Massive Clubcard devaluation

[WillPS]

https://www.tesco.com/help/articles/16250187592089-Change-to-Tesco-Reward-Partner-scheme-from-14-June-2023

Clubcard Reward Partner exchanges are changing from 3x to 2x face value from June 14th. In the meantime any vouchers purchased will have a 12 month expiration, although with Hotels.com in particular it’s awkward to purchase in advance.

[BuildBackBetter]

Virgin points go from 2.5x to 2x.

[WillPS]

I think it’s still *just about* worth keeping the Tesco Premium Card I have going. Changed my mind, it’s dead.

For ‘everywhere else’ spend it’s totally dead now – it goes from being effectively 0.75% (less in reality) to 0.5% (less in reality). It was borderline before but now it’s easily beaten by the free Avios Barclaycard, converted to Nectar which works out as 0.66%.

For Tesco it still makes sense if you spend that £2500 – 1 pt per £ plus 2500 pt bonus at £2500, so 5000 points, in theory worth £100 – probably more like £90 once you factor in the cost you pay vs what you’d pay cash. Knock the annual fee off and you’ve got a rate of a little over 2% at Tesco, and every £ over that is worth about 1.8%.

Not a product I feel particularly smug about having any more but still useful.

Just need to figure out how best to get value from the £200 or so worth of vouchers I will have by June before the devaluation.

Edit – just remembered that I can buy Tesco gift cards with a 4% discount via Perks at Work. RIP Premium Card.

[Harrier25]

WillPS wrote:

RIP Premium Card

RIP Tesco! There’s a better quality of food in Sainsbury’s, and Nectar points too! 😀

[jj]

I have a small Tesco within 3 minutes walk and a large Tesco within 15 minutes walk of my house. I spend no more than a few £ per week there. Aldi is cheaper and better quality, the local butcher and greengrocer are much better quality and no more expensive, and M&S sorts me out for luxuries. I haven’t found a niche for Tesco.

This certainly won’t encourage me.

[WillPS]

Harrier25 wrote:

WillPS wrote:

RIP Premium Card

RIP Tesco! There’s a better quality of food in Sainsbury’s, and Nectar points too! 😀

Sainsbury’s is slowly but surely winning me over now, I have to say. The earn rate always feels insultingly poor to me but there is something to be said for the ease of redemption with Nectar – both how easy it actually is (no faffing about with ‘vouchers’) and also how little concern I have that I could be passing up on a better redemption another time/elsewhere (we don’t fly so none of the Avios related options are much use for us); other than the occasional coffee, your points will be worth exactly £2.50 per 500.

I’ve never had an issue with Tesco quality, mind, and there are some staples there which I don’t think can be had cheaper (esp. if you factor in Clubcard Plus) – passata and jelapenos I never buy elsewhere.

[TGLoyalty]

Check out SmartShop offers in your nectar app you might be surprised once you start buying

[Rui N.]

The standard earn rate on Nectar is quite poor indeed, but they have so many offers for specific items that if you strategy even a little bit you can improve the earning rate several fold.
My weekly shop at S. is around £50-£125, and always get at least 200 bonus points, my record is around 800. Plus a few £ saved on the smart shopper offers every week.

[Carlos]

WillPS wrote:

I think it’s still *just about* worth keeping the Tesco Premium Card I have going. Changed my mind, it’s dead.

For ‘everywhere else’ spend it’s totally dead now – it goes from being effectively 0.75% (less in reality) to 0.5% (less in reality). It was borderline before but now it’s easily beaten by the free Avios Barclaycard, converted to Nectar which works out as 0.66%.

For Tesco it still makes sense if you spend that £2500 – 1 pt per £ plus 2500 pt bonus at £2500, so 5000 points, in theory worth £100 – probably more like £90 once you factor in the cost you pay vs what you’d pay cash. Knock the annual fee off and you’ve got a rate of a little over 2% at Tesco, and every £ over that is worth about 1.8%.

Not a product I feel particularly smug about having any more but still useful.

Just need to figure out how best to get value from the £200 or so worth of vouchers I will have by June before the devaluation.

Edit – just remembered that I can buy Tesco gift cards with a 4% discount via Perks at Work. RIP Premium Card.

Disappointing move by Tesco

I have accumulated about £95 Tesco vouchers which previously used in store but was on track to use them with Hotels.com

However the devaluation means I go from £285 of value to £190.

To make it worse the rates on Hotels.com are not very good as Tesco redirect you to their portal which has uplifted rates.

There is also a cap on the room (maxed at 250)
I recently used £45 towards a Premier Inn which was good value as I needed a cheap room after a late flight before my main stay. The vouchers are also valid for 1.5 years if im not mistaken, so may get it locked in. Just need to decide the denomination as you can only use one per room

[WillPS]

Carlos wrote:

WillPS wrote:

I think it’s still *just about* worth keeping the Tesco Premium Card I have going. Changed my mind, it’s dead.

For ‘everywhere else’ spend it’s totally dead now – it goes from being effectively 0.75% (less in reality) to 0.5% (less in reality). It was borderline before but now it’s easily beaten by the free Avios Barclaycard, converted to Nectar which works out as 0.66%.

For Tesco it still makes sense if you spend that £2500 – 1 pt per £ plus 2500 pt bonus at £2500, so 5000 points, in theory worth £100 – probably more like £90 once you factor in the cost you pay vs what you’d pay cash. Knock the annual fee off and you’ve got a rate of a little over 2% at Tesco, and every £ over that is worth about 1.8%.

Not a product I feel particularly smug about having any more but still useful.

Just need to figure out how best to get value from the £200 or so worth of vouchers I will have by June before the devaluation.

Edit – just remembered that I can buy Tesco gift cards with a 4% discount via Perks at Work. RIP Premium Card.

To make it worse the rates on Hotels.com are not very good as Tesco redirect you to their portal which has uplifted rates.

On UK redemptions I find the rate is the same – you sometimes need to log in to see the ‘secret prices’ (as you do on the main website).

What you don’t get is the offers/cashback which mean you effectively pay 10+% more than you’d pay in cash. Still an excellent redemption at 3x, IMO.

[WillPS]

Rui N. wrote:

The standard earn rate on Nectar is quite poor indeed, but they have so many offers for specific items that if you strategy even a little bit you can improve the earning rate several fold.
My weekly shop at S. is around £50-£125, and always get at least 200 bonus points, my record is around 800. Plus a few £ saved on the smart shopper offers every week.

Yeah I do all that. I guess £1-4 has always felt a bit stingy compared to the 9p (more like 8p in reality) per £ that I was getting from shopping at Tesco with the Premium Credit Card (albeit with an annual fee which accounts for 2/3 of that) + an extra few quid in discount from Clubcard Plus whenever I can be bothered to go to a shop (cancelled immediately each time).

[duggie1982]

Carlos wrote:

WillPS wrote:

I think it’s still *just about* worth keeping the Tesco Premium Card I have going. Changed my mind, it’s dead.

For ‘everywhere else’ spend it’s totally dead now – it goes from being effectively 0.75% (less in reality) to 0.5% (less in reality). It was borderline before but now it’s easily beaten by the free Avios Barclaycard, converted to Nectar which works out as 0.66%.

For Tesco it still makes sense if you spend that £2500 – 1 pt per £ plus 2500 pt bonus at £2500, so 5000 points, in theory worth £100 – probably more like £90 once you factor in the cost you pay vs what you’d pay cash. Knock the annual fee off and you’ve got a rate of a little over 2% at Tesco, and every £ over that is worth about 1.8%.

Not a product I feel particularly smug about having any more but still useful.

Just need to figure out how best to get value from the £200 or so worth of vouchers I will have by June before the devaluation.

Edit – just remembered that I can buy Tesco gift cards with a 4% discount via Perks at Work. RIP Premium Card.

Disappointing move by Tesco

I have accumulated about £95 Tesco vouchers which previously used in store but was on track to use them with Hotels.com

However the devaluation means I go from £285 of value to £190.

To make it worse the rates on Hotels.com are not very good as Tesco redirect you to their portal which has uplifted rates.

There is also a cap on the room (maxed at 250)
I recently used £45 towards a Premier Inn which was good value as I needed a cheap room after a late flight before my main stay. The vouchers are also valid for 1.5 years if im not mistaken, so may get it locked in. Just need to decide the denomination as you can only use one per room

Since the announcement from tesco i am thinking on emptying my balance to hotels.com, like yourself, just trying to find the sweet spot with denominations.

[Tracey]

The only deal I’ve used in recent years is pizza express. I’ll change what I have before the deadline.

[Carlos]

@duggie1982 I think for me the sweet spot will be £50 this way I can stick to cheap hotels being covered for 18 months, for overnight stays or in-between hotel hopping. Have some ideas to do some reviews and vlogging soon so it will come in handy that way.

Elsewhere I will look to book direct where I have status (and without) unless its a good value deal. I find Agoda better value these days than Hotels.com

[iplaypoker]

We use them for pizzas express and Disney plus. Will convert what I have left before then.

[R]

Airport parking has been a good one for me lately and will likely cash out a lot there.

[FatherOfFour]

We’ve used Eurotunnel for redemption a number of times. Another road trip to Italy planned this year so we’ll book now. That will use much of our remainder

[Rob]

It’s not clear (to me) that Virgin is changing. Need to speak to them tomorrow.

[Peter K]

Rob Burgess wrote:

It’s not clear (to me) that Virgin is changing. Need to speak to them tomorrow.

@Rob

Did you see the footnote from the email sent out by Tesco?

Here’s how our Clubcard Reward Partner scheme is changing
From 14 June**…

**For customers opted into the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club scheme who receive a quarterly statement or exchange in between statement periods via Request Virgin Points, the exchange will change to 2x from 21 July.

So it will change to 2x for Virgin as well, but a little later than the 14th June if you auto-exchange. If you don’t it will be 14th June like all the other rewards.

[WillPS]

Aye. I wonder if a possible ‘upside’ to this deal could be Virgin points becoming exchangable with Clubcard (ala Avios/Nectar).

[robkeane]

Tesco has for several years now only been a bit player in frequent flyer points, compared to earlier.

It is a long time since I’ve saw the somewhat disparaging “tesco traveller” moniker used by the more snobbish members of the FT BA forum to look down on those that were “taking their award seats” from them.

[Alex G]

Still worth exchanging Tesco => Virgin => Hilton.

You are buying Hilton points at one third of a penny, which can be good value for US redemptions. (Especially 5 night stays.)

You need a lot of Tesco points though, as Virgin to Hilton is in increments of 10k.

[WillPS]

Alex G wrote:

Still worth exchanging Tesco => Virgin => Hilton.

You are buying Hilton points at one third of a penny, which can be good value for US redemptions. (Especially 5 night stays.)

You need a lot of Tesco points though, as Virgin to Hilton is in increments of 10k.

Seems poor value compared to Hotels.com, no? (Even after the drop to double from triple value).

[John]

I find it a bit odd that Tesco is using “2x” here which implies that Virgin points are definitively worth 1p. I don’t think they ever said it like that before, including for avios?

[Alex G]

WillPS wrote:

Alex G wrote:

Still worth exchanging Tesco => Virgin => Hilton.

You are buying Hilton points at one third of a penny, which can be good value for US redemptions. (Especially 5 night stays.)

You need a lot of Tesco points though, as Virgin to Hilton is in increments of 10k.

Seems poor value compared to Hotels.com, no? (Even after the drop to double from triple value).

I do use Hotels.com a lot, but haven’t transferred Clubcard points to them. Honestly, I havenlt researched it properly. But I would be worried about losing CB from Volderportal and reward nights. I don’t earn a huge amount of Tesco points these days, and I do buy Hilton points for cash.