Many credit card
holders are "disappointed" with reward schemes, we review the best on
the market.
One in three credit
card holders do not make use of their credit card reward schemes, according to
a study conducted by Asda Money.
Many credit card
holders claim to be dissatisfied with these rewards schemes, where spenders
typical collect "points" or earn cashback each time they use their
plastic.
One in three credit
card holders claims that they have to spend too much on these cards to get a
tangible return, while 24pc (one in four) said it takes too long to get these
rewards. Cashback cards do not normally credit the money earned until the end
of the year.
In total one in
five credit cards holders don't use these schemes at all, with a quarter saying
they don't reflect day to day savings.
Kirsty Ward, the
head of Asda Money, says: “Times have changed and shoppers don’t want complicated
reward schemes or rewards that don’t translate into real everyday savings. When
it comes to saving money, we want to put real money back in people’s pockets
through cashback, not points.
Asda (NYSE: WMT -
news) recently launched its own cashback card, which offers higher rates of
return when used in its own stores and petrol stations. But according to
Moneysupermarket (Xetra: A0MW73 - news) there is now far greater choice for
those looking for a cashback card.
It said American
Express (Berlin: 02Z.BE - news) [more] offers the most lucrative schemes. Its
(Euronext: ALITS.NX - news) platinum card offers 5pc cash back on up to £2000
of purchases in the first three months, a further 1.25pc on everything you buy,
and double cashback of 2.5pc for one month every year.
The card charges an
APR of 18.5pc and has an annual £25 fee. However, only those who clear their
balance in full each month so avoiding interest charges should apply for a
cashback charge, as the interest charge on debts will outweigh the benefit of
any cashback earned.
Capital One's
"Aspire World" [more] card also offers generous cashback terms: it
pays 5pc in the first three months, although the amount paid back is limited to
£100. It then pays from 0.5 to 1.25pc cash back on purchases between £5,999 and
£10,000. It has an APR of 19.9pc and no fee.
Another worth a
look is the Creation Mastercard [more] , which is representative of 18.9pc APR,
but an introductory 0pc on purchases for the first three months. It also offers
0.5pc cash back on all purchases for 12 months with a £200 maximum limit.
Kevin Mountford of
Moneysupermarket.com said Aqua’s Reward card is also proving popular at
present. Unusually for a cashback card this is targeted at those who have a
less than perfect credit record. As a result the APR is high, at 34.9pc, but
customers benefit from 3pc cash back on all purchases up to £100 for 12 months,
providing they keep up with your payments each month.
"Provided you
don't spend more than you can repay each month this is an excellent way of
rebuilding your credit record and getting some valuable cashback at the same
time he said."
•Those who don't
clear their balance in full each month, may want to take advantage of an
announcement by Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) that it was extending its
market-leading balance transfer deal until the start of next week (Monday
August 13), after a surge of applications.
The bank said it
had received over 100,000 balance transfer applications from new customers,
equivalent to two a minute, between July 9 and August 5.
The card will not
charges any interest on transferred debts for 22 months, and those who apply
before the deadline will pay a fee of just 1.4pc of the transferred debt,
rather than the standard 2.8pc charge.
Barclays said that
the average debt switched is £2,800, so this would account to a £40 saving on
fees, as well as zero interest charges for the next two years. Typically credit
card charge an APR of around 18pc.
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