The Value Of Having Branded UK Credit Card Loyalty Programs

Anyone who has taken even the briefest of looks at the UK credit card industry will immediately notice that there are well over a thousand credit card providers. However, even in this hugely competitive industry, there are still only two main types of card available – the Visa card and the MasterCard. The difference then, is in the issuer of the credit card, and this is where you may well want to be thinking of applying for a branded UK credit card loyalty program.

What is a loyalty program?

Basically, a loyalty program is where your credit card issuer ' rewards' you for using your credit card. The more you use the credit card (usually in cash terms rather than number of times), the more reward points you’ll be given by the UK credit card issuer. So, depending on your loyalty program, you may be able to get air miles, money back, free gas, in fact any number of rewards for spending money on your credit card.

Why should I think about getting a branded credit card?

All of us have a favourite shop or hobby that we like to do. It may even be the case that we particularly like shopping in one particular shop or travelling on one particular airline. If that is the case, then you may well find that it is in your best interests to check and see if the shop or airline you particularly like has issued its own credit card. If it has, then you can be pretty sure that they’re going to be cross-selling their brand name to ensure that the loyalty program included as part of their credit card program is their own product.

• Credit Card Benefits
  A credit card can be a highly effective and flexible financial tool for the smart shopper – and saver. It has many obvious advantages over cash and cheques – and a few hidden ones too!

For example, if you like flying Virgin, it might be useful to know that Virgin have a credit card that includes an airline mileage loyalty program. Guess which airline – yep, Virgin! Likewise, if you like shopping at Tesco, you may want to checkout and see if Tesco have issued a credit card with a loyalty program. If you were to check, you’d fine the answer is yes, and that as part of the Tesco loyalty program you can get discounted petrol at a Tesco petrol station.

As you can see then, clever marketing is certainly going on to cross-sell a brand name and product.

How is this any different to a store card?

You may now be wondering how this is any different to getting a store card. The answer is quite simple really, with a store card you’re purchases using the card are normally restricted to the store that has issued the card. However, with a branded UK credit card, you are free to use the credit card anywhere you want, but the loyalty program will reward you with special offers being given by that particular brand name. As such, you have no limitation on your spending, but you pick up the benefits under the branded loyalty program. In fact, it sounds very much like you, as the consumer, are getting the best of both worlds for once.

Related Links

• How To Earn Nectar Points With Reward Credit Cards
  The Nectar point scheme is a scheme that allows credit card users and other shoppers to earn points through purchases. The Nectar scheme has been running since September 2002. As with other reward points schemes, the Nectar points scheme allows shoppers to earn at the rate of 2 points for every pound spent.
• Reward Credit Cards
  In the UK today we spend over £trillion on our credit cards! During peak hours major credit card companies can be transacted over 20,000 payments a second! No matter how you look at it, that’s big business and there are lots of profits to be made by card issuers.
• Airmile Credit Cards
  These days most major UK credit card providers offer a vast array of reward programs to try and entice potential new customers to apply for a card. Since the inception of reward packages, one of the most popular packages that applicants go for is airmile credit cards.