Treat yourself and your family (Tesco Clubcard)

Member Name: shoz09

Product:	Tesco Clubcard
Date:	31/07/09 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: loads of good deals to spend your vouchers on

Disadvantages: none really

As you are probably aware, Tesco Clubcard is a loyalty point scheme at Tesco supermarkets. For every £1 spent, you get one point in return, so isnt the best rewards scheme out there in that way (but makes up for it in many other ways-see further into the review).

To become a member of Tesco Clubcard, all you need to do is pick up a leaflet from the customer service desk in your local supermarket, fill in the form and send it off. With this leaflet, there is a paper version of a clubcard which you can use until your proper card comes (the points will be added to your total points).

You can collect points whenever you shop with Tesco. This includes petrol stations, pharmasists, opticians, tesco extra and express stores and online. You can also recieve extra points for recycling printer cartridges and mobile phones, and also for reusing plastic bags. If you do a lot of shopping at Tesco, then the points do add up quickly.

Every three months, you receive a clubcard statement. Here, it tells you how many points you have collected over the previous three months and from where. With this statement, you get the vouchers which are worth the the monetary value of the points you collected. How to spend these will be explained later. Along with these vouchers, you also get some coupons, which give you extra points on food you normally get, money off things or a chance to win an extra 1,000 points (which I havent done yet, unfortunately).

Now to how to spend those hard earned points (if you get 10,000 points, you will get £10 worth of vouchers). If you want to take full advantage of all the deals, you will have to register on the website (www.tesco.com) which is easy to do (its also easy to enter clubcard details if you use the internet shopping regularly, just go to your account and you will find it).

The most obvious way to spend your vouchers is to spend them on your shopping-hand them over before you pay, in the supermarket, petrol station or online. Your value of your vouchers can be doubled up and spent instore in certain departments like clothes.

On the website there are so many deals to choose from that I didnt know where to begin at first. On many of them, the value of your vouchers can be quadrupled, meaning you do get a lot for your money. You can get vouchers for restaurants like Pizza Express, Bella Italia and Cafe Rouge. You can put these vouchers towards Open University Courses or Linguaphone language courses. Days out at places including zoos, safari parks, and theme parks are also included, as are magazine subscriptions. Airmiles and BA miles are also included. There are many others on the website, so browse at your pleasure.

Claiming your particular deal is easy (the tricky part can be deciding what you want). Once you have decided on what you are getting, click the arrows to get to the value of your vouchers, enter the voucher codes and then Bobs your uncle, you will get them in the post.

For me the best thing about a Tesco Clubcard is that there is so much to choose from. It covers the basics like food shopping and then you can treat your family to a meal or day out, or even on learning something new. After ordering, the vouchers arrive in no more than a week which is really good. If you do all, or most of your food shopping at Tesco then the Clubcard is ideal as you do get quite a bit in return. As I am starting an open university degree in October, the points are very handy in helping pay for it!

The only downside is the fact that you only get one point for every pound spent, but as I do all our food shopping at Tesco, the points do add up quickly.

I would wholehartedly recommend getting a clubcard if you do go shopping at the supermarket on a regular basis.

Summary: Worth it if you shopm at Tesco a lot