Tesco imposing the 30,000 points (72,000 Avios) per quarter cap on Clubcard earning

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Stuart McIntyre says:

  28 Jul28 July 06:24

  All I can wonder is how long it must have taken Simon to register all those pay.com card numbers and then enter all the credit card details on the HMRC site. Wow, that’s commitment to the points-earning cause!

  Gutted Tesco capped the quarter’s balance, but as you say they’re the rules… Can’t see how this helps Tesco in the bigger picture though.

  • Erico1875 says:

    28 Jul28 July 06:51

    Some madman at the top thinks by slashing loyalty benefits customers will stay and profits will go up.
    My motto. If it woofs or meows it gets a club card and becomes a member of our BA household account

    • William says:

      28 Jul28 July 07:36

      You say that but what is the supermarket competition to earning miles?? If there is one is like to know quick time as I far prefer Sainsbury’s and Waitrose!

    • Tim says:

      28 Jul28 July 08:52

      Asda has my loyalty for “normal” shopping even though they don’t have a loyalty scheme, because they are significantly cheaper for the weekly shop.

      With regards to Tesco, let’s face it. Very few people get a free RFS or free upgrade just by buying the groceries there.

      • John says:

        28 Jul28 July 09:44

        Tim, get the Asda cash back credit card. Pay full bill each month avoiding interest. Save (a bit) more.

    • Aeronaut says:

      28 Jul28 July 08:55

      My understanding is that the (new) ‘madman at the top’ and his team have done their research and found that actual and potential Tesco customers are more interested in lower prices than fancy and complex promotions.

      • Scott says:

        28 Jul28 July 11:25

        I could be wrong, but I saw the clubcard scheme as an incentive for people to shop at Tesco even though their prices were sometimes higher than their competitors.
        Cutting down points, offers etc. whilst maintaining high prices in today’s society led people to try out alternatives and they found them to be cheaper overall so stuck to them.

        It’s the same with Nectar. The scheme is pretty useless to most and doesn’t draw people in. Sainsbury is the most expensive of all my local supermarkets and tends to attract slightly better off people from what I’ve seen. Or those who don’t want the chavs that Asda attracts or loads of screaming kids.

    • Jason says:

      28 Jul28 July 21:37

      Erico

      How did I miss your post this morning……fantastic 😉

    • Simon says:

      30 Jul30 July 17:13

      Thanks for this, Erico, and sorry for my ignorance here: but is this to say that if my dog (let’s call him Fido Jones :)) signed up for a Tesco Clubcard, Fido could then collect CC points to then be transferred to his BAEC account per quarter, with the later possibility of adding Fido to a BAEC Household Account should I then choose to open one with him?
      Also, if I (i.e. not Fido) wanted to redeem Avios from our Household Account (once set up) for a ticket just for me, I could use Fido’s Avios as well as my own for my ticket (so long as the Household Account doesn’t have MORE THAN the required Avios for my redemption? As I understand things, Avios are only pro-rated according to individual balances within the Household Account ONCE sufficient Avios for redemptions have been earned?). Again, sorry for my denseness here!

      • Rob says:

        30 Jul30 July 18:35

        Yes. The easiest way to empty Fido’s account, though, is to form the HHA and then just before you redeem, empty your own account into avios.com or Iberia so that the exact balance remaining is what you need. Both balances are zero’d out and you can then move back the rest of your Avios from Iberia or avios.com.

        • Simon says:

          30 Jul30 July 20:17

          Thanks as ever, Rob. Fido passes on his best.

• Frenske says:

  28 Jul28 July 06:30

  I cannot say I feel sorry for Simon. He basically denied MANY others people (modest pay.com buyers) to get a few times 150 clubpoints.
  Even worse if Tesco or pay.com decides to end paying this kind of card abuse. This financial model is not sustainable. Somebody is losing money.

  • GaryC says:

    28 Jul28 July 06:51

    I agree, little sympathy. It’s this sort of behaviour which could potentially bring giftcards under the spotlight of Tesco management and spoil things for everyone.

    • Mr Bridge says:

      28 Jul28 July 07:11

      and you don’t think tesco enjoyed the benefit of the commission they get for selling those cards
      Quick HFP reader poll…how many of you think tesco sell them at a loss?

      • Rob says:

        28 Jul28 July 09:25

        Me, actually – they are inflating their headline sales figures for benefit of City analysts.

        • Dom says:

          28 Jul28 July 12:10

          Tesco shouldn’t be including gift card sales in their revenue figures, as they never own any inventory (consignment stock under FRS5) It is worth zero until activated at the till. All that should be recorded is the commission income of selling on behalf of the gift card companies.

          Then again Tesco recent reputation for following accounting standards is not that great 🙂

        • Ross Parker says:

          28 Jul28 July 18:27

          Dom – Tesco’s favourite game was billing suppliers for aisle-end promotions that they hadn’t agreed to before earnings day, then “refunding” the annoyed unilever/whoever after their results were banked. They probably report 3V as “Sales through tills/online” with some footnote explaining that this is not actually all sales of stock.

        • RIccati says:

          28 Jul28 July 22:58

          I would take more basic approach:

          A sale is a sale. Tesco has a payment going to and through them.

          What about items discounted at the end of a day. Say the inventory was £10 and the sale is £1.

          In both cases things are not as real-time.

        • Ross Parker says:

          28 Jul28 July 18:24

          I have no doubt that this is true. I would also not be surprised if 3V availability were found to surge in the month before particularly touch quarterly earnings reports.

      • Andrew says:

        28 Jul28 July 09:56

        Once you take off the bonus points and any Amex commission I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they were selling at a loss. Add in the odd ‘helping hand’ voucher and Tescos certainly won’t be making any money.

  • Paul says:

    28 Jul28 July 07:14

    What nonsense. This site encourages the abuse of loopholes, churning and maximising points in any way possible. Good on Simon for getting himself so many points!

    • Nick says:

      28 Jul28 July 08:44

      No it doesnt. Pretty sure raffles has said in the past.that he doesn’t churn, and many people who know how these things work advise against killing the golden geese.

      Having said that, I actually do sympathise with Simon in this case. This is not a loophole (at least not at the tesco end). They will profit from each card sold- there is no way they are unaware of the 3v game and they would have stopped giving out cc points on them by now if it was unprofitable. As long as you don’t break their tills by processing loads at once, they should be happy. I even do some of my shopping there now that 3v are back.

      I guess tesco are just of the view that if you have built up a stack of points like that so quickly you are up to no good and does not want to spend time assessing applying the limit on a case by case basis.

      • Paul says:

        28 Jul28 July 09:30

        fair point re active encouragement of churning.(cancelling a card, to re-apply later to gain the sign up bonus again) However the length of time of time for when you can reapply for cards and get sign up bonuses again and safe period by which you can cancel a card and still gain sign up bonus I have found here (though I don’t churn myself). These are all arbitraging the card providers intended use of them.

  • rich says:

    28 Jul28 July 08:19

    No Simon hasn’t denied anyone anything. He would have put a lot of effort in buying all those cards. That’s what this game is all about

    • Frenske says:

      28 Jul28 July 13:12

      The shelves at my Tesco are empty! I only bought twice Pay.com gift cards.

      • Fenny says:

        28 Jul28 July 20:21

        Unless SImon shops at your Tesco, someone else is denying you your cards. The availability here is variable. Sometimes there are loads, sometimes I can’t get one for weeks. I’m pretty sure that’s not Simon’s doing.

• Pr99 says:

  28 Jul28 July 06:30

  Let’s be honest the reason TESCO “capped” the customer was the effect of his earning pattern was to make him unprofitable. They would have been delighted if he earned that amount buying cornflakes.

• AndrewM says:

  28 Jul28 July 07:10

  I too have little sympathy. I can’t imagine clearing the shelves of over £20K of cards in a quarter depriving anyone else of a chance of a few extra points. Those that live by the sword, die by the sword (or small print terms and conditions in this case!).

  • Paul says:

    28 Jul28 July 08:36

    Since when was collecting points about leaving cards for others?

• Sideysid says:

  28 Jul28 July 07:18

  No sympathy here. If he is playing the game, play by the rules. 1 minute of research would have told him to spread the points over family member accounts in the household. Also good advice would be to mix up the point earning i.e. gift cards/grocery & lego bonuses/credit card points etc.

  That kind of mass point churning using one avenue will close it for everybody.

  • Lady London says:

    28 Jul28 July 15:15

    And he could always have paid smaller amounts on account.
    Unless he has to pay over £20,000 in VAT every month, in which case his turnover would be £1.2m p.a.
    In which case he has the smarts to do this discreetly and not rub Mr T’;s nose in it

• Akkers says:

  28 Jul28 July 07:19

  Does the cap apply to Tesco Bank transactions or are these uncapped?

  Thanks.

  • Polly says:

    28 Jul28 July 07:25

    No, rob said it doesn’t apply to points earned by tesco bank. Even tho mine are included in my total points statement. They appear to not be part of the 30k. Simon must have been aware of the cap, and should have thought it through, or spread it between two time periods. Shame he lost them,but gosh, how much time does he have on his hands to carry out that task. As always, best not to be greedy, nor milk the system. It’s a great bonus, and people just have to be careful not to over do it.

  • Rob says:

    28 Jul28 July 09:25

    Not capped

• William says:

  28 Jul28 July 07:33

  Hi,
  That is unfortunate but is it a case of the airlines clamping down on Tesco because it’s a clever way of getting the miles up?

  I am intrigued by the VAT pay. Does that mean you have to make several separate payments with the individual cards? Could you also make payments toward Corporation tax?

  • Nick says:

    28 Jul28 July 08:50

    Doubt it. I imagine most cc mountains are converted to goldsmiths vouchers, and then omega watches now that rolexes ate no longer available on the vouchers. You can probably get 80%+ of the retail price for a seamaster on eBay. As you get £3 at goldsmiths for every £1 of clubcard, that is what I.would do with my cc points if I had enough.

    If avios were bothered by the tesco thing, they’d just charge tesco more for the avios.

    • Dee Jay says:

      28 Jul28 July 10:09

      Problem is 10% will go fees and there is 2-3% on paypal charges and I think you would be lucky to get 80% nevermind the risk of selling high value items.

    • DW201 says:

      28 Jul28 July 23:17

      when did rolex stop being available on cc points?

• Jason says:

  28 Jul28 July 07:35

  That explains why my account was reduced to 30,000 on the 22nd July.
  However, it’s a merged account and I have a note of a conversation with clubcard customer services including date and time saying each member, within a merged account, can earn 30,000 pts per quarter, as I went over 30,000 pts last quarter and receive re the points.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.