MSE News: Tesco cuts rewards in Clubcard overhaul

mookybargirl

Guess I'll need to use up the ones I've been stock-piling. At least we got some warning before the changes come in.....

I shop more at Mr M now anyway....

rcopus

*manda* wrote: »

Another example would be with the Merlin entertainments- there are frequently BOGOF's for Thorpe Park etc but we get our annual passes using around £37 pounds worth of points. That isn't even half of our weeks shopping bill yet it'll get us unlimited days/evenings use of all the Merlin facilities.

This is exactly what I do, have even recently gotten a Tesco Credit Card to help collect more points.
However now the Merlin Annual Pass will be a whopping £50 in vouchers!

As the rate of points you can collect with a credit card has never increased, coupled with the fact Tesco are the only supermarket which isn't within walking distance for me, I'm much worse off.

I feel these changes are to try and force more people into the stores, devaluing points collected on petrol, credit cards, energry etc.

It's looking like it may be cheaper to start doing all shopping at Asda and just buy the passes directly from Merlin...

PhylPho

rinoa778 wrote: »

Just read a moneywise article about this and came here to read the forums.
>
This is a nice heads up (are Tesco going to tell us direct or would we have had to go to their website to find out?)

We received our notification in the mail from Tesco this morning.

rcopus wrote: »

.... I feel these changes are to try and force more people into the stores, devaluing points collected on petrol, credit cards, energry etc.

It's looking like it may be cheaper to start doing all shopping at Asda and just buy the passes directly from Merlin...

Unless I've misread this morning's bumf, I think you still get double points buying Tesco petrol / diesel using a Tesco credit card.

Re going somewhere else. To be honest, we live less than a mile from a Tesco store and so we buy all our fuel there and do all our shopping. It's also why we have a Tesco credit card: everything, but everything, goes on it. But, and it's a bloody big 'but':

1) Tesco prices have increased significantly over the past 12 months and:

2) Where we're concerned, Tesco management / staffing has deterioriated equally significantly. Check-out staff are either indifferent or incoherent and the store is a shambles with far more attention being paid to online shoppers than those actually there: some aisles you can't even navigate because it's jammed with 'personal shoppers' or the huge carts that shelf stackers eem to be continuously unloading or loading.

There's also the fact that (3) supermarket fuel -- doesn't matter from which supermarket it comes -- is cheap for a good reason: it's not of the quality of, say, Shell. (A friend of ours runs the tech department at an Audi dealership and they've had problems lately with customers who've been using supermarket diesel.)

As we're both retired, we spend a lot of the Spring and summer many miles from where we are, down in Norfolk, where we use a Sainsburys and a Waitrose. The latter is impeccable, but you pay dearly for it (no grumbles about staff, environment or quality though) whilst Sainsbury's actually seems to be getting better and better: wonderful, friendly staff and pricing that's now pretty much competitive with Tesco.

Bottom line: were it not for the x4 conversion rate of ClubCard points we wouldn't use our doorstep Tesco at all: a 6-mile drive gets us to Morrison's, and it's heaven compared to Tesco.

Obviously, every supermarket will vary according to the date of build (newer = more spacious) and its management, but ours is now so dire we think Tesco is losing its way. (And with the clubcard revisions imminent, may be about to lose some of its customers, too. )

thriftytracey

I had my letter from Tesco today and they are also reducing the number of points on fuel - 1 point for every £2 spent.

Edit- See this has already been mentioned I hadn't read page 2!

Giblet

Bloke wrote: »

Anyone know what we get with Clubcard Plus these days? Confused with all the double points etc just what extra we get! Anyone able to do a list of what points you get paying with...

a) Cash/debit/non Tesco credit card
b) Tesco credit card
c) Clubcard Plus

Sorry, this is my first post so forgive me if this goes wrong!
I've been wondering about this for a while and below is what I have just worked out....

PETROL (from 1st November 2010)

a) Cash/debit/non Tesco credit card £4 ---> 2pt --> 6p Reward Voucher (RV) --> 1.5% back in RV

b) Tesco credit card £4 ---> 5pt --> 15p Reward Voucher --> 3.75% back in RV

c) Clubcard Plus £4 ---> 6pt --> 18p Reward Voucher --> 4.5% back in RV


STORE (from 6th December 2010)

a) Cash/debit/non Tesco credit card £100 --> 200pts --> £6 Reward Voucher --> 6% back in RV

b) Tesco credit card £100 --> 225pts --> £6.75 Reward Voucher --> 6.75% back in RV

c) Clubcard Plus £100 --> 300pts --> £9 Reward Voucher --> 9% back in RV

Does everyone agree or is my mathematics a bit out?!

GWaites

I'm disappointed that Tesco are making these changes. I spend about £30 a week on petrol at Tesco. I think I'll be either switching to Morrisons or Shell. I just wish we had a Sainsbury's in town!

I'm still annoyed that Tesco messed up my vouchers during the Clubcard exchange.

PhylPho

GWaites wrote: »

I'm disappointed that Tesco are making these changes. I spend about £30 a week on petrol at Tesco.

Er actually, you don't. What you pay is around £24.50p a week. . .

To HM Government.

What you pay Tesco a week is less than £6.00p.

The £6 Tesco gets isn't profit. The £30 total isn't income.

We have some of the highest pump prices in Europe because venal governments (beginning with the Conservatives, 17 years ago) figured out that motorists were a soft target and could be robbed blind in the guise that "it's helping the environment".

I'm no defender of Tesco, but. . .

Work out what double points on petrol or diesel is on a £30 spend.

Now, multiply the total 'value' of those points on the current x4 value Clubcard Deal.

And now figure out how anyone compnay, let alone Tesco, can provide that level of cash-equivalent return to its customers. . .

. . . When all Tesco got was less than six quid.

I'm amazed Tesco even offers any points on fuel. Presumably, it's cross-subsidised from store purchases, otherwise it makes no economic sense at all.

PS: Tesco is well aware that when VAT goes up to 20%, so, too must the price of fuel at the pumps. So, once again, it will look as though petrol / diesel retailers are raking it in -- when in fact it's just the Government, screwing the motorists all over again. (And especially as fuel is wickedly double-taxed: the 'fuel tax' component of every litre of fuel is itself a taxable amount under the soon-to-increase VAT.)

Nigbob

The changes are to ensure that the current scheme is sustainable. Yeah, right.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1317797/Tesco-makes-profit-6k-minute-bosses-unveil-plans-mortgages.html

Tesco only made £1.6 billion profit in the last six months so obviously can't afford it anymore! Fortunately for me, an Asda Wal-Mart is opening about a mile from my house next month, so I'll be switching my shopping habits anyway.

GWaites

It seems odd that Tesco who made £1.6 billion profit in 6 months, is cutting down on clubcard points issued on fuel, yet Morrisons who made £410 Million in 6 months can remain at 1.5 points per litre. If Tesco did 1 point per litre, I think would have been more reasonable.

Makeandsave

I did post this on another page but no one replied thanks

Hi, I save my points for the xmas club and have £65 i am thinking of using £20 for eating out on the x4 system will i still be able to do this in time and get £80. Also from what i have been told they send you one lot of vouchers to be used at all the restaurants.