They say nothing comes for free, but here it actually does! (Boots Advantage Card)

Member Name: bkecky

Product:	Boots Advantage Card
Date:	01/07/09 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 4p for every £1, free, free magazine and offers

Disadvantages: Exceptions as to where you can recieve your points, can't spend online

A Boots Advantage Card is a loyalty card to Boots pharmacy and is a way to accumulate points from the purchases you make in store. I have had one of these cards for years and compared to other loyalty cards they are actually quite generous.

Every £1.00 you spend in store you will receive 4 points in return, which means you get £0.04 for every pound you spend. It doesn't sound a lot but it does accumulate quite quickly if you spend a lot in Boots and shop regularly. You can use the points on anything you want and often there are special offers to gain extra points when you buy certain things. This is useful if you usually buy the things but actually I believe it is a clever ploy just to get you to spend more money buying something you don't need!

You can also collect points online with your card (although you cannot spend them online) but on prescriptions, the opticians and supposedly gift vouchers you can't. However whether this is a new thing regarding gift vouchers I am not sure because I have collected them before on them. I have also used my points at the airport and train station, which I have been unable to do with the WHSmith clubcard and this makes me feel a bit more positive that they do want to give something back to loyal customers.

One of the issues I had was that I couldn't use my card in Ireland, only to collect points but not spend them. I was confused by this as it is the same chain, although a different country but I imagine it was probably something to do with the exchange rate.

One of the most impressive things about the card was that I received it within a few of days of applying. Ok this was a few years ago but still it arrived promptly although due to increasing demand this may have changed. They promise that it will arrive in 2-3 weeks. Yet they still allow you to collect points on a temporary card and account, which will be later transferred so you can start collecting points straight away.

There is also a magazine for advantage card customers and if you use it regularly they also send you offers through the post, which are particularly useful around Christmas time. These include extra points vouchers and buy one get one frees and so forth.

Upon applying you also get the option to join the Health Club for over 60s or the Parenting Club (although I can't comment on these due to be under 60 and childless!) and also to become an organ donor. This I feel is a great scheme and encourages people who never considered or took the effort to be organ donors to register.

I have also had the Boots staff give me a voucher for an item I had already purchased and then say put it through separately straight away to get the offer. Gives the impression of really wanting to give you something back.

I feel it is a worthwhile card to have and even if you don't have tens of pounds on your card eventually you can build it up to have a free meal deal or something. It is worth having just to get something back even if you don't use it very often. the points don't expire and I have found that at Christmas I have had enough for more than a couple of meal deals. Definitely a worthwhile card that I will continue to use and definitely enourages my custom, being more generous than most. And best of all it's free!

Summary: You may as well get one even if you don't shop there often.