loyalty cards and discounts.

Special offers etc. you've come across out & about or online
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saint-spoon
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loyalty cards and discounts.

Post by saint-spoon »

I know that much of the loyalty card thing is to encourage you to shop exclusively in one outlet but I visit different places for different things. Anyway I have wate-rose, pestcos and son-o-morris loyalty cards. The Son-o-mo seems to be the best at the moment for sending me money off vouchers for stuff that I want to buy, not only do they periodically give me a voucher for five quid off but I get a bunch of money off vouchers each month for useful things such as a bottle of wine. 70p might only be 70p but it is 70p off something that I just might be buying for the full price. I am not one for spending £100 to get extra points or buying something that I wouldn’t normally buy because I have money off but who am I to look a 70p gift horse in the mouth?
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Mo
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Post by Mo »

The Sains card is less useful than it was. They keep sending vouchers that are only any use for someone who spends more than I do.
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HedgeHugger
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Post by HedgeHugger »

I had a Morrrisons card, but when I went to use it, they said it'd been deactivated and no longer valid, so as I rarely shop there no point in restarting one.
I've had a Tescl one for years. Used to be able to get a fair few points on it, spending very little money there, but no points bargains to be had anymore. I probably spend less than £100 a year there!
They also don't send me any money off vouchers anymore, and the ones they used to send weren't great and rarely got used (probably why they stopped sending full stop).

As for the Nectar one, it gathers more points on Ebay rather than the supermarket, and that's still not many.

Cards and points are useful if they give they something back, but on the whole I save more money by not shopping at the shops that provide. Loyal to none, but the purse :)
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Meanqueen
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Post by Meanqueen »

I had a phone call last week from the Rip off Britain researchers, they are considering doing a feature on loyalty cards and asked my opinion on them.

My stance is that they are only given out to encourage more spending and increase their sales. I don't have any because I have no loyalty to any particular shop.

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lancashire lass
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Post by lancashire lass »

I have a Nectar card and a Tesco Clubcard - I can assure you that I most certainly do not go out of my way to get points, in fact, there's many a time I've put my shopping through the till and then been asked about my card which I'd forgotten about, so the notion that they might make me spend more is nonsense.

Many (many, many) years ago I used to buy the £1 stamps for the Christmas Saver scheme (most big supermarkets had one) which ran throughout the year and it was a brilliant way of saving up for Christmas and one year, the bonus was more generous than the interest from a high interest bank account. I used it mainly for the grocery / food shop for the family dinner rather than presents but it was up to you what you spent it on. As I always used to spend Christmas with my mother who did not have a great pension, I would use the saver as my way of stocking up her kitchen cupboard as well. But then Tescos changed the saver scheme and now you put money on the Clubcard instead ... even if I don't put extra money in or spend much at the supermarket throughout the year, there's always something that arrives in November (with a number of tempting vouchers as well)

On another note, we used to have a mini-Sainsbury's down the road from my house which is how I ended up with the Nectar card. It wasn't my main supermarket but just handy for the odd thing (loaf of bread, painkillers) on the way home from work, and it surprised me how quickly the points added up. Like HedgeHugger, since the mini-supermarket has gone, it now gains more points on ebay and my gas / electricity supplier and I've got about £14 built up on it ... for someone who doesn't go out of the way to build up points on the loyalty card, I think I do alright.

As for loyalty to a particular shop - I'm lucky in that there are a number of big supermarkets within driving distance in my car, but without that transport, I'd have to shop locally which happens to be a Co-Op (bigger than the mini supermarket, but small by usual standards) If I found that I had no choice and was stuck with just that one local supermarket, then using a loyalty card makes sense.
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kitla
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Post by kitla »

loyalty is not the only purpose of these cards, the supermarkets get valuable marketing information from them. I have tons of them, they dont make me loyal, I shop wherever is handy or where the best deals are, but I'm not going to turn down free stuff - which I get from all those points. I only wish some clever person could come up with a way of merging them all onto one card to carry around.
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KarenE
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Post by KarenE »

I used to work for Safeway Stores. They are charmingly called loyalty cards but aren't about loyalty at all. They are marketing tools, pure & simple, used to better understand shopping habits, to check the effectiveness of targeted promotions and to increase average basket spend. And to try and encourage repeat business to one particular store chain. they aren't really designed for customers: they are very much tools for the retailer.

That said, if you get some small benefit from a place you'd shop at anyway, why not?
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Mo
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Post by Mo »

My nearest (1.5 mile away) shop is Co-op. I went for ages meaning to get a card. Only buy bits and pieces there but it is good for some things. I like their Organic Cheddar, and they usually have a good price on organic milk (4 pints - 2fer £3).
When I finally got the card I was pleased. 5p /£ spent (+ 1p for a local charity), so far better than the 1p or half p of the big cards. The card for Texaco petrol is better than the Shell card too (and the price better), but there is an independent filling station that I pass regularly with a better price if I remember to go early enough (shut by the time I come home).

hard work being a savvy shopper.
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Post by Gwenoakes »

I am not 'loyal' to any supermarket or shop for that matter. I go where the prices are the best and use cards if those places have given me one.
I like the Co-op card for the same reason as mentioned above the % given to the local area.
We like a specific brand of tea and I will not and I mean not buy it when it is not on offer. I sometimes wait for weeks and get nearly to the point of running out, but eventually it comes on offer and then I buy several packets.
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saint-spoon
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Post by saint-spoon »

KarenE wrote:I used to work for Safeway Stores. They are charmingly called loyalty cards but aren't about loyalty at all. They are marketing tools, pure & simple, used to better understand shopping habits, to check the effectiveness of targeted promotions and to increase average basket spend. And to try and encourage repeat business to one particular store chain. they aren't really designed for customers: they are very much tools for the retailer.

That said, if you get some small benefit from a place you'd shop at anyway, why not?



why not indeed, 70p off any bottle of wine is 70p off, and I would think that it is pretty much a certainty that I will be purchasing a bottle of wine within the two week window in which the voucher is valid.
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Post by wildlifemad »

I had some Tesco clubcard vouchers arrive the other day but they are £6 off when you spend £60 which is a lot to spend when there are 2 of you,although I do Mum in laws shop as well once a fortnight she doesn't have much as I make all her meals for her! The only thing I may do today as the 1st voucher is £9 off £60 is perhaps get hubby a nice bottle of single malt but only if its on offer to start with so it will be a very good price then! I am not loyal to any supermarket, we grow most of our own veg, I try to go to the farm shop for meat & if I buy meat from the supermarket its usually Aldi as they seem to have the most British meat & if it isn't British it doesn't go in my trolley! I also have a Nectar card which we get points on from our gas/electric bill but is useless now as we don't have a Sainsburys anywhere near & the Homebase shut last year!
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lancashire lass
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Re: loyalty cards and discounts.

Post by lancashire lass »

wildlifemad wrote:but they are £6 off when you spend £60 which is a lot to spend when there are 2 of you


I usually ignore "bargains" where you need to spend a lot of money to receive that bit off, but in this case - £6 is 10% off a £60 shop. I think I might be tempted and use it to perhaps bulk up on things I regularly use but only occasionally buy (doesn't have to be food - can be cleaning products like soap powder, toilet paper etc) rather than splash out on something I wouldn't normally get. You do have to watch out because before long, another voucher lands on the doorstep ... as pointed out in other posts, it's a crafty way to get people to spend more but with a bit of clever shopping (change your shopping habit so that you aren't spending any more than usual), I think you could use it to your advantage
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KathJ
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Re: loyalty cards and discounts.

Post by KathJ »

I have a few loyalty cards. The Tesco one used to be really good especially when they have the points boost thing on and I've made quite a few purchases using my points, especially Christmas presents and a fridge freezer. The problem now is that they've started to sell a lot more things by other suppliers on Tesco Direct and you can't use your points then which is a bit of a con I think +f+
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Mad Chick
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Post by Mad Chick »

Money off of a bottle of wine????
How the devil did you get that? I only ever seem to get vouchers for washing powder or cat food )gr:
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Post by Meanqueen »

I went to a WI meeting last week near Lincoln. The speaker was Jordon Cox, some of you may remember him as the Coupon Kid, he was in the press a few years back because he does all his mums shopping using money off coupons. He also found it was cheaper to travel from Sheffield to Brentwood via flying to Germany, than a direct train. Rail tickets being so expensive if you don't book in advance.

He is now 20, and works for Money Saving Expert, Martin Lewis gave him a job.

His presentation was well received, though I think some of it might have been a bit baffling for some. It was a large audience, most were in the 40 - 65 age group. He talked about where to get the coupons, a computer and printer is needed, the whole searching for them seems to take a lot of effort.

I cant help thinking that the coupon thing, the cashback sites, and the apps, are all marketing tools to get the consumer to spend more. Maybe the younger generation are being drawn into thinking they are getting something cheap, when in fact they are being enticed to spend more money than they have got. I will stick to my old fashioned money saving ways. He's a smashing lad by the way, he will go far.

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