Perks at Work – any tips?

[M]

I just got access to perks at work, what are some interesting deals you used there? I know it can be different depending on employer, but would still be interesting to know.

[Carlos]

It takes 4 weeks to register the in store card discount feature

[Reney]

A few recent ones:
– new fridge was 15% cheaper from the corporate deal
– new dishwasher was 5% cheaper plus 1 WoW point per £ on linked card
– car rental in Idaho in May was cheapest at time of booking, but I now see similar prices elsewhere
– one hotel rental in the US was the cheapest by about £10 but I went elsewhere as I had rewards to redeem
– 10 WOW points per £ at Lululemon sometimes
– triple stack with airtime and virgin on previous Morrisons and sweaty betty deals
– 25 WoW point per £ at selected Tesco over Christmas
– discounted gift cards and odeon tickets

Whenever I make an online purchase I always compare the c@shback equivalent rate between PAW, estore and TCB and see which one comes out best before buying.

[aseftel]

You can share your access with friends and family through an invitation portal in the settings.

Not all Perks at Work accounts are created equal. When my wife and I both had access through different employers, the discounts were different.

Some employers are not at all diligent about terminating your access when you leave the company. Change your login to a personal email address.

[SamG]

Not much to add other than their support is excellent – I had an issue with the Tesco x25 points (it seemed to end a bit early) but they credited the difference (a significant amount with no quibble) and I’ve had a couple of things not track which they fix no problem

Do check everything carefully- e.g. their Samsung corporate discount was beaten by the public website due to a cashback offer they had on for example

I use the Sainsbury gift cards a lot – you can do a £50 ecard per online shop + I have a reloadable one for instore. Not sure if it’s just my local but you need to use it at a cash+card self service till

They also sell e-Mastercards for 1x point which I buy with my HSBC WE to “double dip” if I’m doing things like payments to electricity- only occasionally though as I imagine abusing those could get you shut down !

[Andrew.]

aseftel wrote:

You can share your access with friends and family through an invitation portal in the settings.

Not all Perks at Work accounts are created equal. When my wife and I both had access through different employers, the discounts were different.

Some employers are not at all diligent about terminating your access when you leave the company. Change your login to a personal email address.

That’s an absolute top tip. I have two log-ins. One from an employer I left over a decade ago, one for my current employer. The older one has *considerably* better offers than my current one.

I have had some amazing deals over the years, once had a weeks Purple Parking at Heathrow in August discounted to under £9 after all rebates by clicking through from PAW via Holiday Extras.

Some great deals with Dell turn up that stack with the Amex offers.

One tab that’s missing from a lot of PAW is “Corporate Pricing on Hotels”. This is when you can access your company’s negotiated rates at some major hotels – these usually include breakfast and are *sometimes* eligible for points.

[Bobri]

Deals I’ve used:

* Instant e-codes for supermarkets (when I ran out of Monese gift cards)
* Very good discounts on SSD at Samsung on black friday
* Hotel rates are sometimes competitive
* Gift cards to pay taxes (would appreciate any hints on alternative uses)
* Occasional Deliveroo discounts
* Lululemon double stacked with Amex offers

[M]

Thanks everyone, looks like it is a useful addition to the points earning arsenal!

[dst87]

Now I’m sad my employer doesn’t offer this benefit. It sounds quite valuable.

[Steven]

dst87 wrote:

Now I’m sad my employer doesn’t offer this benefit. It sounds quite valuable.

Try asking them, it is free to sign up to.

[dst87]

Steven wrote:

Try asking them, it is free to sign up to.

I mentioned it to my HR person today so fingers crossed!

Technically my husband and I still have our own company… I wonder what would happen if I tried to register that? 🤔 Perhaps available perks scale based on the number of employees?

[Carlos]

Is the US version any better than UK?

[toddy]

dst87 wrote:

Now I’m sad my employer doesn’t offer this benefit. It sounds quite valuable.

Are you sure they don’t offer a similar proposition? Lots of these on the market e.g: perkbox, Lifeworks, Edenred, blue light card discounts, benefithub, vivip etc.

Some will save the ‘top offers’ for larger employers and/or those that purchase additional services e.g Employee Assistance Programmes.

You can set up an Individual account with PAW here:
Click here
You just need to add a company name *cough cough*

[Reney]

Can someone remind me if NHS staff can join PAW? I seem to recall there was a link?

[Andrew.]

Reney wrote:

Can someone remind me if NHS staff can join PAW? I seem to recall there was a link?

Yes, they can.

But don’t just accept a random link from anyone. Some trusts have enhanced PAW, others just have the generic. You must register using the link from your HR/Staff Benefits portal if your trust has the enhanced version.

[Carlos]

Does Virgin + PAW offers work together?

[Andrew.]

Carlos wrote:

Does Virgin + PAW offers work together?

A card based rebate will normally stack with an in-store rebate and an open-banking rebate.

It gets problematic when you have multiple in-store rebates such as PAW, Airtime, Virgin ShopsAway, or BA Executive Club.

They might all work together, but the T&C’s state that they won’t.

[davefl]

Carlos wrote:

Does Virgin + PAW offers work together?

Virgin CC and PAW did stack at Morrisons for me last week. Took a few days longer to appear in PAW than on the Virgin app

[riguphoto]

I’ve just signed up using my work email for my 1-person sole trader business. No idea if I have “full access”, but at least the barrier to entry is very low.