Mumsnet Talk

See loyalty cards? I am very brand blind, it comes of years of watching adverts as a kid and now coming out in a rash when adverts come on telly so I make it a point to never know the brand name of anything. To the extent that I buy instant coffee one week and like it and when it runs out I go to buy what I think is the same product but it turns out tasting like the floor scrapings of the devils own bathroom rendered into brown crumbly bits. Yuck. So I ask my dn when he shops with me because he's got a magic brain that retains all this trivial fol de rol like what Coffee aunty likes.

So I get talked into taking out a loyalty card relationship with Sainsburys /BP/ Tesco/Morrisons etc. and then I have to remember what they look like and remember they are in my wallet and remember which shop I am in and what loyalty card goes with which shop. So many is the time that a shop person asks me, Have you got a loyalty card? And I say untruthfully "no" because it's in my wallet in the car cos I ran into the garage with a twenty not thinking I would get the third degree about bits of plastic this and that to make a simple transaction super complicated and stressful! And it's in my wallet and I'm not going to hold up the business of the ientire shop while I hunt around for some stupid card that I don't even care about.

Nectar cards, yeah? They are purple, right? So I toddle along to the garage with all the GREEN shiny signs about the place (not purple, yeah?) and I get some diesel and I run into the shop with my twenty note and then ... Argh it's a "do you have a Nectar card?" social situation and I have failed once again!

I did try going the other way and bringing my wallet in and even preemptively getting out my loyalty card and handing it proudly over with my note of money and all I got was a look of icy disdain from the shop person who said "we don't do Nectar cards here". And so I retreated, bitten and twice shy and vowed I would just lie and say I don't have one next time. But then even that is complex. They try to offer you a new one and you feel like scum saying no, that's why I have the loyalty cards in the first place, that's what got me into this sticky mess in the first place!

I know it theoretically saves you money if you are loyal but I fuel up where and how I will, I shop hither and thither and yon, and I am not loyal, I am disloyal, nay, promiscuous in my spending habits, I will go anywhere and do anything and the thought of a piece of green/blue/yellow shiny card won't change me. I am still not convinced its not just a means of big business and the lizard people and the Illuminati to keep me on the grid. I can't think of anything worse than some bit of tree being rendered into junk mail and "targeted" at me because on the third of September Two years ago i purchased a container of Shake and Vac. And now I am on some "list", the list of people who can be coerced into purchasing Shake and Vac with the carrot of a bargain. No! I say no and I mean it! I will buy Shake and Vac based entirely on my own need of it and not because a tree was sacrificed into junk mail. Get out of my head, commerce.

Who is with me?

I have had a nectar card for some years and have no idea how to redeeem the collected points. This also puts me in the "loyalty cards? huh?" camp.

Erm....I like them but I only have them for the places I go to regularly.

What a strange post. I had no idea anyone felt that strongly about loyalty cards.

I don't like how they try to get you to be loyal to the one shop when Sainsburys for instance charge 2 pounds for a tin of coconut milk but the Chinese wholesaler sells the exact same product for 1 pound. And I don't think the Chinese place does loyalty cards, but they do really groovy placcy bags so that is far more valuable. I bought 7 cans for 7 pounds, better than 7 for 14 pounds and the Monopoly magic money bullshit that is points.

I think loyalty cards are on the whole quite underwhelming. I don't spend enough money in any of the shops I hold one for to make it worthwhile.

Lula I am exaggerating for comic effect.....? Humour? Never mind.

But you don't have to be loyal to gain from them . I shop at several different places but I'd gained enough Tesco points to get a 6x8 garden shed in the clubcard exchange last year . I hadn't gone out of my way to buy things and if I can get something for nothing just for swiping a card then I'm all for it .

Lol

You have to be loyal enough to remember to take the card into the shop. I am such a dullard when I'm shopping. Or I'm in a rush. Can't be doing with messing about, just want to pay and go.

You don't have to be loyal to one shop

We do all our summer days out on Tesco vouchers and cinema trips, in fact we never pay t go to the cinema now.

Don't use them if you don't like them.

I have the following-
Nectar
Tesco CC
Superdrug
Boots
Iceland
Pets at Home
Waitrose
Subway

Don't know how much loyalty is on most of them.

Years of Nectar points pretty much bought me an Ipad.
Tesco points they send you in vouchers which you can spend in store like real money - we've got about £20 worth waiting to be spent, or you can use them in restaurants, theme parks etc where £10 = £40
I don't go to the Chinese store to just buy soy sauce so do most of my shopping in one supermarket - You're missing out!

Why don't you just shove the card in your purse like 99% of the rest of the country?

You don't have to be loyal but you do have to be organised and/or have a PA to get any benefit.

And Boots, free makeup - yes please!

Why did you actually sign up for them op? If you don't want to use them or be sent the special offers etc. It is not compulsory.

PA starlight? As in personal assistant?

You don't have to use loyalty cards, you don't have to be loyal to one particular shop to use loyalty cards. They are easier to use than a credit card (if you put them in your purse/wallet) because you don't need to use a pin - just hand them over to the assistant.

However, I can full understand that they might be tricky to operate for someone who is unable to remember 'Kenco' or 'Nescafe' and has to take an assistant with them in order to cope with the weekly shop.

I often have to remind my mum that her inability to work the DVD player doesn't make her morally superior to those of us who know that one arrow is 'play' and two arrows are 'fast forward'.

Nectar points get all the treats food and drinks wise we want each Christmas.

I have Boots advantage card, and quite often treat myself with the points that have accumulated.

My Waitrose card won me £230 of John Lewis vouchers in a draw, so I do love that.

I collect points of House of Fraser card - but I will not use their credit card. I've recently had £100 to spend on that.

I refuse to accept more cards, but the ones I've got do serve me well!

I love my loyalty cards.

Because of nectar I got DS's new bedroom curtains for free.

I also got a hair dye for free at the weekend from superdrug

I love them

Its just a 1-10% (depending on shop and product) discount. I don't shop based on points but I do carry my cards (in my filofax) and the points add up to a full shop about every 6 months.

If you cba that's also fine, its not a problem.

Your post made me proper lol.

I have £56 in boots points

And about £40 in tesco voucher point thingys