Loyalty Cards.

kneemos

A waste of time or are there some worthwhile rewards to be had?

Doylers

This is sh1t

JuliusCaesar

This is a bit of a hobbyhorse of mine. Loyalty cards in my experience, give you vouchers for stuff YOU WOULD NEVER BUY, in the hope that you will.


Please swop your loyalty card with mine at the checkout and if everyone does this, over and over:
1. it really confuses the supermarket in their 'profiling' of you.
2. you might end up getting vouchers for stuff you actually want.
BUT
3. They might stop giving loyalty cards altogether
BUT
4. hopefully they'll just make stuff cheaper, instead of making them expensive usually in order to make them cheaper now and again, in the hopes we'll lose the run of ourselves (cool, 3rd item free! Wow! Now to find 3 things I actually want. Er....)


***swop cards*** Defeat the system! ***swop cards***

....................................***swop cards*** ........................................

Get stuff you want! Get stuff you want! Get stuff you want!








Rant over.

ratmouse

It's always good to get something back when shopping.

Doylers

Doylers wrote: »

This is sh1t

[Till receipt]

You have received 5 points on your "make a pointless post that says nothing" loyalty card.

Continue to post in this vein and you will get a saucepan in 2 years. Or banned. Which ever comes first

Have a SPLENDID day.

[/Till receipt]

Kwiecien

Often wondered the same. I dont use them at all because they are just clutter in my purse. Probably not worth it as buy most of my food in local butcher, lidl and aldi, the very odd bit in Supervalu. Surely a "one for all" rewards card should be invented by now!

cloud493

Gamestop loyalty card is reasonably decent, as loyalty cards go, even though you have to spend silly amounts of money to get more benefits. Swords cinema loyalty card demands I spend 50 euro to get a 5 euro ticket back (the price of a 2D movie at off peak times) and the worst is the loyalty program for the IFI, which is just ****e.

Tesco clubcard vouchers are pretty sweet though.

CrazyRabbit

I created and handed out loyalty cards to all my friends. Though so far there hasn't been much interest in using them. Peter earned 20 points today for giving my the largest donut in the box. Another 15 points and he gets a BigMac on me, so I'm not sure why there's so little interest.

Doylers

But but but I never signed up for a bloody card I don't want points :mad::mad::mad:

Deleted User wrote: »

[Till receipt]

You have received 5 points on your "make a pointless post that says nothing" loyalty card.

Continue to post in this vein and you will get a saucepan in 2 years. Or banned. Which ever comes first

Have a SPLENDID day.

[/Till receipt]

Doylers

Doylers wrote: »

But but but I never signed up for a bloody card I don't want points :mad::mad::mad:

Then you must only sign here to indicate your wish to not be excluded from the inclusion of your normally obvious exclusion from the people who wish to be excluded of the group who are not already included in this SCHEME

---

madmaggie

I like the Powering Rewards link up with Electric Ireland and SuperValu. €10 off the electricity bill, and a €20 Supervalu voucher back in Novemeber. Plus little things like free chocolate, free flower bulbs in Woodies, a discount in Shaws. Little things, but nice.

Lingua Franca

Some of them are really good.

The Boots Advantage card in the UK has a decent return on rewards (I think 4 points per pound spent with more on special items) and if you're spending a lot of money in there as you would do if you're a new parent buying nappies and baby food and other maternity/baby related items it's easy to build up loads in a short space of time.

I have an Albert Heijn bonus card, Albert Heijn being the Dutch Tescos, and hated it because it seemed to be reward free apart from the weekly special discounted items. No card, no discount though, and it often knocks 4 euro off a crate of beer and is required for the buy-one-get-one-free items so I got one. A couple of weeks ago I was idly deleting spam from my email accounts and clicked on an Albert Heijn promotional one for the first time.

Turns out they were sending me special offers to my email and I could have picked up a free 6 pack of cans every weekend for the last god knows how long.

Loads of them are crap, though. If you're not spending a lot of money regularly in one place they're useless.

dee_mc

I like my loyalty cards. I get enough points for a free coffee or lunch every time I buy a dress or some make up in Brown Thomas, and today I saved 10% on the (already discounted) stuff I bought in Boots, in the form of loyalty card points. I use the cards given out in several coffee chains too, some of them give every fifth coffee free. I don't care about the profiling thing, I just like free stuff and vouchers

Savage Tyrant

Loyalty schemes are great..... Marijuana dealers will be doing it soon enough.... I heard its being trialed at the moment.

Ruu

Not much good a lot of the time. Just when you have enough points for something, they change the merchandise and they end up expiring.

paulosam

Not a fan of them. Don't most companies sell the info they gather on customers through such schemes to marketing companies etc?

If you ain't paying, you're probably the product!

Dexter Bip

Free market research for the retailer. Don't think I ever actually used any of the points I got on any card ever. Too much trouble and I suspect this is factored into the discounts advertised. Not quite the same thing but I was flogged a Ryanair Visa card at Dublin airport years ago. Never used any of the 'free' flights that I qualified for as there was too much red tape - book months in advance/ other nonsense.

Got 60 euros worth of vouchers from Dunnes Stores during the week

Dexter Bip

paulosam wrote: »

Not a fan of them. Don't most companies sell the info they gather on customers through such schemes to marketing companies etc?

If you ain't paying, you're probably the product!

e.g Google. Don't want to get off topic so I'll stop.

FullblownRose

They're worthwhile. Obviously the more spending youre doing the more you see in terms of rewards.

JaseBelleVie

Yankee Candle do a good one. When you have the loyalty card filled up, they knock €20 off your next purchase. I like it. Plus, the card never expires and the merchandise is not something that goes off either!

FullblownRose

Debenhams are awful. When it works, they giive a decent amount of reward point- but it hardly ever works, so you end up not being able to use the points! I've had so many problems with mine and my sister has too. Their customer service is abysmal and they don't have freephone customer service line so you end up out of pocket trying to sort the problem out. When they get around to replying to email queries they are very blunt and unhelpful!

Tesco's clubcard is great. They also accept reward vouchers from their competitors so if you sometimes shop with dunnes or supervalu for example, you can take your vouchers to Tesco if you do your main shop there

callaway92

Most loyalty cards (in grocery stores anyway) are just for research purposes i.e to gain information on what different types of things customers are buying.

Whilst doing so, it also can give you benefits such as reductions, and even free products (Subway, nom nom).

It's a win-win for both seller and buyer imo.

I regularly use the Super-Valu, Tesco, Boots, Subway, Apple Green and even a barber's one (get 6 hair cuts and your next is free).

r93kaey5p2izun

I regularly use my Boots card to pay for my purchases. Don't use any others as it seems to take an age to build up enough points to be useful.

duffman13

Boots and Subway are the two best ones IMO. I have Tesco and it's decent every couple of months but never really build up anything substantial

Menas

I have had a Supervalue/quinn loyalty card for the past few years and a few weeks ago they sent me a 'platinum card' which gets me 15% off everything (except lotto/phone credit/formula). Was surprised to receive it but it is well worth it.
Card expires end of January though.

MarkR

Loyalty is only good for customers when it's easy to use, costs you nothing, and works on stuff you'd be buying anyway. I like tesco for their money off, I have their credit card and mobile phone service, and as I use the card for pretty much everything. I pay it off every month, so no extra charges. They probably know what I had for breakfast at this stage, but that's the trade off.

daheff

Savage Tyrant wrote: »

Loyalty schemes are great..... Marijuana dealers will be doing it soon enough.... I heard its being trialed at the moment.

No No...you misunderstood...the Marijuan dealers are on trial. They reckon they'll get away with it because all their hencemen are loyal to them......





>>>>I'll get my (christmas) jumper and leave :cool:

daheff

serious reply, I have a loyalty card for loads of them....the worst I can see is Applegreen....I have loads of points and all their rewards suck

Tesco/Supervalue/Dunnes etc...all pretty much the same

Coffee co's are prob the best...buy 6/7/8 and get one free.
Sandwich bars are similar...if only the pub would do one too....it'd be great

Robsweezie

I got a few cards thinking that there would be loads of free stuff and privileges but the truth is they don't just throw stuff at you. you need to build it up through a point system and its usually a long time before you start seeing the benefits, especially if you don't shop there often. its feels like they're getting more out of it than you are.

TwoShedsJackson

Most people just don't cash their points in. We give a fiver discount for every hundred points on the card (one point per euro spent), but most people just hand in their cards to get their points and never actually check have they enough points to get a discount. We're not going to tell you because we want your money.

anncoates

Have one for a local off licence and it's usually good for a few bottles of wine or a few nice beers every Christmas when you cash in the reward points.

Shenshen

I think the only ones worth while are Boots and Subway. I've actually seen benefits from both of them.

We also have a Tesco loyalty card, but we rarely shop there. Usually only to stock up on Quorn or Tesco own-brand meat substitute products, once a year.
Funnily enough, the vouchers we got from them last months were nearly all for foods containing meat in some form or another.

To be honest, I prefer Aldi's and Lidl's approach - cheap prices straight away, no long-term loyalty scheme to gives you discounts on things you never buy anyway.
Alternatively, build up points until you can get a discount at the check-out no matter what you're buying.

looking_around

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

Most people just don't cash their points in. We give a fiver discount for every hundred points on the card (one point per euro spent), but most people just hand in their cards to get their points and never actually check have they enough points to get a discount. We're not going to tell you because we want your money.

that's not true, boots and costa always let me know how much I have stocked up. and I don't even ask.

supermarkets are different, as they send vouchers as you reach point brackets. dunnes imo is the worst with their 5 off a 40 or 50 spend. would only spend ten or 20 weird a week there.

r93kaey5p2izun

Yes Boots always ask if I'd like to use my points to pay.

dudara

The Boots one is pretty good, as is the O'Briens scheme, especially when they have one of their promotional weekends.

I have the Tesco credit card and I put the vast majority of my travel through that. Just got €60 of vouchers in the post as a result.

Hotel loyalty schemes are good, if you travel a lot like I do. I have status with Marriott for several years now and in addition to points there are often other perks, like lounge access or free meals.

In short, the schemes cost me nothing, and some of them can be worth it.

somesoldiers

Has anyone used that Reep Rewards thingey? you send photos of your receipts and get credit back for them, when it builds up to e50 you can claim a voucher or the cash back, I think that's how it works. I got bored after the first 3 receipts wouldn't send properly

JC: boots send me vouchers for stuff i do buy regularly

OldNotWIse

Deleted User wrote: »

[Till receipt]

You have received 5 points on your "make a pointless post that says nothing" loyalty card.

Continue to post in this vein and you will get a saucepan in 2 years. Or banned. Which ever comes first

Have a SPLENDID day.

[/Till receipt]

I hate the ones that say "you could have earned X points in this transaction". Oh there are plenty of things I could have done in this life.

Mister Vain

I get a free haircut at the barbers every six months with my loyalty card.

BrokenArrows

If you dont use a loyalty scheme in the places that you shop then you are losing out.

Places like tesco etc increase the cost of their goods to offset the amount of discounts they shell out on points.
If you dont have the card and get the few discounts or vouchers every few months then you're just paying for someone elses stuff.

I combine by British Airways American Express card and tesco card together, both earn me frequent flyer miles with British Airways. Spending about €400 a month and using both cards earns about 1000 avios points. In a year 12000 points gets me a return flight to italy or something. Im saving up to 20k points for a return trip to Moscow which is probably the equivalent to €250 (Rough Guess).

callaway92

BrokenArrows wrote: »

If you dont use a loyalty scheme in the places that you shop then you are losing out.

Places like tesco etc increase the cost of their goods to offset the amount of discounts they shell out on points.
If you dont have the card and get the few discounts or vouchers every few months then you're just paying for someone elses stuff.

I combine by British Airways American Express card and tesco card together, both earn me frequent flyer miles with British Airways. Spending about €400 a month and using both cards earns about 1000 avios points. In a year 12000 points gets me a return flight to italy or something. Im saving up to 20k points for a return trip to Moscow which is probably the equivalent to €250 (Rough Guess).

Incorrect, 100%.

Tail Docker

"Do you have a clubcard??"

"No"

"Right..erm..that's €33.50 please.."

Feck off and profile someone else.

moxin

The Tesco one has double "boost" towards your Gas energy bill(vouchers are worth double), only damn purpose I used it in the winter.

OldNotWIse

OldNotWIse wrote: »

I hate the ones that say "you could have earned X points in this transaction". Oh there are plenty of things I could have done in this life.

Id love to hack into their system somehow and compare products bought with products available.... and then at the end of the ticket write "you could have saved 55000 calories on this weeks dinners........"

On a completely off topic side note that jumps into my head because of that - when I was in college I did work experience with a guy who wrote the software for Parking Machines. The kind of parking machines where you put your ticket in at the end of the parking and then pay the required amount.

Because so many people leave their cars there a LONG time it pays them financially to hit the "I have lost my ticket" option and then may the maximum fine for this - which is less than X days of parking. So people "lost" their ticket quite often.

So I BEGGED him to hack the software and put in a message - which would run for just one day - even if it was only April 1st - during the process saying "please inset the Lost Ticket now" and just see how many people actually do it

Sadly he never did it for me. And I did bribe him heavily.

Delta2113

Has Superquinn Reward Card been changed over yet to SuperValu Real Rewards?

I thought I read last year that it would happen in November 2014 (maybe I'm wrong) but i have got no letter and I still use my old Superquinn Card.

thunderdog

Delta2113 wrote: »

Has Superquinn Reward Card been changed over yet to SuperValu Real Rewards?

I thought I read last year that it would happen in November 2014 (maybe I'm wrong) but i have got no letter and I still use my old Superquinn Card.

Same for me too. Changeover happening late Summer according to the girl on the SV till today.

Anyone have any idea why Aldi/Lidl dont do rewards cards? i know a lot of people who dont use these shops purely because they dont have rewards cards

Delta2113

SuperValu are obviously behind schedule then -thanks for info.

I suppose it costs a lot to run a rewards card in reference to Aldi/Lidl. I find it hard now to use my SuperValu (SuperQuinn) points with spend being €90 etc.

the_syco

Every X amount of times I go into town drinking, I get a free Subway.

the_syco

Oh, and to hell with Supervalue. How you can only collect vouchers for one shop, as although they have the same brand name, they all have a seperate points system.

Cupcake_Crisis

I live by my Boots card! 4 points per euro, double points every now and then, triple point events, it's a wee goldmine for a beautician.