Boost the value of your Avios, Nectar and Tesco points

By correctly targeting the right rewards to redeem your points on, it's possible to substantially increase the amount. To find out how to do this for all schemes and specific info for Avios, Nectar and Tesco.

When loyalty pays

Loyalty's a consumer disease. Retailers use every tactic possible to keep us shopping with them and away from the competition, rewarding new customers over existing ones.

Their prime weapon is loyalty cards. They allow you to collect points in specific shops when you spend – usually requiring you to return there to redeem them. While credit or store card reward schemes work in a similar way, loyalty cards don't allow you to pay with them (except when redeeming points).

When to use loyalty schemes

Never feel the shop's giving you something for nothing, as schemes are incorporated into pricing policies. To evaluate the overall cost, consider loyalty points gained like a discount. The difficulty is that their value is often deliberately misted.

This story should help...

Jean loves the Boots Advantage card scheme, believing it's very generous as it gives four points, each worth a penny, per pound spent. So she pops in to buy her favourite matte foundation for ￡6, then shines in the glow of her 24 points.

Eileen loves the same foundation but she's seen it at the local supermarket for ￡5.50. She realises Boots points are an effective 4% discount, and calculates its real cost in Boots at ￡5.76 – so buys it in the supermarket instead.

Of course it's not practical to weigh up every single product's overall price, therefore the golden rule is...

Never choose where you shop due to loyalty schemes, yet always use it if you shop somewhere with one.

Don't think 'points are better than cash' – you can't spend them in nearly as many places.

Watch for the vicious circle of loyalty

Many in-store promotions give discounts as extra points rather than money off. This is very clever, because while ￡1 of points may feel like a ￡1 discount, in reality the item you buy only costs the store what it paid its suppliers, not the full retail price.

Add to that the fact it ensures you must return to that store to spend the points. When you do, it's likely you'll spend again, earning more points, requiring you to return yet again to redeem them; earning more points, requiring you to return again...

Apps to replace ALL your loyalty cards

It's all very well for us to say "if you've got a loyalty card always use it", but that can lead to a chunky wallet or purse. Yet many schemes now let you scan digital a version of your card via their apps (including Boots, Clubcard, Morrisons and Nectar) .

If you're worried about clogging up your phone's storage, there are also free apps that let you upload ALL your loyalty cards onto one app, so you don't need to carry them all with you. (Don't throw the cards away though, as you sometimes need them to redeem your points.)

How do they work?

Scan your loyalty card barcode with your mobile (it takes seconds) – the app logs the barcode, then reproduces it when you show it in store. Alternatively, you can usually enter the card number. 

It's worth noting Boots says it doesn't "recommend" these apps and MSE forumites report that Boots cashiers won't accept them. But you can now use the Boots app to scan your Advantage card instead. Let us know how you get on in the Loyalty card app forum thread.

Toni's a fan as his wallet is a lot lighter, and MSE Eesha has been using one for ages and swears by it:

I've found Stocard really quick and simple to use. I've loaded around 15 loyalty cards on to it, which means I'm not carrying around a stack of cards in my purse, and I can collect points in any shop I'm in. I also get a notification when I'm in a store that I've loaded a loyalty card for, so I don't forget to use it.

• Stocard (available on iOS and Android). Works with Tesco Clubcard, Nectar, Morrisons More and 100+ other schemes, including those run by Nando's, Ikea, Hobbycraft and Waterstones.

For anyone who doesn't like giving personal details out, it's possible to store the card information without giving any logins or passwords for your loyalty accounts.

• FidMe (iOS, Android and Windows). This European app works with plenty of big UK loyalty schemes, including Tesco Clubcard, Nectar, Morrisons More, MyWaitrose and Ikea Family.

It works with a few other devices too – see the full list.

• Apple Wallet (iOS). Lets you store credit and debit cards, boarding passes, cinema tickets and, yes, loyalty cards. But you can't scan the physical card directly – instead you need to download the relevant loyalty scheme app, register your card and, provided the app is Wallet-enabled, add it from there. For a full how-to, see the 'Add passes' section on the Apple website.
• Google Pay (iOS and Android). Allows you to save and use not only credit and debit cards, but also most of the major UK loyalty cards, including Tesco Clubcard, Nectar, Morrisons More and Boots Advantage. To add them, just choose the relevant scheme in the app and scan the barcode on your card.

Loyalty credit cards... beware the marketing spin

Most of the big loyalty schemes have a credit card too. Here you don't just accumulate points on spending in a specific chain, but on all spending.

This can be a boon, provided you repay in full each month, so you don't pay any interest. Yet always check the actual gain from using the credit card rather than just a loyalty card, then compare this to what you could earn with Credit Card Rewards.

Watch the multi-earn argument

You need to be careful here, as promotional leaflets for many credit card schemes use a neat double-counting trick. Take the Tesco Clubcard credit card for example, which gives you one Clubcard point for every ￡8 you spend everywhere outside Tesco, and one point for every ￡4 you spend in Tesco.

While the marketing hints that using this card in Tesco provides a hefty boost, its normal loyalty card pays one point per ￡1 anyway. So the credit card only adds one extra point. Put another way, you gain a quarter of a point per ￡1 spent. It's this amount you should compare to Credit Card Rewards.

Boost your loyalty points

Every loyalty scheme has its quirks and can be manipulated. There are two obvious routes: first, try to earn more points for the same spending; next, try to beat the average point's value on whatever you redeem. To help, here are scheme-by-scheme point-maximising tips.

Tesco Clubcard points boosting

You accumulate Tesco Clubcard points* at a rate of one per pound spent. You can earn them by shopping in store or online at Tesco and when buying fuel at Tesco petrol stations.

Each Clubcard point is worth a penny if used for in-store shopping, and they're sent out in vouchers (if you've at least 150 points on your account) every three months. 

Tesco also now offers a Faster Vouchers* scheme allowing Clubcard holders to request vouchers for their entire points balance whenever they want. To get them, log in to the Clubcard app or your online account and say you'd like to turn your points into Faster Vouchers. They'll appear in your Clubcard account within 24 hours.

It's possible to get back lost or unclaimed Clubcard vouchers if they're less than two years old. Follow the steps in our Reclaim Tesco Vouchers guide to see if you've got any hiding from you.

Go wallet-free with the Pay+ app

• The Tesco Pay+* app is available on Android and iOS. It lets you store your credit or debit card and Clubcard details, then quickly pay for shopping and automatically collect Clubcard points at Tesco by scanning the barcode in the app.
• You can use Pay+ to pay at all Tesco stores and petrol stations. There's no minimum spend and you can pay for up to ￡250 per transaction. It's worth noting Tesco checks your card is genuine by making a ￡2 request to your account – the money won't actually be taken but in some cases will appear in your transactions and then disappear.
• If you'd prefer not to pay using the app (eg, you're paying in cash or with a gift voucher), Tesco also has a Clubcard app*, which you can use to scan your Clubcard at the till. It's available for iPhone and Android.

3x value with almost every Reward partner

• You can get the biggest boost to your points' value by exchanging vouchers for Clubcard Reward Partner* tokens. They can be spent on train tickets, bicycles, jewellery and more.
• Until June 2018, you could swap your Clubcard vouchers for between two and four times the value in rewards, but they're now worth three times the value in almost every case (ie, 500 points gets you ￡15 in vouchers).
• A few partners let you exchange vouchers for something without a strict cash value, eg, Avios points, though the boost's roughly the same. See our updated top 10 picks under the Boost scheme.

Is Clubcard Plus any good?

• Tesco's new Clubcard Plus subscription service launched in 2019. It costs ￡7.99/month and gives perks such as discounted shopping (you can get 10% off two shops up to ￡200 each, including most items, every month). 
• Tesco says there'll be no changes to the current Clubcard scheme if you choose not to sign up to Clubcard Plus. See our full analysis of what you get and whether it's worth it for you.

Earn one extra point per ￡4 with Tesco's credit card

• The Tesco Clubcard credit card gives you one extra Clubcard point for every ￡4 you spend in Tesco (you get one extra point per ￡8 spent elsewhere). That's on top of the points you'd normally collect.
• You could get a better return with a cashback card though – for full help and options, see Credit Card Rewards.
• Ordinarily, you should repay IN FULL every month to avoid interest. However Tesco offers up to 22 months 0% on new spending. This means you could do ALL normal spending on it to rack up the points, stashing away the cash you'd normally spend, then pay it off in full within 22 months.
• Remember to repay before the 0% period ends to avoid the 19.9% rep APR. More info in the 0% Cards and Stoozing guides.

Earn bonus points with your Tesco mobile

• Tesco Mobile* customers can collect one Clubcard point for every ￡1 spent on pay-as-you-go top-ups and monthly bills. You'll need to register your Clubcard with Tesco Mobile to start receiving points. You can do this via your online account or by texting 'CLUBCARD' to 28578 for free from your mobile.
• You'll need to top up online, using a Tesco store or by calling Tesco Mobile's top-up phone line on 4444 to get the points. Note, you won't get points if you top up from a cash machine or shop that isn't Tesco.

You could even get paid to shop with in-store promotions

• Look out for any Tesco promotions offering extra Clubcard points. These can open up loopholes where it's worth buying the goods even if you don't want them.
• The best examples are the famous Johnson's Baby Powder and beef-in-gravy loopholes which originated on this site and ended up in all the papers. They worked like this:
• When you bought any two Johnson's products, you got 100 extra points. The cheapest item was baby powder, at 76p. This meant you could spend ￡1.52 to get 101 points, worth ￡4.04 of Clubcard deals vouchers, making more than ￡2.50 PROFIT.
• With the similar beef-in-gravy episode, one MoneySaver bought a few hundred pounds' worth, donated it to a homeless shelter and used the points for a return trip for two to New Zealand. Be careful with these loopholes, as Tesco reserves the right to block people for fair usage breaches. All major loopholes will go in the free weekly email.
• Even if you can't make a profit, the bonuses can lead to serious discounts. For instance, Tesco once sold iPod Shuffles for ￡49 – a good price – adding 999 bonus points on top of the usual points. These were worth ￡42 of Clubcard Deals, so the iPod effectively cost ￡7.