To think loyalty schemes are being downgraded?

Enjoy! It’s quite the rabbit hole.

I swear my Amazon does it too. If I search incognito I get shown the same product from different sellers at a cheaper price. If I log in, sometimes the prices change. Sometimes they don’t. But they certainly show you different listings (even if same product) on search.

Well, it's interesting, I will look into it.

Thats the whole point. How would you know. At the moment Sainsburys are getting away with it because it’s only a select number of items and how can you compare. I have no proof they are doing this; but why wouldnt they!?

In research in America where its known they are - it looks like the AI is banding buyers into between 3 to 7 bands based on the judgment by the AI.

There it’s across the board on all items. If they are evaluating you as a higher tier customer then you pay 50p to £1 more per item and it’s an average difference in bag price for 20 items of c. 12 dollars. between lower payer and higher payer.

Ie. Price of hula hoops. Tier 1 pays 50p, Tier 2 pays 62p, Tier 3 pays 75, Tier 4 pays 90p, Tier 5 pay £1.22 and Tier 6 £1.37 and Tier 7 is paying £1.50

What the computer is using to make this decision is unknown. But considering how much data they have on us it could be anything. Even known household income.

So there its not swings in roundabouts. It’s predatory pricing to try to get every last penny out of customers they think they can get away with.

I just deleted my sparks account. As you say, I don’t mind them having my info in a reciprocal agreement.

But as I am never going to spend £6 on yoghurt to earn a single pound off something they can get to fuck

I only use my nectar card on the 2 tier priced products. They don't get much marketing info from me.

The value of the points is a bad joke and I can't access them either since I had the few points I had stolen. My card is locked for redemptions and they are unable to unlock it.

I always use the Boots recycle app, and get £5 of points on a £10 spend.
i scan all of my empties, and they soon add up.

Agreed. I am not sure what people imagine Tesco's, etc, are doing with their data other than using it as a targeted marketing tool.

Disagree - years ago, I got a new car from motorpoint and a 2 week holiday for the family of 4 in the Maldives, half board, with some savvy shopping in Tesco.

Friend has just booked a 4 night 5* trip away in Milan with her loyalty points on her credit card spends. She only paid tax on the business flights. She pays the card off in full each month.

We're very happy for them to have our data for our freebies.

Agreed. Each to their own.
I confess I am sometimes jealous of the deals loyalty card holder get. Just not jealous enough to tempt me.

Rach to their own. Personally I don't care if supermarkets know how much butter I buy.

Yep, same with nectar. I used to be able to do a Christmas shop with it, now that element has dropped significantly

I'm not aware that's how it works. Do you have any evidence that personalised discount items vary between individuals and that there is not a 'swings and roundabouts' element in which, on another item, I would save more than the other customer?

If that is how it works, then yes, I see that point, but as I am not privy to every discount my neighbouring shopper gets, I genuinely don't know. Having the nectar costs me nothing, and as well as personalised, there are in-store general discounts to all nectar holders.

Something is better than nothing. If I had no nectar card at all, I could guarantee I would always be paying more than my fellow shopper who has one.

I have earned 12p since January!

Absolutely crap, I used to end up with 40-50 quid to do a Christmas drinks shop with!

I use my nectar points on the Eurostar. We got a return for two to Paris for £8

I scan my Sparks card so my chosen charity gets money, but 9 times out of ten I don't bother to upload the offers, I'd rather just get an email saying these are the offers this week. Invariably the offers mean I would have to spend more than I wanted to and the freebies were things I didn't want.
Tesco Clubcard is still reasonable in some ways, we've used vouchers doubled up for various non tesco things.
Boots always pissed me off as you had to have the entire item price in points.

No you both have nectar card.

You both have offers for x on personalised prices.

You get 50p off. The shopper next to you is getting £1 off for the same item.

You think you’re getting a good deal. But no you are actually being charged more.

Yes! I have started buying through Quidco, and then paying full price through Klarna. I get money back from Quidco, and then money back through klarna (for some stores)

If the shopper checking out next to me hasn't got nectar, I'm the one getting certain items for less. Not sure I quite understand your point. Of course it wouldn't be good if the shopper without nectar was paying less than me. Obviously, I wouldn't bother with the nectar card if that was the case.

Loyalty Cards have always been an absolute con.

they get our data for free, in exchange for a few "discounts" that we have to pay through the nose for.

they've never been rewards.

the day I realised this was the day I actually started saving real money

I miss the days of amazing holidays and new cars on Clubcard 😞

Would you think it was good if the shopper checking out next to you was paying 50p less per item.

Nectar is only good now for in-store deals.

Maybe her email is something embarrassing like ihavemassiveboobs@gmail or shopliftingismyhobby@outlook.

I also think unsubscribing if they do start emailing is so much easier than it used to be. I ordered something from Charlotte Tilbury as a gift for a niece last Christmas and within hours was getting emails every 6 hours which all started "Darlings!" Hit unsubscribe, and they stopped.

Unless of course the OP believes that Hollister and other places are up to nefarious practices and don't abide by rules/laws. Imagine, she could use the 15% she saves to get a bigger roll of tinfoil to make her hats from.

When Hollister ask for an email, there’s no box to tick. They sell that data on.

If lots of companies have your data, they’re all selling it on. You are in far more danger of being hacked/scammed, and at a simple irritation level you will receive far more scam calls and spam emails.
Even companies that don’t sell data on (that have the tick boxes) are hacked on an almost daily basis - you’ll remember the latest big one was M&S.

An email, leads to a number, leads to an address, leads to an NI number, leads to bank details. They’re all small parts of a bigger picture that emerges about you as a person, and then you are ripe to be exploited.
Identity theft and fraud is one of the biggest criminal areas the police have to deal with right now. We can all help ourselves by not being so blasé about sharing our data.