How to use the Tesco Clubcard Pay+ debit card to earn points from HMRC

The Tesco Clubcard Pay+ debit card is a product which appears to have no real purpose.

Unless, that is, you collect miles and points and have HMRC tax bills to pay ….

Clubcard Pay+ is a prepaid debit card which you load via bank transfer from an app. It earns 1 Clubcard point for every £8 you spent on it.

It is not hugely exciting for the majority, as it is only useful if you spend money at places where debit cards are accepted, but not credit cards. There aren’t many of those, except for HMRC. All other obvious routes for washing through money, such as paying credit card bills or crediting bank accounts, are blocked.

How does Clubcard Pay+ work?

This is how Clubcard Pay+ works:

• Clubcard Pay+ is a Visa debit card
• Clubcard Pay+ has no application fees or annual fees
• You top it up by loading funds from your current account, which can be with any bank, via the Tesco Bank mobile app
• You can use the card anywhere that debit cards are accepted
• You earn 1 Clubcard point for every £8 you spend outside Tesco
• You do not earn anything when you spend in Tesco, apart from the ‘base’ earning of 1 Clubcard point per £1 spent (Clubcard Pay+ replaces your standard Clubcard)
• You earn nothing if you use Clubcard Pay+ to pay into bank accounts, NSI or other financial institutions (HMRC is OK), share dealing accounts, gambling accounts or if you withdraw money via ATMs
• There is a 2.75% foreign exchange fee, so there is no benefit in using this card when you travel

What rewards will you receive from Clubcard Pay+?

Very little, unfortunately. Based on 1 Clubcard point per £8 spent, you will receive:

• 2.5 Virgin Points per £8 spent
• 3p of Hotels.com voucher per £8 spent

….. and so on.

Clearly this is not very attractive compared to credit card rewards. It is even worse than it looks, because it is based on a ‘per transaction’ basis. A payment of £7.99 earns you no points. A payment of £15.99 only earns you 1 Clubcard point.

Whilst it does work when paying HMRC, a tiny return of 2.5 Virgin Points per £8 arguably isn’t really worth the trouble of loading up the card and then making payments.

In recent weeks, I had also heard of some HfP readers having their Pay+ card forcibly shut down, presumably (it wasn’t stated) for paying HMRC. There are only a small number of these reports, but they do exist.

The only other option for getting some reward paying HMRC is via the £150 annual fee for Curve Metal. Curve Metal allows you to pay HMRC using a Visa or Mastercard credit card for free, up to £10,000 per month, earning credit card rewards on the underlying Visa or Mastercard you link to Curve.

The snag here is that many popular Visa and Mastercard products no longer allow you to use Curve for HMRC, treat it as cash withdrawal (adding 3%) or – looking at you, HSBC – refuse to issue points. Our forum has a lot of discussion on Curve if you’re interested.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 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 Mastercard

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

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

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

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher 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

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

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

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

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

Capital on Tap Visa

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

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