By clicking a retailer link you consent to third-party cookies that track your onward journey. If you make a purchase, Which? will receive an affiliate commission, which supports our mission to be the UK's consumer champion.
Loyalty schemes compared
Find out how Nectar, Tesco Clubcard, Boots Advantage and other popular loyalty
cards compare – and how to get the most out of them
Loyalty schemes have exploded in popularity since many supermarkets and other retailers started offering two-tier pricing, where members pay less for some products than non-members.
Three-quarters (74%) of shoppers have a Tesco Clubcard and half (50%) have a Nectar card, with many other schemes not far behind, according to a Which? survey from June 2024*.
Here, we explain how much you could earn in different supermarkets and shops, and reveal some surprising facts about so-called loyalty 'discounts'.
Be more money savvy
free newsletter
Get a firmer grip on your finances with the expert tips in our Money newsletter – it's free weekly.
This newsletter delivers free money-related content, along with other information about Which? Group products and services. Unsubscribe whenever you want. Your data will be processed in accordance with our Privacy policy
Loyalty cards compared
Here's a top-level view of what you can get through the major supermarkets' loyalty schemes. There's more detail on each scheme further down the page:
Supermarket loyalty schemes in detail: Clubcard, Nectar and more
Our experts have pulled together everything you need to know about each supermarket's loyalty scheme - from joining restrictions to loyalty pricing and other rewards. Schemes are listed in order of market share.
Member-only prices
Having a Tesco Clubcard gives you access to Clubcard Prices, which are available on selected products at Tesco.
According to Which? research on Clubcard Prices, this could save you around 7% on the overall cost of your shopping - although we've also found some potentially dodgy practices when it comes to loyalty pricing, which we explain in more detail here.
Points
You can collect one point for every £1 spent in-store and online, and one point for every two litres of fuel you buy.
Each Clubcard point is worth 1p in Tesco, so 150 points would be worth £1.50 to put towards your shopping. However, points are worth twice their regular value if you spend them with Clubcard partners, of which there are around 100 including Alton Towers, Hotels.com and Café Rouge.
Other benefits
Clubcard app users get personalised coupons for bonus points or extra discounts every two weeks. Those who get Clubcard vouchers by post receive personalised coupons around eight times a year.
You can collect points through Tesco Bank and Tesco Mobile, too.
The supermarket giant also offers Clubcard Plus, which costs £7.99 a month and offers a 10% discount on two 'big shops' per month (in-store only), 10% off selected Tesco brands in-store including F&F and Tesco Pet all the time, double data on Tesco Mobile, and the opportunity to apply for a Clubcard Plus credit card.
Who can join?
You must be over 18 and have a UK address. You don't need an email address, smartphone or computer.
Being a Sainsbury's Nectar member gives you access to lower 'Nectar Prices' on selected products. According to Which? research on Nectar Prices, this could save you around 7% on the overall cost of your shopping.
Points
Nectar members earn a minimum of 1 point per £1 spent at Sainsbury's and can earn points with selected partners including Argos and British Airways, too.
Points are worth 0.5p, meaning 500 Nectar points are worth £2.50. They can be spent at Sainsbury's or with almost 300 other companies including Vue Cinemas.
Other benefits
You'll receive bonus points offers as well as lower personalised prices on the items you buy the most (called Your Nectar Prices). This is available if you shop in-store using the Sainsbury's SmartShop app or on Sainsbury's website and app when you link your Nectar card to your online account.
From 1 September, you'll no longer be able to spend points on eBay or automatically collect them if your account is linked to your Nectar card. However, you'll be able to earn two points per £1 spent - double the current rate - if you click through to eBay from the Nectar app or website when you make a purchase. Until 31 August, you can convert your points into eBay vouchers that are valid for 12 months from the date of issue.
Who can join?
You must be over 18 and have a UK address. Under 18s can be added additional collectors on the account of a parent or guardian. You need an email address to register initially, but you don't need a smartphone or computer to actually use the scheme.
Asda Rewards is run through a smartphone app and allows customers to collect 'Asda Pounds' by buying certain products or completing missions. These can then be spent at Asda in store or online.
Other benefits
Asda has linked its 10% off Blue Light Card discount for emergency workers to Asda Rewards. This means that blue light cardholders will get 10% off their shopping in-store by scanning their Asda Rewards app at the checkout, rather than presenting their Blue Light Card and ID.
Who can join?
You must be over 18. There are no address restrictions. You need an email address to register and you must have downloaded the Asda Rewards app or sign up online.
Morrisons More offers member-only prices in-store and online.
Points
Available as a card or via an app, Morrisons More lets you earn points on selected products including fuel in stores and online. Once you've earned 5,000 points, you receive a ‘Morrisons Fiver’, which can be redeemed on a future shop.
Other benefits
Morrisons More also gives you access to personalised rewards.
In April 2024 Morrisons announced a trial for some customers who use their loyalty card via the app. These customers can pick up to 10 brands from a personalised list based on their shopping history to help them gain extra reward points. The scheme uses artificial intelligence to personalise offers to each customer - something Morrisons says is a first in the UK grocery market.
Morrisons also has 'clubs' for NHS staff, teachers, students and families with babies, offering exclusive offers, discounts and treats.
Who can join?
You must be over 16 and a UK resident. You don't need an email address, smartphone or computer.
Lidl Plus offers exclusive discounts and rewards via the Lidl Plus app. The Lidl Plus Offers are for all members. They change weekly and give you a discount at the till when you scan the app.
Points
Customers don't collect points but can reach spending targets to get other rewards.
Other benefits
You get weekly coupons for different products based on your shopping habits.
You're awarded for spending certain amounts. For instance, you get a free bakery item if you spend £50 in a month, and spending £250 a month will generate a 10% off coupon.
This comes alongside exclusive discounts for Lidl Plus members, such as a free two-month digital magazine subscription or 20% off Tough Mudder tickets.
Who can join?
You must be over 18. You must download the app and will need an email address and mobile number, too.
The Co-op Group offers member-only prices on some items in-stores and online.
Points
The Co-operative Membership loyalty scheme doesn’t give you points. Instead, you earn money back on your purchases and get member-exclusive prices which the retailer says could save customers £300 a year.
Other benefits
Co-op loyalty membership offers personalised deals too, as well as discounts on Co-op services such as funerals and insurance and rewards through its tie-up with Just Eat.
The loyalty programme gets you 2p for every £1 you spend on selected Co-op products and services which goes into your Co-op Membership account.
The Co-op gives the same amount to support community organisations and local causes. You can spend the rewards you earn on most things you buy - not just Co-op products - or you can choose to donate your rewards.
Other benefits include having a say over how the company is run and a claim to its profits.
We've looked at The Co-op Group membership here. There are many other independent Co-ops across the UK and these offer different loyalty schemes with different cards.
Who can join?
You must be over 16. Under 16s can have junior membership if they use a card bought by their parents. You don't need an email address, smartphone or computer.
The Iceland Bonus scheme uses a saving system, rather than points.
Other benefits
Iceland Bonus cardholders earn rewards by effectively paying for their shopping in advance. For every £20 saved onto an Iceland Bonus Card, Iceland adds £1.
In addition, you’ll get exclusive offers when you shop, as well as free delivery for in-store shops of over £25 and online orders over £40.
Who can join?
You must be over 18 and a UK resident. You need an email address to register initially, but you don't need a smartphone or computer to actually use the scheme.
MyWaitrose offers some limited member-only prices but not as many as Sainsbury's or Tesco.
Points
Waitrose's loyalty scheme isn't about collecting points - instead you get freebies and discounts on selected grocery items.
Other benefits
You can claim a free hot drink each time you buy something from a Waitrose store, as long as you bring your own cup. Members also get a free copy of the Waitrose & Partners Food magazine, as well as 20% off at the fish counter on Fridays and - for Vitality health and life insurance holders - cashback on selected healthy foods.
You can select from a range of personalised offers, which are refreshed periodically, on the MyWaitrose website and app.
Waitrose revamped its scheme in October 2023 so that the personalised offers are based on a year's worth of shopping habits rather than just four. Members can also now deselect vouchers if a product is out of stock, or they change their mind.
Who can join?
You must be over 18 and resident in England, Scotland, Wales or the Channel Islands. You need an email address to register initially, but you don't need a smartphone or computer to actually use the scheme.
Marks & Spencer has ruled out launching member-only offers, with chief executive Stuart Machin insisting the retailer does not do 'tricksy pricing'.
Points
You don't earn points with Sparks.
Other benefits
M&S Sparks membership gives shoppers personalised offers, the chance to win what they're buying and money donated to a charity of their choice each time they shop.
Sparks members can also apply for M&S's own buy now, pay later scheme, Sparks Pay. It allows you to spend up to £500 interest-free on M&S purchases and pay the balance within 45 days - interest then kicks in at 23.9%.
Who can join?
You must be over 18 and a UK resident. You don't need an email address, smartphone or computer.
Here's everything you need to know about loyalty schemes at Boots and Superdrug.
Member-only prices
Boots has a range of member-only prices. Advantage cardholders can also save 10% on Boots' range of over 6,000 own-brand products,
Points
The Boots Advantage card scheme gets you three points for every £1 spent in store or online. There are also member-only prices on some products.
Each point you earn through Boots Advantage is worth 1p and you can spend your points any time, as long as you have enough points to cover the whole transaction. For example, if you have 199 points you can use them to buy goods worth £1.99 in total.
Other benefits
Advantage cardholders get early access to events, opportunities to enter competitions, and some customers will be sent personalised offers four times a year. These coupons can be taken in store for discounts and extra points when shopping and last for a minimum of two months. Each coupon can be used twice.
In addition, there are offers available to some customer groups - for example, members of the Boots Parenting Club can earn eight points per £1 spent on baby products until their child turns five, while members aged 60 or above will qualify for eight points per £1 spent on Boots own-brand products plus sub-brands including Soltan and No7 when they join the Over 60s Club. Boots Advantage cardholders can also receive a free health and beauty magazine when in store.
Boots has also launched Price Advantage, which gives members exclusive savings on over 800 products a month, four points for every £1 spent (which you used to get with the free Advantage card scheme until it dropped to three per £1 in May 2023), 10% off most of your shop plus free online delivery and triple points in your birthday month. It costs £20 a year, so you would need to spend over £200 a year to make it worthwhile.
Who can join?
You must be aged 13 or over and a UK resident. You don't need an email address, smartphone or computer.
Superdrug's Health and Beautycard allows you to collect points in-store, online or via its app. You earn one point for every £1 you spend, and each point is worth 1p. Points must be redeemed in multiples of 100, so you can use 100 points to get £1 off or 200 points to get £2 off.
Unlike the Boots Advantage scheme, you can pay with a mixture of points and cash, meaning you don’t need to wait until your balance is exactly right to use them. For example, if your shopping comes to £5.22 and you have chosen to spend 500 points, you can take £5 off your total amount, and then just pay the 22p difference.
Other benefits
There are incentives for spending: if you spend £25 you get 20% off Superdrug own-label products bought in a single transaction, you can get one free Superdrug own-label item when you spend £75, and free next-day delivery when you spend at least £150.
Those who clock up £300-worth of spending earn 'VIP status' for a year, which entitles you to free next-day delivery and other ongoing discounts like 10% off own-brand and in-store beauty services and 'surprise freebies' from third-party retailers.
Cardholders also get free standard delivery on online orders worth over £15 (non-members have a minimum £25 spend), plus special discounts every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and a birthday treat each year.
Who can join?
You must be aged 13 or over and a UK resident (but you don't need an actual address). You don't need an email address, smartphone or computer.
Many shoppers like the big savings offered by loyalty pricing, but others are suspicious that non-member prices are sometimes hiked to make discounts look better than they really are.
While this is a common belief, it's very difficult to prove – so our latest investigation into loyalty prices analysed the pricing history of almost 12,000 products on loyalty promotion at Boots, Co-op, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Superdrug and Tesco to get to the bottom of what's going on.
Non-member prices under the spotlight
We took a snapshot sample of loyalty offers in May 2024, then checked how many times the items' non-member prices had been in place during the previous six months. This was done as a way of establishing to what extent the non-member price was a fair reflection of the 'usual' selling price for people who aren't members of the shop's scheme.
At Superdrug, 16% of the products we looked at had been at their non-member price for less than half the time. At Boots, it was 10%. When it came to the supermarkets, it was 10% at Tesco, 5% at Sainsbury’s and 3% at Co-op.
At Morrisons, it was 20% of the products in our investigation, but our sample size of 45 items was very small due to Morrisons' limited number of loyalty prices.
Never-ending loyalty discounts
Our investigation also revealed instances where the price for non-members was raised just before the loyalty promotion was launched, times when the product didn't go back to the non-member price when the loyalty promotion ended, and loyalty 'discounts' that simply never stopped.
We also found some non-member prices that were much higher than competitors’ prices for those same products.
The tactics vary between different retailers, and some are doing better than others – but our research raised questions about every one of the loyalty pricing schemes we looked at.
Which? calls for guidance updates
Which? believes the introduction of widespread loyalty pricing means the guidance around pricing promotions – which doesn't mention loyalty pricing at all – is no longer fit for purpose. So we're calling for the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) Guidance for Traders on Pricing Practices to be updated with specific guidelines for loyalty prices.
This would help businesses stay on the right side of the law and enable regulators to take faster, effective action when shops flout the rules.
Follow our expert tips to get the best from loyalty schemes:
1. Join loyalty schemes...
Joining at shops you already use will probably save you money, so sign up if you’re happy to hand over your data and are eligible to join. Get the app so you still get the discount if you forget or lose your physical card.
2. …But don’t be loyal
There are big savings to be had by switching where you shop, particularly to Aldi and Lidl which regularly come out on top in our monthly cheapest supermarket comparison.
3. Resist temptation
It’s not a saving unless you were going to buy the item anyway. And, as we’ve shown, discounts aren’t always as impressive as they look.
4. Look for secret codes
Sainsbury’s Nectar Prices usually start on Wednesdays. Their labels say when the promotion started in small print at the bottom, which gives a clue to how long it’ll be valid. Tesco Clubcard Price labels have the date the offers end written backwards in small print.
5. Stock up
Our research has shown that many items are regularly on promotion time after time, and non-perishables are subject to more loyalty discounts than other types of groceries. So buy in bulk when the things you regularly buy are discounted and you may never need to pay full price again.
6. Consider convenience stores
If you don’t want a loyalty card, it's worth knowing that Sainsbury's Local convenience stores don't offer Nectar prices and instead make special offers available to everyone. This is in contract to Tesco Express, where only Clubcard holders can score discounts. Bear in mind, though, that convenience stores are usually more expensive.
*We surveyed 1,970 people online who shopped at least once online or instore in the previous six months between 6-8 June 2024. Results are nationally representative.
