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Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

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vrdiver
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Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#347839

Postby vrdiver » October 15th, 2020, 12:41 am

Some supermarkets offer a bonus for putting cash on a store "Christmas shopping card". See https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savin ... tmas-cash/ for more info.

    Tesco
    Asda
    Iceland
    Co-op and Morrisons

If you shop at any of these, you can make your savings work harder by transferring some money to a supermarket card, then just spend it by shopping normally.

E.g. I know from my household records that I spent £xxx at Asda, £yyy at Tesco and £zzz at Morrisons last year, so I'll be buying cards that will take me about 12 months to get through, and then each month I'll be running the card balance down and my cash savings back up. (Cards don't expire provided you use them every so often - e.g. Asda expire after two years of inactivity, so I don't see that as a problem!)

For Asda (as I have it open at the moment) the way to maximize the bonus rate is to put exactly £280 on each card (so if you wanted to deposit £560, you'd use two savings cards. Depositing more than £280 on a single card doesn't earn you anything extra, and depositing less than £280 earns a lower % bonus rate, but is still worth doing if you don't want to fill a whole card.

You can register the cards (again, I'm looking at Asda - check the others) so if you lose one, you can recover the remaining balance. If Asda goes bust, you will be out of pocket (I think Tesco ring fence the cash)...

Looking at the last two years' spending records (we all keep household spending records, don't we?) I am confident that we'll get through at least £1k at Asda next year, so will happily transfer £1k from my savings account earning 1% to four Asda Christmas Saver Cards and earn around 5.35% in a shorter period, whilst replenishing the savings account each month with the cash that I didn't spend in the supermarket.

I'll do the same for the other supermarkets.

If you enjoy the "buy 6 get 25% off" wine offers that come around occasionally, then these savings cards can be used for those too ;)

VRD

Stompa
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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#347920

Postby Stompa » October 15th, 2020, 10:53 am

Thanks, that's interesting. Just looking at the Asda one, I see in the T&Cs here:

https://cards.asda.com/conditions-of-use

it says:

10. Christmas Savings Card: You can save up to £280 on each card and we'll give you a special bonus in November. If you've saved £30 you'll get an extra £1, £80 you'll get £3 extra, £130 you’ll get £6 extra, £180 you’ll get £9 extra, £230 you’ll get £12 extra and if you've saved £280 or more we'll give you £15.

11. To qualify for the bonus on our Christmas Savings Card, you must have saved or spent funds from the 1st January to receive your bonus in November.


Point 11 doesn't seem very clear (to me at least). Are they saying that you need to have held the card since Jan 1st to qualify for the bonus?

vrdiver
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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#347925

Postby vrdiver » October 15th, 2020, 11:06 am

Stompa wrote:11. To qualify for the bonus on our Christmas Savings Card, you must have saved or spent funds from the 1st January to receive your bonus in November.[/i]

Point 11 doesn't seem very clear (to me at least). Are they saying that you need to have held the card since Jan 1st to qualify for the bonus?

It's a long-winded way of saying that only funds deposited before the "bonus date" will qualify for the bonus, and only for this year's scheme (i.e. you can't add cash to last year's cards and qualify for a bonus on them).

Bonus date is usually declared some time after the scheme is launched; this year it's been set as 15th November.

E.g. if you pop into Asda and take a Christmas Savings Card (find them at the operator checkouts, with the other gift cards), then either get the cashier to load it with money (no charge for using a credit card, as it looks like an Asda transaction, not a cash withdrawal(!)) or take it home and do it yourself online*, you will get the bonus so long as you do it before bonus date (I do it a week before, so as to ensure I don't mess up).

VRD


*Having had lots of "ooh, you must be rich" comments when loading multiple cards at the till, I now prefer to do it online, but pick up the cards in store for convenience and also to avoid the delivery charge!

didds
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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#347929

Postby didds » October 15th, 2020, 11:13 am

so ..

you grab an asda card on November 14th
stick £280 on it
On November 15th Asda add £15 to it


?

Really?

that's the easiest and quicket 5% you'll ever get!

Is theer a limit on the number of cards you can have? I suppose the effective limit is how much you can realistically spend in Asda in any "cut off" period, but for anybody buying stuff for Xmas and new years parties its a good 'un!

didds
Last edited by didds on October 15th, 2020, 11:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

Stompa
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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#347931

Postby Stompa » October 15th, 2020, 11:18 am

vrdiver wrote:It's a long-winded way of saying that only funds deposited before the "bonus date" will qualify for the bonus, and only for this year's scheme (i.e. you can't add cash to last year's cards and qualify for a bonus on them).

Ah OK, thanks. Annoyingly it doesn't look as if you can get a card delivered along with your standard online grocery delivery.

pochisoldi
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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#347984

Postby pochisoldi » October 15th, 2020, 1:33 pm

didds wrote:so ..

you grab an asda card on November 14th
stick £280 on it
On November 15th Asda add £15 to it


?

Really?

that's the easiest and quicket 5% you'll ever get!

Is theer a limit on the number of cards you can have? I suppose the effective limit is how much you can realistically spend in Asda in any "cut off" period, but for anybody buying stuff for Xmas and new years parties its a good 'un!

didds


It is as easy as that - the only limit is finding a card in store to top up, and how much do you expect to spend in Asda over the next year.
Also note that (AFAIK) you can't use gift/savings cards to pay for online shopping (yes - it's that disjointed), or for anything (fuel or food) from an Asda petrol station (not even a sandwich).

pochisoldi
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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#347986

Postby pochisoldi » October 15th, 2020, 1:34 pm

Stompa wrote:
vrdiver wrote:It's a long-winded way of saying that only funds deposited before the "bonus date" will qualify for the bonus, and only for this year's scheme (i.e. you can't add cash to last year's cards and qualify for a bonus on them).

Ah OK, thanks. Annoyingly it doesn't look as if you can get a card delivered along with your standard online grocery delivery.


And I don't think you can use savings/gift cards to pay for online groceries either (AFAIK).

Loup321
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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#347989

Postby Loup321 » October 15th, 2020, 1:39 pm

With the Morrisons one, you have to load £97 onto the card before end of October (I forget the exact date), and they top it up with £3. (Actually, they give you £1 when you save £49, and a further £2 when you have saved £97 not including their £1.) You have to spend the whole lot during November and December, or you lose it. Can be done either with physical stamps or on the MORE card.

didds
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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#348002

Postby didds » October 15th, 2020, 2:16 pm

Loup321 wrote:With the Morrisons one, you have to load £97 onto the card before end of October (I forget the exact date), and they top it up with £3. (Actually, they give you £1 when you save £49, and a further £2 when you have saved £97 not including their £1.) You have to spend the whole lot during November and December, or you lose it. Can be done either with physical stamps or on the MORE card.



yeah - Id checked out the Morrisons card from the MSM link earlier in the thread. As it is Morrison's is the only really "available" deal for us - nearest asda is 8 miles away and Tesco even more ... and we rarely shop in Iceland although there is one in the town.

In theory we shoud spend £100 in a month in Morrisons ... but not necessarily, short of stockpiling a bit of stuff.



didds

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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#348017

Postby Loup321 » October 15th, 2020, 3:00 pm

didds wrote:In theory we shoud spend £100 in a month in Morrisons ... but not necessarily, short of stockpiling a bit of stuff.


You've got two months, around Christmas, so you might get in some wine (other treats are available...). I spend about £30 a week, so I don't think we'll have a problem. I think it covers New Year as well, and I always have friends over then so need to get some frozen party food in. Allow my fantasies... we're in "High" from Saturday.

didds
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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#348052

Postby didds » October 15th, 2020, 4:54 pm

Loup321 wrote:
didds wrote:In theory we shoud spend £100 in a month in Morrisons ... but not necessarily, short of stockpiling a bit of stuff.


You've got two months, around Christmas, so you might get in some wine (other treats are available...). I spend about £30 a week, so I don't think we'll have a problem. I think it covers New Year as well, and I always have friends over then so need to get some frozen party food in. Allow my fantasies... we're in "High" from Saturday.



There's the rub - I get wine through a local chum that imports orgainc wine and its fantastic stuff at good prices and ive NEVER had a duff bottle from him in well over a decade. Id rather that than risk what some marekleteer has "priced up" as my indication fo some glug to drink. Beer I get from a couple of local small breweries to support them. Meat we tend to get from a local independent butchers. Fish wold be the only likely morrisons purchase but as ijm the ONLY fish eater in the house that's a LOT of fish :-)

It would have to be a LOT of frozen veggie stuff maybe... Or tinned dog food. Which is a lot of fraff for £3 LOL.

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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#348074

Postby Stompa » October 15th, 2020, 6:25 pm

pochisoldi wrote:And I don't think you can use savings/gift cards to pay for online groceries either (AFAIK).

Yes you can, I used an Asda gift card as part payment myself a few weeks ago to do precisely that. Some items (e.g.tobacco) are excluded as per point 6 of the T&Cs here:

https://cards.asda.com/conditions-of-use

Mind you, I'm not quite sure what happens if you pay for the order using a gift card and then subsequently attempt to amend it by adding one of the prohibited items? Perhaps it simply doesn't allow you to do that, or maybe more likely just cancels the use of the gift card.

TopCashback have been doing quite a lot of 24hr offers lately where they give you £3 cashback if you spend £15+ (say), and buying an Asda gift card at:

https://www.topcashback.co.uk/top-gift-cards/

is a handy way to make use of that, plus you (currently) get 2.5% cash back as well. So, you effectively get a £15 gift card for £11.63 (assuming they pay up - which they did for me).

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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#348110

Postby neversay » October 15th, 2020, 10:03 pm

Sadly if you can't visit an Asda to get the free card, you have to pay £1.69 postage as I just discovered. :cry:

FWIW, as well as Topcashback, I just noticed that there are good gift card discounts if you hold a Blue Light Card such as 6.5% off Currys, 7% off Xbox store, 5% off M&S, 6% Wickes, 3.5% Sainsburys, 3% B&Q, 7% Halfords. Granted these aren't always the cheapest shops, but I hadn't given much thought to using discounted gift cards.

Thanks @vrdriver and @Stompa. Great tips. :P

N.

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Re: Supermarket Christmas Savings - best savings rates

#348120

Postby Stompa » October 15th, 2020, 11:15 pm

neversay wrote:FWIW, as well as Topcashback, I just noticed that there are good gift card discounts if you hold a Blue Light Card such as 6.5% off Currys, 7% off Xbox store, 5% off M&S, 6% Wickes, 3.5% Sainsburys, 3% B&Q, 7% Halfords. Granted these aren't always the cheapest shops, but I hadn't given much thought to using discounted gift cards.

Nor me really, it's always seemed a bit of a palaver for not much gain.

My utility company offers a similar Reward scheme:

https://www.utilitypoint.co.uk/utility-point-rewards/

(which I've not used so far), which offers gift card discounts too (though not quite as good as the Blue Light Card) for example:

5.5% off Currys, 6% off Xbox store, 5% off M&S, 4% Wickes, 4% Sainsburys, 3% B&Q and many others.

The scheme would appear to be run by this lot:

https://www.worldprivilegeplus.com/welcome/gb

who I suspect run lots of similar schemes.


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