On autopilot, I dutifully produce my Nectar card when checking out at Sains’s, but it only just occurred to me (yes, I am a bit slow on the uptake) to look at what the point was, and … I couldn’t find one. I looked at my account online and it seems that after spending three quarters of a million pounds I have a balance of a zilion points worth £12.87.

So what am I missing?

How sainsbury are analysing and in all likelihood selling off your purchase data.

You need to find out all the other places you can use it to make it worthwhile. There are loads of other not just sainsburys.

How sainsbury are analysing and in all likelihood selling off your purchase data

Why would that bother me ?

they may be taking money off you checkout total every now & then – but yeah, it does seem pretty shit

Used to fun either Christmas extras or one of those bad just before pay day months. Used to hit the partner offers to boost the points most though. After that first out the wallet ice scraper

Loyalty card. The point is to gather data on customer purchases and target you personally with offers based on your spending habits, mainly to encourage you to spend more. Far more valuable to the store than the customer.

Still, think of them as a savings card. Rather than getting money back (note, it’s not free money) and you spend it straight away, you tend to forget about it and then later realise there’s enough to blow it all on coke & hookers.

I’ve got a huge pile of airmiles (or whatever they’re called now) from Sainsburys back when they did them, and now Tesco plus a few other things I get airmiles from. Seems great except limited what flights I can use them on so never really get spent.

The only loyalty card that’s worth anything is Waitrose to get the free coffee 😀 (though not so free now, have to buy something at least).

Hardly shop at sainsburys, but there’s also home base and British Gas – I get 200 points every time I submit my gas/leccy meter readings online.

Ignore them and every so often, I get a case of wine for free.

I get all my fuel at bp. Each year I get about £25 in points which allows me to make a good saving on a nice bottle of scotch each Christmas, guaranteeing that I get at least one present I like!

Absolutely nothin’!

Sorry, my bad, getting confused with war. 😆

Reduce cost of a food trip, once every year or so?

They are pretty rubbish. I think we’ve stopped bothering. The tesco points are much better. They double up for Evans vouchers or channel tunnel tickets.

Have got loads of money off Sainsburys shopping using nectar points. Remember to always use the multiplying vouchers (sometimes if you buy just one item first it’ll spit out a voucher you can use for the main shop!). Also partner offers as mentioned above (worth checking nectar app/website occasionally). I also buy loads on eBay both personal & business, remember you can link your nectar account to eBay to rack up points!

Compared to Clubcard points they are shockingly bad.

As Nick says, you can double up for Evans Cycles vouchers, or x4 for eating out vouchers/days out etc.

You get nectar pts on ebay fwiw. And apple, easyjet, virgin trains, argos and loads of others… Not just sainsbury.

I rarely shop in Sainsburys but collect nectar points on expedia, ebay and sometimes when we fill up at BP. I generally get a couple of free DVDs from Sainsburys every christmas using the points.

Spend money on food –> get points –> buy lego.

Rather than getting money back (note, it’s not free money)

How is it not free ?

If I don’t have a nectar card, I buy shopping and get nothing back.
If I have a nectar card and use it, it costs nothing extra, and I get money back (for free)

I shop in sainsbury’s. All year I collect points and I spend them in one go doing the Christmas shop – usually about £100 or so.

How is it not free ?

If I don’t have a nectar card, I buy shopping and get nothing back.
If I have a nectar card and use it, it costs nothing extra, and I get money back (for free)
I work for a marketing company and am happy that you will spare a few minutes eash week detailing what you have bought for us, thanks.

ooh, nearly forgot

https://www.wired.com/2008/08/medeco-locks-cr/

what is it actually good for?

War?

Huh.

About £250 of “free” groceries every Christmas, rolling £250 over to next year for me.

Mine, plus the points doubling related Amex card get used for my work expenses plus pretty much everything else, then the balance cleared.

It used to be much better, but a few months ago they cut the points they have down to Clubcard levels, works out about 0.5% I think – in 6 months last year I got enough to pay for my flights to Geneva so I’m happy enough, I used to make sure I visit the local sainsburys petrol station every week, whatever I bought I’d get a voucher for £6 worth of nectar points if I spent £60 in store (easy peasy for a family of 4) but it’s not been as good since.

Now I just open a new online account every few weeks. They give you £18 off your first online shop, I do a quick click and collect and they send you £10 a week off for a month, next month a open a new one. I don’t get points, but it saved me a fortune.

I work for a marketing company and am happy that you will spare a few minutes eash week detailing what you have bought for us, thanks.

And as I said earlier, why would that bother me ??

And I don’t “spare a few minutes each week” either, I swipe a card and get free money in return.

It costs me nothing, and I don’t care about protecting that “information”

So it’s still free money.

Unless it’s actually costing me something ?

What do you think they do with the information about products you buy?

Could it be that they use this information to make more money from you…?

Unless it’s actually costing me something ?

That cost is the information that you are giving them, the fact that you put little or zero value on it is your decision. They are receiving some very valuable information about you, something they would have to otherwise pay significant amounts for, but here you are giving it to them for free. 😆

If you’re not the market, you’re the product!

nealglover – Member
If I don’t have a nectar card, I buy shopping and get nothing back.
If I have a nectar card and use it, it costs nothing extra, and I get money back (for free)

You’re looking at it the wrong way.

You don’t have a nectar card, you buy shopping and are paying more than you should so that the store can give money back to those that do have the card.

They are also paying money to those with the card for information, but it’s coming out of profits they get from everyone through slightly higher prices.

If the store didn’t have a reward card, there’s a chance prices in general will be a little lower.

The money has to come from somewhere. It comes from the customers.

Of course you get all kinds of seeming bargains anyway. Believing you’re getting a good deal is the marketers trap and almost all of us fall for it. Look at the unit price, check the prices before the discount and how long they were higher, plus if you know the price they are supplied at and the mark up they are getting normally in order to drop it to a “discount” price, then you realise it’s no real bargain. It is compared to what you usually pay, but you shouldn’t really be paying that much in the first place. Same with places with reward cards.

It’s averaged out across customers though and if you know how to play the system you can minimise the costs. You still aren’t really getting something for nothing.

You still aren’t really getting something for nothing.

If I don’t have a card. I pay £1 for a product.

If I do have a card. I pay £1 for a product. But I get something back.

My “payment” for getting something back is letting sainsburys know that I bought something from them.

That “payment” cost me nothing.

So I got something for nothing.

You can argue all day about information being expensive, and me giving it away for nothing. However, it has ZERO value to me, so I’ll happily sell it for nectar points and spend the rewards.

What do you think they do with the information about products you buy?
Could it be that they use this information to make more money from you…?

That’s the plan I have no doubt.

It’s up to me to make decisions about what I buy, but not having a nectar card isn’t going to make my life a marketing free zone is it.

I’ll take the free money and the marketing just goes into the pile with all the rest of it.

Sainsbury’s doesn’t make money from customers – it makes money from returning customers. that is why they have a reward/loyalty scheme. Repeat customer generates billions of pounds for Sainsbury’s so they can easily afford the Nectar point scheme. If you shop at Sainsbury’s anyway then why wouldn’t you use it? They don’t need you to sign up for the card to gather data on you – they know what you buy and how you pay for it anyway. they have plenty of data to sell onto third parties. The true benefit to Sainsbury’s is your repeat business.

You’re on grid – plenty of companies out there are gathering gigabytes of data on you and your personal activities and habits and selling it all onto the highest bidders. It is impossible to avoid. If that bothers you then the Nectar Points reward scheme should be the least of your worries.

There is a way to fleece points…. Self checkout, they ask if you used your own bags, and how many, 1 point for each re used bag. I always seem to use 99 bags, a 3 figure number flashes up an alert to the supervisor, 99 doesn’t. 99 extra points every time I shop.

In the past nectar zero’d my points after I hadnt used them at year end. Ever since then I dont bother, i carry enough plastic without adding a dead weight.

I’d been swiping mine for years, cashed them in last year and along with a promo got a Wii U for £1.37 for the kids christmas and a load of other stuff a load cheaper. Do Sainsburys really need you to have a Nectar card to work out what they have sold you? I doubt it. I’d say wobbliscott has it, certainly describes my shopping habits, currently I always check to see if I can make any online purchases via topcashback.

Do Sainsburys really need you to have a Nectar card to work out what they have sold you?

Absolutely not. But when it’s tied into age, address, income, etc and cross referenced with other data that you’re happily giving them, it all help them target marketing campaigns and gets you to spend more and more money.
There’s nothing wrong with points cards, but don’t be under any illusion that it’s free money. Sainsbury’s is getting far better vfm out of you for providing this info than you are from them.
Makes you think.

Got some money off from Argos using credit on Nectar.

Had an Bose Apple compatible clock a few years ago from Nectar but 2 years later Apple changed their pins :/

Tesco has better deals.

To be fair, very little makes me think.

But when it’s tied into age, address, income, etc and cross referenced with other data that you’re happily giving them, it all help them target marketing campaigns and gets you to spend more and more money.

Marketing happens with or without a reward card. You can’t avoid it.

And I am “happily giving them” the data yes. It has ZERO value to me, so why would I?
There is no good reason not to let them have it that I can see.

There’s nothing wrong with points cards, but don’t be under any illusion that it’s free money

They give me money, and it costs me nothing to receive it.

It’s free money.

There is a way to fleece points…. Self checkout, they ask if you used your own bags, and how many, 1 point for each re used bag. I always seem to use 99 bags

Used to work with Clubcard points up here until the carrier bag charges.

Had a nectar card for years, like the OP I have a bazillion points equating to precisely nothing. Morrisons on the other hand seem to spit fiver tokens out regularly.

If I don’t have a card. I pay £1 for a product.

If I do have a card. I pay £1 for a product. But I get something back.

If the card scheme didn’t exist, you’d probably be paying 80p for the product. Because it does, you’re subsidising those with the card. It’s worth you having the card therefore to get the money back you are due.

The stuff about them paying for information is fine but minor. Far more they are paying for the rewards by slightly higher prices.

It’s free money.

No money is free. Doesn’t grow on trees etc.