Employee benefit reloadable cards (sodexo)

winnoch

Hi. My employer (a local authority in Scotland) offers a wide range of reloadable cards at various discounts for a range of major retailers. Sodexo administer the scheme and the overall scheme is called 'lifestylehub'. There are also a range of other benefits including online voucher codes, online cashback, salary sacrifice, prepaid spree cards, etc

I am about to buy a new smartphone from John Lewis (outright-no contract) and this scheme allows gives me 5% off John Lewis purchases so I buy a card for £570 and I get £600 of spending. (£30 off the phone effectively).

Now I don't have any concerns about this being a scam; It's a well established and well-known employee benefit accessible from work computers via company registration, but I am nonetheless wary of having to hand over £600, wait up to 3 days for card to arrive, another 3 days to activate it and then hope that John Lewis accept it OK (the card is non-refundable!). Phoning up John Lewis they weren't very helpful, just saying that they accept any card with their name on it. I don't know if this card will have their name on it!

I can't find any colleagues who have used this particular card to such a high value. Does anyone here have experience of using such a reloadable card? Any pitfalls I should be wary of? Would section 75 cover still apply? It just seems like a lot of hassle to save £30 (less if I pay be credit card) Not very MSE of me I know, but sometimes I'm willing to pay a 'lazy tax' to avoid hassle and potential issues! All comments welcome.

ziggycj

Where I work we use a similar company. I've never had any problems with giftcards. They issue you cards from the company so it's always been fine.

However, if John Lewis go bust tomorrow you will lose your money. I don't see that happening anytime soon so you should be fine.

It's good you already have the product in mind. That's the main thing I don't like about giftcards, they expire after 12/24 months. You need to be careful to know you will definitely buy from whichever store.

Tealblue

If you're worried, ask someone in your HR team to confirm (get it in writing by e-mail!) - it's an employee benefit, so they should be prepared to deal with this sort of enquiry.

winnoch

I'm ashamed to say that I just 'paid' the lazy/daft tax and ended up buying the phone direct :think: It'd not even as if I did it on impulse; I've been weighing up the pro's and con's of all the available models for the past few months!

I just wish I'd thought of the employee benefits around the same time I started researching phone models, but it only occurred to me by the time I'd made my mind up and entered buying mode! Also my thinking is that I'd rather get used to the process of buying and topping up the card with smaller amounts first. I'll start with the tesco one; it's only about 2% off, but will add up over time.

From now on, I'll make sure that I use these benefits on any bigger purchases. I'm just going to stick my fingers in my ears, hum loudly and try not to think about that £20 I'll never get back!:shocked: