To ask how you best utilise your Clubcard points?

[MoanyYoni]

I'm quite new to the Tesco Clubcard points system and have just received my third statement which has £10 worth of vouchers.

Of the last 2 statements, one we put directly to that week's shop and the other was near Christmas so we did the exchange and bought toys for DC.

Neither coupon had got to more than £10 though. Looking through the leaflet I can see you can use points for all kinds of restaurants, days out etc. How do you use your points? Do you think it's best to save them all up till you've collected enough for something significant?

[verytellytubby]

We exchange ours for Pizza Express vouchers. £5 of club card vouchers = £20 Pizza Express vouchers. We go out for lots of meals with the kids

[WhereBeThatBlackbirdTo]

We use them for Red Spotted Hanky credits, doubles the value, so that DS can travel home from uni on the train.

[SmellsLikeWeenSpirits]

So uh in words of one syllable. If you swap them for vouchers you get more than they're worth if you spend them
In store?

How to you know where you can buy vouchers for and how much the points are worth if you do?

I don't recall ever having had a statement

[WorrySighWorrySigh]

Smells - yes

You can get all the information on the tesco website:

here

Is it possible you have moved at some point so are not receiving your vouchers?

[piprabbit]

There should be a statement printed in the booklet that your paper vouchers arrive in.
You can find out about current deals and offers, and how to turn your Tesco vouchers into vouchers you can spend on other stuff on the clubcard website.

[piprabbit]

Oops x-post.

[SmellsLikeWeenSpirits]

Oh I've just checked online. I've got £4.61

Now I don't do my main shop with tesco, but I do often buy petrol there. And I have a tesco credit card with lots of debt on.

I shan't get excited about my trip to st Lucia just yet

[MoanyYoni]

Some fantastic ideas here, thanks! So it seems that by letting the vouchers burn a hole in my pocket I'm missing out..saving it is!

However from your posts I am struggling to decide what to save for; toys for Christmas, family break, taking DS to Thomas land or the les mis DVD for me

[BrienneOfTarth]

We save the vouchers - they are valid for 2 years - and spend them on a lovely hotel mini-break for free. One year we even had enough for a week at Butlins for free!

[pineapplecrush]

Magazine subscription here too. Usually Good Housekeeping but had a change this time and just ordered Essentials as didn't have quite enough points. Doing it online was so easy - a list of the vouchers I had last time and this time was already there, just had to state the ones I'm using. Will use remaining £5 to double up in exchange scheme for a pair of shorts/sandals from F & F.

[chocolatespiders]

Gutted- I just found an out of date Strada voucher that I had changed up>>> my own sill fault


Pizza express, strada or Bella Italia is what we swap for

[Growlithe]

Smells you know what they say, Every Little Helps.

[skyeskyeskye]

I use mine every year to get a RAC subscription. I just used £60 of vouchers to get an At Home, Onward Travel, Roadside and Recovery which is the top membership and costs £145 if you do with through RAC.

I exchange other vouchers for days out, they are worth 4 x usually, or sometimes 5 x. This means that I had two free days out over easter, changing £15 into £60 which paid for 5 of us to get in.

Another thing I did was get a Toy Story 3 book for DD, which was personalised to have her name and her friends names in it. She loves it.

Or if you just double up in store when its available, you can buy clothes, school uniform and much more :)

[scarletcrossbones]

Hm, they really confuse me too. Can someone help? I've just checked and it says:
My current points total:
65
Vouchers to spend now:
£ 46.50

What does that really mean? What kind of stuff could I get with that? I've only done it once before - spent it all on school uniform last summer and was pleased with that. But if I wait another year at this rate, and make sure and buy absolutely everything at Tesco, could that be nearly a holiday, do you think?? Pretty please??

[skyeskyeskye]

you need to check the Clubcard website as they are always changing things.

We have had two free holidays with Park Resorts in the past using the Clubcard vouchers, but they keep changing the rules. You used to be able to get a top range caravan, now you cant and they have taken some parks off there too.

there are limits on some of them as to how many vouchers you can use, for example the Disneyland Paris one is either £500 or £750 depending on the time of year. Butlins dont have a limit, but you cant use them for addons, only accommodation and dining on normal breaks, not special weekends.

They all vary really, so depending on what you want to do, you could get a free holiday :) we had two :)

[ilikesweetpeas]

Has anyone done Blackpool circus with them? Just seen that on the tesco website and wondered what it's like?

[Lweji]

I just use them for shopping, thereby saving the money.
Can't be arsed to look for the deals and so on.

[babybythesea]

Airmiles. DD and I flew to Jersey for a 10 day break to visit friends - still had to pay airport taxes but flights themselves were free and it was a wonderful chance to catch up with some really good mates and show dd old haunts (I used to live there!) Couldn't have afforded the plane fare otherwise. Dh flew to a conference he was desperate to go to - his work could pay for the registration but not the travel so we did that from Clubcard airmiles!

[WhereDoAllTheCalculatorsGo]

I get masses with the tesco credit card.
I get RAC membership every year. Weekends away (Novotel, Hilton etc.) Pizza Express, Prezzo, Chef and Brewer etc.
Goldsmiths jewellers a couple of times, theatre tickets and days out vouchers. I recently got two bay trees from Thompson and Morgan and some Denby crockery.
Back in 2001 I was lucky enough to get 2 return flights to New York for £49 in vouchers each. That was before the airmiles/avios thing though, you can't get flights direct now.

[Goldendandelion]

I forgot about the RAC membership. We do that too.

[Crikeyblimey]

I never spend ours on shopping because they are worth so much more in rewards vouchers.

We use them to exchange for Pizza Express vouchers (4x face value), Red Spotted Hankie for rail travel (dh went to Scotland £120 rail ticket down to about £45 of vouchers).

Rac membership is loads cheaper too.

We use the other day out stuff occasionally - £98 Legoland cost £28 in vouchers.

Check out the web site and keep saving them - just keep an eye on the expiry dates (although Tesco email me when I have some due to expire).

[scarletcrossbones]

Is there anything to stop people using their credit card for everything it's possible to buy at Tesco, Calculators - weekly shopping, the lot? I've not had a credit card for 6 or 7 years now but this sounds like a distinct advantage of having one ...

[Chopchopbusybusy]

We've had Merlin annual passes and various I day theme park passes. DD2 has a lovelinks bracelet from goldsmiths, DH has had a £300 watch. We've had numerous meals out.

[dolallylass]

Save them up for 2 years and put towards a holiday. Got £1880 ready right now to go towards next holiday. I use Tesco credit card, club card plus and club card, hardly a penny gets spent in our house without collecting points. Best system ever!! This is the 5th time we've done it saved £7k and travelled all over the world! Thanks Tesco

[BornToFolk]

I've just used £15 of vouchers to get a Friends and Family railcard (worth £28). It'll save about a third off rail fares and as I'm planning on taking DS on a big rail trip this summer, it's paid for itself already.

The Clubcard exchange is well worth it, I did it last year before Christmas and got toy vouchers towards DS's present.

And I'd done days out too - Legoland and the Sea Life centre. Just using them on shopping is a bit of a waste really.