Join this club! (Tesco Clubcard)

Member Name: AbsintheFairy

Product:	Tesco Clubcard
Date:	08/11/09 (51 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Transparent rewards programme, excellent deals available

Disadvantages: Would be nice if you could collect more points per pound!

I didn't have a Tesco Clubcard for a long time, mainly as there was no Tesco near to where I lived either at home or uni ("What, no Tesco?" I hear you cry. "Surely they have taken over the country by now?" Nope, there are some parts of the country that haven't yet been graced by a Tesco store!). However, a couple of years ago I moved house and my local large supermarket was Tesco - I love my loyalty cards and things so signed up for a Clubcard straight away.

The signup process was very simple - just fill in a form, send it off and you will receive your Clubcard plus two mini key fob Clubcards in a short time. You get a temporary paper card from the form to use in the meantime so you don't miss out on any points. The key fob cards are very handy, in fact they are the only ones I use now as I tend to use self checkouts and it's very easy to quickly scan them!

The points scheme isn't as generous as, for example, the Boots Advantage Card scheme. You only get 1 point per pound spent, and as a single person on a student budget I'm not going to amass tons of points any time soon. On the other hand, the scheme is very transparent which I appreciate. One point equals one penny, so it's easy to see how much your points are worth.

You can also get more points in other ways - for example, Tesco recently offered 2 points per pound for a short time. I opened a Tesco Savings account and transferred some money over in order to get 500 points.

How do you spend your points? Once a quarter you will get a letter including vouchers for your Clubcard points, e.g. £2, £2.50, £5. If you haven't collected enough, or if you have some left over, they will be carried over to your next statement. The vouchers are valid for about two years so you don't need to worry about spending them in time. As a nice bonus you'll also receive a few vouchers for extra points when you buy fruit/veg/washing powder etc, which seems to be based on the sort of things you generally buy.

You can spend your Tesco vouchers in-store, or you can redeem them online to get up to 4x their value in Rewards. I find this the best way, as you really do get value for money! I got a voucher which got me free entry into Hampton Court Palace earlier this year, and I'm thinking about going for a year's English Heritage membership with my next lot of vouchers.

My only gripe with the Clubcard is that you have to phone them up to change your address, you can't do it online so it means paying for a phone call, which is a bit annoying. However, the woman I spoke to was lovely and sorted it very quickly.

It's definitely worth getting a Clubcard if you shop at Tesco!

Summary: Go for it