Bonus Avios from Shell via a very silly promotion

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Shell Drivers Club is the loyalty scheme for Shell garages in the UK. Joining is simple – pick up a card at a Shell station when filling up and register it online. You earn 50 Avios just for registering your card so it is worth doing this even if you switch to a different reward later.

Shell has now launched a silly but fun promotion to earn bonus points: The Pump Challenge.

The person who devised this should be congratulated for appealing to the inner child in all of us.

Shell

This is how it works.

Next time you visit a Shell garage, you need to get your petrol or diesel bill to land on an EXACT amount of money, to the nearest penny. Manage it and you get a bonus. Miss it and you don’t.

Here are the bonuses available (remember that 2 Shell points = 1 Avios point):

£30.00 – 50 Shell points

£40.00 – 100 Shell points

£50.00 – 150 Shell points

£60.00 – 200 Shell points

£70.00 – 300 Shell points

£80.00 / £90.00 / £100.00 – 500 Shell points

The logic is interesting. Whilst some people may spend less than usual (if you tank only takes £45 of fuel you will stop at £40), some others will spend more. There will also be ‘breakage’ from people who fail to hit the target. Some people may miss one target and then decide to spend another £9.99 trying to hit the next one.

The bonus points are on top of the standard points. You earn 1 Shell point for every litre of petrol you buy, and 2 points = 1 Avios.

As well as Avios, 500 points can be turned into £2.50 of Shell vouchers or £2.50 of Waitrose vouchers. The benefit of taking Avios is that Shell converts (once a quarter) your points in multiples of 20 (ie 10 Avios) with no minimum, unlike the 500 point minimum for other rewards.

Of course, if you buy enough Shell fuel to get to 500 points on a regular basis, you will effectively be ‘paying’ 1p per Avios (since 500 points is worth 250 Avios or £2.50 in Shell or Waitrose vouchers). This is not necessarily a great deal.

The Pump Challenge runs until 22nd July so heavy drivers could do quite nicely out of it. More details can be found on the Shell website here.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus: