The Bitter Taste of Nectar (Nectar Card)

Member Name: utero

Product:	Nectar Card
Date:	24/02/06 (1463 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Get a little back from Sainsburys

Disadvantages: You'd have to spend a fortune to get anything decent

Apparently rewards taste sweeter with Nectar, so say the adverts anyway.

Nectar is a rewards scheme that gives you points when you make purchases at various retailers. These points can then be exchanged for a range of products in the Nectar catalogue as well as money off.

The scheme works in two ways. When you sign up they send you a card that you can use in stores such as Sainsbury’s. The alternative is using the links on the Nectar website for online retailers such as Amazon.

In the grand scheme of reward schemes Nectar is pretty deceptive. Let’s get one thing straight; this is far from the best rewards scheme out there. Take a look at the rewards catalogue on the nectar website and you’ll soon realize it’ll be a long time before you get that DAB radio you’ve had your eyes on. In fact you’d have to spend about £9000 in Sainsbury’s to get that radio. Now you may say that you’d eventually spend that in Sainsburys and essentially you’ll be getting something back. Well by the time you achieve that points total DAB radios will probably have been phased out.

The only worthwhile reward I can see on the site is getting £2.50 off at Sainsbury’s and Argos for 500 points. Nothing special I know but hey every little helps. For that £2.50 you only have to spend £250 in store! Well hurrah, I’m getting a great reward.

In comparison to online reward sites such as Rpoints, nectar is frankly poor and pretty unrewarding. The only reason I use the scheme is to eventually get something back when I fill up my car at a Sainsbury’s petrol stations.

Online, the website is well designed and you can find out all about the fantastic rewards in a number of categories. You can view your account online but the annoying thing is that there is no cookie on the site to remember you card number. This means you have to have your wallet nearby every time. In favour of Nectar I will say that points from transactions usually show up within 24 hours.

There are a number of online retailers you can earn points from. Major retailers such as Amazon, Cdwow, Ebay, Dixons are all one there but my advice is not to go doen the Nectar route if making purchases. Go through Rpoints instead, the rewards are far better. For example-

750 Nectar points for taking out a car insurance policy at Direct Line. (worth £3.25)

Take out the same policy through Rpoints and you’ll get a £10 rebate that you can exchange for vouchers or even cash.

2 Nectar points per £1 spent at Cdwow, 3% cashback at rpoints.

There are many more examples I could give, needless to say sign up for Nectar if you get petrol & shopping from Sainsburys. You may as well get something extra. For online shopping avoid as you’ll probably never get anything decent from it unless you spend a hell of a lot of money.

And if you do that then you can probably afford to go out and get that DAB radio without having to resort to Nectar.

-Useful Links-

http://www.nectar.com

http://www.rpoints.com/?ruid=24465

Summary: The rewards scheme with rewards that are pretty much out of reach