To paraphrase the most Excellent ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ “Strange things are a foot at the Nectar App”. You may have seen Andy Webb’s article on the strange case of the missing bonus Nectar Points offers. I was one of the people who haven’t seen a ‘buy x get bonus points’ offer in weeks. I’ve had ‘Spend £50 get 3x Nectar points’ but nothing else. I thought this was because I’ve been really hammering the offers.
I checked my app this Friday and they were back! Lots of lovely bonus points on items I buy. Hip-Hip-Hooray!
Bonus Nectar Points
A quick glance showed that these offers are not as generous as previous offers. This is a shame as I was able to really boost up my Nectar Points with no additional spending. All the bonus points were either 20 or 10 except for Organic Smoked Salmon which was 170 points and Southern Fried Chicken Breast Mini fillets for 30 points. The total value of the bonus offers was 490 points for me, worth just under £2.50. To give an example of how this compared to a previous shop, in February I did a shop where I got 650 bonus points where 3 items had over 100 bonus points and the lowest value of bonus points I got was 50.
But Wait, There’s More!
Usually I just save all the offers they send me so I can choose while I’m out shopping whether to pick up the item. Sometimes the phone signal in store isn’t great so the app doesn’t work as well. This can lead to not saving offers while you walk round the store. Today I noticed another partner offer that I’d not seen before.
Nectar Partner Offers
I have taken advantage of the eBay partner offers to get 3 or 4 times Nectar points from eBay purchases however usually I activate these within eBay and not via the Nectar App. Other Partner offers include various Sainsburys financial products (insurance/loans/etc) and Amex Charge Card offers. Today I noticed something else.
Diet Coke or Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Offer
Hidden within the Partner section was an offer for 120 points if you buy the 6x250ml multi-pack of Diet Coke or Coke Zero. Not only will you get the 120 bonus points but you’ll also be entered into a prize draw to win one of 5 £200 Argos vouchers. I’ve added this into my ‘saved’ section of the app but I will check the prices when I’m next buying Coke to make sure that I’m not spending MORE money to get the bonus Nectar points and I could save money buying a different serving size of Coke.
Obviously if you are buying the 6x250ml multi-packs anyway then you should grab your bonus points as it isn’t an additional spend. You also might be someone who likes competitions so you would also gain a free entry into the £200 Argos voucher draw. However, if you tend to drink large bottles of coke (a 1.5litre bottle of Coke would have the same to drink as 6x250ml cans) then it might not be worth it to you if the cans cost more than the bottles.
Not Always The Best Offers
Something I also say when taking advantage of any bonus nectar point offer is to make sure you aren’t paying more to cover the cost of those bonus points. In the example above you can see that it COSTS more to get the diet coke bottle rather than 6 cans but you do get more diet coke for your extra 15p. What you will also notice is that the cans are currently £1 off so £2 instead of £3. If they weren’t on offer you’d be paying MORE money for LESS cola. Even when you factor in the 60p you ‘make’ from the bonus Nectar points, the cans are still 25p more expensive for less drink.
When the offers have been 20 bonus points for loose carrots you can pick up a carrot for 3p and be 7p in profit, so deals can be had, but the best rule to follow is to only buy items you were planning to buy anyway – that way there is no additional spend needed for the bonus points.