Great for the Deals (Tesco Clubcard)

Member Name: bigh11

Product:	Tesco Clubcard
Date:	01/06/09 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Collect points on all your shopping, use the vouchers for gifts, holidays, etc

Disadvantages: Tesco can spy on you!

Tesco Clubcard is a loyalty card that offers one point for every pound spent at Tesco, Tesco Direct and other third parties such as Eon. You have a card that they scan every time you shop or you save your card number on Tesco.com and they add the points each time you shop. If you choose not to use Tesco carrier bags you get Green Clubcard points.

Tesco used to offer really good promotions like 1000 points for a £100 spend but now those promotions are really thin on the ground. Looking back at my old statements I used to get double the points I get now even though I spend almost the same amount each month.

You could sign up to some of Tesco's clubs - Food, Wine, Healthy Living, Baby & Toddler, Christmas Saver and Greener Living. They offer extra promotions and vouchers. You can join as many as you like.

Tesco recently introduced "Double Up" - you can exchange your vouchers for Double Up vouchers and as the name suggests they are worth twice as much as the voucher. You can use these on Garden, Toys, Wine (by the case) Baby & Toddler, Kid's bikes and grocery delivery.

The best part of the Clubcard scheme is the Deals, you can convert your vouchers into deals and they are worth four times as much. So a £10 voucher would get you £40 in deals. I think they are renaming it Rewards now but it's the same thing. You can use the Deals on holidays, weekend breaks, magazine subscription, driving lessons and a lot more.

In 2007 I went for a long weekend at Haven in Cleethorpes, we stayed in a really nice caravan and the fun passes and bedding were included, most of that was paid for with Clubcard deals. We now have £314 in deals saved up to go to Ireland later on in the year.

The vouchers last for two years. You can choose to get paper vouchers to use in the store or e-vouchers to use online. Get a statement each quarter with your vouchers attached, it also tells you where you earned the points.

If you lose your vouchers, Tesco will reissue them for you. I signed my Mum up to the Clubcard scheme but she didn't realise she had to keep the statements so she threw them all away thinking they were junk mail. I rang Tesco for her and said she'd thrown them all away by mistake, they were very understanding and said they would reissue all the vouchers, almost £100 worth, which is £400 in deals. She used all the vouchers when she went to London for a long weekend.

Some people don't like the fact that Tesco know exactly what you're buying but it doesn't really bother me.

I still think this is one of the best loyalty schemes around because of the Deals but it's not half as good as it was 12/18 months ago.

Summary: Good way to have a cheap holiday!