Martin Lewis: 'How to get £200's worth of Nectar points for free'
Brucey may have said that "points make prizes", but according to MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis – in his latest ITV The Martin Lewis Money Show – they can also be turned into nearly £200's worth of spending at Sainsbury's and elsewhere. He explained that to get the almost £200 total involves combining two Nectar point-boosting tricks. A simple one, which anyone can do, will net you 100 to 2,000 points (worth 50p to £10 at Sainsbury's) that we detail below, and a "trickier trick", which Martin explains in this video…
The clip above has been taken from The Martin Lewis Money Show, broadcast on Thursday 25 February, courtesy of ITV Studios Ltd, all rights reserved. You can turn on subtitles by selecting the keyboard icon in the bottom right. Watch in full on the ITV Hub.
Step 1: How to get an easy 2,000 Nectar points
Martin revealed how to get up to 2,000 Nectar points for free, adding it was "dead easy" to do.
This is because Nectar is offering all existing members between 100 and 2,000 free bonus points – equivalent to between 50p and £10 off your shopping – via its Nectar app until Tuesday 9 March. There's no spend required, so it's a no-brainer. If you're new to Nectar, you can sign up and get 250 points (equivalent to £1.25).
To get this, you need to log in to your Nectar account, or sign up for one, via the free app, and on the home screen select the 'Juicy Points Boost' tile (pictured, right). You'll be shown how many bonus points you've been awarded and these should be instantly added to your regular Nectar points balance. Martin pointed out that "if existing customers don't see it, they should update to the latest app".
Martin explained: "This is a sell by Nectar to try and promote how much it thinks you would have saved by using its personalised bonus offers in the app. Either way, it's free points and only takes seconds."
He added that he's been contacted by people on Twitter who have successfully used the trick. We've included some of the messages below.
Let us know how you get on with Nectar's points boost in the comments below.
And then the 'trickier trick' – how to get a free £184 points via a credit card
The meatier and tougher part of the "Nectar gold rush" is the one Martin explains in the video above on how you can get a free £184 to spend at Sainsbury's, by getting the Amex Rewards Gold Card.
He said: "If you're accepted for that and you spend £3,000 in three months you get 23,000 Amex rewards points which includes a 20,000-point bonus. I would only do this if your normal spending each month – put all your family spending on it – is over £1,000 a month, so it's quite a high amount. If not, don't bother – it's not an excuse for spending more.
"Now what they normally advertise is you can redeem those points for a £100 voucher at Amazon, M&S and more, but I have a trick."
To do the trick, follow these steps:
Convert 23,000 Amex points for 23,000 British Airways (BA) Avios points (via Amex Rewards).
You can now swap 23,000 Avios for 36,800 Nectar points (normally you can do this via BA's website, but due to temporary technical issues you'll need to ring BA's point swap helpline on 0344 49 333 03).
You can spend 36,800 Nectar points as £184 at Nectar partners, including Sainsbury's.
Martin reminded viewers to always repay credit cards "IN FULL" each month so there's no interest. He added that it's fee-free in the first year, but £140/year after that, so cancel after the first year to avoid the fee. You can find out more about the card in our Credit Card Rewards guide.
Being able to swap Avios for Nectar points and vice versa is a perk introduced this year, and one viewer wrote into Martin's show to say she'd swapped Avios points to get £600 off her Sainsbury's shopping.
She said: "Thank you Martin for making us aware of being able to turn Avios into Nectar points.
"I have now converted our family Avios points and I have over £600's worth of points to spend on our weekly shop (with more points still to convert). Should mean six weeks' 'free' shopping."
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