A big Advantage! (Boots Advantage Card)

Member Name: emmakate06

Product:	Boots Advantage Card
Date:	12/07/09 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, free to join

Disadvantages: Cannot spend points online

I have had a Boots Advantage Card now for the past ten years. I first started using it whilst I was in school and would save my points up throughout the year and then use the points that I had saved to purchase small presents for my friends at Christmas. Now my spending habits have changed such as buying nappies and baby milk instead of make up and treats for myself my expenditure at Boots has increased some what and as a result so have my points. Last Christmas I had £150 in points on my card which allowed me to purchase a large amount of my childrens Christmas presents as I was also able to take advantage of their annual 3 for 2 offer.

You can apply for your card instore and post it in one of the boxes which they usually have around the store somewhere. I am unsure if you can apply online as I have not had the need to do this. It is free to join and is a well established reward scheme to help you earn points to spend on the majority of items instore, although some exclusions do apply.

Now some people would say that technically your not actually saving money but more of your getting back what you overspent, given the fact that Boots are more often than not dearer than your local supermarket in respect of baby goods and health and beauty, and whilst this may be the case the differences are small eg: Hipp Organic Baby Food in Asda 57p in Boots 64p. These differences are small enough for me not to notice too much at the time, but still big enough to help me have a nice amount to spend around Christmas time.

So how many points can you get? Well the standard rate is 4 points to the pound. However, there are often promotional weekends where you can get triple points and also numerous offers throughout the year to get extra points. For example buy 3 items of No 7 Make Up and get 200 points extra free. Taking advantage of these types of offers can help build your points up very quickly and there are often numerous online offers also such as an extra 500 points if you spend over £50, so it is definitely worth looking out for these when possible. To help you do this, your first port of call when you enter a Boots store should be the Advantage Card Kiosk. This will provide you with details of any offers available to you and you can print out a slip to help you redeem your chosen offer. At the kiosk, you can also check your points balance, update your preferences, join the parenting club and enter competitions. Also if you purchase something online, the kiosk is where you need to go to collect your points.

The card itself is credit card size and has the boots logo across the front. It has a small chip which holds your data. There are quite robust and have a good longevity as I still have the same card that I was issued ten years ago and it is only now that it is starting to show signs of wear and tear.

Another advantage of this card, is that should you happen to go to Boots and forget your Advantage card, you can ask the person on the till to state the amount of points you would have recieved at the bottom of your reciept and validate them. This means that when you return to the store in the future, you can have your points added to your balance at a later date.

Given all is advantages, and the amount of time that this card has been around, I do find it very surprising that you are unable to spend your points online. I would have though that this would have been something that Boots would implement but so far this would appear not to be the case. In addition to this any purchases which you make online do not automatically add points to your card. Instead they are held, until you collect them from an Advantage Card kiosk and update them onto your card. I find this a bit of an inconvenience as I much prefer to shop online than go to the store, but this kind of defeats the point of online shopping as you still have to go to a store anyway to claim your points. This is sometimes difficult for me as the Boots in my town does not have a kiosk and so I have to travel 7 miles just to get my points. Very awkward!

Overall though, despite its two small inconveniences, I find the Boots Advantage Card to be a great rewards programme and one which I shall continue to be a part of for years to come.

Summary: Fantastic points reward scheme