Published: 14 May 2026
Save on travel with Smart Rewards on your MBNA credit card
First of all, I am a big American Express fan, the customer service is generally excellent and the points earning has enabled my family and I to travel all over the world and experience flying in cabins that we would otherwise be unable to afford.
However, Amex acceptance is by no means universal in the UK plus overseas spend attracts a 2.99% charge, so for the past 10 years I have had an MBNA Visa card which has no foreign exchange fees.
Smart Rewards
MBNA runs a scheme called Smart Rewards which offers a variety of cashback offers from a huge range of retailers. Simply activate the offer in the app or on the website, spend money with the retailer within the validity dates and you will receive statement credit based on the value of your spend.
As well as the sort of travel offers shown below, there are a wide range of deals (for me at least) with a very wide variety of retailers such as eBay, Uber Eats, Deliveroo, B&M, Iceland, Harvey Nichols and Selfridges.
Cashback on your Travel Spend
These are the current travel related offers showing for me when I log into the app. Treat these as examples as offers change throughout the year and in any case, yours may be different:
- 10% cashback on IHG Essentials & Luxury Brands (separate offers)
- Essentials Brands: Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Staybridge Suites.
- Luxury Brands: Hotel Indigo, voco, Crown Plaza, Intercontinental, Kimpton, Vignette Collection and Regent Hotels.
- Maximum cashback £30
- 5% cashback at Hilton
- Valid at Hotel Indigo, voco, Crown Plaza, Intercontinental, Kimpton, Vignette Collection or Regent Hotels.
- Maximum cashback £30
- 5% cashback on Avis rentals
- Pre-paid bookings only
- Excludes Budget & international payments
- Maximum cashback £30
- 4% cashback on loveholidays
- On time use only
- 10% cashback on Apex Hotels
- Maximum cashback £60
- 10% cashback on Macdonald Hotels & Resorts
- Maximum cashback £60
- 10% cashback at Legoland Windsor, Thorpe Park, London Eye, Alton Towers, Warwick Castle, the Dungeons, Madame Tussauds and Sea Life (all individual offers)
- Single-use
- Maximum cashback £30 per offer
- Spend online
- 10% cashback at Q-Park
- Single-use
- Maximum cashback £30 per offer
- Some locations excluded (including airports & some city centre car parks)
Points to note
Clearly none of these are going to change the world but you can make some genuine savings here.
These offers are generally tied to the card transaction which means that they will usually stack with any voucher codes or other promotions that are available to you.
Theseare typically targeted offers so just because they are available to one person, the may not be offered to everyone else.
Offer terms apply and are different to each retailer. Obviously the spend has to be with the company making the offer (so don’t try claiming £30 cashback offered by BA when you booked your flights with Expedia). Is it on online/in person spend (or both), is it a single use promotion, is there a minimum spend and do you need to use a special website link to trigger the cashback?
Whilst you should not always be guaranteed to get the cashback or statement credit, in my experience these do work, providing you have complied with the Ts&Cs.
Further Reading
- American Express Offers is a very similar scheme for Amex cardholders and can offer some extremely good discounts off travel (and other) spend.
- If you are going abroad on holiday, read how to maximise your foreign currency spend.
