UKC

Are there not far too many of them nowadays? Do companies really expect you to be loyal just to them and not deal with their competitors!

Some companies you almost feel like a 2nd class customer when you don't have one of theirs. At a well known supermarket, the check out lady actually questioned me as to why and even asked me for an explanation! If I don't want one, I don't want one. My choice thank you.

The ones that don't actually call them loyalty card are probably more realistic. Sign up for ours and we will use it for tracking your purchases and hit you with marketing for our benefit, but we will give you such and such in return.

Then there is JL! I'm frustrated by the myJL one. No where did they publicise, or tell you if you spoke to them, what you may get from them if you use one. I've got one. Since last Sept/Oct no rewards were forthcoming. Having been told many times that I should be getting them though they could not say what but they never came. Eventually, I phoned up again and got told computer error and any rewards that were due are lost and we don't actually know what rewards you should have got!

Well JL supposedly sorted that, roll on a few months and today I got my first rewards for spending money with them online. Worth it? Eh what, a coffee and cake voucher to be used in store that has a use by 13/10 date on it, and a couple of others with later use between dates. The last thing I need is cake JL, and btw it will cost me more to travel to you to use in store rewards than it will have cost you! Can't there have been an online reward?!

I've worked out that the rewards taken at full value is just over 1% of what I've spent with them since they corrected the computer problem. Does anyone get worthwhile rewards?!

Sorry, minor rant, it's been one of those days!

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

I would guess the check out lady was under some pressure from her employer to push the loyalty card.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

yes, apart from the standard points coupons on our ica card, it occasionally dishes out 'big' shop vouchers, which is a straight 5 or 10% off your whole shop. It also links directly with discounts off hotels, visitors attraction, ski passes.. these aren't using your points as vouchers though, it's a discounted price.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

We do very well out of them thank you.
I fill my van at Shell station's and get points that turn in to fuel vouchers.
Every 3 months or so I get sent about a tenner worth that the wife snags for her car.
We shop at tescos and accumulate around £100 a year in their points, most of these are used for days out vouchers and if you wait till the offers are on we often get buy one get one free entry to places as well.
Finally my credit card gives me points that can be turned in to Argos or Amazon vouchers so again we get about £100 per annum.
The best part is all the tescos shopping and all my diesel is paid for on my credit card so I get the points from both the card provider and the vendor.
All told £240 a year for the cost of a shop knowing that I bought 48 tins of catfood last month.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

I agree there's no need to push them on someone but I can't see many reasons for not having the big ones, unless you don't like free money! I paid £1.03/ltr for petrol the other day because of points and as Dax said getting the odd £10 voucher for shopping every few months is a nice treat. Tesco are the best, they know the things I like and because they love me they give me extra vouchers for the things I buy regularly.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

I get loads of free coffees from Nero and other local coffee/tea shops, and a free pint in 6 at my local pub. Tesco pays for my Christmas lunch, and I've had three free flights to and from South Africa with SAA, plus one upgrade to Business class on their loyalty card.

In reply to Trangia:


Good point! I forgot about my hire car and hotel chain points. Both produce free outings every couple of years. Of course all these are factored into the price you pay up front initially, but if you don't reap the rewards, then you never get the money back.

In reply to Dax H and BenSharp:
Thanks. Ah yes Tescos. I don't shop there - logistic reasons mainly. When I took over caring duties years ago, initially I was having to go to five different supermarkets so cut that down to just two as I was using so much time. Tescos was one that I stopped; I should consider including Tescos now as circumstances have changed slightly.

Didn't know Shell did anything, thanks.

CC - forgot! my credit card used to do cash rewards, but that was stopped and I've just carried on with the same card since. Thinking back I used to get around £200 for using that alone. Time to look to see what's out there now offering rewards. As an aside, I was take aback when I picked up an Indian carryout last week. They are going against the trend of the cashless society and encourage only cash unless you pay £1 extra to use a card of any type.

Thanks all. I'll need to get my act together!

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

Used to save up Morrisons Miles vouchers to treat ourselves to some booze at Christmas.

Really annoys them a Go Outdoors when you refuse to pay £3 for a card which will save you 30p off your purchase.

In reply to Trangia:
I've a Costa card, but I'm getting rid of soon as I only get a free coffee about every 2 yrs the amount I use it! Love my coffee but usually make my own now .

Don't have much call for free pints, flights, hotels, etc. !

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

I used to save about 40 pounds worth of point at Sainsburys and spend it on booze at Christmas, now I shop at Lidl and save upwards of 500 pounds a year instead.

I'm a bit sad all the cash back credit cards have stopped, used to get a few hundred quid back each year on those but now they're a lot less generous.

Cheers

Toby

In reply to Toby_W:
Like. No point in spending just to get rewards, when shopping elsewhere saves more. Same as Jenny C says re £3 card to save 30p.

In reply to Toby_W:
We shop at lidl bit buy petrol at sainsburys so we get sainsburys shopping at Christmas!

In reply to Climbing Pieman:


I think tobys point was is if you simply cycle all your normal spending through a cash back credit card, clearing it every month, they are paying you to use the card. Little wonder they've stopped those deals.

In reply to Dax H:

Or you could shop at Lidle or Aldi and save roughly 30% on a weekly shop! At least that was our saving. The saving for us is about £20 - £30 a week which totals up to about £1k a year in savings. It certainly makes that £30 Christmas voucher from Morrisons look a bit tight!

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

Why wouldn't you want free money?

I have:
Shell = Avios points
Nectar (for Sainsburys, BP, eBay and others) = spend in Argos or Expedia, apparently now on eBay too.
My Waitrose = cheaper shopping
Boots = free toilettries and other offers.
Avios = free flights.
Tescos = no idea where that went, though!
Cotswolds = no idea, but entered into a monthly draw.

My wife has the same plus a few others.

I've also got a few hotel chain cards, which are slowly racking up something.

I have cash-back credit cards and they are all registered on TopCashBack, so I get even more cash back for spending in places like Halfords.

In reply to ByEek:
Yes but Lidl doesn't sell diesel! (neither does our local Asda or Tescos)
Based on our choice of local fuel stations, Morrisons is a good compromise between convenience and price - the fuel points are a "free" bonus.

In reply to summo:
Ah ok, but Lidl will be cheaper than Sainsburys I'm guessing anyway. Both of those supermarkets would need a 35 min and 25 min respectively drive for me so out of the question for normal shopping.

In reply to LastBoyScout:
Free money is good! Rewards of say coffee and cake in store for online buying was part of my rant yesterday! Didn't seem a great reward having waited so long due to computer error.

Thanks for the list. I'll need to get some checked out.

In the past, I've much preferred local shopping and built up relationships with the (then) shops and have had good discounts on walking, skiing, cycling stuff for genuinely being a loyal customer. Must move with the times now!

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

of course, it's about maximising the benefits of what you would 'normally' spend or buy. Otherwise it's like buying something you didn't need in a sale, then claiming you saved money.

I avoid any of the schemes/scam where the points time expire before they get to any meaningful amount.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:
Got vouchers from shell for diesel- I drove a petrol car. Stopped collecting the points the second time the sent me rubbish vouchers and after I had already emailed them about it.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

always thought that the main reason for loyalty cards is its probably the cheapest and most reliable way to gather consumer data on buying habits ect, rather than incentivising purchases or loyalty.

In reply to ByEek:


Yes I could shop at Aldi or Lidle, I could also gouge my eyes out and save on opticians bills or cut my feet off and save money on shoe's.
Both of these are preferable to shopping at Lidle in my opinion.
Before anyone asks, massive ques and brands that are packaged and named to look like brand names but not as good.
Besides we do all our shopping via home delivery, the £5 it costs is worth every penny to not have to waste my time in any supermarket.

In reply to Jenny C:

GoOutdoors 'loyalty Card' is a piss take anyway.

In reply to ByEek:


Rubbish..... O.K they seem to be able to con you into believing your saving money by comparing say Heinz tomato ketchup at the highest possible RRP they can find to there no name, own brand cheapo ketchup. If you were to compare supermarket own brands to lidl & Aldi own brands and you'll suprise suprise there's little to no difference in price.

Lidl's own UK boss said "We want to get away from poor food for poor people" says it all really.

In reply to Indy:
>........ If you were to compare supermarket own brands to lidl & Aldi own brands and you'll suprise suprise there's little to no difference in price.

We use a combination of Asda and Lidl for most of our food shopping
- Lidl is much better quality on some things
- Asda is better quality on other things
- Lidl is much cheaper on some items
- There is no (or minimal) difference on price on other items
- There are a few things Asda don't sell which Lidl do
- There are quite a lot of things Lidl don't sell which Asda do
Given that both shops are within easy walking distance of our house it's very easy for us to use both stores, and we now have a mental shopping list of what to buy from where.

In reply to Indy:


Maybe. But we have never bought branded goods. The tipping point for us was when we were spending £80 - £90 a week in Morrisons based on a pre written shopping list based on a weekly meal plan. We decided to give Aldi a go and the same shop now comes in at £50 - £60 and includes a couple of bottles of wine! I had already noticed that just about every type of vegetable in Morrisons is £1. it is true that Aldi and Lidl don't sell much branded goods but the reason they are about a third cheaper than the big boys is because they have limited stock. So you have a choice of one type of tinned tomato, one type of baked beans and one type of mayonnaise. And their veg starts at 49p as opposed to £1.

As for service - it is very quick - too quick. You tend not to have time to pack your bags as it is dumped back in the trolley. But hey - I just saved £30. What do I care if I have to spend 5 minutes packing by stuff after paying up.

In reply to ByEek:


Packing stuff?

Even at the big supermarkets we long since stopped bagging at the checkout and instead load everything back into the trolley and then at the car load it into boxes. Saves using loads of carrier bags and makes it easier to unload the car when we get back home, also means stuff doesn't tip out and get lost in the boot when the bags fall over. (But is a PITA when using self-service tills)

In reply to LastBoyScout:


Because it is not free. You do pay with your data. Whether you think this is worth it is up to you. For me, my privacy is worth forfeiting the few p I could potentially save by most loyalty schemes.

The only exception is the coop where we buy most our food, where we do get a rebate when scanning our membership card. Then again, this a members rebate, so having invested into the coop we are essentially doing the data gathering ourselves.

CB

In reply to cb294:

I feel much the same way, but I'm kidding myself really because I usually pay by card so almost everything I buy is tracked anyway.

In reply to ByEek:

You do know that's deliberate right? The tills at Lidl & Aldi are specifically designed to dump the shopping straight back into the trolley to be wheeled away and packed afterwards.

In reply to Indy:

It may be a piss-take, but it isn't a loyalty card or even a 'loyalty card'. (I mean, it isn't meant to be - it's a different thing.) Is that model (pay an annual subscription to qualify for a discount) unique to GO? I'm sure there were other shops used to do that. (Obviously lots of climbing walls, leisure centres etc. still do.)

In reply to Dax H:





What a quaint point of view!
I think Aldi just got "Supermarket of the Year 2015" so they must be doing something right.

I have no supermarket loyalty and no brand loyalty. I just buy what I like at the best price at the supermarket that happens to fit in with my journey. But I do like the fact that you can park within 20m of the door of Aldi rather than in the next postal district. And they introduced environmental things like no free bags years ago - I refused the plastic bags when I tried home delivery a few times. And the quality of lots of stuff is better - sausages 98% pork for instance in Aldi.

Watched a TV programme "Eat well for Less" last night and it was really funny seeing the family convinced that their premium brands could not be bettered/they would notice the difference etc. The outcome was the swaps saved then over £3000 a year and they couldn't tell what had been swapped and what hadn't.

People are so wedded to their brands which is insanely clever marketing.

In reply to deepsoup:

I bought a pop-up tent in G.O. recently for one-time use at a wedding. IIRC £45 without the £5 card and £23 with. Of course I 'declined' to give email address or phone number and the assistant looked almost shocked when I gave her the card afterwards and asked her to dispose of it.
Waste of their and my time.

In reply to Jenny C:


Yep - you should try it some time. Obviously bring your own bags! If you are organised it can also be done at Aldi. You just arrange your bags in the trolley in advance. Saves the faff of emptying your trolley onto the checkout, only to fill it again only to then empty it into bags.

In reply to cb294:


The fact that a supermarket knows that I buy milk, bread, eggs, whatever, is really not that important to me, as I'm not exactly doing anything different to anyone else - and actually works in my favour when I get targetted offers on, for example, razor blades, that I do actually buy, rather than, say, baked beans, which I don't.

Ok, they can extrapolate a certain amount about me from what I buy and where I live, but they don't have personal details about me such as my bank accounts and I'm really only 1 person in a sea of millions - any offers are generated by computer and, unless I start doing something radically different, it's unlikely anyone is scrutinizing my specific records.

In reply to Dax H:


That's not my experience of either Aldi or Lidl.

Both have much better till staffing management than the major supermarkets, and the products are good; that's why they regularly do well in independent tests such as 'Which?'.

But if you want to pay more than you need to, feel free, if it makes you happy.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

Tell that to the millions of people who have had their credit card details stolen from various retail operators over the years. The sad fact is that your local supermarket probably has more information about you than your bank, doctor and home filing cabinet combined. It is a rather scary proposition, especially as you have no rights over that data other than to view it at a cost.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

I don't have many, I really only have my Monsoon/Accessorize one, my Boots one and my Holland & Barrett one. I get vouchers for Monsoon and I don't get any bother. I do buy a lot in Boots and if I do a skincare or perfume replen then I do accumulate a lot of points which eventually get spent on skincare anyway. I tend to wait for a skincare replen to coincide with when the brand I use has a free gift promotion on - usually if you buy two products you get their free gift and they can be pretty generous. I've had full size tubes of cleanser, exfoliator, a quarter sized pot of one of their moisturiser, among other things in the sets and they are things I actually use, the full sized tubes can cost £20. So I gain points, get some free products, sometimes I get more little samples, tips on using some of the products or a bit of a makeover. In the long run as I've used the brand I've done not bad.

In reply to deepsoup:


It MAY be a piss-take???? nope it IS a piss-take!

One Example: Wayfayrer All Day Breakfast
Standard prices
Millets - £4
Blacks - £4
Ordnance Survey shop - £4
Ellis-Brigham -£4.50 (the swines!)
Go-Outdoors £5! but don't worry give us £5 an we'll only charge you £4.50.

I don't think the idea is to inflate prices in order to offer a supposed "discount". Interestingly GoOutdoors talks about a "Retail Price" I wonder if they're trying to infer "Recommended Retail Price"

In reply to ByEek:

A relative did this and found no/little difference in price. A quick skim of some products on Mysupermarket.com also seems to confirm it. All this talk of it's cheaper is because they do a smaller range etc etc is just marketing bullshit.

In reply to captain paranoia:




Definitely not in my experience, I only actually go in to a supermarket if I am on holiday (normally self catering) or working away and I have never had a good experience at any of the cheap supermarkets. Maybe I have just been unlucky.
As for paying more than I need to, I don't think I do, I have tried cheap brands of various things and 99% of them in my opinion are not as good as the brand name's

Someone was on about a family saving 3k per year by swapping to lidle, our supermarket bill is only around £200 a month anyway and that includes all the cleaning stuff and £50 worth of cst food + cat litter.

In reply to Dax H:


So you're not really speaking from a position of great experience then...?

Do you tip the Fortnum's delivery boy?

In reply to captain paranoia:

Not as experienced as most I will admit but working all round the country gets me some experience and it's enough to know I don't like any supermarkets and despise cheap ones.

In reply to Indy:


Maybe. All I know is that a £50 shop in Aldi will cost £80+ in Morrisons.

In reply to Toby_W:





The reason the cash back on credit cards have stopped is due to eu legislation.

In reply to Indy:

If this is the case, they offer a price promise where they will beat any other shop's price by 10%, so show them a link and get your stuff even cheaper! I know it's not cool to like GO, but I have had many good deals from them. The card only saves money for bigger purchases, but I tend to buy enough that it is worth it.

In reply to girlymonkey:
The card only saves money for bigger purchases, but I tend to buy enough that it is worth it.

Might I suggest that if you make enough purchases to make a GoOutdoors card worth it you instead join the BMC or other similar charitable organisation that will help you, me everyone through their charitable work.
Also there's lots of small print with the Go card and you're limited to the Go the products it stocks.

BTW.... Snow&Rock do 15% on a BMC card last time I looked and 20% on the run up to christmas.

In reply to icnoble:


That's a rather miss-leading way of putting it. The EU didn't pass a law to ban it they just (quite rightly) stamped down on interchange fee's. All that was happening was that retailers were passing on/hiding the CC fee's in the prices paid by the comsumer so although you thought you were getting something for nothing you weren't.

In reply to ByEek:


And you're comparing Aldi baked beans with Morrisons baked beans, Aldi butter with Morrison butter etc etc? rather than Aldi with Heinz.

In reply to Indy:
Yep. But then you couldn't buy Heinz baked beans from Aldi if you tried. They only stock one variety. I mean - how many freakin brands of baked beans do you want?

It is veg that is the real winner. If you go to Morrisons, the starting price for most things is £1. In Aldi, there are always 5 staples at 59p. Apples at Morrisons tend to start at about £2.50. In Aldi they are about £1.25. Suck it and see if you don't believe me. I too was a none believer until my wife made me go.

In reply to Indy:


This is very true. But like all things in this world, there are those in the know and those who aren't. It is fair to stand back and take a cynical view of it all, or you can be a player and take advantage of cash back offers whilst also shopping with retailers who sell at the bottom dollar - or even better, shop at your favourite stores, but ask for a price match.

Only yesterday, my mate managed to negotiate £15 off a pair of £70 cycling glasses by asking for a price match.

In reply to ByEek:
Well good luck then coz I just can't see it as on like for like purchases mysupermarket.com is saying the prices are pennies either way so to save £30+ you must be buying groceries for the entire street/town???

Aldi Fruit and veg is just as over-priced as the supermarkets.... Aldi was doing vine tomato's at £1.99kg whereas the local ethnic shops are doing them for 89p/kg as an example.

In reply to ByEek:



To be honest I can't be arsed life is just way too short to run around finding the best deal on a CC to get what? a couple of 100 quid in cash back if your lucky especially if your the sort of person that frequents the likes of Aldi. Price matching, haggling etc is a different matter.

In reply to Indy:

I am a BMC member, and I do get various discounts in various shops with different memberships, but GO is still worth the cost of the card most years. I am fully aware of all the deals open to me, and use them to my advantage. Why be snobby about where you get stuff from? I don't usually need advice, so I shop for the best deal. I see no reason to be loyal to any shop.

In reply to girlymonkey:


I'm not. As I pointed out The BMC and likeminded charities do a huge amount of good for all of us from the money that they collect in subscriptions ... the Go card is a purely lining Go's bottom line from what I can tell.

Out of interest what do you get from Go that you can't from another outdoor shop using your BMC card?

Somebody mentioned Go's price matching... thing is the reason I know that Go charge £5 for a Wayfarer meal (when just about everyone else charges £4) is that a friend that buys that sort of thing tried to get a price match on a 3 for 2 offer and was sent packing.

In reply to Indy:


That's hilarious. You have clearly never been and don't know what you are talking about. Still, each to their own!

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

For those of you who use lots of loyalty cards, I've recently started using this on my phone:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobeam.beepngo&hl=en_...

Basically lets you scan any barcode-based loyalty cards into your phone and then scan your phone in the store - saves carrying 20 cards around everywhere. It can also track when you've had a card scanned so you can see when you've been using them, as well as making it easy to share the card with the rest of the household

(Also works for some climbing walls)

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

One of the best loyalty cards is the nectar card. Over 3 years I have probably netted £800 worth of points. On a recent visit to Homebase where I spent about £70 I collected 1500 points worth £15

In reply to Indy:


Cheaper products! I get 20% off in some shops with my MTA card, which is good. However, there are many occasions where GO has even cheaper prices. And I have on a number of occasions successfully got the price match deals. I have had climbing shoes and rucksacks both nearly half price this last year using price match.

I don't care whose pockets I am lining with it if it costs me less! I have to pay BMC anyway, so surely everyone wins?!

In reply to willworkforfoodjnr:
Thanks. That's one way of over coming carrying large numbers of cards. Currently have an iphone so will need to check if there is an equivalent for that.

In reply to icnoble:
Thanks, I'll check it out.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:


I don't spend st to get rewards if it is cheaper elsewhere, that would be stupid.