Groceries (food)
According to the Office of National Statistics, the average UK household now spends around £3,601 on groceries per year, which is equivalent to £300 per month. The table below shows how many points you would get buying groceries on each different reward card:
Credit Card | Average household grocery spend per month | Points/cash back over entire introductory period | Points/cashback monthly period thereafter |
£300 | 900 | 300 | |
| £300 | 5000 | 900 |
£300 | £45 | £3 |
Restaurants and takeaways
According to the Office of National Statistics, the average UK household now spends around £1,744 on food and takeaways per year, which is equivalent to £145.30 per month. The table below shows how many points you would get buying takeaways and eating out on each different reward card:
Credit Card | Average household takeaway and eating out spend per month | Points/cash back over entire introductory period | Points/cashback monthly period thereafter |
£145.30 | 435.9 | 145 | |
£145.30 | 0 | 0 | |
£145.30 | £21.80 | £1.45 |
Types of Rewards Cards:
Air miles credit cards
An air miles credit card is designed to reward your spending by giving you airline points. The more you spend on your air miles credit card, the more points you’ll get.
You can then exchange the points for discounts on the price of your flights or upgrades.
Supermarket rewards credit cards
These cards offer the most points for spending in ‘home’ shops – so the supermarket itself as well as linked retailers e.g Sainsburys is linked to Argos.
By using these cards for your groceries, you can also use them to collect rewards, in the form of Nectar or Clubcard points, on other purchases you make on the card at other retailers.
Cashback rewards credit cards
The most straightforward type of rewards cards are cashback ones.
Cashback cards give you back a percentage of what you spend, which might be added to your account once a year or more frequently. American Express (AmEx) usually offers the best cashback cards in the market and the best reward cards in general, although it’s not accepted in as many places as Visa and Mastercard.
Make sure you watch out for annual fees. You could end up paying a hefty charge on the card if you don’t spend enough on it – outweighing any benefit you get from using it. Approach cards charging feed with caution.
Salman Haqqi, personal finance expert at money.co.uk explains how to get the most out of your rewards card, and the pitfalls to avoid:
“The secret to getting the best out of a rewards card is to make sure you know what’s on offer.
For example, lots of cards come with introductory bonuses, where the points ramp up if you spend a certain amount, in a certain store, within a certain time. Miss out on that target and you could see how much you get back seriously affected.
Bonuses aside, many cards pay far more for spending in certain shops – with supermarket cards often tripling rewards for spending in store. If you have the option to pay in more than one way, getting this right can also boost your rewards.
But more importantly, never spend more than you can afford to repay that month in the hunt for reward points.
Doing that is a losing game, with a few more points here and there almost never making up for missed payments, interest charges and the damage to a credit score that can result from spending more than you can afford to repay.”
