Saving up and swapping your Tesco Clubcard vouchers to save money on treats like days out has always been a big part of the supermarket’s popular loyalty scheme.
But now Tesco has upset many of its loyal customers with the announcement that Clubcard points will no longer be worth triple when spent on rewards vouchers; instead they will be worth just double their value.
The change will kick in on 14 June 2023, affecting a whole range of treats, tickets and days out, including spending vouchers at Hotels.com, Pizza Express and Legoland.
The supermarket giant emailed customers on Friday to tell them of the change, and many shoppers immediately took to Twitter to vent their frustration.
It’s not the first time Tesco has done this. Customers were once able to swap Clubcard vouchers for up to four times their value through its website, but in 2018 this was cut to three times.
Tesco has publicised the upcoming change on its website, saying: “We’re making this change to the scheme to make sure we can continue to provide a wide range of rewards that meet the needs of all our Tesco Clubcard members, while keeping prices low for everyone.”
How does the Tesco Clubcard scheme work?
Supermarket loyalty schemes are nothing new and most of the big supermarkets run them, but how much you can get in points and the lucrative offers that go with them do vary.
If you have a Tesco Clubcard, you can earn points shopping at Tesco, both in store and online. You’ll earn one point for every £1 spent, and can also earn points, at different rates, when filling up at its fuel station, spending on Tesco credit cards and with Tesco Mobile.
Once you have 150 points, you’ll get Clubcard vouchers worth £1.50.
While these can be swapped for their face value at the till to save on your shopping, the big bonus comes if you swap them through its website for a range of treats as they’re (currently) worth three times their value.
This includes tickets to theme parks or the cinema, meals out, magazine subscriptions, airport parking, hotel stays and coach, train and ferry tickets.
On the Tesco Clubcard website you can search for the treat you want, which shows the amount you need to exchange in vouchers.
What is changing with Tesco Clubcard vouchers?
Tesco is changing the rules of its “Reward Partner Scheme”.
This means from 14 June you will no longer be able to exchange vouchers for three times their value. Instead, you'll only be able to get twice their value.
Tesco currently has more than 100 reward partners.
How can you boost your points for longer?
If you swap your Clubcard vouchers for reward codes before 14 June, you’ll still get three times their value.
Once you exchange your Clubcard vouchers, you usually only have a limited time period of six months to use them for your designated activity.
However, Tesco has said that in order to give customers more time to use their codes, it has “extended the validity period for all codes ordered until 13 June, from 6 months to 12 months”.
This means it could be worth doing some pre-planning and looking ahead to the school summer holidays to save money on days out, as any vouchers exchanged for reward codes before 14 June will not only be at the higher rate, but will also last until June 2024.
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