Hey kids! Free money!
Feb. 19th, 2009 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kingandyYesterday I received my first Tesco Clubcard statement in six years.
Recently, I noticed my old card was getting a bit worn and wondered why I hadn't had any of those nice keyfob things, and realised that I hadn't updated my contact address for some time. (This is largely due to the hassle involved. You can't do it through the website - you have to ring them up. P'shaw to that.) Eventually I rang them up, and it turned out that I never told them I had moved out of Levenshulme six years ago. Apparently as soon as they realised this they had put my account into "frozen" status - which meant that points were still going into it every time I swiped the card, but the vouchers and coupons were not coming out. So for the next six years, slowly but surely, my points piled up.
For those abroad, I should note that this is a loyalty scheme; for every pound you spend you get a point, for every point you eventually get a penny's worth of Tesco voucher. (You also get a number of coupons worth x discount for every x*y spent on specific products, but the actual vouchers can be spent on anything at actual value.)
In six years I earned over 7300 points; I now have slightly over £73 to spend in Tesco stores. Wheee!
On the subject of freebies: With my XBox a week or three back, I received a £40 voucher for Virgin Wines. It's not quite free money - you need to open a new "WineBank" account with them and order "at least a 12-bottle case worth £79.99 or more" of wine - apparently WineBank "is a scheme where you pay us money to buy wine." But it says on the voucher "there's absolutely no obligation and you can cancel at any time and withdraw any funds you've added," so if anyone's interested in trying out an online wine merchant and would like £40 of free wine, they are more than welcome to it.
Recently, I noticed my old card was getting a bit worn and wondered why I hadn't had any of those nice keyfob things, and realised that I hadn't updated my contact address for some time. (This is largely due to the hassle involved. You can't do it through the website - you have to ring them up. P'shaw to that.) Eventually I rang them up, and it turned out that I never told them I had moved out of Levenshulme six years ago. Apparently as soon as they realised this they had put my account into "frozen" status - which meant that points were still going into it every time I swiped the card, but the vouchers and coupons were not coming out. So for the next six years, slowly but surely, my points piled up.
For those abroad, I should note that this is a loyalty scheme; for every pound you spend you get a point, for every point you eventually get a penny's worth of Tesco voucher. (You also get a number of coupons worth x discount for every x*y spent on specific products, but the actual vouchers can be spent on anything at actual value.)
In six years I earned over 7300 points; I now have slightly over £73 to spend in Tesco stores. Wheee!
On the subject of freebies: With my XBox a week or three back, I received a £40 voucher for Virgin Wines. It's not quite free money - you need to open a new "WineBank" account with them and order "at least a 12-bottle case worth £79.99 or more" of wine - apparently WineBank "is a scheme where you pay us money to buy wine." But it says on the voucher "there's absolutely no obligation and you can cancel at any time and withdraw any funds you've added," so if anyone's interested in trying out an online wine merchant and would like £40 of free wine, they are more than welcome to it.
