Tesco is urging its Clubcard members to spend the millions of unspent vouchers that are due to expire at the end of the month.
The supermarket says £17m worth of Clubcard vouchers will vanish at the end of May. Its drive to get people to spend what they've earned forms part of its campaign to help customers ‘spend less and get more for their money’.
The grocery giant recently halted paper Clubcard statements and vouchers, restricting them to those who specifically opt-in. This means most members will have to use their online account to check their balances.
Here, we reveal how to make sure you don’t lose out on Clubcard vouchers, and round up the expiry rules for other popular loyalty card schemes.
Will my Tesco Clubcard vouchers expire?
When you earn 150 points on your Tesco Clubcard, these will be turned into a voucher worth £1.50, to be used on groceries or other rewards such as days out. The vouchers can be worth more than £1.50 on certain rewards.
You earn one point for every £1 spent at Tesco, so you need to spend £150 to get a £1.50 voucher.
With £17m worth of points about to disappear, it’s worth checking if you’ll be affected.
Clubcard vouchers expire two years after they’re collected, so the vouchers slated for expiry this month were first earned in May 2020.
You can log into your My Clubcard account to find out if you have any vouchers due to expire, and keep an eye on your inbox as Tesco has said it will contact affected customers via email.
- Find out more: loyalty card schemes compared
How long do other loyalty points last?
Tesco’s announcement comes just weeks after Boots announced a change in its Advantage card rules, slashing their validity period from two years to one from 20 June.
So, if you’re worried about your loyalty points expiring at your favourite store, we've set out how long they’ll last before they’re no longer valid in the table below.
Note that most of these schemes only require you to collect more points by scanning your card in store in order to stop them expiring. For example, if your Boots Advantage points are nearly one year old, you'd just need to make a purchase and earn points to keep all of your points active – you don’t have to spend any of the points themselves.
| Loyalty scheme | Lifespan |
| Boots Advantage | 1 year after card last used |
| Iceland Bonus | 2 years after card last used |
| Lidl Plus | Expiry dates vary, listed on coupons |
| Nectar | 1 year after card last used |
| Tesco Clubcard | Vouchers expire 2 years after earned |
| Superdrug Beautycard | Points expire 2 years after earned, even if card used |
How else can you save on grocery shopping?
With the cost of living crisis continuing, saving money on groceries has never been more important. We’ve rounded up our top tips to help you cut your food bills.
Shop at the cheapest supermarket
You might shop at the same supermarket every week, but switching it up could save you money.
Last month, Lidl was the cheapest place to buy our basket of 18 popular groceries, closely followed by Aldi.
It’s worth keeping up with our monthly supermarket price comparison to find out who’s topping the table.
Avoid convenience stores
It might be more, well, convenient to shop at a 'metro' version of a supermarket, but we've found that they tend to be more expensive.
It could cost you 9.5% more each year to shop at Sainsbury's Local instead of a regular Sainsbury's supermarket, for example.
Buy in bulk
Make space in your cupboards, because you really can find big savings with bulk buying. You'll usually find larger amounts of packaged products cost less by weight if you check the 'price per kg' part of the label.
And, if you can shop at wholesalers like Costco or Bookers, you could get even cheaper prices for larger portions.
Discount food apps
A sort of hi-tech version of shopping in the yellow sticker section, apps like Too Good to Go let you buy 'magic bags' of near-expiry food from shops, cafes, hotels and restaurants at discounted rates.
You can also use Olio to connect with neighbours and local businesses who may have leftover food to share, and Approved Food to buy discounted items passed their 'best before' date.
Avoid food waste
The average UK household wastes around £700 a year by throwing away food, according to the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP). You can make sure you don't add to that number by doing a few things:
- plan out your meals so you only buy the food you definitely need
- don't bin food that's past its 'best before' date unless it truly seems inedible. If it's past its 'use by' date though, it won't be safe to eat
- freeze food that's about to expire. This'll boost its shelf-life significantly in many cases.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/time-is-running-out-to-spend-millions-of-tesco-clubcard-vouchers-before-they-expire-arZfu0b3uQiU