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No more Avios from mortgages as Tesco Bank puts its portfolio up for sale

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It is no longer possible to earn Avios points from mortgages.

There has only been one way to earn Avios from your mortgage, and that was via Tesco Bank.

Tesco Bank quietly entered the mortgage market back in 2014.  We never covered it much because there are many factors to consider when taking out a mortgage.

Whether or not you will earn Avios or Virgin Flying Club miles via Clubcard points should be very much at the bottom of your list of considerations.

It was all very simple:

You earned 1 Tesco Clubcard point (2.4 Avios) for every £4 of your monthly mortgage payment.  This applied to both the capital and interest elements.

You earned 1 Tesco Clubcard point (2.4 Avios) for every £4 of any overpayment you make, as long as it does not fully repay your mortgage

If you were making monthly payments of £1000 you would be earning 250 Clubcard points.  This is worth 600 Avios, so about £5-£6 of value.  It was not enough to move the needle on which mortgage provider is cheapest.

This deal is no more.  Tesco Bank announced yesterday that it is pulling out of the mortgage market. It is no longer accepting new applications and, more importantly, the existing loan book will be sold to another lender.  Once the sale is complete it is virtually certain that Clubcard points will no longer be available.

It isn’t clear what the future holds for the rest of Tesco Bank. It has not made much of an impact in the current account market, and the credit card arm is also underpowered.

When it launched the current account, Tesco claimed that it was deliberately uncompetitive so that it could offer good customer service.  Several years on, that excuse no longer washes.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Tesco Clubcard

Comments (184)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Sanya says:
    22 May22 May 12:16

    OT as I’m very desperate!

    Im after India England on the 30th June (husbands birthday as well so ideal present). Would someone with atleast 36k Emirates miles please be able to check availability for me before i transfer points?

    • Kai says:
      22 May22 May 13:39

      If it doesn’t say the event is sold out on the page it means there’s availability

  • Don says:
    22 May22 May 13:58

    I’m unable to get through the automatic gates in the U.K. since sometime last year. Travelling on a British passport. It works fine in Europe and other countries using them.

    In the U.K I’m forced to use the desk every time. Anyone else have the same experience?

    • Neil says:
      22 May22 May 15:26

      Yes me too Don, happened with the previous passport as well.

      Border staff can’t explain it. Most popular excuse given is it might have problems with my name (I have one of the most common names).

      • The Big G says:
        22 May22 May 15:40

        Yeah the same happens to me too. I’ve not been able to use my passport in the machines at Heathrow ever. And that is across multiple terminals too. No idea why and border staff can’t understand it themselves. They say my passport is fine!

        • Don says:
          22 May22 May 15:45

          Last time the BF officer came in the second booth to check my passport was working okay as she couldn’t understand why it was being rejected all the time. She went with an air that I was doing something wrong and was surprised when it also rejected her efforts.

          I would have thought her system would flag me up and she wouldn’t go to those lengths or was she just a good actress? Maybe I’m on one of Sajid’s watchlists and they’re told to Keep Up Appearances shall we say.

  • Waddle says:
    22 May22 May 14:19

    OT:
    Can anyone with the 500 Avios for £500 3x (or similar) offer on their BA Amex comment on whether £1,000 or £1,500 spend triggers 1,000 or 1,500 Avios respectively or is it a minimum with no maximum and only triggers 500 Avios however high the spend?

    • Sandra says:
      22 May22 May 14:41

      I’m waiting to find out what happens too – the £780 I paid for 2 flights triggered the bonus, Amex emailed & told me it had triggered and 500 points credited about a week later. A few days later I paid the final £250 balance on a BA holiday booking making a cumulative total of £1030, no more points have credited so I am going to leave it a few more days then query with Amex as the t & c’s aren’t very clear as to wether it is cumulative or not. I was intending to book BA flights anyway but bonus points are always welcome!

    • BlueHorizonUK says:
      22 May22 May 15:04

      I spent £2,600 and got 1,500

  • Charlie says:
    22 May22 May 15:37

    Hotel Special prices – Almost all are lies..
    Marriott promotions are bogus, the prices almost never are better than the normal prepaid rate. I thought I would experiment with the recent Radisson 10% off and free breakfast – it sneakily changed the price from EUR to GBP so it LOOKED like a discount, but just like Marriott – no discount at all! Disappointed as ever – assuming others are finding the same?

    • Russ says:
      22 May22 May 18:40

      You have to keep your eyes open. Some of the hotels in the middle east are only offering deals or prepays.

  • roberto says:
    22 May22 May 15:41

    a little off topic (good) news for others

    NEW VIRGIN CARD BONUS FOR EXISTING CARD HOLDERS

    I have the plus card and following Rob’s post on the enhanced 12000 bonus I applied for the basic card and spent the £1000 minimum in a couple of days. I today received the following email :-

    As you know, you’ve been enjoying our enhanced bonus miles offer designed to help you earn even more Flying Club miles when you spend with your Virgin Atlantic Credit Card.
    Great news – you have reached the minimum spend threshold and have bagged your bonus miles.
    Your bonus miles will be added to your monthly miles total on your next credit card statement and transferred to your Flying Club account a few days after that. You can check your miles balance at any time by visiting virginatlantic.com/flyingclub
    Yours sincerely
    The Virgin Atlantic Credit Card Team

    So it looks like existing holders will be getting a second bonus as “promised”.. Its money for old rope if you’re in the same boat as me.

    See the Virgin add on this page to apply.

    • Rob says:
      22 May22 May 16:35

      And yet other people report today getting letters rejecting them because they already have a card!

      • Shoestring says:
        22 May22 May 21:43

        the point could be that if you get accepted, you’ll qualify for the points

      • Alan says:
        23 May23 May 08:01

        VM Twitter confirmed to me yesterday that you can no longer have both cards. Their policy will, I’m sure change as there is no mechanism in place to upgrade from free to plus. The only way you can go from free to plus is to cancel your card, wait 6 months and then hope to be accepted for the plus card.
        Obviously this is a ridiculously flawed policy – why force someone to use a different suppliers card for 6 months purely because they want to go on to your paid product?
        At some point, hopefully, someone at VM will realise they have a stupid policy and change it. I was going to move over to the paid card but there is now only a disincentive to do so.

  • guesswho2000 says:
    22 May22 May 15:47

    I’ve only entered the UK once in the last three years, but I did so on an inbound to T5 from HKG, and the queues for the e-gates were hideous, so I ignored them and went straight to the immi desk. The bloke seemed very put out at having to do some actual work, and just asked me why I hadn’t used the gates, as if it was a crime. The response of “zero queue vs long queue” sufficed, however.

    • the_real_a says:
      22 May22 May 21:12

      They move very quickly… I have never waited more than 10 minutes. I’m always a little annoyed as there only seems to be 50% working at any one time.

  • SG says:
    22 May22 May 15:50

    Isn’t Revolut type of online accounts an indirect way of earning additional air miles?

  • Alid says:
    22 May22 May 16:17

    OT – Moving Avios from Iberia to BA.

    Has anyone been able to transfer avios from Iberia to BA recently? I used to be able to do it via avios.com as an intermediary though my account there has now been closed. Does an Aer Lingus account currently allow one to do this?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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