Last updated: 15 November 2026
By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance
I have overpaid my mortgage through Sprive since October 2021, with Nationwide until June 2026 and with Halifax since. After five years of using the app, most of my Christmas gifts and the Christmas food shop now go through its Shop tab.
This article contains affiliate and referral links, which are paid links. If you click one and buy or sign up, I earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. Brands don't choose what I feature or what I say about them.
This is not financial advice. It describes what I do with my own app and my own mortgage.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
New to Sprive?
New users get £5 or a boost with my referral code, and the steps to claim it are on my referral page.
Christmas presents that chip away at the mortgage.
Sprive Christmas shopping works the same way as the rest of my year. I buy a gift card in the app, or tap through to a shop from it, and the cashback goes to my lender as a mortgage overpayment. December is simply when I spend the most, so it is when the cashback adds up fastest.
Rates move often, so the current figure for every shop sits in my Sprive cashback shops list, which I update every fortnight from my own app.
Section 01 / How it works
How Sprive Christmas shopping pays into the mortgage
There are two ways to earn, and they pay out on very different timescales.
Gift cards. For most brands, I buy a digital gift card in the Shop tab for the amount I want, then spend it in the shop or on its website. Sprive works out the cashback on the card, not on what I later buy with it. Sprive's terms say the reward should arrive within 24 hours of buying the card, and in my experience it does. After that, I send it to my lender with one tap.
Shop online. Some brands have no card. Instead, I tap through from the app to the brand's website, allow cookies and buy in the same visit. The shop then has to confirm the order before Sprive pays, and that takes much longer. For example, the app quotes 105 days on average for Ocado and Philips.
The mechanics of the cards themselves, including the reloadable ones, are in my guide to Sprive reloadable gift cards. Meanwhile, the full journey from card to lender is in how Sprive cashback works.
Check which tile you are tapping
Some brands appear twice in the Shop tab, at different rates. In my app on 8 November 2026, Currys paid 3.2% on its gift card but 2% through its shop-online link. Likewise, Boots paid 5.1% on one tile and 2.5% on Boots Online. The difference matters for more than the rate, because a shop's till will not take an online-only card. So before buying, I open the tile and read where I can spend the card.
Section 02 / My shops
Where I buy Christmas gifts through Sprive
These are the shops I use myself, and how I use each one.
Waterstones
Book tokens are an easy present, so I buy a Waterstones gift card in the app, print the voucher and put it inside a Christmas card. Waterstones paid 4% in my app on 8 November. The card works in its shops and online, so whoever gets it can choose how to spend it.
Etsy
For anything handmade, I find the gift on Etsy first and note the total. Then I buy an Etsy gift card in Sprive for that amount and pay with it at checkout. Etsy also paid 4% on 8 November.
John Lewis, Selfridges and Liberty
For department stores, I use the same checkout trick. I fill the basket, go to checkout to see the final total, and then buy a gift card in Sprive that covers it. That way, I never leave money sitting on a card. On 8 November, Liberty paid 5%, John Lewis 3% and Selfridges 2%.
Hotel Chocolat
I have bought both a Hotel Chocolat voucher to give as a present and a gift for someone else through the app. It is a low payer, though, at up to 2.5% on 8 November.
Bloom & Wild and Argos
I have sent Bloom & Wild flowers through Sprive once. Bloom & Wild currently has two tiles in my app, at 11% and at up to 3.2%, so it pays to open both before choosing. Argos, at 3%, covers the more practical presents.
Molton Brown, with a price check first
I sometimes buy Molton Brown through Sprive, at up to 3.2%. However, Amazon has often been cheaper for the same product, and Amazon is not in the Sprive Shop tab. So I compare prices first, because a lower price usually beats a few per cent of cashback.
The Christmas food shop
Finally, all the Christmas food goes through supermarket gift cards in the app. Supermarkets pay less than gift shops, between 1.9% and 2.6% on 8 November, but the bill is big in December. Every rate, and what it adds up to on a weekly shop, is on my Sprive supermarkets page.
I put the Waterstones voucher in a Christmas card, and the cashback goes to my mortgage.
Section 03 / Other gift shops
Other Christmas shops in the app
I don't buy from these myself, but they are in my Shop tab and suit plenty of gift lists.
- Games. The Nintendo Store is in the app, which helps if a Switch or new games are on the list this year. I play on my Analogue N64 console instead, so I am not buying one.
- Tech. I rarely give tech. For an Apple gift, though, I would look at the Currys gift card in Sprive, or at JamDoughnut, which paid 2.25% on Apple gift cards in my JamDoughnut app in November 2026. Its sign-up offer is on my JamDoughnut referral page.
- Experiences. Virgin Experience Days, buyagift and Red Letter Days are all in the app, and experience cards are among the higher payers.
- Jewellery and beauty. Swarovski, H. Samuel, Ernest Jones, Boots and The Perfume Shop are all there too.
- Cards and wrapping. Funky Pigeon, Moonpig, Papier and Card Factory are in the app. However, my favourite card shop, Quite Good Cards, is not.
For gift ideas rather than shops, my best Christmas gifts guide has the picks.
Section 04 / Timing
When December cashback reaches the mortgage
Gift card cashback is quick. Shop-online cashback can take months.
On a gift card, the reward lands within a day, so December spending can be on the mortgage before the new year. On a shop-online order, by contrast, the wait can stretch past three months. So a present ordered online in mid-December may not reach the mortgage until March.
The bigger limit is the lender. Most fixed deals cap overpayments at around 10% of the balance each year, and going over can trigger an early repayment charge. So if you also overpay heavily through auto-save or a standing order, check your own terms first. My guide to Sprive overpayment rules covers what to look for.
Black Friday deals and boosts
Sale prices and Sprive cashback work together. If I find a Black Friday price, I buy a gift card for the sale total and pay with it, so the cashback applies to what I actually spend. My Black Friday guide covers when the sales run. On top of that, a boost can lift rates for a while; my rates on 8 November had no boost running. How that works is in what a Sprive boost is.
Section 05 / The catches
Returns, tracking and the downsides
Christmas shopping comes with returns, and Sprive cashback is not built for them.
- No refunds on gift cards. Sprive's terms rule out refunding a card once you buy it. If a present goes back, the shop's own returns policy decides what happens, and often that means credit back onto the card.
- Cashback on the mortgage stays there. Once a reward has gone to the lender, Sprive's terms say it cannot be reversed. It also cannot be withdrawn to your bank.
- Shops can decline shop-online rewards. The terms say a reward may not be paid at all if the shop does not approve the order, for example if cookies were blocked. My cashback has always tracked so far. Even so, the app shows nothing to say a shop-online order has tracked, and I can't find any way in the app to report a missing reward. The only route in Sprive's terms is contacting its support team.
- The wrong card is easy to buy. I once bought a Boots card in the app while standing in a Boots shop. It was the online-only card, so I could not spend any of it at the till, and I ended up placing an online order I did not really want. The app does say which cards are online only, but it needs to be much clearer.
- No credit card protection. I pay for cards from my bank account through Open Banking. So I give up credit card rewards, and on a big present I also lose the protection a credit card payment brings.
I go into more of these in my Sprive review. Despite them, Sprive Christmas shopping still earns my presents something for the mortgage that a normal card payment would not.
Section 06 / Regulation
Regulation, and where your money sits
Sprive Limited is on the Financial Conduct Authority register under firm reference number 919863, and you can check its FCA Register record. It is an appointed representative of Connect IFA Ltd (441505) and New Leaf Distribution Limited (460421) for mortgage services. PrePay Technologies Limited (900010), an authorised e-money institution, holds the money in the app's wallet, so that money is safeguarded but not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
CoolCuration is not FCA authorised and does not give regulated advice. For free, impartial guidance on overpaying, try the government-backed MoneyHelper. To see what small overpayments do over time, my mortgage overpayment savings examples and the overpayment calculator run the numbers. Every Sprive guide I have written is in my Sprive guides hub.
Sprive Christmas shopping: frequently asked questions
Can I buy Christmas presents through Sprive?
Yes. Department stores, gift shops, card shops, toy shops and experience companies are all in the Shop tab. In my case that means Waterstones, Etsy, John Lewis, Selfridges, Liberty, Hotel Chocolat and Argos. The cashback goes to your mortgage, not your bank account.
Is Amazon in Sprive?
No. Amazon is not in my Sprive Shop tab, even though older Sprive pages mention it. So for anything I would normally buy on Amazon, I compare the price elsewhere first.
When does Christmas cashback reach my mortgage?
On a gift card, the reward should arrive within 24 hours, per Sprive's terms. On a shop-online order it can take months, because the shop has to confirm it first, so a December order may not land until the spring.
What happens to the cashback if I return a present?
Gift cards can't be refunded once bought, and a reward already paid to your lender can't be reversed. The shop's own returns policy decides the rest. On a shop-online order, the shop may decline the reward.
Can I use a Sprive gift card in store?
Many of them, yes, but not all. Some brands have an online-only card next to an in-store one, at a different rate, so I open the tile and check where the card can be spent before I buy.
Before you go. Rates, brands and terms in the Sprive app change often, and your own figures may differ from mine. This article is not financial advice and does not take your circumstances into account, so consider speaking to a qualified mortgage adviser before you change how you overpay. This article contains affiliate and referral links, which are paid links. If you click one and buy or sign up, I earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. Brands don't choose what I feature or what I say about them.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
More from CoolCuration
- Gifts under £25: stocking fillers that are easy to cover with a gift card.
- Christmas stationery gifts: notebooks, pens and desk pieces for the person who writes things down.
- Airtime Rewards: cashback on your phone bill from everyday card spending, with no gift cards.
- Sprive vs manual overpaying: whether the app beats a standing order to your lender.
- Gifts for foodies: presents to spend a supermarket or Hotel Chocolat card on.
What's trending
Recent posts
- Sprive Christmas Shopping: The Gift Shops That Pay Into My Mortgage
The gift shops I use through Sprive at Christmas, when the cashback reaches my mortgage, and the returns and tracking catches. - Cool Advent Calendars UK: 15 Countdowns Worth Keeping the Box ForFifteen cool advent calendars from UK shops, from a carol-playing gramophone to cheese in three parcels, with the cost per door for each.
- Cheapest SIPP UK: No-Fee and Low-Fee Pensions ComparedLast updated: 13 November 2026. I checked every fee in this cheapest SIPP UK comparison against each provider's own charges page on 8 November 2026. By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance Affiliate disclosure: This article contains affiliate and referral links, which are paid links. If you click one and buy or sign up,… Read more: Cheapest SIPP UK: No-Fee and Low-Fee Pensions Compared
No Comments.