More points = More treats for me! (Boots Advantage Card)

Member Name: KLockwood75

Product:	Boots Advantage Card
Date:	07/04/09 (422 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Generous points per £1, lots of offers, points add up quickly

Disadvantages: Tracking of personal data, more expensive in Boots than elsewhere

The Boots Advantage Card is one of the most popular store loyalty card schemes. It claims to be the most generous, offering 4 points for every £1 spent either in store or on their website, www.boots.com and I think this is the major reason for it's popularity. After all, getting what is essentially 4% cash back on every purchase has got to be a good deal, and if you shop in Boots as much as I do, those points soon add up. I average about £60 worth of points every year, sometimes more, which I either use to treat myself to beauty products which wouldn't necessarily fit in with my budget (which usually involves a trip to the Benefit counter), or I put them towards my Christmas shopping. Last year I used £40 of points on the 3 for 2 Christmas offer, which saved me a fortune.

* How do I get one? *
Applying for a Boots Advantage Card is a simple process. You can usually pick up a form in the store which you can then fill in, send off and you should receive your Advantage Card within a couple of weeks. Alternatively, you can apply online by going to www.boots.com and clicking on 'Advantage Card' in the top right hand corner of the web page. This will take you into a section dedicated to the Advantage Card and you can apply through this. If you apply in-store, you will usually be given a temporary paper card which you can use until your permanent card arrives.

** Earning Points **
You can collect 4 points for every £1 you spend on almost everything in store and at www.boots.com <http://www.boots.com> . Boots have increased the range of products on which you can earn points in recent years - when I first got my Advantage Card there were more restrictions on which items earned you points, such as over-the-counter medicines didn't qualify, but now very little is excluded. There are also regular double and triple points events - these tend to run over a weekend and are great for boosting your points balance quickly. Sometimes I try to save my bigger purchases for these weekends as getting 12 points for every £1 is great.

** Additional Offers **

Health and Parenting Clubs - I joined the Boots Parenting Club when pregnant with my son, and this was great for earning extra points and getting money-off coupons. They sent mailings every few months with a little magazine about your child's developmental stage and points coupons tailored to that stage of their development - i.e. bonus points on nappies, wipes, baby bath products, jars of baby food etc. I have also signed up to the Health Club which gives you extra points on a range of health-related products but have not found this so beneficial - probably because the products on offer aren't actually the ones I buy.

Meal Deals - The Boots Meal Deal is available to everyone, whether you have an advantage card or not. However, if you have an advantage card and buy this meal deal regularly, the sixth meal in each calendar month would be free. I haven't bought the meal deal often enough to qualify for this (as I usually bring my lunch to work with me in an attempt to save a bit of money), but it's a good incentive if you are a regular purchaser of this deal.

Health & Beauty magazine- These are available in store 6 times a year. It is free to Advantage Card holders and I think it is a good read for a freebie magazine, containing lots of health and beauty tips.

Personalised Mailings - Every couple of months, I get a mailer from Boots with additional points coupons. These usually include a double-points coupon, a bonus points on a minimum spend coupon (these are usually about an extra 250 points if you spend £30 or £40) and several other coupons for either bonus points or cheaper items which are tailored towards your shopping habits. My last set of vouchers had a mascara for £1 offer (unfortunately, I'd bought the mascara before and didn't actually like it much) and a coupons for extra points on cosmetics and photo products. You also get invites to customer events such as the Christmas shopping evenings through these mailers.

Advantage Card Extra Offers Kiosk - The larger Boots stores have an extra offers kiosk where you can insert your Advantage Card to get the latest offers. Yesterday the one in my local store gave me an extra 1000 points (£10) as part of a competition they are running where they randomly give out bonus points to selected card holders - if you have an Advantage Card and haven't put it in the kiosk recently, might be worth giving it a go! They are also offering a free highlighter with No. 7 purchases, although typically my store didn't have these in yesterday. You can usually get a bonus points on spends over £30 coupon from this machine which is useful if you're doing a big shop, and they also do extra points on specific items. You can also use the machine to check out any special offers which are running in the store that week, such as 3 for 2 or buy one get one free.

** Spending Your Points **
You can spend your points on virtually anything in-store, including things that are in special offer promotions. For example, if there is a 3 for 2 on Soap and Glory products, you could buy 2 with your points and still get the third one free. As already mentioned, I mostly use them for luxurious little treats for myself (mostly beauty products as these are my biggest weakness) or to put towards the Christmas shopping, but I've also been known to buy my lunch with them if I'm running short of cash at the end of the month. To spend your points, you simply need to hand your card in at the counter and ask to pay with points. The only downside is that you have to have enough points to pay for the whole cost of your product - if it costs £7.50 and you've only got £7 worth of points then you can't just put the points towards it. You can, however, buy one product with points and pay for the rest of your shop in cash. I think the range of products that you can spend your points on is great, especially in the larger stores and I think that is probably why I love my Advantage Card so much.

** Disadvantages **
There are two disadvantages to the Boots Advantage Card in my opinion. The first is that they use the data received through the card to track your shopping habits - this is obvious by the personalised nature of their mail-outs. To be honest, this doesn't really bother me but to some people it may feel like an invasion of privacy. The other is that is encourages you to be loyal to a store which doesn't always have the lowest prices - in my case, it is more convenient for me to shop at Boots rather than cheaper stores and I don't mind paying a premium for that convenience, but I do think it is usually better to shop around. I am increasingly putting things I would normally have bought at Boots into my trolley at Tesco to save a bit more money.

** Overall Opinion **
I love my Boots Advantage Card and I make a reasonable amount of money from it. I like the fact I can spent the points I earn on treats for myself without feeling guilty, or save them up to make a dent into the cost of my Christmas shopping. I like trying out new products as suggested by the coupons I receive, or from the extra offers kiosk - sometimes that means I discover something new that I really love, just because I'm tempted by the extra points. The personal data issues don't really bother me - I think there is so much of it going on that it's just part of modern life these days. If you haven't got an Advantage Card already, and shop in Boots even occasionally, then I think it's worth getting one - it really doesn't take long for your points to add up to an amount which means you can treat yourself, and we all need little treats sometimes.

Summary: I love my Advantage Card and I definitely recommend it