How To Get 4.8 Avios Per Pound On Your Tesco Shop

There are a plethora of methods you can use to maximise your Avios. But this one in particular can be a huge earner. Here’s how to earn 4.8 Avios to the pound on your Tesco shop.

Contents

• Open A Tesco Account
• Tesco Clubcard - Avios Transfer
• Tesco Spending vs Spending Elsewhere
• Bonus Avios On Your Online Shopping
• Other Amex Cards

Open A Tesco Current Account

We’re going to ignore the other benefits (like the 1% AER interest rate) and just focus on the Tesco clubcard points in this article.

The Tesco debit card earns you an additional clubcard point per £1 spent in Tesco (minimum £1 spend). This means you’ll earn 2 clubcard points per £1 spent in-store and online.

You’ll earn clubcard points on most of your shopping but there are some exclusions. For example, you won’t earn points when you spend on travel money, gambling, foreign currency and wire transfers. Check out the full list on this page.

Tesco Clubcard - Avios Transfer

Now, you’ll want to setup an auto-transfer between your Tesco Clubcard account and your BA Avios account. This is where the huge Avios boost comes in.

250 Clubcard points = 600 Avios

You’ll want to sign-in to your Tesco Clubcard account online and navigate to:

My Clubcard Account > Account Management > Voucher Schemas

By choosing ‘British Airways Executive Club - Avios’, you are giving Tesco permission to automatically convert your clubcard points into Avios. They will do this every few months.

Tesco Spending Vs Spending Elsewhere

Only Use The Tesco Card at Tesco

If you’ve completed the above steps, you’ll now be earning a massive 1200 Avios for every £250 spent in Tesco (in-store and online). That’s a rate of 4.8 Avios per £1.

However, for spending outside Tesco, it’s a different story.

The Tesco debit card only earns you 1 clubcard point for every £8 (minimum £8) spent elsewhere. If you do the math, that’s a rate of return of 0.3 Avios per £1 spent outside Tesco. You’ll need an alternative solution. This is where American Express comes in.

Use American Express outside Tesco

There are a range of Personal American Express cards with which can earn you Avios, either directly or indirectly. These are outlined below:

Earn Avios Directly

For direct Avios earning, you can get either the free BA Amex or the British Airways Premium credit card. Bear in mind the Premium card comes with an annual fee.

The British Airways Amex (with no annual fee) earns 1 Avios/£1.

The British Airways Premium (with an annual fee) earns 1.5 Avios/£1 (3 Avios/£1 on spending with BA or BA Holidays)

Earn Avios Indirectly

American Express also have a range of Amex Membership Rewards-earning cards (some with annual fees).

All of the cards above earn 1 MR point/£1 on most purchases and 1 MR point = 1 Avios.

Wanting to apply for the Amex Rewards Card? Use my referral link and earn a boosted 6,000 MR points when you apply, are approved and spend £2,000 within your 1st 3 months of card membership.

You can transfer MR points to Avios in increments of 500 MR (min. 1000 MR).

If you’re interested in another method for maximising your MR points, check out my article on ‘How I got £7.50 per Amex Point With Amazon’.

Aside from direct point earning, a number of Amex cards offer sign-up bonuses. Whilst these can boost your MR/Avios points balance, these bonuses have recently been cut.

Maximising Your Avios - A Guide Table

In the table below, I’ve outlined your Avios rate, inside and outside Tesco, using a range of cards.

For Tesco spending, the clear winner is the Tesco Debit Card. A £250 Tesco spend will earn you 500 clubcard points, which will auto-convert to 1200 BA Avios.

The Amex MR card (get 6,000 points free using my referral link) or the BA Amex will earn you 1 Avios/£1 and are therefore best used outside Tesco.

The BA Premium has the best Avios rate (1.5/£1) but because it has an annual fee, it’ll be up to you to decide whether that makes financial sense or not.

Bonus Avios On Your Online Shopping

The method above can net you 4.8 Avios/£1 at Tesco and 1-1.5 Avios/£1 outside Tesco.

But this doesn’t take into account another great Avios-earner. ‘Avios-cashback’.

When you shop online, you should always try and go through some form of cashback website. Whilst some of them will pay your in hard cash (eg. TopCashback and Quidco), the BA Executive Club eStore pays you cashback in the form of Avios.

The Avios rates range in value but with some companies offering 6, 8 or even 16 Avios/£1 spent, it can be a great Avios earner.

The trick here is to use this method to earn bonus Avios and then use the appropriate Avios-maximising card when you pay online.

A One-Off 20.35 Avios/£1 Offer

Tesco is also on the Executive Club eStore. And currently, you can collect 700 Avios when you spend £45 on your first Tesco online shop.

Make sure to use your Tesco debit card when you pay and here’s what you’ll get:

£45 Tesco spend = 90 clubcard points = 216 Avios + 700 Avios Bonus (BA eStore) = 916 Avios = 20.35 Avios/£1 (rounded)

Conclusion

The first port of call is to reign in your spending. But if you’re going to spend, you might as well spend as efficiently as you can. By using this trick, you can maximise your Avios and get yourself one step closer to that economy, business class or 1st class BA flight.

Remember: Always pay off your credit card, in full, every month.

APR Info:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold: Representative 57.6% APR variable

• British Airways American Express: Representative 22.9% APR variable

• British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card: Representative 76.0% APR variable

• Rewards Credit Card: Representative 22.9% APR Variable

• Rewards Low Rate Credit Card: Representative 9.9% APR Variable

• Rewards Purchases Credit Card: Representative 22.9% APR Variable