Sell your loyalty to the highest bidder! (Tesco Clubcard)

Member Name: jasminesarah

Product:	Tesco Clubcard
Date:	23/01/09 (491 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A stack of free stuff throughout the year

Disadvantages: You may feel like a slave to the capitalist machine, man

I am a Tesco fan. That's not to say that I don't think that they are a huge, faceless, evil, multinational company with dubious morals and methods. I do, and they are. Still, there is a lot of it about, and it is very difficult to avoid purchasing from such companies especially if, like me, you have kids to feed and clothe and not much in the way of means to do so. For me, this means that whilst I'd love to shop locally and ethically (and do, from time to time) I know that a supermarket is going to feature. My choice of supermarket has been based on the loyalty scheme - well, that worked for them then, didn't it?!

I've collected Tesco loyalty points since they started the scheme, the idea of something for nothing, or next to nothing, is always going to appeal to me. At the time i was also a huge Boots Advantage card fan, (especially in the early days before they realised that it wasn't good to let people combine vouchers on the same purchase...) but without a baby to buy for anymore Boots has lost its appeal somewhat for me. Initially I had concerns that this was the start of a Big Brother style monitoring system, and that I would be bombarded with advertising - but no, this is not the case. I'm sure that the statistics are used to monitor sales, but I don't have a huge problem with that. I can report that I am not targeted with unwanted advertising, and my personal details have not been sold to other companies. For me there has really only been the positive outcome that I told Tesco that we're vegetarian and now they send me coupons off Quorn and veg instead of meat!

I'm not complacent about the amount of information that Tesco have, and could use, but at the moment I can't help thinking that they could use it a lot more than they actually do (maybe I should ask for a job in Marketing...) and it does make me laugh that some of the people who talk about Big Brother in the supermarket context are the same people who are glibly telling Facebook all their favourite products and where they hang out and who they know, and what they aspire to and what they're saving up for, and on and on and on - and not getting any reward for it, whatsoever! My theory is that Tesco can know a bit about me, for a price.

Last year, the price that I charged Tesco for the privilege of knowing that, ideally, I like to buy organic carrots, and I do like a drop of red wine at the weekend, amounted to the cost of a week's stay in the South of France for my children and I, as well as £300 odd of restaurant meals and trip to Longleat for four people (ticket price £69). Alright, so it was only a caravan-y thing in France - but it would have cost about £400 if I had used cash.

When the Clubcard scheme started, before the 'Deals' really got off the ground, I used to spend my Tesco points on shopping, and many people still do. There is a certain thrill in doing this, especially if you save them up and get a big stack of (for example) Christmas food for free! For some people, this is the best way of spending the vouchers, but most people would be better off looking at the available Deals.

Unlike Sainsbury's, who have a catalogue of (to me) pretty undesirable objects at inflated prices, Tesco offers some really great deals, on a huge range of different products and experiences. The important thing here being that your Tesco Clubcard vouchers are worth four times their face value if exchanged for a Deal Voucher. Arguably, a lot of the available Deals focus on families, the days out for example, but with options including restaurants, RAC membership, magasine subscriptions and Airmiles, I would suggest that there should be something there for almost everyone.

Some people don't bother to collect Clubcard points because they feel that they'll never build up enough for anything worthwhile. Vouchers are valid for 2 years, so there is time to save. For a modest household, spending perhaps £250 a month on groceries, the number of points collected in a year would be 3000 - £30 off your shopping (1%) or £120 of Clubcard Deals. Use a Tesco credit card for these purchases and you'd add another 750, and reuse your carrier bags - at 10 bags a month this would add 120.

Then, what about petrol? In my area, supermarket petrol is the cheapest, so it is hardly a sacrifice to buy it from Tesco. I also get points, at a lesser rate, for purchases I make with my Tesco credit card from other companies. I'm with E.on for energy at the moment, and I made the decision based on their price, but it so happens that I collect points for that too. At one point I had insurance through Tesco, which offered a lot of extra points when I joined up, but I have since switched. I joined Tesco diets, which was the best value option for me anyway, and got triple points on my membership at that time. Recycling ink cartridges can net you 100 points each, and a mobile phone gets you 300. OK, so now they're piling up!

But there's more. Extra points vouchers are sent periodically by Tesco, especially if you join their clubs, such as Healthy Living, or the Baby Club. You may also be given 'till spits' printed at the same time as your receipt, for extra points or money off your next purchases. In these difficult economic times, it appears that Tesco have been concentrating on prices rather than points, as the extra points coupons have been less frequent recently. Points codes (for online shopping) are often listed online, but again, this practice is not as common as it once was. Most often, there are large points vouchers for spending at the Tesco Wine Club.

Even so, I managed to collect enough points last year for the deals I mentioned above, and without buying anything that I wouldn't have anyway. Whilst not everyone will be able to save up enough for a holiday to Florida, through Virgin holidays, even a single person spending less than £100 a month on food could easily get their RAC membership free for a year, or treat a friend to dinner.

At risk of sounding evangelical - take advantage of these offers to make life a little more comfortable! If you don't, you're just subsidising those of us who do. Oh, and if you really don't want to collect them, please offer your points to the harassed mother in the queue behind you - she might be me! (Thank you to the person who did this for me, at Christmas, to the tune of 150 points!)

Summary: Check out the Clubcard Deals website and start saving!