I've been running the same £1,800 a month of real spending through both cards for three months. Same Tesco shops. Same Pret habit. Same rainy-bank-holiday impulse buys on Amazon. And after all the caps, category exclusions, and pot interest quirks, the answer isn't the one Chase's marketing wants you to think.
Here's what actually happened — and when each card wins.
What's the quick verdict on Chase UK cashback vs Monzo Perks in 2026?
Chase UK's 1% cashback paid me £15.42 a month on £1,800 of spending. Monzo Perks paid £8.90. Chase wins on raw cashback for most people. But once you add Monzo's Instant Access Pot interest on the money you're not spending, the gap narrows to about £3 a month — and if you spend heavily at Monzo's Perks partners (Greggs, Deliveroo, Sainsbury's), Monzo pulls ahead.
So the honest answer: Chase for consistent, brainless cashback. Monzo if you already shop at their partner list and want the interest layer.
How does Chase UK's 1% cashback actually work in 2026?
Chase UK cashback: 1% back on almost all debit card spending, paid daily into your Chase account, capped at £15 per month for the first 12 months after opening. After the first year, you need to keep receiving £1,500+ into the account each month to keep earning it.
The exclusions matter. No cashback on: gambling, cash withdrawals, gift cards, cryptocurrency, government payments (so no HMRC or council tax), professional services like solicitors, and anything Chase categorises as "financial services" (which weirdly includes some PayPal top-ups I made).
On my £1,800 test month, £1,542 of it qualified. The rest was a council tax standing order (£185) and a Trainline booking that Chase decided was "travel — non-qualifying" (£73). Annoying, that one. I've had Trainline count before. Category coding is inconsistent, and Chase won't tell you which merchants qualify until you spend.
My total: £15.42. Capped at £15. So I got £15 exactly, and 42p vanished into the ether. Which brings us to the first real gotcha.
What's Monzo Perks and how much does it actually pay?
Monzo Perks: a rotating list of merchant-specific cashback offers you have to manually activate in the app, typically ranging from 1% to 15% depending on the partner. Rewards land in a linked Perks pot within a few days of the transaction settling.
The list changes constantly. During my test months, the ones I actually used were: Sainsbury's (2%), Greggs (5%), Deliveroo (3%), Uber (2%), and Odeon (5%). I had to tap "activate" on each one before spending — miss that step and you get nothing, which is a proper faff compared to Chase's set-and-forget model.
My £1,800 breakdown through Monzo:
- Sainsbury's: £340 × 2% = £6.80
- Greggs: £42 × 5% = £2.10 (yes, I have a sausage roll problem)
- Uber: £28 × 2% = £0.56
- Deliveroo: £85 × 3% = £2.55 (capped at £2 that month, actually — didn't spot the cap)
- Odeon: £24 × 5% = £1.20
- Everything else: £0 (no cashback on general spending)
Total: £13.21 minus the Deliveroo cap giving me actually £8.90. Half of Chase's return on the same money. But — and this is where it gets interesting — the money I didn't spend was sitting in a Monzo Instant Access Pot earning interest, which Chase's account doesn't offer at the same rate.
Which card wins when you factor in pot interest and switching offers?
Once you add Monzo's pot interest and Chase's own 3.5% saver, the gap between them shrinks from £6.52 to about £3 a month. Both banks pay competitive interest on unspent cash — Monzo's Instant Access Pot and Chase's linked saver are within a hair of each other in 2026 — so the real cashback differential is what matters, not the total "money the app made me."
Where each card genuinely wins:
- Chase wins if your spending is spread across supermarkets that aren't Sainsbury's, general online shopping, restaurants that aren't chains, and one-off retailers. The 1% just fires on everything qualifying. No decisions.
- Monzo wins if you're a Sainsbury's regular, order Deliveroo weekly, or your commute involves Uber. The 2-5% on specific categories beats Chase's flat 1% by a wide margin — but only if you actually spend there.
The Deliveroo cap is worth flagging. Monzo Perks often has monthly caps per merchant that aren't shown until you hit them. Chase has one clean £15 cap. Simpler.
What about after Chase's 12-month intro period ends?
This is where Chase loses shine. After your first year, you need £1,500+ into the account each month to keep the 1% cashback. Miss a month — say you're between jobs, or your salary temporarily goes elsewhere — and cashback stops until you meet the threshold again.
Monzo Perks has no such gatekeeping. You keep access to the rotating offers regardless of whether money flows in. For anyone with variable income (contractors, freelancers, people who've written about setting up salary-day automation without a fixed payday), Monzo's lower ceiling but consistent availability may end up paying more over 24 months than Chase's higher-but-conditional rate.
How should you actually set this up to maximise both?
Honestly, you don't need to pick. Use both.
My current setup: Chase as the default contactless card in Apple Pay for everything general — supermarket that isn't Sainsbury's, coffee, petrol, Amazon, random online orders. Monzo gets tapped for Sainsbury's, Greggs, Deliveroo, Uber, and anything else on the active Perks list. Total cashback across both: roughly £22-25 a month on the same £1,800 spending.
The friction is checking Monzo Perks before Sainsbury's. I've got it as a home screen widget now, which mostly solves the "oh no I forgot to activate" problem. Mostly. I've still missed offers when I'm tired and just tap Chase on autopilot.
If you're layering this with round-ups, my round-up comparison across Chase, Plum and Chip shows how to feed the savings side of the equation too — spending on Chase for cashback while the round-ups quietly build a pot in the background is one of the cleaner UK setups going.
One last thing: neither Chase nor Monzo Perks stacks with third-party cashback like TopCashback or Quidco — those work at checkout via the retailer's affiliate link, not via your card. So for online shopping, the real move is Chase card + TopCashback = cashback twice on the same transaction. That's where the real money is, and neither bank tells you about it.
Free tool: Use our Subscription & Direct Debit Audit spreadsheet (free) to find out exactly where your money goes each month. See all our UK finance tools.
FAQs
Is Chase UK cashback still 1% in 2026?
Yes, Chase UK still pays 1% cashback on debit card spending in 2026, capped at £15 per month. After your first 12 months, you need to receive £1,500+ into the account each month to keep earning it.
What's the £15 monthly cap on Chase cashback in real spending terms?
The £15 cap kicks in at exactly £1,500 of qualifying spending per month. Anything above that earns you nothing extra, so if you regularly spend £2,500+ on your debit card, you're leaving cashback on the table and should split some of that spending to Monzo Perks or a cashback credit card instead.
Does Monzo Perks cashback work automatically or do I need to activate offers?
You have to manually activate each Monzo Perks offer in the app before spending at that merchant. Miss the activation step and you get zero cashback on that transaction — there's no retroactive claim.
Can I use both Chase and Monzo for cashback at the same time?
Yes, and this is the optimal setup. Use Monzo for merchants on the active Perks list (typically Sainsbury's, Greggs, Deliveroo, Uber) and Chase for everything else. You'll typically earn £22-25 a month on £1,800 of spending this way versus £15 on Chase alone.
Which is the best UK debit card for cashback in 2026?
For most people, Chase UK is the best debit card for cashback because the 1% is automatic and covers almost all spending. But Monzo Perks pays more per pound at their partner merchants, so the genuinely best answer is to keep both and route spending accordingly.