Triple Points at Boots - Top up your Mobile

Former_MSE_Andrea

From Martin

It's Triple Points in-store at Boots until Sunday (and online until Tuesday) when you spend £15 or more so if you've a PAYG mobile phone now is the time to top up as you'll get an effective 12% discount.

Why does Boots do this?

Boots is currently struggling. There have been stories in the paper this week about a profits warning and its management under threat. Traditionally seen at the top level of high-street pharmacies it's been heavily hit by competition from the likes of Superdrug and Savers which are simply cheaper. In recent months Boots has tried to market a feeling of "we can be cheap too". This is why it does its double or triple points promotions, because it reduces the price but only for a short period of time but gets to advertise a feel-good, feel-cheap factor.

How much are triple points worth?

You get four Boots Advantage points per £1 of spending normally and each one is worth a penny discount in-store. So, this effectively means, by using a Boots Advantage card, you get a 4% discount off Boots' normal prices. Therefore, on a double points weekend you get an additional 4% on top and on a triple points weekend an additional 8% on top.

This doesn't, however, mean you should always shop at Boots as Boots is often more than 4% more expensive than its competitors. So if a bottle of shampoo cost £2 in Boots, and you use the card, it's really only costing you £1.92. However, if the same shampoo is available for £1.80 at the Savers centre down the road, then even with the advantage points it isn't good a good buy. Although, on a triple points week the additional discount means it's only costing £1.76.

For further info go to the Boots bargain hunt.

To value your Boots and other loyalty points read the article.

Emmy

Out of interest.... can you buy top up vouchers on line ?

Sofa_Sogood

What a great idea Andrea, thanks for that.

I've had a £40 gift card for a couple of months and haven't found anything to spend it on until now. Top ups

bylromarha

Took advantage (LOL) of this yesterday. The cashier looked at me and said "Did you know it was triple points today?" (D'oh, wondered what all the big pink signs were) She looked surprised when I told her that was the only reason I bought my top up! ...plus spent shedloads on nappies as they're 3 for 2 again, + 500 points when you spend £25 on baby products. Lots of BOGOF wipes too, so I got stocked up for the next few months. £8 points for a £25 spend on lots of nappies and wipes. How do they make their dosh?

Elwybob

Boots are also offering a deal whereby if you purchase £15 of No 7 make-up, you get £25 of 'free No 7 make-up' in a gift bag. The only thing is (my wife tells me) is that you don't know exactly what make up you get so it might not be the colour you would choose. Still, sounds a good deal for you girlies! My wife looked at the offer again today (Fri 4th) and commented that "It's quite nice and appears a good deal, might even buy some No7 blusher and a make up brush for £15 to get it"
If she likes...I like it.

bigb66

Thanks for the tip, my wife bought £25 worth of baby stuff and some other stuff and it came to £26.48 which coz of the 500 points on baby and triple points on over £15 spend we ended up with 816 points in this vist. going to do the same tommorrow on the nappys. Thanks again martin.

Gem+Dave+Kaci

Re: Nappies...

If you've got half a ton of Pampers £1 or £2 off vouchers (they're constantly sending them to me!!) then you can usually get rid of them all in one hit at Boots including expired ones!

A couple of weeks ago I bought 4 large packs of Pampers at my local (Thurrock, Lakeside) and used about 9 £1 off vouchers, most of which had expired. I asked the guy if he'd try them out and see if the till took them and it did!!

My purchase:
4 x large pack of Pampers was £32 (2 for £16 on large packs)
+ 200 points using voucher from machine (200 points when you spend over £30)
+ 500 points (500 points when you spend over £25 in baby dept.)
- £9 in Pampers £1 off vouchers

So my effective total was £16 for 4 huge packs of nappies! Bargain!!

p.s. Does anyone know if it works out better value buying big packs of nappies or is it better to buy the smaller packs?? Keep meaning to work it out but don't have the time!!

poorcat

Thought that topping up PAYG mobile when the triple points offer was a great idea - until I tried to do it today with my Virgin mobile.

Thought it would be a useful thing to start doing, even when the triple points offer wasn't on. Assumed that it would mean buying a voucher, like I did a couple of times before I registered my credit card with Virgin.

But no - instead they now use these E-Top Up cards, which they swipe through the till, and that puts credit on your phone somehow. Great idea - but you need an E-Top Up card to do it.

There seemed to be ones available at the till for other mobile networks, but all there was for Virgin was a leaflet, telling me to ring them up to get my card.

Have done so, but apparently won't get it for five days, so therefore too late to get triple points on my top-ups in Boots.

Will still use it, though, even just to get normal points - it's better than nothing!

poorcat

Also, annoyingly, after an almost constant supply of them over the last 2 years, Pampers (and Huggies) have suddenly stopped sending me nappy vouchers. Do they think at 2 yrs 5 months my son should be fully potty trained? Ha!

Dronegc_2

I love the advantage card. I've not spent that much since I got my card at Xmas, but already I've got over £5.20 in points.

kirsty1_2

Spent £100 At Boots.com last week and was upset to find 2 days later they were offering triple points. But when I put my card in the machine to collect my points I found that I got triple points and 500 for the childrens offer. In the end total points recieved was 2198. Needless to say I came away a very happy bunny indeed.