Thick Qu - Tesco vouchers

You usually get a small brochure with your clubcard points explaining how to redeem the points. And yes, there is a use by date on them.

Most of the time I spend the money vouchers in store - it will buy most of a large shopping for me. I also use the money off vouchers as they base the vouchers on what you usually buy so they're always very usable.

However, sometimes I have exchanged the money vouchers for airmiles as it's a very generous exchange. We've then used the airmiles for weekend breaks to Europe - we went to Madrid in March last year for a total cost of £70 for a 3 day weekend.

My mum and sister have also used the vouchers to buy a year's AA membership or have regular meals out.

It's really very easy - next time you receive the vouchers, read the booklet and you'll see what you can do with them.

So how do you save up for 'big' things like holidays? Or do you just have to spend a small fortune every quarter?

I have read the leaflet and it isn't very helpful wrt 'deal tokens' - seems like they just want you to spend them in store. Have just ordered the 'deals brochure' from the website which I've never seen before, so hopefully that'll shed some light.

(Sorry for the ignorance and thanks for answering!)

You can swap the cash vouchers (that have the use by date on) for vouchers from the holiday company. I presume they will have a use by date, but over a longer period. I would imagine you could swap 2 or 3 quarters worth of cash vouchers for holiday tokens.

I've not done that though - see what the deal brochure says. the T&Cs are different for each offer.

Thanks, alison. Annoyed I've lost out on ~£50 worth of vouchers as I only realised last month that it wasn't a cumulative total. Even though the vouchers had an expiry, I assumed you kept your points if you didn't use them, so was planning on using them for Christmas. Doh.

They don't run out quarterly. I think the use-by date is two years ahead. I've had three magazine subscriptions from mine this year and am saving to renew them next year.

Http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/p.aspx?id=howtoorder

Guide of how to order your days out etc

You normally get 4 times the face value of the coupon if you use them for the days out.

Now I'm even more confused! Just logged on to my account and it says

You currently have:

The vouchers that they send to you at the end of each quarter are vaild for 2 years.

Thanks Francesca, I'll dig out my old vouchers and see if they're in date.

But why don't they just roll the points over in my total online until I use them? It's very confusing. (Or it is to my small brain anyway!)

When they send the vouchers out every month, they knock the value of the voucher off your total

so yes if you dont spend it youve lost it but as I think MA said they have a 2 year life on them

If the clubcard vouchers(ones that come in quarterly statement) are out of date by, I think, its less than 6months if you return them to Tesco (the clubcard address I think, not instore) then they add the points back on so they get reissued at end of next quarter.

They are valid for 2 years so if you want to save long term then just before or just after they expire you send them back.

Swapping the CC vouchers for deals is the best way of using them as you get 4times their face value rather than spending them in-store.

You don't need to spend a fortune to get lots of points as, not so much now unfortunately, Tesco send out extra point vouchers for either specific items (50 extra points when you spend £2 on dairy etc) or total spend for home shopping delivery or Tesco Direct (1000 extra points when you spend £50). Big points collectors have multiple accounts, all signed up for the clubs which send out extra point vouchers(baby, food, healthy living and wine clubs) then use total spend vouchers on each account as well as all the item specific ones so building up '000's of points in a quarter.

Though doing this and spending very little extra than I would do routinely on shopping I accumulated enough points to pay the best part for us to go to Florida for 3wks(2adults, 2chilren, 1infant) Cost was i.r.o £3k, we paid bulk in Tesco deals vouchers and paid out £200 real money.

Unfortunately Tesco have started to reduce the number of extra points available which is meaning the end of huge points accumulation.

You can't use your clubcard points until you get the vouchers. The totals are zeroed at the end of every quarter. Expect them to zero in about a month from now and you should receive another set of vouchers. The expiry dates on them are normally more than two years now, they all have codes on them. When you have decided what deal you want to choose, you go onto the Clubcard website and enter the codes. Clubcard will then send you the vouchers for the deal you want. So if you want restaurant vouchers, they will send you the converted vouchers after you have inputted the codes. If this is too confusing, you can call CC and they will convert them for you. The deals run out after 6 months once converted. But if you don't use them all, you can send them back and they will put the equivalent in points back onto your clubcard.

They don't rollover, because it doesn't work the same way as Boots points do. You need the vouchers to either get money off your shopping or order the deals. Hope that makes sense, and remember that £10 in cc vouchers is worth £40 in clubcard deals.

(Ooh another PTSer?) Same here, we did Boston and Cape Cod this year the same way. £3500 in deals and paid nothing, not even the tax. ?

Wow, thanks for all the info FA. It's good to know about being able to send them back if they are out of date, although from what everyone else said it doesn't sound as if mine could be as I've only had a CC for 18 months. Hope I can find them....

Will look at signing up for club/s too. I saw the Christmas saver one but from what people say it seems they are better spent on holidays/days out instead of saving for Christmas.

Thanks for putting up with my inane questions everyone. ?

PTS'er reporting for duty!

We're about 3/4 towards the cost of going to Bali next year, though with the depleted extra points floating about I can't see us being able to go for nothing at the time we wanted or we'll have to pay out the remainder, which is more likely as I don't want to not go when we planned to?

FA, same here. I have £2000 towards my next hol but as I need to go in school hols I'll probably need to add at least £1500 towards it. I'm not keen on the package hols that Virgin offer anyway, so I may jsut save up for the hol next year and use the deals the following year when I've had longer to add to them.

Good luck, points are very thin on the ground at the moment.☹️

We also have a tesco credit card which we use in and out of store and pay off every month, so we earn tesco points even out of tesco.

We have used clubcard points for car service & MOT, RAC membership, nights away in hotels, and we are now saving for a holiday to Dubai.

I did not know I could even check my balance online. I just look at my reciept every time I go in store.

K

If you go the the My Account section of the Clubcard Deals part of the website, log in, it'll show you your balance.