Well, essentially it’s a free plastic card that you can collect from a retailer. Hand it over every time you make a purchase and points will be added to your account. Collect enough points, and you can use them as money off your shopping.
However, a more lucrative method is to use them to take advantage of one of the many offers available to loyaltycard holders.
For example, points can be used to pay for tickets to theme parks, DVD rental, dry cleaning, furniture, jewellery or meals out, to name but a few. A large number of retailers now offer loyalty schemes, which can differ greatly in their usefulness.
Of course, we all know these schemes aren’t really free – we pay for them through increased prices in store.
For this reason, you may prefer to use shops which can keep their prices low by not offering a loyalty card.
Loyalty cardholders are also subject to having their shopping choices analysed by the supermarkets/retailers, which can be quite annoying.
However, if you can put up with this and regularly use a shop offering a loyalty card anyway, you might as well take advantage of it after all, you’re paying for it anyway! Clever use of the money off shopping vouchers regularly sent out can boost your point totals and reduce the cost of your shopping, too.
