Don't go out of your way for Nectar (Nectar Card)

Member Name: BumpyBump

Product:	Nectar Card
Date:	30/10/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You can earn points from a variety of retailers

Disadvantages: The points-for-pounds return is pretty rubbish

Nectar is the loyalty card for Sainsbury's, BP and Homebase combined (think they also accept it in for Debenhams as well). You get 2 points for every full £1 you spend, which is quite poor when you consider that it's half what you get with a Boots Advantage Card. You have to save the points up and then you can claim money off vouchers - you need 500 points for every £2.50 voucher so you could say that every point you earn is worth 0.5 pence. This is really not great, but the way I see it is that if you're shopping in Sainsbury's anyway, which lots of us do, then why not take advantage of their reward scheme?

The vouchers available can vary, although they usually consist of mony-off vouchers for Sainsbury's or some kind of voucher for a tourist attraction (Madame Tussaud's etc). I personally always opt for the Sainsbury's voucher as then it's like getting free food! One other way you can claim money off your Sainsbury's shop is to get the cashier to take the points directly from your card, however you do need to register yourself on the website for that particular branch. So, in short, you can only do that in your 'home' branch and not just any old branch of Sainsbury's that you happen to be shopping in. This is all terribly inconvenient as far as I'm concerned, so I always choose the vouchers which get sent to your home, and they just get scanned when shopping so the money gets deducted automatically.

Sainsbury's have also introduced a scheme whereby you get an extra Nectar point for every bag you re-use, although sometimes you do have to request this as the staff don't always automatically give it to you. It will show on your receipt if you have been awarded any extra points for bag reusing.

It could take a fair old while to really accumulate a decent amount of points with Nectar, but I suppose it does largely depend on how much shopping you do at Sainsbury's, Homebase and BP. I only spend about £50 a week so my points accumuate really slowly. But if you can save them up and are prepared to wait for a few years then you might be able to get a hefty sum together. I saved mine up for about 4 years and then claimed £60 of shopping on one go. That was great for a hard-up month.

All in all though, it's a pretty rubbish scheme purely for the pathetic number of points you are given, but probably worthwhile doing if you're shopping there anyway. I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to clock up Nectar points though.

Summary: Certainly not the best reward scheme around, by any means