Martin Lewis issues Tesco Clubcard warning to shoppers as £13 million vouchers set to expire just eight days

Martin Lewis has warned Tesco shoppers to use their Clubcard loyalty vouchers soon as £13 million are due to expire in just eight days.

The vouchers are valid for two years, so any that were issued in November 2020 must be used by 30 November this year. Shoppers who don’t spend them in time will lose out on claiming their voucher points.

Clubcard vouchers are sent out with your statement in February, May, August and November - you will get them by post, email or text depending on what you’ve selected.

You can also view your statement, and see how many vouchers you have, in the Tesco Clubcard app by heading to your account and selecting ‘statements’.

The vouchers can be spent in-store and online to save money on a festive Tesco shop. If you decide to use your vouchers for your shopping, then 150 points will give you £1.50 to spend.

Vouchers can also be used to cut the cost of car fuel and can be tripled in value to spend at various reward partners, including Pizza Express and Cineworld, or they can be swapped to get money off your Tesco mobile bill.

If you don’t want to spend your vouchers just yet, MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis has said that Tesco customers could instead make a small purchase on the Tesco Clubcard Rewards website and from there the remaining points will be credited back to your account.

He said: “Take your £10 voucher online and buy a 50p restaurant voucher on its Reward page - which is worth £1.50 because they triple it. Now, you will get reissued £9.50, the change, in vouchers, and they are new vouchers so they have a two-year lifespan.”

For example, if you buy a 50p voucher with one of Tesco’s partners, like Pizza Express, you’ll get a £1.50 voucher to spend in the restaurant and the rest of your points will return to your Clubcard for another two years.

So if you had £10 worth of points and you buy a 50p restaurant voucher, the remaining £9.50 will go back to your account instead of expiring.

How to get Clubcard points

You build up Clubcard points every time you spend money in Tesco stores or online on the Tesco website. For every £1 you spend on everyday grocery items, you’ll get one point added to your Clubcard balance.

If you fill up at a Tesco pump, every £2 you spend is worth one point. Tesco shoppers can also collect points through Tesco Bank and Tesco Mobile as well. Customers can check their Clubcard Voucher balance and expiry dates through the Tesco website or app.

Once you are logged in, click on “my Clubcard account” and then “vouchers” and you should see a table listing the vouchers you still have to spend.

Meal deal price hike

The Clubcard warning comes after Tesco recently hiked the price of its popular lunchtime meal deal due to soaring costs.

The meal deal had sat at £3 for the past 10 years but it has now risen to £3.50 for customers without Tesco’s Clubcard loyalty card.

The new price will see the meal deal cost £3.40 for Clubcard members and £3.90 for other customers. More than 70% of meal deals are purchased by customers with a Clubcard membership.

The increase comes after official data from the Office for National Statistics showed that food and drink inflation jumped to 14.5% last month, the highest since 1980.