Can You Earn Points or Cashback on Account Transfers/Payments?

I recently wrote a post detailing how it’s possible to earn cashback or points on cash withdrawals (see here).

Since then I’ve discovered that, in some cases the same actually appears to apply to transferring money between accounts. I found that I was able to transfer money from a reward credit card to two different bank accounts, whilst earning rewards on the spend and without incurring charges. In this case it may be best to apply some caution though – whilst the method for cash withdrawals was limited to around £200/month, I can’t see that the same applies here. This means that in theory I imagine you could use it to transfer larger sums of money to yourself from your credit card (and earn rewards on it), however this kind of ‘cash recycling’ will likely breach the T&C’s of your cards and could lead to suspended accounts. Personally I think it would be more sensible to only use it in cases where you genuinely need to transfer money (if at all), for example to pay a friend or family member.

Curve, Monzo & Monese

I initially discovered this approach by accident and it worked with both Monzo & Monese.

To do this I used Curve. Curve is an ‘intermediary’ card – it’s a MasterCard Debit, which card be linked to any Visa or MasterCard. This means it can be used as a debit card, but immediately charge to a linked rewards credit card (earning points or cashback). Some uses are blocked (for example you can’t use it to pay off a credit card with another credit card), however it does create some loopholes (for example allowing cash withdrawals without charges). See my article here for more about Curve. Use code O2MEP for £5 credit after your first transaction.

Monzo is an App based bank account. For £5 credit after your first transaction sign up with this link.

Monese is an App based bank account with very generous fee free foreign spend limits. Read my article about it here.

Read Next: Why I’ve Added a Monese Card to my Wallet…

One of the features of Monzo is that you can request a payment from a friend and this request allows them to pay you by debit card. When I received a request via Monzo I decided to test if I could pay with my Curve Card. Sure enough I made a payment directly into the personal account, using Curve. This was charged to my rewards visa card (Barclaycard), appearing with ‘business services’ as the transaction category, and it earned points as a purchase would. It was also not subject to any ‘cash like’ transaction charges.

Monese meanwhile has a ‘top up’ feature, where you can load money into your account from a debit card. Again Curve appears to work successfully with this, meaning you can charge a transfer into your Monese account via Curve to your linked credit card. This could be particularly useful if you want to use Monese for its larger fee free foreign spending limits, but still want to earn points on the spend.

As above, I’m a little cautious about testing any large amounts or transactions between my own accounts and wouldn’t advise abusing this. However, I was interested that this is possible – likely due to the speed at which these new fintech accounts are evolving. I’d imagine loopholes like this, and the ability to earn points on cash withdrawals, may eventually disappear.

Disclaimer: This is an amateur, personal blog and any reviews are based on my personal experience. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances, and that you access the full and up to date information.

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