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Sainsbury’s cutting weekly Nectar (Avios) bonus offers for some

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There have been numerous reports in our daily chat threads recently about a reduction in the value of weekly Nectar bonus point offers to use when shopping at Sainsbury’s.

Each week, Nectar offers bonus points on a number of personalised own-brand Sainsbury’s products via the Nectar app. These can be very generous, and at times the value of the Avios earned outweighs the cost of the product.

The system isn’t ideal, however. It requires the shopper to install the Nectar app on their phone and to remember to go into it each week to activate the current crop of coupons. In my book, this is too much ‘friction’.

It also makes the value in the Nectar scheme too difficult to see. Anyone considering a switch from Tesco is likely to focus on the headline ‘1 point per £1 spent’ number and decide that the scheme is a waste of space. It is hard for Sainsbury’s to promote the value of personalised offers when they are, well, personalised …..

New offers may no longer arrive every week

Sainsbury’s has confirmed to moneysavingexpert.com that it has made changes.

It said:

“We regularly review the promotions available through our Nectar app to ensure customers are always receiving personalised, valuable offers. As part of this process, some offers may be currently unavailable for a small number of customers and we apologise for any inconvenience.”

Not all members will receive new offers each week. References to ‘weekly offers’ have also been removed from the app and from the website.

Let’s see where this ends up. If it leads to a greater focus on in-store bonus point offers then it would be fairer to all customers whilst also making the attractions of Nectar more visible.

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Category

Sainsbury's and Nectar

Comments (96)

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

  • Hawgaw says:
    23 Apr23 April 05:23

    Yes…….. Over the past few weeks, I have gone from an average of 20 items offering bonus Nectar between 10 & 200 points, to just 1….. Get 5x bonus Nectar for spending in excess of £60 instore.

  • Olly says:
    23 Apr23 April 05:35

    One wonders whether they’ve just removed them for the savviest customers (like the readers of HfP) who were taking advantage

    • TGLoyalty says:
      23 Apr23 April 06:59

      Taking advantage by buying things they were targeted for?

      I didn’t buy everything I was targeted for, because their were some things I just wouldn’t buy again, and I bought other things aswell. I’d be happy with a £x off £xx spend voucher tbh.

    • MattB says:
      23 Apr23 April 07:21

      I was getting decent offers and have been taking advantage for years. I’m still getting the same number but whereas I may have had 50/60+ points I’m now getting 10 which is no incentive now.

      We only ever double up to get the most value and assuming it happens again this year already have enough to max it it out so can’t complain too much.

      • Pete says:
        23 Apr23 April 08:22

        What was the Double Up maximum last year, please?

        • MattB says:
          23 Apr23 April 08:45

          Exchange 10k nectar for £100 voucher per card. So if like me you have more than 20k in your account you can take out a supplemental card and exchange 10k on each one.

    • Super Secret Stuff says:
      23 Apr23 April 13:22

      Completely disagree, they would have banned me months ago if that was the case 😉

  • Dan says:
    23 Apr23 April 05:41

    I’ve had at least 20 offers the past 2 weeks AND a £9 off £60 shop for 2 weeks as well.

  • Alex says:
    23 Apr23 April 06:09

    I haven’t had new offers for two weeks. I phoned them up last week and got through to an actual person immediately who said it was a ‘technical problem’. I mentioned that family members were still getting offers and he implied that when my offers returned they would reflect what I had continued to spend & I wouldn’t lose out. It is a bit suspicious…. maybe I should transfer out my nectar points and start a new account.

    • Alex W says:
      23 Apr23 April 07:21

      We have several nectar accounts on the go. If you save up for Xmas savers to get 1p per point then there is no point having more than 10k in one account as that’s the annual cap. With a nectar Amex and weekly offers we can rack up 10k every few months.

  • Allycat says:
    23 Apr23 April 06:32

    Slightly off the main topic, but does anyone know when the double Nectar points for shopping done from Jan-Apr are supposed to be awarded? When they announced the new Avios tie up it was put as:

    Sainsbury’s is also giving you something. You will earn double Nectar points (2 per £1) on all shopping at Sainsbury’s between 25th January and 19th April.

    As far as I can tell I have only received 1 nectar point per £ on all the shopping each week plus the weekly offers bonus points, but haven’t had 2 per £, and have assumed they will post later. I have linked the nectar and BA accounts and did transfer nectar to Avios and got that bonus etc.

    • gareth says:
      23 Apr23 April 07:01

      I think that it was within 28 days of the 19th April

    • Red Flyer says:
      23 Apr23 April 07:34

      I got mine on 8th April.
      Disappointing that the paper coupons at checkout have stopped – often used to get some pretty good ones for petrol and 3x points if spend £40 or more.

      • Red Flyer says:
        23 Apr23 April 07:55

        Sorry that was for double points on getting a pet insurance not the offer you refer to.

      • David Lawton says:
        23 Apr23 April 08:42

        I got a paper coupon this week, 200 points if i buy Colgate toothpaste. But my weekly offers have stopped for last 2 weeks.

      • Alex Sm says:
        23 Apr23 April 16:51

        You need to press a button on the printing machine at the checkout to get paper vouchers. They are no longer popping out automatically – because of too much waste, I guess

  • Ryan says:
    23 Apr23 April 07:05

    I took this up with Tesco also with regards to their missing coupons that I stopped receiving probably over two years ago now.

    Standard response, that we offer competitive prices etc etc etc.

    As an aside in relation to Sainsbury’s, like Rob I struggle to see the consistent value of these targeted offers. I use Sainsbury’s for lunchtime convenience/impulse purchases and knowing that I can get 100 bonus points for buying a tuna sandwich but would need to do a much larger equivalent family shop does make me question the value.

  • Alice says:
    23 Apr23 April 07:07

    An older person living alone will buy very different things to a young family. Personalised offers are more fair than generic offers for everyone.

  • Crafty says:
    23 Apr23 April 07:13

    They have also clogged up the “partner offers” page with ones you can’t dismiss (e.g. telling you that you can use points at Nero), making it harder to spot the genuine offers.

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

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