to name a few.

And this month, the Express Rewards card has got even better. Originally, so long as you spent £500 in each of the first three months you would secure a bonus of 6,000 points – in other words, your first voucher and a healthy leg up on the way to the second.

However, this promotion has been seriously improved. Now, for each month in the first three months that you spend £500 on the card, you’ll receive a bonus 6,000 points. So over the first three months, you’re looking at 18,000 bonus points – the equivalent of £90 in vouchers!

The Barclaycard Freedom scheme

I’m a big fan of the concept of the Barclaycard Freedom scheme, but it’s fair to say there is some room for improvement in the actual execution.

Each time you use one of the relevant Barclaycard credit cards - basically all Barclaycard credit cards, except for the Cashback, Choice, Goldfish or i24 card - in a participating shop, you earn Reward Money. Then, when you shop at a member store in the future, you can then use some of that Reward Money to help pay for your purchase.

There are a lot of things I like about this. Firstly, it’s very simple – you don’t need to worry about vouchers or keeping track of how many points you have. It’s just money.

I also like the fact that the scheme does not just run with a single credit card, but rather is available across a whole range of Barclaycard cards. In addition, it’s great that this is not just for new customers, but is available to existing users of the relevant cards.

Sadly, while the idea is fantastic, the retailers taking part are a little underwhelming from my point of view.

Here’s the complete list of Barclaycard Freedom partners at the moment.

Blue Inc
Pizza Express
Npower
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Shell
Goldsmith's
LA Fitness
Officers Club (nope, I’ve never heard of them either)
Yo! Sushi
Firebox.com
Nationwide Autocentre
Just Tyres
Flight Centre
Watches of Switzerland
F. Hinds
Mappin & Webb
Petroleum
British School of Motoring
Balls Brothers
Lewis & Clarke
GIVe
Justgiving

Now ok, they have a lot more partners than the Express Reward card. But whereas the Amex card has mainstream partners, where I could see me using that £25 voucher regularly, the Barclaycard Freedom partners strike me as a bit more ... niche.

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Maybe it’s just me though – if you love LA Fitness, eat a lot of pizza/sushi/posh burgers or are spending a fortune learning to drive, maybe you can get a really good return.

Grocery shopping

The credit card I rely on is the Tesco Clubcard credit card. Not only does it boast 13 months at 0% interest – particularly useful given the spending I’ve done in the last year – but it gives a serious boost to your Clubcard stash – you get one point for every £4 spent worldwide, and it doubles as a Clubcard so you get even more points for your pounds when you shop at Tesco itself.

Of course, Tesco is not alone in offering such a card. Sainsbury’s has a great card in its Nectar credit card, offering double Nectar points on all your shopping at Sainsbury’s for two years!

Similarly ASDA offers it own Reward credit card, while the Partnership card from John Lewis and Waitrose is one of the UK’s most loved credit cards.

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