ON POINT
How to get an extra £300 a year from your Nectar card and maximise your points
Plus watch our video on how to save money when shopping at Sainsbury's
MILLIONS of shoppers collect Nectar points - but do you know how to maximise them?
As well as offering reduced prices in Sainsbury’s, you can use your points to reduce the cost of your shopping, or towards blagging a treat, like free flights or a hotel break.
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One Nectar point is worth 0.5p, meaning 100 points are worth 50p and 200 points are worth £1 at Sainsbury's.
You can collect points by shopping at participating retailers.
You can choose to spend your points in store at Sainsbury's or a handful of partners, either in-store or via the Nectar card website.
Some retailers you have to swap your points for vouchers or you can exchange them for Avois points.
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We’ve looked at various different ways to get the most out of the scheme and how to boost your points to the max.
Nectar points offer
Nectar app users can collect up to three times more points on average - so it’s worth downloading if you want to boost your total.
One advantage is that you can see offers that reward you for buying certain products, on top of the usual rewards for shopping.
You can see these personalised offers on the app under “Sainsbury’s Offers”.
For example, one user today could pick up a bonus 40 points for buying Sainsbury’s salted cashews, an extra 20 for picking up Taste the Difference easy peelers, 20 for frozen peach and nectarine slices and 20 for unwaxed lemons.
If you can find a genuine use for those products, that’s 100 extra points - worth 50p.
Over the year similar savings made every week would amount to £26.
Note you’ll need to save each offer in the app in order to get the points.
Potential savings: £26
Your Nectar Prices
You might have seen “Nectar Prices” on the shelf labels at Sainsbury’s, where all shoppers are offered discounts on certain products.
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But you can save even more with “Your Nectar Prices” on the Nectar app.
These are personalised discounts which you can get when you shop online, or by downloading the Smartshop app or using a handset in store.
For example this week a user was offered a cantaloupe melon for £1.64, down from the usual non-Nectar price of £2, 99p for gold star cake decorations, normally £1.20, and £1.73 for cheese and garlic mushrooms, normally £2.10.
All together that’s 94p in one week, potentially giving the customer a bonus of £50 a year if the same amount was saved every week.
But Sainsbury’s reckons you could save as much as £145 a year.
Potential savings between: £50 - £145
Nectar Challenges
Keep your eyes peeled on the Nectar app to participate in challenges through the year.
One example is the Great Fruit and Veg challenge, which offers customers the chance to earn additional Nectar points by putting more fruit and vegetables in their shopping baskets.
One such challenge, which ran from August to October last year, enabled shoppers to earn a minimum of 1,000 bonus Nectar points once all spending tasks were complete. That would be worth £5.
The tasks are personalised to shoppers based on what they usually buy.
Potential savings: Over £5
Nectar partners
Alongside Sainsbury’s, customers can collect even more points by shopping with other Nectar partners.
It’s recommended that users check the app for updated partner offers, including home, fashion, cosmetics, and travel.
Points can be collected via a range of purchases, from booking a family holiday to filling up on fuel.
For example, you can currently collect six points per £1 for buying a holiday on Booking.com and five points per £1 when you shop online at Decathlon.
Potential savings: Varies, but booking a £1,000 holiday would earn 6,000 points, or £30 back.
Digital scratch card: After shopping with Nectar at Sainsbury’s, customers might get a notification prompting them to “rub to reveal” on the digital scratch card in the Nectar app to see if they’ve won any bonus points.
Prizes are typically between five to 40 points. Winning 40 points a month would get you 480 points over the year, or £2.40.
Potential savings: £2.40
Get the right plastic
American Express Nectar Credit Card rewards you with points for spending.
As a welcome bonus, new applicants get 20,000 Nectar points for applying for the American Express Nectar Credit Card and spending £2,000 in the first three months.
They also get a minimum of three points for using both their credit card and Nectar card at a Nectar partner, and two points for every £1 spent elsewhere.
Nab another 5,000 points for recommending a friend (assuming they get approved), and 3,000 bonus points for adding a card-holder.
On average, people with one of these cards get 17 times more points compared to a regular Nectar collector.
The reward for spending £1,000 a month over a year with the card would be 44,000 points - or £220, including the introductory bonus.
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If you do spend on a credit card make sure to pay off the balance in full each month.
Potential savings: £220+
How do Nectar cards work
LOYALTY Card schemes are a great way to save money on your shop - here is how the Sainsbury's Nectar Card scheme works
Under the Nectar card scheme, customers collect points when buying certain products or goods, in-store and online.
You receive one loyalty point for every £1 spent.
You also get one point for every £1 spent on fuel bought at Sainsbury's petrol stations and can pick up points at hundreds of partners as well, including Esso and eBay.
You can register and download an e-Nectar Card by downloading the app on your smartphone.
You then swipe it every time you shop and the points are added to your account, which can be used to get money off future purchases.
Each point is effectively worth 0.5p, meaning you need 500 points to get £2.50 off.