Unused Tesco Clubcard vouchers worth £17m to expire this month – check yours NOW

If you have a Clubcard, you earn one point for each pound spent at Tesco. Points are then issued as vouchers – you receive them every three months as part of your Clubcard statement, or can request to have them added to your account instantly through the 'Faster Vouchers' scheme. 

However, crucially vouchers are only valid for two years after they're issued (21 months if issued as Faster Vouchers). 

And while vouchers regularly expire, this is the first time Tesco has put a value on those that are set to lose their validity. It says some £17 million worth of vouchers are set to run out on Saturday 29 February, and while it can't tell us exactly how many Clubcard-holders have affected vouchers, it's likely to be a huge number. So check now if you've some that are unspent. 

See our Reclaim & Boost Tesco Vouchers guide for more on how to get the most from the scheme.

How to check if you've unspent Clubcard vouchers

If you keep your Clubcard vouchers in a safe place and have just lost track of the expiry dates, you can check – it'll say on each one when it's valid until.

But if you've lost your vouchers, or are just unsure if you have any that are unspent, you can check via the Tesco Clubcard site or app. Here's how to do it:

• To check via the website... go to the Tesco Clubcard website, select 'My Clubcard' and then 'Vouchers'. You'll need to be registered for a Tesco.com account and must know your Clubcard number, which is printed on Clubcards and Clubcard key fobs.

  You should see a table listing your available vouchers and their expiry dates. 

• To check via the app... open it up (if you don't have it yet, you can download it for Apple and Android), then go to the 'Vouchers' section.

Once you've found your vouchers, you can spend them online using the code provided – or if you plan to spend in store, you can print the vouchers off or scan the barcode available on the app at checkout. 

Vouchers about to expire? There's a trick to extend them

If your vouchers are about to expire but you're not ready to spend them yet – for example, if you're saving up to use them for a big purchase – there's a crafty trick that can extend their expiry date for another two years. Here's how it works:

• Make a small purchase on the Tesco Clubcard site (not in store or on other Tesco websites) using a voucher and the remaining balance will then be credited back to your Clubcard account as points. 

• They'll then be reissued as new vouchers (with an expiry date up to two years in the future) when you next get a batch. So if you spend 50p on a £10 voucher, you'll get £9.50 as new vouchers.

There's no minimum spend, but the aim's to shell out as little as possible – a good option might be spending 50p on a restaurant voucher, which will be worth £1.50 in your chosen restaurant. Bear in mind you'll need to do this trick for each voucher you have – so while it's likely to be worth it for a £10 voucher, it's less useful if you've got a handful of £1 vouchers, for example. 

How to boost the value of your Tesco vouchers

While 500 points equal £5 to spend in store, you can trade them for up to three times that value (ie, £15) in Reward partner vouchers – meaning the £17 million in unspent vouchers could be boosted to up to over £50 million to be spent on meals out, days out, railcards and more. 

For example, Tesco has suggested the total value of these close-to-expiry vouchers could cover the cost of 4.25 million Pizza Express pizzas or 1.4 million tickets to Thorpe Park. 

For full info on how to boost your vouchers' value, including our top 10 partner voucher deals, see boost your points to get max value.