Is the Uber One subscription worth it?

With discounted groceries, 10% cashback on commutes, and a Disney+ subscription bundled in, Uber One can be a genuine MoneySaver that quite literally pays for itself. There are some caveats – a potentially long wait for Uber Credits to appear, variable pricing on train fares, and the fact it’s unlikely to last forever in its current state – but for now it’s an excellent deal. It’s also the only subscription we’ve seen in recent times that’s actually gone down in price since it first started.

What do you get for £4.99/mth?

An Uber One subscription gives you the following benefits: 

• Free delivery on eligible orders over £15 (food delivery) and £25 (groceries) at participating places. We found most were participating, though it may vary by location.

• Up to 60% reduction in service fees on Uber Eats. 

• Uber One Credits (usually 10% credited back on flight, train, car hire, rides, e-bikes, and e-scooters) that automatically get applied to subsequent trains, flights etc on Uber, as well as Uber Eats.

• Special offers, currently including a free Disney+ subscription. Monthly Uber One subscribers get a six-month ‘standard with ads’ plan (normally £29.94), annual subscribers get a 12-month ‘standard’ plan (normally £89.90).

• Vouchers for grocery shopping and takeaways ranging between 15% (not worth it) to over 50% (worth it). This is usually account-specific.

Do a lot of commuting? Hoover up those Uber Credits 

Uber Credits are good value if you do a fair bit of travel, because you earn back 10% of the cost of each train, taxi, car hire, and flight booked via Uber as Uber Credits (confusingly, they’re called Travel Rewards when you earn them through travel, but they’re the same thing).

These credits are then usable on everything on Uber – trains, transport, and all food and grocery orders. Compare that with another loyalty scheme such as Nectar, which gives just 0.5p worth of points for every £1 spent (or 0.5%), and the difference is night and day (though of course Nectar is free to join).

Here’s a breakdown of how to amass Uber Credits (non-members get 5% instead):

• 10% Uber Credits back on Exec and Lux rides 

• 5% Uber Credits back on UberX, Comfort, and UberXL 

• 10% Uber credits back on trains and flights

• 10% Uber Credits back on Lime e-bikes and scooters 

• 10% Uber Credits back on car hire 

So between those, you need to spend £49 on travel each month to effectively make back that £4.99 monthly membership fee, which isn’t much for commuters.

Below you can see how much MSE Sam earned in Uber Credits in a little over a month of commuting between Leighton Buzzard and London, twice a week. If you commute every day or regularly use taxis (let alone flights), then your monthly Uber Credits could easily hit £50 or more.  

It’s worth noting, Uber’s flight and train finder is not always the cheapest. So it’s important to compare when looking for cheap flights or cheap train tickets.

When I compared train journeys on Uber and Trainline, they were usually similarly priced – give or take a few percent. However, Uber doesn’t always apply split-ticketing like Trainline does, which means some journeys can come to quite a bit more. One rush-hour journey from Bath Spa to London Paddington cost £128.50 on Uber, for example, while Trainline used Splitsave to make that same trip £83.50. 

When I looked for flights from London to Warsaw, I found prices were roughly the same on Uber as Skyscanner, varying by around 5-10% in either direction. Meanwhile, my partner was looking for flights to Toulouse, and the cheapest she found via Uber was around £1,000, simply because it didn’t include Easyjet in its search (which offered a flight for a mere £50).

Collect Avios points?

As a nice little bonus, you can link your British Airways Executive Club account to Uber, and collect one Avios for every £1 you spend on rides, trains, coaches and Eurostar (you don’t need Uber One for this). See our Avios guide for more ways to boost your Avios points.

Save big with voucher stacks on takeaways and groceries

Whether or not you’re an Uber One member, Uber Eats frequently features some heavyweight vouchers for both takeaways and grocery shopping. The saving-stacking potential is immense, far outweighing the markups for ordering groceries through Uber. It may even end up cheaper than going to the supermarket, with the added convenience on top (though do always check).

Offers I received recently include £12 off a £25 spend and 50% off grocery deliveries (up to £12). Stack these with deals offered by supermarkets, and you can grab some major bargains.

As an example, one lazy Sunday my partner and I ordered the following from the Sainsbury’s Local: 

• Two Pizza Express pizzas

• Pizza Express Dough Balls

• Two cans of Heinz Baked Beans

• One tub of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream

• Two 30-packs of bin liners 

This would’ve come to £31.51 – not very MoneySaving – but with the promo code, stacked with Sainsburys’ pizza deal (taking another £9 off), and free delivery via Uber One (£2 off), it came to a grand total of £8.51. 

Some stores will even match in-store prices on all or ‘select’ items (keep an eye out for the text, pictured above right). Others let you link your Uber account to their loyalty schemes, such as My Waitrose, and Co-op Membership (which now price-matches Aldi as one of its perks, so you’ll get Aldi-level prices on certain items before you apply those hefty 30-50ish% discounts). 

When you order, try to order from stores marked with the bronze Uber One logo – these places are eligible for the free deliveries (£15 minimum spend for food orders, £25 minimum spend on groceries).

Takeaways and groceries are often only good value with a promotion.

While you can grab a bargain using vouchers and Uber Credits, without them, ordering a takeaway directly via the restaurant will often work out cheaper. Some may also offer deals that don’t feature on Uber (and more money goes directly to the business, so it’s win-win).

For example, the same order at my local takeaway Tiffin Tin cost £38.50 to order directly, and £49.73 via Uber One (a 23% difference).

What to watch out for to ensure you max your savings

It may seem like Uber is practically throwing money at you (to spend via Uber, mind), but there are a few caveats: 

• Uber Credits can take up to 60 days to appear in your account. Importantly, you need to have an active Uber One subscription to receive and use them. This means Uber could keep you in the subscription for up to two months before you get your kickback.

  My experience, and that of my MSE colleagues, is that the credits do usually appear within a couple of days, but I’ve also some reports from customers of credits taking several weeks to appear. 

• The credits need to be used within 60 days after you receive them. As they’re automatically applied against every train, cab, takeaway, and grocery shop you order, it shouldn’t be a problem to spend them. If you don’t want to spend your Uber Credits automatically, you’ll need to manually disable them as a payment method every time.

• Keep track of the value and be prepared to jump ship when the numbers stop adding up in your favour. The biggest catch to all this is that the good times almost certainly won’t last forever. A membership of this value has ‘loss leader pricing’ written all over it, meaning that prices will almost certainly go up and/or the perks will go down as more and more people come to rely on it (Uber already has a track record using this strategy when it first started rolling out its Rides service). 

Is Uber One worth it?

While there are a few things to be wary of, Uber One is currently a bit of a steal for commuters, travellers, Disney+ subscribers, and shrewd grocery shoppers. Milk this deal for all it’s worth, but make sure you’re using it in a way that’s saving you money. A period of low usage combined with a subscription price hike or removal of a key perk – such as the Uber Credits kickback – could swiftly switch this deal into a MoneyWaster.

If you have experience with Uber One – good or bad – let us know in the forum. 

Regular cinema goer, or need a railcard? Monzo Perks may work out better for you

If you’re paying monthly for Uber One, it’s worth considering Monzo Perks for an extra £2/month. This bundles an annual Uber One subscription among several other benefits.

For £7/month, you get: 

• Uber One. Normally £4.99/month.

• Weekly Greggs freebie (sausage roll, hot drink, doughnut or muffin). Normally £1.30 to £1.80.

• Free cinema ticket at Vue each month. Normally £5 to £15 depending on location – see Cinema tips & tricks.

• One-year railcard (Network, 16-25, 36-30, Family & Friends, Two Together, Senior). Normally £35, though there are often deals – see Cheap train tickets.

• Instant Access Savings Pot. 3.5% at time of writing, higher than regular Monzo or Monzo Extra but can be beaten elsewhere – see Top savings accounts.

WARNING: If you get Uber One via a third party (such as Monzo Perks or Barclays), you’re not eligible for the free Disney+ subscription. You may also miss out on similar promotions in the future.

Let’s say you don’t take advantage of any of the Monzo perks apart from Uber One and the railcard (though who could turn their nose up at a Gregg’s sausage roll) – that effectively means you’re paying £24 for an annual railcard (a better price than you get with most Railcard codes) on top of a monthly Uber One subscription.