Sainsbury's Nectar Points Rip-Off

Cardinal Sin

We all know that loyalty cards and points are a marketing wheeze but when you get them anyway for shopping the way you choose to, there's nothing lost in taken them. However, Sainbury's have managed to make my blood boil today. In a moment of unaccustomed weakness I recently fell for taking a Sainsbury's Mastercard. I already have a Mastercard but the incentive was "triple Nectar Points for Life" if you used the card to pay for your shopping. The card duly arrives and I have spent over £700 on it in less than a month. This evening I received a throwaway marketing letter from Sainsbury's telling me that "Nectar is changing." Go on, guess? The piss-takers are only halving the number of points you get for every pound you spend! For every £500 you spend you currently get 1000 points worth £2.50 in credit to be spent in store. From April you will only get 500 points for £500 spent i.e. £1.25. so my triple points for life is suddenly worth only 50% more. Talk about scamming your Customers. Sainsbury's can stick their credit card. Just thought I'd share that and get it off my chest

Lincsaddick

mmm contact 'Money Box' at BBC Radio 4 .. this IS a very dubious situation m'lud .. no wonder you have the right hump about it

Badger

Does make you wonder, at which point did they know they were going to reduce the points per spend.

I only use me nectar card when buying Diesel as its a perk of the job, Do my shopping elsewhere.

guinnessaddick

Badger said:

Does make you wonder, at which point did they know they were going to reduce the points per spend.

I only use me nectar card when buying Diesel as its a perk of the job, Do my shopping elsewhere.

They are keeping the point per litre on fuel purchases.

Cardinal Sin

Badger - they plan these things very carefully and that's what has what has made me so angry. It's cynical and they will rely upon the majority of new card customers binning the letters without reading them.

Covered End

Nectar points were already crud. They're just double crud now. Compared to say Tesco's points that is.

Tesco points you can get 4 x the value in a lot of restaurants, not just 1x value in store.

I've had a couple of meals out recently, where food bill was £40 and we've only had to pay £10 :-)

Robbo on the wing

I quite like the stuffed olives they do in there.
You couldn't get me a large pot next time your in there could you?
Don't worry about buying me a beer or anything for the nectar points you've earned.
You can thank me later.
Cheers.

smiffyboy

Are you serious, you are pissed off over £1.25 I will give it to you each month if it means that much to you

tangoflash

smiffyboy said:

Are you serious, you are pissed off over £1.25 I will give it to you each month if it means that much to you

Well, if you're giving money away, I wouldn't mind some...........

Talal

smiffyboy said:

Are you serious, you are pissed off over £1.25 I will give it to you each month if it means that much to you

Every little helps......

smiffyboy

tangoflash said:

smiffyboy said:

Are you serious, you are pissed off over £1.25 I will give it to you each month if it means that much to you

Well, if you're giving money away, I wouldn't mind some...........

How many nectar points will you be losing a month?

Riviera

Covered End said:

Nectar points were already crud. They're just double crud now. Compared to say Tesco's points that is.

Tesco points you can get 4 x the value in a lot of restaurants, not just 1x value in store.

I've had a couple of meals out recently, where food bill was £40 and we've only had to pay £10 :-)

All very well but that means you have to shop in Tescos. When I was a kid Tesco's had the reputation that ASDA does now (there was no ASDA down south in those days) and as far as I am concerned still does. It's cheap and horrible and full of chavs. Sadly Sainsburys has gone down the same road although not quite as far. I used to like Safeways.

Cardinal Sin

smiffyboy said:

Are you serious, you are pissed off over £1.25 I will give it to you each month if it means that much to you

Smiffyboy - the point is they were selling cards on the basis of triple points and very quickly halved the value of the points. The actual sum is immaterial and I was using £500 as an example. If you spend £200 a week there (not impossible if you do your weekly shop, alcohol and petrol), that's c £10,000 a year or £50 a year in points. Times three with a credit card is £150 which they have quietly halved.

charltonkeston

smiffyboy said:

tangoflash said:

smiffyboy said:

Are you serious, you are pissed off over £1.25 I will give it to you each month if it means that much to you

Well, if you're giving money away, I wouldn't mind some...........

How many nectar points will you be losing a month?

This year with my shopping I will get round about £210 with my accrue points. Next year with the same spend it will be just over £100. The letter says they will be doing more special point promotions, double points etc. But it will never be more or equal to what I get now. I think Cardinal has every right to be miffed.

PL54

Cardinal Sin said:

smiffyboy said:

Are you serious, you are pissed off over £1.25 I will give it to you each month if it means that much to you

Smiffyboy - the point is they were selling cards on the basis of triple points and very quickly halved the value of the points. The actual sum is immaterial and I was using £500 as an example. If you spend £200 a week there (not impossible if you do your weekly shop, alcohol and petrol), that's c £10,000 a year or £50 a year in points. Times three with a credit card is £150 which they have quietly halved.

How much were they selling them for ?

Covered End

Riviera said:

Covered End said:

Nectar points were already crud. They're just double crud now. Compared to say Tesco's points that is.

Tesco points you can get 4 x the value in a lot of restaurants, not just 1x value in store.

I've had a couple of meals out recently, where food bill was £40 and we've only had to pay £10 :-)

All very well but that means you have to shop in Tescos. When I was a kid Tesco's had the reputation that ASDA does now (there was no ASDA down south in those days) and as far as I am concerned still does. It's cheap and horrible and full of chavs. Sadly Sainsburys has gone down the same road although not quite as far. I used to like Safeways.

Not in Bromley mate. Sainsbury's is full of chavs & Tesco's aint :-)

Huskaris

Cardinal. I got a platinum Amex card because of this. 1.25% cash back with 5% for the first 3 months (up to £2,500 which is £125) I got it before the nectar thing was announced purely because the double nectar points I was getting for using it in sainsburys equalled an extra 1% cashback and the 1 nectar points per every £5 spent elsewhere worked out at 0.1% cash back... No brainer really (although it does have no interest free period unlike my sainsburys card, and one of the two platinum cards has a £25 fee per year, but if you spend more than £2,000 a year you will get that back, and of course the bonus in the first 3 months is huge)

Cardinal Sin

Huskaris - I get 1% cashback with Capital One which had a similar early three month incentive. I am not a natural switcher and am honestly less concerned about the small sums than the principle. Do you find Amex is refused more often than Mastercard and Visa?

Cardinal Sin

PL54 said:

Cardinal Sin said:

smiffyboy said:

Are you serious, you are pissed off over £1.25 I will give it to you each month if it means that much to you

Smiffyboy - the point is they were selling cards on the basis of triple points and very quickly halved the value of the points. The actual sum is immaterial and I was using £500 as an example. If you spend £200 a week there (not impossible if you do your weekly shop, alcohol and petrol), that's c £10,000 a year or £50 a year in points. Times three with a credit card is £150 which they have quietly halved.

How much were they selling them for ?

All the money you are prepared to spend on them.

cafcfan

Cardinal Sin said:

Huskaris - I get 1% cashback with Capital One which had a similar early three month incentive. I am not a natural switcher and am honestly less concerned about the small sums than the principle. Do you find Amex is refused more often than Mastercard and Visa?

All the big stores are signed up to Amex but quite a few merchants aren't, including more than you might think who do their trading on-line. (But then you can often use paypal who do take Amex.)
I've heard various reasons for the refusal to take Amex including them wanting a larger merchant's fee and having a history of being slow payers.

Huskaris

Cardinal Sin said:

Huskaris - I get 1% cashback with Capital One which had a similar early three month incentive. I am not a natural switcher and am honestly less concerned about the small sums than the principle. Do you find Amex is refused more often than Mastercard and Visa?

I have had it about 4 days now, but I haven't had it refused yet.

http://www.whoacceptsamex.co.uk/

Here's a list, I only really wanted to be able to use it at Tesco, Sainsburys and Amazon, which is where I do most of my spending, that's all I needed for it to be worth it.

cafcfan

Cardinal Sin said:

We all know that loyalty cards and points are a marketing wheeze but when you get them anyway for shopping the way you choose to, there's nothing lost in taken them. However, Sainbury's have managed to make my blood boil today. In a moment of unaccustomed weakness I recently fell for taking a Sainsbury's Mastercard. I already have a Mastercard but the incentive was "triple Nectar Points for Life" if you used the card to pay for your shopping. The card duly arrives and I have spent over £700 on it in less than a month. This evening I received a throwaway marketing letter from Sainsbury's telling me that "Nectar is changing." Go on, guess? The piss-takers are only halving the number of points you get for every pound you spend! For every £500 you spend you currently get 1000 points worth £2.50 in credit to be spent in store. From April you will only get 500 points for £500 spent i.e. £1.25. so my triple points for life is suddenly worth only 50% more. Talk about scamming your Customers. Sainsbury's can stick their credit card. Just thought I'd share that and get it off my chest

If you have the time and the inclination, I think you should consider raising a formal complaint with the card issuer (Sainsbury's Bank?) (If only because they are required to undertake specific tasks to comply and it will piss them off and cost them money).
They appear to be in breach of the FCA's over-arching "treating customers fairly" requirement and more specifically "have not communicated with customers in a clear, fair and not misleading" manner and have, presumably, issued a misleading financial promotion: that is whatever advert/flyer/letter that persuaded you to sign up in the first place. It may be that they cannot rely upon whatever the small print might say as anything which suggested that the value of the offer might change should have been at least as prominent as the triple points for life promise.

If it is Sainsbury's Bank here is the person to contact:

Susan Wilkinson
Sainsbury's Bank plc
Haston House
Redheughs Rigg
South Gyle Crescent
Edinburgh
Midlothian
EH12 9DQ
Phone: 0131 338 2995

If you're going to complain, let me know and I'll provide you with the actual rule breaches to quote to piss them off even more.

Huskaris

Just had my Amex card declined for the first time. Post Office.

Stig

Nectar have always been awful value, even at the best of times. It's like that Sean Lock joke; I've been saving Nectar points for years, I've finally got enough to buy a small jar of honey. Personally, I use their marketing literature as a checklist of shops to avoid, because they are always ones that charge premium prices for bog standard products.

Huskaris

Stig said:

Nectar have always been awful value, even at the best of times. It's like that Sean Lock joke; I've been saving Nectar points for years, I've finally got enough to buy a small jar of honey. Personally, I use their marketing literature as a checklist of shops to avoid, because they are always ones that charge premium prices for bog standard products.

I have £105 worth of Nectar points. Took me about 8 months to get them. I live with my girlfriend, so just 2 of us. If you take advantage of their bonus deals, you can get a lot of nectar points very easily.

cafcfan

Huskaris said:

Stig said:

Nectar have always been awful value, even at the best of times. It's like that Sean Lock joke; I've been saving Nectar points for years, I've finally got enough to buy a small jar of honey. Personally, I use their marketing literature as a checklist of shops to avoid, because they are always ones that charge premium prices for bog standard products.

I have £105 worth of Nectar points. Took me about 8 months to get them. I live with my girlfriend, so just 2 of us. If you take advantage of their bonus deals, you can get a lot of nectar points very easily.

Does your girlfriend award nectar points then?

Solidgone

I like Sainsburys as they keep the riff raff out of Waitrose.

EastTerrace

Don't know what going on with Sainsburys strategy.

Aa well as the nectar points, they have culled the amount of home products (electricals, furnishings etc.) that they sold on their pretty good online shop and the remaining products are only delivered when you order your grocery shop.

They have stopped Click and Collect also which seems pretty popular on the retail sector.

All seems like a backward step to me.

MrLargo

Love Amex, particularly good if you transfer the points to Airmiles (or Avios as they're called these days). Their introductory offers are generally pretty good as well - spend X amount in the first 3 months and get enough points for a return flight to Europe. If you can be bothered to change every year, say from an AMEX Preferred Rewards to a British Airways then you can rack up a shed load of points on the introductory bonuses alone.

Huskaris

cafcfan said:

Huskaris said:

Stig said:

Nectar have always been awful value, even at the best of times. It's like that Sean Lock joke; I've been saving Nectar points for years, I've finally got enough to buy a small jar of honey. Personally, I use their marketing literature as a checklist of shops to avoid, because they are always ones that charge premium prices for bog standard products.

I have £105 worth of Nectar points. Took me about 8 months to get them. I live with my girlfriend, so just 2 of us. If you take advantage of their bonus deals, you can get a lot of nectar points very easily.

Does your girlfriend award nectar points then?

If she did I wouldn't have £105 worth!

cafcfan

Nectar have a deal that's been running for a few months now. Every 100 nectars you collect can be converted into either two LOLs or one Like on CL. Save 10,000 and you can get a Promote. Paulie does all his shoppping at Sainsburys.........