Reward Gateway Alternatives UK: Get Similar Discounts Without an Employer

If you've seen friends or colleagues saving money through Reward Gateway but your employer doesn't offer it, you might be wondering whether you can sign up yourself.

Unfortunately, Reward Gateway isn't generally available as a personal membership. Its SmartSpending discounts are provided to employees whose employers have signed up to Reward Gateway. Reward Gateway says it verifies that new members are genuine employees of participating clients.¹

The good news is that you don't necessarily need Reward Gateway to get discounts on your everyday shopping.

There are several cashback and discounted gift card apps available to the general public in the UK, allowing you to save at supermarkets, restaurants, clothing stores and hundreds of other retailers — without needing access through your employer.

Can I join Reward Gateway as an individual?

Generally, no.

Reward Gateway's SmartSpending platform is an employee benefit. Your employer or organisation needs to provide access before you can create an account.

Reward Gateway specifically states that SmartSpending is restricted to employees of its clients, with checks such as a payroll ID potentially being used during registration.¹

This also means you can't simply use a friend's or family member's Reward Gateway membership to create your own account.

There is a Reward Gateway product for small businesses, but this is still designed for businesses to provide benefits to their employees rather than as a personal cashback membership.²

So, if you're self-employed, retired, a freelancer, work somewhere without Reward Gateway or simply don't have access through your employer, you'll need an alternative.

What does Reward Gateway actually offer?

One of the most useful parts of Reward Gateway is its shopping discounts.

Depending on the scheme available through your employer, employees can access things such as:

• discounted instant vouchers
• reloadable gift cards
• retailer cashback
• supermarket discounts
• restaurant and takeaway discounts
• travel discounts
• cinema and days-out offers

Reward Gateway also provides its SmartSpending app so employees can access discounts from their phones.²

One popular way of saving is effectively buying discounted credit before you shop.

For example, rather than paying £100 directly at a retailer, you might purchase a £100 gift card at a discount and then use that gift card to pay.

And this is where the alternatives get interesting.

Reward Gateway alternatives available to everyone

You don't necessarily need an employee benefits scheme to do this.

Apps including JamDoughnut, EverUp, Gains, TopGiftCards and other instant cashback providers allow ordinary UK consumers to earn cashback when purchasing gift cards.

The basic process is:

1. Find the shop you're about to spend money with.
2. Check which gift card cashback provider currently has the highest rate.
3. Buy a gift card for the amount you need.
4. Receive your cashback or reward.
5. Use the gift card to pay for your shopping.

You can do this for everything from your weekly food shop to clothes, meals out, home improvements and Christmas presents.

The important part is comparing the rates before buying.

One app might be best for Tesco today while another could have the highest rate at Currys or M&S.

Compare Reward Gateway alternatives

We've built a free tool that compares gift card cashback rates from multiple UK providers.

Compare gift card cashback rates →

Search for the retailer you're planning to visit and we'll show you the cashback rates we've found across the providers we track.

At the time of writing, our comparison covers hundreds of brands across supermarkets, fashion, restaurants, homeware, travel, entertainment and more.

Rates change regularly, so always check the provider's app before purchasing your gift card.

Can public cashback apps beat Reward Gateway?

Sometimes they can — but it depends entirely on the retailer and the offers available at the time.

That's why we wouldn't recommend assuming that Reward Gateway, JamDoughnut, EverUp or any other individual platform is always cheapest.

If you have Reward Gateway through work, check its rate first.

Then search the same retailer using our gift card cashback comparison.

If another provider is offering a better rate and there aren't any restrictions that make it unsuitable, you can simply use the better option.

Having Reward Gateway doesn't stop you using public cashback apps too.

Example: saving on your weekly supermarket shop

Gift card cashback becomes particularly useful for purchases you're going to make anyway.

Suppose you spend £100 a week at a supermarket and can get an average saving of 4% by purchasing discounted gift cards beforehand.

That's:

£100 × 4% = £4 saved per week

Over 52 weeks:

£4 × 52 = £208

That's potentially more than £200 a year simply by changing how you pay for shopping you were already going to buy.

The actual saving will depend on the cashback rates available, how much you spend and which retailers you use.

Don't buy more gift cards than you need

There's one important catch with this strategy.

Once you've converted £100 of cash into a £100 retailer gift card, that money is usually tied to that retailer.

So don't buy a £500 gift card purely because there's a good cashback rate if you aren't certain you'll spend it.

For everyday shopping, one approach is to buy your gift card shortly before paying.

If your shopping comes to £72, for example, check whether you can purchase a gift card close to that amount rather than keeping a large balance sitting around unnecessarily.

Also check the individual gift card's terms, expiry date and whether it can be used online, in-store or both before buying.

Can you stack the discount with other cashback?

Potentially, yes.

This is where discounted gift cards can become even more useful.

Depending on the terms of each provider and retailer, you may be able to combine different types of rewards.

For example:

Cashback/rewards card → discounted gift card → cashback portal → retailer loyalty scheme

Not every combination will work, and some cashback portals exclude purchases paid for using gift cards, so always check the terms of each offer before trying to stack them.

We've put together a separate cashback stacking guide explaining how the different layers work.

What if I own a small business?

There is another option if you're asking because you run a company rather than simply wanting personal access.

Reward Gateway now offers a dedicated small-business package.

At the time of writing, Reward Gateway advertises its small-business service from £6 per employee per month on an annual subscription, or £8 per employee when paying monthly, and offers a free trial.³

That gives employees access to its shopping discounts alongside other employee benefits.

For a business genuinely looking to provide employee benefits, it's therefore worth comparing the cost with the potential value to your staff.

If you only want discounted gift cards for yourself, however, free public cashback apps are likely to make considerably more sense.

Which Reward Gateway alternative is best?

There isn't one provider that's always best.

Cashback rates change, promotions come and go and different providers can have completely different rates for the same retailer.

Rather than committing to one app, we recommend checking the rate each time you're about to make a significant purchase.

That's exactly why we created our comparison tool.

Check today's best gift card cashback rates →

Enter the shop you're looking for and compare the available providers before buying your gift card.