Clearpay vs Zilch: which pay-later referral is worth more in 2026?

These two look like the same category of offer and behave completely differently. One is a discount; the other is a payment for turning up. Which is worth more to you depends on a single question you can answer in a second.

The question: do you have a £50 purchase in mind?

If yes, take Clearpay. If no, take Zilch. Everything below is the reasoning.

Clearpay: double the money, conditional on spending

Clearpay pays £10, applied to an eligible purchase of £50 or more. Because it is a fixed amount against a minimum threshold, the effective discount depends entirely on basket size:

• £50 → 20% off
• £100 → 10% off
• £150 → 6.7% off

Twenty percent is a serious discount — better than most seasonal sales — and it is available only by landing close to £50. The purchase splits into four equal interest-free instalments, with the £10 coming off the total before it divides.

The thing to know is that the £10 applies to a transaction rather than sitting in an account as credit — so it pairs with a purchase you were already planning, which is exactly when it is worth most.

Zilch: half the money, no conditions at all

Zilch pays £5 in Rewards for completing sign-up, identity verification and card issue within 30 calendar days. That is the entire requirement. No purchase, no basket, no minimum, no threshold.

It is the only offer in this directory that asks you to buy nothing, which means it is the only one where the reward is not partly a discount on your own money. Judged as return-on-outlay rather than headline figure, £5 for £0 spent beats £10 for £50 spent.

Zilch also places no cap on referrals, where Clearpay limits each customer to five.

Eligibility: Clearpay is the stricter of the two

Clearpay requires:

• No active account, and none held in the previous 12 calendar months
• Aged 18 or over
• Permanently resident in the UK, excluding the Channel Islands
• The code entered at sign-up in the app

Zilch requires you to be new to Zilch, 18 or over and UK resident, registering through the link.

The twelve-month cooling-off rule is the one that disqualifies people unexpectedly. A dormant Clearpay account from ten months ago rules you out; the equivalent would not rule you out of Zilch.

Form of the reward

Neither pays cash. Clearpay's £10 comes off a purchase. Zilch's £5 lands as Zilch Rewards inside the app. If you never use either service again, Zilch's £5 sits unspent while Clearpay's £10 has already done its work by reducing a bill you were paying.

That is a genuine point in Clearpay's favour for anyone who was going to buy something anyway.

Where the rest of the sector sits

Klarna pays £10 into a withdrawable balance, the most flexible reward of the three, but requires taking the Klarna Card and making three separate £5 purchases. Zable is a different product entirely — FCA-regulated credit with a soft-search eligibility check that leaves no mark on your file.

The verdict

Claim both. They are separate programmes with separate eligibility, so there is no reason to choose if you qualify for each — Zilch's £5 costs you nothing to collect, and Clearpay's £10 waits until you have a £50 basket to put it against.

If you must pick one: Clearpay when a purchase around £50 is already planned, because 20% off is the best single-purchase rate in this directory. Zilch otherwise, because £5 for a completed sign-up is the easiest reward on the site.