Tesco Clubcard

If you've been to Tesco recently you would have noticed that they have stopped offering Bonuslink points for shopping at their stores as at 23 August 2007 and instead introduced their own inhouse loyalty card called Tesco Clubcard. I found out about this over the Merdeka weekend and at first thought about signing up for it: a) Because it's free; and b) Because we do a fair bit of shopping at Tesco. Then after some thought, I decided against it. Why? Because what they offered just wasn't good enough to entice me to sign up.

You can only collect points at Tesco and no other place. Unlike Bonuslink, where I can collect points at Parkson and Shell, just to name the two places where I do my shopping. And, I can accumulate my Bonuslink points to redeem free stuff, like the Panasonic Dect cordless phone we just redeemed two weeks back. But what does Tesco do? They send you a rebate voucher for the amount of points that you are entitled to every quarter. As you get only 1 point for every RM2 you spend there, it's not that much in my opinion. Let me prove my point.

My family shops on average, say RM75 at Tesco every week. Over three months in the quarter, that works out to RM900. Being given 1 point for every RM2 spent means that I've accumulated 450 points. Sounds like a lot? Not really. Each point is worth RM0.01 or 1 sen only. So for spending RM900 at Tesco, I get back a rebate voucher for RM4.50.

Worth your time and effort to shop at Tesco using the Tesco Clubcard? I really don't think so. Not for me anyway.

For more about the Tesco Clubcard, please visit their local website here.