Guide Discussion: Christmas Spending Boost

MSE_Laura_F

This thread is specifically to discuss the guide:

Christmas Spending Boost

(The old thread can be found here.)

bazpoint

Hey there, I just happened upon the xmas saver guide & thought I may as well stick £200 into Tesco for the £12 voucher since it'll for sure get used over the xmas period... there is an error in the guide though.

MSE suggests that you can top up your Tesco Christmas Saver online or through the app, but after going round and round in circles between the Voucher Schemes Clubcard Settings page and the More information on Clubcard Christmas Savers page (and also faffing about in the app) I finally found my way into a FAQ that states the following:

"To top up your Clubcard Christmas Savers account, please visit the Customer Service Desk in our large stores. You can top up your account up to a maximum of £360 per year.

To start saving for Christmas 2023, you can top up your Clubcard Christmas Savers account from 26 December 2022. The final date for 2023 top ups is 18 October 2023 at 11:59pm."

Unless I'm somehow missing it somewhere there is no mention of being able to do it online anywhere at all. 

Fortunately I may be passing by a Tesco Superstore tomorrow so I'll likely pop in and do a topup... not as easy as it could've been tho!

MSE_Laura_F

Hello @bazpoint, thank you for this.

I've had a look through the guide and can see the Iceland and Asda apps mentioned, but not the Tesco app. It could be that the guide's recently been edited. But if I'm missing the mention, please point it out to me.

Thank you,

MSE Laura F

Geoffrey_Coan

Just had an email from Tesco saying that they are changing the Christmas saver scheme for 2024.

You can now only top up the saving account up to 1st April 2024, from 2nd April you won’t be able to top up.  Looks like they are withdrawing the top up facility as there’s no mention of it being available the following year, just that you can’t top up from 2nd April 2024.

Vouchers issued with the November statement still, and top up £200+ for a £12 bonus voucher that’s valid for 2 months.

So basically you have to let Tesco hold onto your Christmas savings pot, interest free, for 7 months or so, April to November in order to get the bonus.

 The email says the Christmas savings club money is held in a separate trust BTW

Disappointing change and dissuades people from drip feeding savings through the year which surely the original idea of these schemes.

SteveJudd

I too received this email and think this is a poor decision by Tesco. I save £20 every month from Feb to Oct so hit the £200 before the cut off to gain the £12 bonus. I save all my Clubcard vouchers for Christmas. This year I had £318 to spend at Christmas. This allows me to use my usual food shopping budget to buy Christmas presents knowing i have the food covered in this scheme.

I have sent a WhatsApp to Tesco to complain and plead with them to revisit this decision. I am fortunately in the position where i can put the savings elsewhere to save for Christmas (missing the bonus) but others are not. I cannot see why they have to do this? Yes I saw the note about the trust but they are their own bank too!