diff --git a/lib/vsc/utils/rest.py b/lib/vsc/utils/rest.py
index 78f853d6..fe01566f 100644
--- a/lib/vsc/utils/rest.py
+++ b/lib/vsc/utils/rest.py
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ class Client:
     USER_AGENT = 'vsc-rest-client'
 
     def __init__(self, url, username=None, password=None, token=None, token_type='Token', user_agent=None,
-                 append_slash=False):
+                 append_slash=False, decode=True):
         """
         Create a Client object,
         this client can consume a REST api hosted at host/endpoint
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ def __init__(self, url, username=None, password=None, token=None, token_type='To
         self.username = username
         self.url = url
         self.append_slash = append_slash
+        self.decode = decode
 
         if not user_agent:
             self.user_agent = self.USER_AGENT
@@ -193,9 +194,12 @@ def request(self, method, url, body, headers, content_type=None):
             else:
                 body = conn.read()
                 body = body.decode('utf-8')  # byte encoded response
-                try:
-                    pybody = json.loads(body)
-                except ValueError:
+                if self.decode:
+                    try:
+                        pybody = json.loads(body)
+                    except ValueError:
+                        pybody = body
+                else:
                     pybody = body
             logging.debug('reponse len: %s ', len(pybody))
             return status, pybody
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 956ef2af..1e90eafb 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
 from vsc.install.shared_setup import ag, kh, jt, sdw
 
 PACKAGE = {
-    'version': '3.5.10',
+    'version': '3.6.0',
     'author': [sdw, jt, ag, kh],
     'maintainer': [sdw, jt, ag, kh],
     'install_requires': [
diff --git a/test/rest.py b/test/rest.py
index 398b76c3..78a84873 100644
--- a/test/rest.py
+++ b/test/rest.py
@@ -134,3 +134,40 @@ def test_censor_request(self):
         nondict_payload = [payload, 'more_payload']
         payload_censored = client.censor_request(['password'], nondict_payload)
         self.assertEqual(payload_censored, nondict_payload)
+
+
+class RestClientNoDecodeTest(TestCase):
+    """ small test for The RestClient
+    This should not be to much, since there is an hourly limit of requests for the github api
+    """
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        """setup"""
+        super().setUp()
+        self.client = RestClient('https://api.github.com', username=GITHUB_LOGIN, token=GITHUB_TOKEN, decode=False)
+
+    def test_client(self):
+        """Do a test api call"""
+        if GITHUB_TOKEN is None:
+            print("Skipping test_client, since no GitHub token is available")
+            return
+
+        status, body = self.client.repos[GITHUB_USER][GITHUB_REPO].contents.a_directory['a_file.txt'].get()
+        self.assertEqual(status, 200)
+        # dGhpcyBpcyBhIGxpbmUgb2YgdGV4dAo= == 'this is a line of text' in base64 encoding
+        self.assertEqual(body['content'].strip(), "dGhpcyBpcyBhIGxpbmUgb2YgdGV4dAo=")
+
+        status, body = self.client.repos['hpcugent']['easybuild-framework'].pulls[1].get()
+        self.assertEqual(status, 200)
+        self.assertEqual(body['merge_commit_sha'], 'fba3e13815f3d2a9dfbd2f89f1cf678dd58bb1f1')
+
+    def test_get_method(self):
+        """A quick test of a GET to the github API"""
+
+        status, body = self.client.users['hpcugent'].get()
+        self.assertEqual(status, 200)
+        self.assertTrue('"login":"hpcugent"' in body)
+        self.assertTrue('"id":1515263' in body)
+
+
+