Anyone with a Santander Edge current account will no longer be able to earn 1% cashback on supermarket, fuel and travel spending after the bank confirmed it was axing the benefit from September 9. MoneySavingExpert, which broke the news, said Santander’s Edge account had long been one of its ‘top-pick’ cashback bank accounts.
The bank is the second this month to announce it was ditching cashback on account spending, Chase Bank has reduced its 1% cashback just a few select categories.
Santander’s account allows customers who deposit £500 a month to earn up to £20 in cashback, including £ 10 in cashback on bills and up to £10 in cashback on some debit card spending.
However, from September 9, Santander’s Edge account will no longer offer 1% cashback on grocery, fuel, and travel spending when using a debit card.
Customers with a Santander Edge Up account will also no longer be able to get cashback on grocery, fuel and travel spend; this account charges a higher fee of £5 and allows customers to earn up to £30 a month cashback.
Customers will still be able to earn cashback on bills, including broadband and paid-for TV packages, council tax, gas and electricity bills, mobile and home phone bills, and water bills.
Santander has written to Edge and Edge Up account holders telling them that “the cost of offering cashback has increased” and that the change would allow it to continue offering the account.
Earlier this month, Money expert and MSE founder Martin Lewis picked out two top credit cards for those looking to ditch and switch from Chase after it slashed its popular cashback offer.
Until recently, Chase Bank offered 1% cashback on all spending in the UK and abroad up to a total of £15 a month, which was one of Martin Lewis’ regular top picks for spending.
But Chase, which is an online-only bank in the UK, has since significantly reduced the scope of its offer, reducing it to just a few select categories.
The best payers always tend to be American Express credit cards, although they are not as usable in quite as many places as Mastercard and Visa.
“So you’ve got the Amex Everyday Credit Card, which pays 5% cashback at the moment for the first 5 months up to a maximum of £125.
“That’s important as normally it’s 5% for 3 months up to a maximum of £100 so it’s quite a good time to get one especially if there’s any big purchases that you would need to do.
“Then it pays afterwards 1% cashback on spending over £10,000 and 0.5% cashback on spending below £10,000. But to get any cashback at all, you have to put £3,000 a year on it.”
Martin also said that the top non-Amex reward card is the Barclaycard Reward card, which gives 0.5% cashback on spending in the UK and abroad until September 30 and has near-perfect exchange rates abroad.
Martin added: “So those are probably the best all round for cashback on spending, those two cards. As always, though, they’re credit cards. Only do this if you pay off the card IN FULL every month.”
