Thousands of Nectar points wiped from rail passengers' accounts

Dozens of customers who have used or collected Nectar points with London North Eastern Railway (LNER) in the past few weeks have reported finding that points – in some case totalling thousands – have been taken from their accounts, for no clear reason.

Nectar has confirmed that a "system error" caused some customers to lose points, and LNER has confirmed that they will go back into customers' accounts by the morning of 19 December.

Make your Tesco, Sainsbury's and Boots points go further with our guide.

What is the issue?

LNER is a Nectar card partner, and customers can collect points when they buy LNER tickets, and use points to buy advance tickets. 

You can get get two points per £1 spent on LNER tickets and you can buy £2.50, £5, £10, £20 or £50 vouchers to spend on tickets.

But some customers who have completed LNER transactions involving Nectar points in the past few weeks have spotted errors on their accounts, with some finding thousands of points have disappeared. 

In some cases, customers claim the points have been taken out of accounts in hundreds of separate transactions, sometimes over the course of just one day.

What do customers say?

MoneySaver Ron Wyatt noticed the issue a few weeks ago, but has had no luck getting the matter resolved.

He told us: "I had been saving for a while, mainly via my Amex Nectar card, and Sainsbury's, and a few other companies. My total was £68.70 which my wife and I had expected to redeem at Sainsbury's for our Christmas goodies. Imagine my surprise however to find that £44.50 had suddenly disappeared from my balance.

"Upon investigation I discovered that the London North Eastern Railway had in fact made a staggering 418 transactions on 28 November 2018 to my Nectar account and the net result was my account had suddenly lost £44.50. I was completely baffled as to why this would occur.

"I have bought two tickets to go to Newcastle with LNER, but this cost nowhere near the number of points taken."

At the time of publishing on Monday morning, Ron said the points still hadn't been returned to his account.

Others also complained of issues on social media:

What do Nectar and LNER say?

A spokesperson for Sainsbury's, which owns the Nectar scheme, said the issue was caused by "a temporary system error", which it worked with LNER to fix.

She added: "We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause."

LNER had previously told customers on social media that the points would be back in their accounts by Monday.

But a spokesperson said on Tuesday: “We apologise for the issue some of our customers have had with Nectar points over the last few days. The problem has now been addressed and customers should see their Nectar points restored to the correct level by Wednesday morning.” 

If you're still affected by the issue after today, it may be worth contacting Nectar using the live chat function on its website.