To wonder the purpose of a Sparks card

Buck3t · 2018-02-01T13:04:14+00:00

I mean, if you know it's purpose or have in some way received a benefit, please let me know. Because I use it. But never are the things I usually buy from M&S are ever with that piddly 20%

theunsure · 01/02/2018 13:05

The benefit is to M&S who get your data! Same as all of the store based cards.....

Feezles · 01/02/2018 13:10

theunsure is correct, the biggest benefactor is M&S themselves. However, since I have about 11-billionty Sparks now (I basically just give all my cash to M&S most months), I do get quite a lot of good offers - sometimes 20% off everything, sometimes clothing items I actually need, sometimes homewares. Even the food offers often work for me as I buy lunch there most days I'm working. Oh, and I occasionally get invited to special events, not that I usually can/want to attend.

Stinkbomb · 01/02/2018 13:11

I get good offers - money off food & clothing, sometimes 20% off everything etc.
Same with any loyalty card re the data collection though.

woodchuckchuck · 01/02/2018 13:13

These days I only ever buy groceries in M & S and it is where I buy most of my food.

Are you saying that you regularly get 20% off all food shopping? If so then it would be worth it for me to have another flipping card in my purse.

Floralnomad · 01/02/2018 13:14

I get good benefits like 20% off GF stuff and prawns , makes quite a difference to the cost of a shop .

Feezles · 01/02/2018 13:19

woodchuck - I think the 20% offers on everything include food. I probably get one of those every 2 - 3 months. They are usually good for multiple uses over 7 - 10 days.

Then I usually get specific food offers at least monthly. At the moment, I I've got 20% off pasta and jarred sauces, bread rolls, and £5 off a £25 spend.

Lottapianos · 01/02/2018 13:24

The 20% offers are good. I would much prefer it though if you could collect points that you could spend, like the Boots Advantage card. It's a fairly rubbish loyalty card really

MakeMisogynyAHateCrime · 01/02/2018 13:25

I use mine to scrape the ice off my windscreen.

girlywhirly · 01/02/2018 13:50

We decided against the sparks card as we don’t spend enough in M&S to make it worth our while. We do have the credit card, because we can use that anywhere, and we get points which convert to vouchers which have a long validity period. There are also vouchers for 5x points on in store spends.

Lottapianos · 01/02/2018 13:52

'I use mine to scrape the ice off my windscreen'

Original poster

Buck3t · 01/02/2018 13:54

I don't get 20% on anything I want to buy. And 20% is better than nothing but I'd prefer 30-40% but I only buy food and school uniform and lingerie everything else is lost on me.

OP posts:

ForgotwhatIcameinherefor · 01/02/2018 14:07

The food offers I get are usually well-suited to me. I am constantly getting an extra £1 off the 3 for £7 deli deal - and their crustless quiche is one of my fave things in the world!

squoosh · 01/02/2018 14:10

They give you a fiver on your birthday.

Jjou · 01/02/2018 14:13

I've never had anything useful from it. Even the offers are for oddly-specific part of their ranges that I've never purchased before. Complete waste of time, I don't even bother having it in my purse these days.

Housewife2010 · 01/02/2018 14:18

Sparks members get priority access to their sales with 50,% off marked price which can be cheaper than the actual sale price.

homebythesea · 01/02/2018 14:21

Completely pointless card IMVHO - you have to go and search the offers every week and they are so bloody specific (“10% off blue cashmere mix jumpers” “20% off 150g packs of quinoa” - you get my drift).

I would so prefer vouchers like Tesco or points like Boots. As it is I’ve got 568,123,097 sparkles or whatever they are called, completely redundant

sueelleker · 01/02/2018 15:40

Never found any of the offers useful-I lost the card and didn't bother to replace it.

saltandvinegarcrisps1 · 01/02/2018 15:44

I queued up for mine and it took ages to go through and I got flipping 10% off a punnet of v overpriced strawberries! So disappointed by the so called offers.

SilverySurfer · 01/02/2018 16:17

It's nothing like supermarkets where you gather points. The offers change weekly and to use them you need to log onto the Sparks website and click the box 'add to card' for those offers of interest. Mine currently shows:

Spend £7.50 on fruit and veg - save £1.50
20% off bread
20% off premium sausages and bacon
20% off women's nightware
10% off perfumes
Bonus offer: a free gift when you spend £25 on womenswear

I think they are pretty good offers and will be using some of them.

shouldaknownbetter · 01/02/2018 16:32

I use it for scraping hair remover off my legs. That's its only purpose!

Foxyloxy1plus1 · 01/02/2018 16:37

I’ve never had a fiver on my birthday.
I’ve never been offered priority access to sales.

I rarely buy their overpriced food and that’s all that I ever seem to be offered.

Bellamuerte · 01/02/2018 16:47

The offer are usually for stuff I don't want plus you have the hassle of selecting the offers you want and adding them to your card. Also I don't shop at M&S regularly so weekly offers are no good to me - I'd prefer to have points that I can save up and use on the half a dozen occasions each year I visit an M&S store.

Floralnomad · 01/02/2018 16:55

I thought the offers were targeted at what you usually buy , 20% off GF bread and frozen prawns is a bit niche for most people yet very useful for us ( mums cat eats 3 bags of frozen prawns a week) . I have the app on my iPad and it’s very easy to load the offers , takes seconds .

Original poster

Buck3t · 01/02/2018 19:59

never got a fiver on my birthday either.

OP posts:

browneyes77 · 01/02/2018 20:34

The offer are usually for stuff I don't want plus you have the hassle of selecting the offers you want and adding them to your card. Also I don't shop at M&S regularly so weekly offers are no good to me - I'd prefer to have points that I can save up and use on the half a dozen occasions each year I visit an M&S store.

Same here. I tend to select the undies offers as that what I tend to buy the most of at M&S but it’s never a great amount off to be honest and it’s usually for very specific underwear not the stuff I want to buy.

I’ve also never had a fiver on my birthday?

I think Boots is the only card I have that actually works well/benefits me. Many times in my younger years when I earnt less and was always skint I was able to buy sarnies etc for my lunch at work using my boots points