InstaVolt rewards can now be swapped for Virgin Points, one Volt for one point

InstaVolt drivers can now turn their charging rewards into Virgin Points. From 2 November 2026, Volts earned through the InstaVolt Miles programme in the InstaVolt app convert at one Volt to one Virgin Point, the company announced. Drivers earn 1 to 15 Volts per £1 spent, and each Volt is worth 1p if used as charging credit instead.

For a UK driver who uses InstaVolt, that means the rewards are worth between 1% and 15% of what you spend, depending on your tier. On a £30 rapid charge, that is 30p to £4.50. It is a useful discount at the top tier and a small one at the bottom, and whether Virgin Points are a better use than charging credit depends on what you would spend them on.

What has InstaVolt announced?

InstaVolt says Volts can be exchanged for Virgin Points at a rate of one to one, starting on 2 November. Virgin Points are the currency of Virgin Red, the Virgin Group’s rewards club. According to InstaVolt, they can be spent on Virgin Atlantic reward seats and upgrades, Virgin Voyages sailings, Virgin Hotels stays, Virgin Experience Days, cinema tickets and meals.

The rewards programme itself, InstaVolt Miles, launched in October, as the company had trailed in September. It is free, and InstaVolt says app users are enrolled automatically with no subscription or extra sign-up. Volts from InstaVolt’s earlier rewards scheme have moved across.

“We’re always looking for ways to give our customers more,” said Delvin Lane, InstaVolt’s chief executive, adding that with InstaVolt Miles “every charge earns them something back”. InstaVolt says its network has more than 4,000 chargers at 1,200 sites.

How do you earn Volts?

You earn Volts on charging paid for through the InstaVolt app. The InstaVolt Miles page lists four tiers:

Tier	Volts per £1	Value as charging credit	Back on a £30 charge
Starter	1	1%	30p
Bronze	5	5%	£1.50
Silver	10	10%	£3.00
Gold	15	15%	£4.50

Your tier is set by what you spent in the previous calendar month, and each tier lasts two months. Tiers are reviewed at the end of every month and can go up or down. InstaVolt has not published the spend needed for each tier. Its only example is that £30 of spending in October on the Starter tier moves a driver to Bronze for November and December. What it takes to reach Silver or Gold is not stated, so we cannot say how many drivers will earn the top rate.

Two limits matter. Charges made outside the app do not earn Volts or count towards your tier, so paying by contactless earns nothing. And Volts carried over from the old scheme can be spent or transferred but do not count as spending for tier progress.

What are the rewards worth per kWh?

This is where the headline rate becomes a real price. InstaVolt’s pricing terms, checked on 3 November 2026, give these standard rates:

• App and RFID users, peak (7am to 8pm): 92p per kWh
• App and RFID users, off-peak (8pm to 7am): 55p per kWh, for sessions started in those hours
• Contactless, roaming and fleet accounts: 92p per kWh at all times

InstaVolt says Volts are earned at the same rate per £1 off-peak as at other times. Taking each Volt at its 1p charging credit value, the effective price per kWh looks like this:

Tier	Reward per kWh at 55p	Effective off-peak price	Reward per kWh at 92p	Effective peak price
Starter (1%)	0.55p	54.45p	0.92p	91.08p
Bronze (5%)	2.75p	52.25p	4.6p	87.4p
Silver (10%)	5.5p	49.5p	9.2p	82.8p
Gold (15%)	8.25p	46.75p	13.8p	78.2p

These are our calculations from InstaVolt’s published rates and assume the Volts are used as charging credit at 1p each. They are not prices InstaVolt charges: you pay the full rate at the charger and get the reward back later as credit or points.

The biggest saving here is not the rewards. Charging off-peak in the app at 55p rather than at the 92p peak or contactless rate saves 37p per kWh, more than four times the 8.25p Gold tier reward on an off-peak charge. If you can time your stops for after 8pm, do that first.

How does InstaVolt compare with the UK average?

Zapmap’s Charging Price Index puts the average pay as you go price for rapid and ultra-rapid charging at 79p per kWh in September 2026. Against that:

• InstaVolt off-peak at 55p is 24p per kWh below the average before any rewards.
• InstaVolt peak at 92p is 13p above the average. Only at the Gold tier, at an effective 78.2p, does it come in just under it.

So for daytime charging, the rewards narrow InstaVolt’s gap to the average rather than make it cheap. Our guide to UK public charging costs and our ranking of UK charging networks show how other networks price their sessions, and our head to head comparisons of Tesla Supercharger and InstaVolt and Gridserve and InstaVolt go into more detail. Prices change often, so check each network’s app before you set off.

What does it mean on a real charge?

Take a 40kWh top-up, which is roughly a 10% to 80% charge on a car with a battery of about 57kWh usable.

• Off-peak at 55p: the charge costs £22. Starter earns about 22 Volts (22p); Gold earns about 330 Volts (£3.30).
• Peak at 92p: the charge costs £36.80. Starter earns about 37 Volts (37p); Gold earns about 552 Volts (£5.52).

InstaVolt does not say how part pounds are rounded, so treat these as approximate.

Over a year, the totals depend heavily on your tier. As an illustration, a driver who covers 4,000 miles a year on InstaVolt off-peak, in a car averaging 3.5 miles per kWh, would use about 1,143kWh and spend about £629. At Starter, that earns about £6.29 of rewards; at Gold, about £94. The cost per mile drops from about 15.7p to about 13.4p at Gold. Since the tier depends on the previous month’s spend and the thresholds are not published, a low or irregular user should expect the lower end.

For comparison, home charging on the October price cap costs 26.32p per kWh, as we covered in our Ofgem price cap report, and an off-peak EV tariff is cheaper still. No public rewards scheme closes that gap.

Are Virgin Points worth more than charging credit?

Not always. Converting is one to one, so turning a Volt into a Virgin Point means giving up 1p of charging credit for one point. Whether that is a good swap depends on what a Virgin Point gets you.

The points site Head for Points says that “the vast majority” of Virgin Red rewards, such as gift cards and train tickets, return about 0.5p per Virgin Point, according to its guide to non-flying uses. In its report on the InstaVolt deal, it notes that converting means effectively paying 1p per point, and says it generally values airline miles at 1p or more when used for premium cabin flights.

In practice:

• If you would spend points on gift cards or everyday rewards, 450 Volts are worth £4.50 as charging credit but about £2.25 as Virgin Points at 0.5p each. Keep the credit.
• If you are saving for Virgin Atlantic flights or upgrades, especially in premium cabins, the points can be worth as much as the credit or more, and InstaVolt adds a new way to build a balance.
• If you already collect Virgin Points, topping up a balance you will use for a flight can make sense. Starting from scratch on InstaVolt alone will take a long time at the lower tiers.

How do you transfer Volts to Virgin Points?

InstaVolt says you need a free Virgin Red account. You can join through the Virgin Red app on the Apple App Store or Google Play, or on the Virgin Red website, then follow the on-screen instructions in the InstaVolt app to make the transfer. If you cannot use the app, InstaVolt says you can contact its support team, which is listed as available 24 hours a day on 0808 281 4444.

Your InstaVolt app dashboard shows your current tier, your monthly spend, progress to the next tier and your rewards history. Volts can also be turned into charging credit there and used against your next charge. InstaVolt’s programme page does not give an expiry date for Volts, and the use of Virgin Points is subject to Virgin Red’s own terms.

Who should use the InstaVolt app?

If you charge at InstaVolt more than occasionally, paying through the app is the clear choice. It unlocks the 55p off-peak rate and earns Volts, while contactless costs 92p at all hours and earns nothing. Drivers of older cars should also note InstaVolt’s commitment to keep CHAdeMO at every site. For a fuller guide to the network itself, see the InstaVolt network guide on Best Chargers, and for paid memberships at other networks, our guide to EV charging subscriptions.

Our view

InstaVolt Miles is a free discount of 1% to 15% for app users, and the Virgin Points option adds choice rather than value for most people. At 1p a Volt as credit and about 0.5p a point on most Virgin Red rewards, charging credit is usually the better use unless you are saving for flights. The real saving at InstaVolt is still timing: an app session started after 8pm costs 55p per kWh, against 92p during the day. Until InstaVolt publishes what it takes to reach each tier, plan on the lower rates and treat anything more as a bonus.