Is Sainsbury's/Argos & eBay the best value for spending Nectar points..?

ernie-money

Hi all, I've been saving up my nectar points, thinking they would be a nice treat at some point, but I'm now stumped to actually find any good deals for them. I always thought Sainsbury/Argos/eBay was the baseline and you would get much better value redeeming elsewhere, but it doesn't look like there';s anything else that's worth it. You can spend points on a hotel stay, but I've noticed that the Nectar hotels site charges higher prices than if you book with for instance booking.com, which is their partner site and the conversion rate is the same, so seems pretty pointless. Better to book via cashback site, pay less and spend elsewhere in that case. You can also convert nectar points to Avios and use them as part payment towards flights, but there seems to be a negatively sliding scale - the more you redeem, the less you get, so for instance 1000 Avios gets you £10 off, but 2960 only £24 off and if you go even higher, £5720 Avios only gives you £38 off, so that makes it very stupid spending a lot in one transaction...

So all in, the only option I can see is to spend the points on everyday purchases instead - no treat for me... Unless someone knows a trick that I've missed - there's the Sainsbury's double up event, but you can't spend that on normal groceries anymore can you, so perhaps I'm being silly saving up and should just spend the points instead?

MSE_James

Last year's double up event did include groceries but was only offered to selected customers.  

I turned at least £30 of points into £60 of groceries, so I'm keeping my points hoping to be invited again this year.

molerat

You can also spend on petrol at Esso.  300 points gets 5p off per litre - costs £1.50 in standard value points so 30 litres + increases the value.  And you get 1point per litre back. Also occasional bonus points on a fill up.

Neil49

400 points (value £2) will get you a code to buy any sized barrista prepared drink at Caffe Nero.

 I usually use these to buy one of their specials in order to get my moneys worth. 

MattMattMattUK

MSE_James said:

Last year's double up event did include groceries but was only offered to selected customers.  

I turned at least £30 of points into £60 of groceries, so I'm keeping my points hoping to be invited again this year.

Unfortunately I did not get the double up, I currently have around £100 worth of points so the double up would be good this year as it would give me a nice boost. 

dealyboy

@MattMattMattUK said:

MSE_James said:

Last year's double up event did include groceries but was only offered to selected customers.  

I turned at least £30 of points into £60 of groceries, so I'm keeping my points hoping to be invited again this year.

Unfortunately I did not get the double up, I currently have around £100 worth of points so the double up would be good this year as it would give me a nice boost. 

Maybe you'll get a double double-up for being in a special select group like you are here Matt    .

ernie-money

MSE_James said:

Last year's double up event did include groceries but was only offered to selected customers.  

I turned at least £30 of points into £60 of groceries, so I'm keeping my points hoping to be invited again this year.

I definitely wasn't included last time - but guess it might be worth hanging on for this year...

ernie-money

molerat said:

You can also spend on petrol at Esso.  300 points gets 5p off per litre - costs £1.50 in standard value points so 30 litres + increases the value.  And you get 1point per litre back. Also occasional bonus points on a fill up.

Only if Esso is the cheapest garage - here they are over 10p a litre more expensive than where I usually fill up

ernie-money

MattMattMattUK said:

MSE_James said:

Last year's double up event did include groceries but was only offered to selected customers.  

I turned at least £30 of points into £60 of groceries, so I'm keeping my points hoping to be invited again this year.

Unfortunately I did not get the double up, I currently have around £100 worth of points so the double up would be good this year as it would give me a nice boost. 

And if you don't get it, where were you planning to spend them..? I don't suppose there is a better option anymore?

molerat

ernie-money said:

molerat said:

You can also spend on petrol at Esso.  300 points gets 5p off per litre - costs £1.50 in standard value points so 30 litres + increases the value.  And you get 1point per litre back. Also occasional bonus points on a fill up.

Only if Esso is the cheapest garage - here they are over 10p a litre more expensive than where I usually fill up

Up until recently here my local has been the cheapest by 1p to 2p but now the supermarkets are back into competitive mode they are 1p dearer.