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If you’re like me, your wallet or purse is probably bursting at the seams with loyalty cards. It’s all well and good to be able to collect points at every opportunity, but at the end of the day, can your loyalty come at a price? Here’s the low-down on loyalty cards and how to get the best out of them!
Retailers will use every trick in the book to keep hold of their customers and avoid them switching to competitors. Loyalty cards are one of retailer’s best incentives, as customers feel rewarded for the loyalty by being given points to spend in that store.
Companies will use loyalty points as a way to encourage their customers to shop when they don’t need to. You should avoid going to the shop simply to get the points as it will ultimately cost you money.
It’s not a good idea to be loyal to stores, as overall it can work out more expensive. This is one example:
Rachael chooses to drive 5 miles to a shop because she likes to collect her loyalty points and spends £20, this earns her 10 points. The 20 points are equal to 20p off, meaning she spent £19.80.
Whereas Charlie walks to a local store without a loyalty scheme and spends £19.80 on the same items.
Because Rachael drove all the way to the shop, meaning she spent money on the fuel to get there, she has, in fact, spent more overall.
The takeaway is that you shouldn’t shop in places based on loyalty points. But if you do happen to shop there, always remember to use a loyalty card!
Working out where to get each individual item at the cheapest price would take far too much time. Fortunately, mySupermarket is a website used to compare the prices of your shopping lists is here to aid you!
You can add all your weekly groceries to the list and it will compare your shopping basket with the competitors to show you which one is the cheapest. It will also reveal how much delivery would be and how many loyalty points you could earn. Neat!
Find out more ways to save on food shopping here!
Many of the most popular cards have deals with other companies to collect points on purchases, so there are ways to rack up points based on your spending habits. For example, the Tesco Clubcard can be used when purchasing fuel at Esso garages, and Nectar Points can be used in various places from BP to Argos.
You can also use your loyalty points at some of the partnering companies as a reward. The Tesco Reward Partners allows you to use your points vouchers to go further. You can get £10 to spend at Pizza Express for just £2.50 worth of vouchers.
It’s not very convenient to have to flick through the twenty-odd loyalty cards you use once a year to find the right one. Luckily there are a variety of free apps that allow you to keep a digital copy of your cards on your phone.
Our favourite is Stocard, which allows you to scan the barcode of each of your cards which you can then use at the till. The app also shows your deals and offers that are on offer for the cards that you have.
Stocard is available on iOS and Android.
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