August 22, 2006

By Peter Kenny

A recent report showed credit cards that offer cash back and reward schemes are being used more often than others.

A credit card that offers cash back is pretty self-explanatory, however, many people do not realise what a credit card with a reward scheme can do for them.

Marks & Spencer

Just recently Marks and Spencer was named as best provider of credit cards by “Your Money Direct Awards 2006” Although the M&S &More credit card comes with a respectable 0% introductory offer, what steals the show is the reward scheme offered. Every time a Marks & Spencer &More credit card is used for purchases the cardholder earns &More reward points. For every £1 spent inside a Marks & Spencer store the cardholder earns one point and also earns a point for every £2 spent elsewhere. Any &More points earned are converted into reward vouchers. Currently for every 100 &More points earned the cardholder receives a £1 voucher, which can be used inside any M&S store.

Egg

Although not using a reward scheme like other credit cards the offer from Egg cannot be ignored. Egg has gone to great lengths to secure some pretty impressive online discounts from retailers to offer to their cardholders. Using an Egg credit card to make online purchases will save the cardholder up to 20% at buyagift, Thomas Cook and Figleaves. The most impressive part of the Egg offer is the ability to earn cash back on purchases made online using stores that consist of, Virgin Wines, Dixons, CD Wow, Lounge Pass and Virgin.net

Tesco

Tesco have an interesting and very popular offer using their Clubcard credit card. For every £4 spent in a Tesco store or online in Tesco.com the Clubcard holder received 5 points, any purchases made out with Tesco and the offer reduces to 1 point for every £4 spent. A cardholder can use these Clubcard points to save on Tesco purchases or collect Airmiles. Currently there are some great offers in the Tesco Clubcard deal section which the cardholder will four times the value on deal tokens.

British Airways

The British Airways credit card supplied by American Express is especially appealing to those who frequent the skies and who are prone to use BA. A BA cardholder can earn up to 1.5 BA miles for every £1 spent and will earn double BA miles on British Airways Flights. The BA miles can quickly mount up and offer considerable savings against flight costs.

GM

Using a GM credit card could save a cardholder up to £2000 off a new Vauxhall or up to £2500 of a new Saab car. Although the GM card limits its appeal to every cardholder, the savings that can be made are significant. The best part is that cardholders are allowed to negotiate the car price before redeeming their points. The reward scheme works with every £100 spent receive 3 rebate points. A rebate point equals £1.