Sainsbury’s to halve Nectar points earned on credit card spending from November affecting 1.8m customers

Sainsbury’s is changing the amount of Nectar points that shoppers can earn through its credit cards from November.

Customers who use a Sainsbury’s Bank credit card to earn their points have just one week until the supermarket cuts the number of points earned with each transaction in half.

What is changing from November?

From 1 November, customers will get just one Nectar point for every £2 spent in store. This is down from two points for every £1 spent under the current scheme.

The change applies to all Sainsbury’s credit card holders when shopping at any Sainsbury’s supermarket (including Tu clothing), Argos or Habitat. Customers will still get one Nectar point for every £5 spent elsewhere, including:

• Argos eBay stores
• Argos Clearance stores
• Argos For Business
• Argos Spares
• Argos Financial Services
• Sainsbury’s Bank
• Sainsbury’s Energy
• Sainsbury’s Cafes
• Sainsbury’s e-Gift Cards 

The supermarket announced in September that it would be emailing or writing to customers to notify them of the change.

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “With costs going up, we are working hard to keep prices low. We regularly review our offers to ensure we are making the biggest difference to the most customers and we have written to customers to explain that our Sainsbury’s Bank Credit Card points promotion is changing, for new and existing customers.

“While we understand this offer is popular with card holders, we are certain that all customers will continue to find great value and to save money with Sainsbury’s through our low priced food, competitive financial services and affordable Argos and Habitat brands.”

No change to free Nectar card loyalty scheme

There is no change to the free Nectar card loyalty scheme. Shoppers can continue to earn one point for every £1 spent at Sainsbury’s, Argos, eBay, Esso and more. Points are then worth 0.5p to spend at Sainsbury’s, or you can boost their value by swapping them for rewards to spend at certain retailers. Shoppers need 200 Nectar points to save £1 to spend.

Once customers have collected enough points, these can then be turned into vouchers and used to buy a food shop at Sainsbury’s or other items, such as plane tickets at Expedia, train tickets from Eurostar or cinema tickets for Vue cinemas.

Sainsbury’s Bank customers can continue to collect additional points from Nectar partners by scanning the Nectar app or using their Nectar card at the time of the transaction. Customers can find details on how many Nectar points they could collect on average on nectar.com.