Spotlight on: Amex Nectar card deal

The deal

To mark a decade of Nectar, American Express is offering new Nectar credit card holders the chance to receive up to 10,000 bonus points.

Good points

It's worth up to £50 to those accepted for the card by 7 November.

Bad points

To get the deal you'll need to put at least £1,000 on the card in the first three months that you have it.

Conclusion

Loyalty schemes are not really rewards but marketing exercises. They are designed to encourage you to spend your money, in this case at certain stores using certain plastic cards. If you don't use stores such as Sainsbury's or Homebase, then they're pretty worthless, although the points can be used to help people through Oxfam Unwrapped.