Money off trains and taxis, eating out deals, bargain magazines, cheap entertainment and bonus airline points are some of the best uses of your Clubcard points.
If you shop at Tesco, you probably already have a Tesco Clubcard (if not sign up for one on their site or pick up a flyer in-store). But how do you spend the points to get the best value?
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What are Tesco Clubcard points worth?
You’ll get a point for every £1 you spend at Tesco. If you spend them in store on your groceries, 100 Clubcard points are worth £1, so that means they have a base value of 1p each. Read more about the value of supermarket loyalty schemes including Clubcard and Nectar points.
But they can worth more through Clubcard Boost. Here you swap your Clubcard vouchers for vouchers to spend elsewhere. The “boost” is the increase in value.
There used to be variable boosts. Some doubled your points, some tripled and some even quadrupled. But as of last year it’s now a simpler triple boost across most deals. So each point is worth 3p via a boost.
How to use Tesco Clubcard points
You need a minimum of 150 Clubcard points to spend them. Once you do, you’ll get a payout in the form of a voucher. You can get sent this in the post, but this can take a long time with statements only sent every three months.
Better is to convert points to vouchers via the Faster Vouchers process. You’ll only get a digital voucher via this method. Again you’ll need at least 150 points to convert them.
Whether paper or digital vouchers you can spend them in any Tesco store, Tesco online or boost them. Personally, I’d always go for the boost – as long as there’s something you’d normally buy!
If you want to use the vouchers for a boost then you simply head to the Clubcard website and use them to pay for whichever offer you select. You can’t part pay, so you need the full amount of points to get the deal.
How long Clubcard vouchers last
When you’re issued a Tesco Clubcard voucher it’s valid for 2 years. You can check if you’ve any vouchers and their expiration dates in your Clubcard account.
Tesco Clubcard Plus
This new premium service costs £7.99 a month, and benefits include 10% off two shops every month. It looks like a good scheme for regular Tesco shoppers. Here’s my full review, including details on how to get it.
Tesco Clubcard Prices promotion
Occasionally Tesco lets you use your Clubcard to gain extra savings on groceries in-store and online. The first one of these was in May 2019 to mark 100 years of Tesco and it was the first time we’ve seen special discounts for being a member of the scheme (unless you count the odd voucher in the post).
You don’t need any points on your card – you just need to have one. If you don’t it’s easy to get one in-store or register online.
There were 200 items reduced but I found the offers a bit mixed.
My best Tesco Clubcard deals
The key when working out if it’s a decent deal is simple. Can you get the same product on discount elsewhere?
If you can then you need to compare whether the Clubcard Boost is actually any good. The best boosts are therefore on things which you rarely find at a lower price.
Sadly, my top pick of Red Spotted Hanky which let you book train tickets was removed in January 2019 and Uber followed in July last year – but there are still some decent options.
There are actually hundreds of options, so I’ve scanned through them to find my six best uses.
NOW TV
You get a triple boost here, with 50p in Clubcard vouchers getting you £1.50 of credit to spend on NOW TV’s website. You can use this to buy month passes for Entertainment (including channels such as Sky Atlantic), Cinema (with all the Sky Cinema channels) or day, week or month passes for Sports (with all the Sky Sports channels).
After more ways to save on NOW TV? Read my NOW TV deals page here.
Days out
Fancy pay less when going to the zoo? A theme park? Museum? All these are available at a discount.
A lot of the “days out” used to be quadruple points and have been reduced to triple – but they still represent decent value. It’s worth checking to see there isn’t a better offer out there, though one saving which is hard to beat is using your points for triple credit towards an English Heritage or RHS membership.
It’s worth checking out Kids Pass though if you go out a lot as some discounts might be bigger.
Cinema tickets
You can use your points to get cut-price cinema tickets, again at triple value. So 50p in vouchers will get you £1.50 to spend, It’s only for Cineworld.
You can also use your points towards the Cineworld Unlimited pass. You need a minimum of £10 in Clubcard vouchers for this, which will get your £30 credit.
Bonus airline points
If you already save airline points, this is a great way to get more. 250 Clubcard points are worth 625 Virgin Flying Club points or 600 Avios points. If I exchanged Amex points of the same value I’d get just 500 points. So that’s at least 20% more.
However, unless you travel a lot and earn lots of points, I do think you’re better off using a standard cashback credit card rather than be restricted to using air miles.
Magazine subscriptions
Magazines are also now in line with the “triple bonus” standard, meaning once more you can convert a minimum of 50p in Clubcard vouchers to get a £1.50 voucher to go towards a subscription. This is roughly what they were before.
So if you wanted to sign up to a year of Empire completely (at a cost of £62.40) via Clubcard points you would need £20.50 in points, and top it up by another 90p from your bank account.
Of course you can get other subscriber deals elsewhere which give good discounts. A quick search for Empire shows you can pay £46, so the Clubcard deal is still a decent saving, representing a 2x boost in real terms.
It’s a similar story for other magazines available via Clubcard, including Good Housekeeping, Elle, Garden Answers, Golf and Esquire.
This isn’t the best way to save on magazines though – you can get them for free! Read my cash hack to get free digital magazines
Tesco Mobile bills
You can now use your points to reduce the cost of your mobile bill. It’s only double rather than triple, but it could considerably cut your costs if you’re with Tesco Mobile.
However, it’s worth checking you can’t get a better deal with a different network.
Clubcard deals to avoid
Though you can save money by boosting your points in these areas, I think you can get similar savings elsewhere – meaning you should boost your points on the more valuable discounts listed above.
Restaurants
Even when these were 4x value I thought you could spend your points better elsewhere than at the chain restaurants included in Clubcard Boost. And now they are triple too the deal is worse.
That’s because you can get decent discounts for the likes of Pizza Express and Bella Italia elsewhere. A simple google often brings up voucher codes for 40% off or two for one. Plus you can save at more places more often with a Tastecard trial.
So let’s say you’ve gone to Pizza Express and the final bill came to £30, it would have cost you £10 via Clubcard vouchers, or £15 via Tastecard or another voucher.
Yes, that’s still a bigger saving, but it means your real boost is only 1.5x, not 3x. I think you’re better off using your points elsewhere.
List of Tesco Clubcard restaurants:
- Ask Italian
- Bella Italia
- Cafe Rouge
- Chef & Brewer
- La Tasca
- Pizza Express
- Prezzo
- Zizzi
Hotels
It’s similar with converting your Clubcard vouchers to spend on hotels. Though you can get triple value on points to spend at Hotels.com, Novatel and Hilton, you’re locked into booking direct with those websites, which might not offer the best rates available. I think you’re better off searching for the lowest prices elsewhere, and then using your points at one of the options above.
My first use is to get RAC membership.
Hi Andy. I love building up my Tesco points. We tend to go to Belgium every year, and you can swap £10 of clubcard points for £30 worth of Eurotunnel vouchers. That means that generally you can travel back and forth from France for less than £30 in Tesco vouchers. Much quicker and cheaper than the ferry!
In July, Tesco revamped its Clubcard scheme and began sending out new dark blue contactless cards to customers. It also announced a major overhaul of its Clubcard app.
I looked into this too and I don’t agree on the restaurants – at least not totally.
Most vouchers have limitations and Friday/Saturday are usually excluded.
Taste card trial is great but you can only have that for a limited period once you’ve had it, you can’t do the trial again so shouldn’t really be compared.
So let’s say you don’t travel by train or uber, and you don’t want to subscribe to magazines.
You can get better deals on days out via kidspass as you point out.
Meals are left as the best option for most people even if they’re really only getting a 2x saving.
Yes, certainly better to use them for something you are going to use!
I’m very disappointed with tesco, had a mobile sim only contract for a year with them,
When I decided to look for a better deal this year I was persuaded to stay with an offer if 1000 extra points if I stay..this was April..
Ive contacted tesco several times , tesco mobile are telling me they’ve definitely
Been added whilst tesco club card are saying they’ve not been added.surprise today received my statement they’re not..
Next year I’m not staying with you TESCO , as a loyal customer for many years I’m changing my supermarket shopping. Very disappointed
In you.
SO sorry that redspottedhanky promotion ceased
I was using the points on uber taxis, taxis for some people are an ongoing need and it was useful. The deal is scrapped so I looked at whats left and its either unpopular magazines or for silly things like days out, nothing related to day to day expenses, Clearly tesco have been cost stripping as I expect deals on uber was costing them far more money than a cheaper cinema ticket. Since this current CEO has been appointed tesco has very sharply gone downhill, he clearly has a mandate to sort out their profits, and he hasnt been able to do it without visible effects. The quality of tesco food is currently not much better than smart price asda food but at over double the price, clubcard points are now almost irrelevant as they have been nerfed in many years during the past 3-5 years. Go back 5 years and you got points for tesco petrol, triple the points for every £ spent on food, way more deals, better quality food, cheaper food, cheaper delivery, bagged food on delivery, more choice of food for delivery, better use by dates, and better special offers (most special offers now days are for bilk purchases). The downfall of the brand has been huge. But it would appear the current mandate none of this matters as long as profits are maximised.
Using Clubcard points for Cineworld vouchers (3x) combined with a Meerkat 2 for 1 voucher means you can get two tickets for the equivalent of £5. Effectively 6x value when combined.
Can club points be used to join the National Trust ??