Sainsbury’s cutting weekly Nectar (Avios) bonus offers for some

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There have been numerous reports in our daily chat threads recently about a reduction in the value of weekly Nectar bonus point offers to use when shopping at Sainsbury’s.

Each week, Nectar offers bonus points on a number of personalised own-brand Sainsbury’s products via the Nectar app. These can be very generous, and at times the value of the Avios earned outweighs the cost of the product.

The system isn’t ideal, however. It requires the shopper to install the Nectar app on their phone and to remember to go into it each week to activate the current crop of coupons. In my book, this is too much ‘friction’.

It also makes the value in the Nectar scheme too difficult to see. Anyone considering a switch from Tesco is likely to focus on the headline ‘1 point per £1 spent’ number and decide that the scheme is a waste of space. It is hard for Sainsbury’s to promote the value of personalised offers when they are, well, personalised …..

New offers may no longer arrive every week

Sainsbury’s has confirmed to moneysavingexpert.com that it has made changes.

It said:

“We regularly review the promotions available through our Nectar app to ensure customers are always receiving personalised, valuable offers. As part of this process, some offers may be currently unavailable for a small number of customers and we apologise for any inconvenience.”

Not all members will receive new offers each week. You may well see this in your app:

References to ‘weekly offers’ have also been removed from the app and from the website.

Here are two comparisons of the iOS promotional page for the app – image c/o moneysavingexpert.com:

Let’s see where this ends up. If it leads to a greater focus on in-store bonus point offers then it would be fairer to all customers whilst also making the attractions of Nectar more visible.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

Sainsbury's and Nectar

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Rob Smith says:

23 Apr23 April 08:54

I have a sneaky suspicion the cut in offers may well be to those who transferred a small amount of Nectar points to Avios a few months back to get double points on your spend up to 18th April.
Since then I’ve had virtually nothing through!
- RussellH says:
  
  23 Apr23 April 09:58
  
  I have never tranferred avios-> Nectar, but hardly any offers last week and nothing this week.
  Used to be regularly offered 80 points when buying a copy of the Guardian and the same on 2.27 litres of semi-skimmed milk, both good affers amongs the dross.
  - Mike says:
    
    23 Apr23 April 13:58
    
    Gosh it would take an offer of 500 points at least to make my buy a Guardian!! and then only whilst wearing a hat with my Covid face mask and the paper wouldn’t make it past the bin outside the front of the store !
    - Ian says:
      
      23 Apr23 April 14:30
      
      You’re more of a red top kind of guy then?
    - Lord Doncaster says:
      
      23 Apr23 April 14:41
      
      Could count the number of Guardians sold round here in a month on one hand.
      - Chris says:
        
        23 Apr23 April 17:25
        
        I guess teachers read it online?
    - James says:
      
      23 Apr23 April 22:42
      
      how sad for you
- ChrisC says:
  
  23 Apr23 April 11:18
  
  nope.
  
  I’m getting 1/2 dozen offers a week now which is the same as I got before transferring the nectar points to get the avios bonus
Anttelli says:

23 Apr23 April 09:09

I’ve not had any extra points offers, but £6 off a £40 spend for the last two weeks.
AlanC says:

23 Apr23 April 09:57

I’m still getting 20 offers in at the same time every week. A tuesday morning. Agree most offers have dropped to around 10 to 20 points but still get 4 or 5 with 100 to 200 point bonuses. These most often are TTD higher priced items. Smoked Salmon, Steak but sometimes Fries or other frozen items. Went from around 1200 bonus point to around 600 pw. Have been using the app since first launched.
Paul Pogba says:

23 Apr23 April 10:14

I had no offers when I first read this article this morning. I’ve checked again and I’ve had similar ones to last week. I’ve probably done one full weekly shop and the rest top ups (to exploit the offers) and fuel since the new partnership was announced so I’m probably an unprofitable customer.
Ryan says:

23 Apr23 April 10:28

An easy way around this is to have 2, 3 or 4 nectar cards in your household and rotate them around every few months. I’ve just opened up the OH’s and she’s got a healthy set going (No shopping in months)
peter says:

23 Apr23 April 10:52

The evolution of these offers from partnership with Avios:
1) Get 200 points when you buy chopped tomatoes for 28p, then
2) Get 50 points for chopped tomatoes, then
3) Get 50 points for dishwasher tablets (that I bought week earlier and will last few months), then
4) Get 10 points for something bizarre I don’t need, then
5) no offers 😀
- Super Secret Stuff says:
  
  23 Apr23 April 11:19
  
  Sounds like you had a new card with that 200 point offer, genuinely a bit sad now my long running party is over. I had 2 and 3 for well over a year and am now boycotting Sainsbury’s out of annoyance
  - Lord Doncaster says:
    
    23 Apr23 April 14:43
    
    If you only went in to Sainsbury’s for Nectar points offers are they really going to mourn the loss of your custom?
rams1981 says:

23 Apr23 April 11:08

I don’t spend at Sainsbury’s much. Used to get individual offers now just got a blanket 3x Nectar in any spend
Dan says:

23 Apr23 April 11:32

I think the problem with the partnership was the the earning rate was never guaranteed and always up for severely adverse fluctuations.

With Tesco, you were guaranteed that £1=2.4 Avios, or 2.5 Virgin Miles. Period. No faffing about with logging into an app, saving offers, remembering when they expired and then buying the exact brand, weight and variation of the product that the offer pertains to.

Most of us want a simple and stress free life so, if there won’t be any bumper offers on nectar, I’m more inclined to get the guaranteed Virgin rate that Tesco offers despite my preference for Avios over virgin
- peter says:
  
  23 Apr23 April 11:39
  
  Simple life would be no avios, cheaper BA tickets 😉 Not sure if everyone would want that..
  - Doug M says:
    
    23 Apr23 April 13:56
    
    All those travelling on the company dime certainly wouldn’t.