Maximise your points with Tesco Clubcard Unpacked: how it works

Tesco Clubcard Unpacked helps shoppers to track their balance, and insights into how to get the most from their points.

If you are a Tesco shopper, then there’s a new service on offer which may help you save money.

Tesco has launched a new service called Clubcard Unpacked, which it suggests will give shoppers a better chance of maximising returns from its loyalty scheme.

The tool is available to members of the Clubcard scheme, and will outline things like their most shopped-for items and favourite aisle, as well as the number of Clubcard points earned and how they were earned.

Crucially, if you haven’t spent your Clubcard points, then the Unpacked service will outline how you can get the most value for them.

While Clubcard vouchers can come in useful in reducing the cost of your shopping at the store, you can get even better returns by exchanging them with partner retailers, which can see you get three times their face value.

The service is available online or through the Clubcard app.

Spending at the supermarket

The amount that we spend at supermarkets has come under a lot of attention in recent months.

Indeed, the rate at which those food and drink prices have risen has been a big contributor to the incredible rates of inflation seen throughout 2022.

According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the price of food and non-alcoholic drinks has risen by an average of 16.9% over the 12 months to December 2022.

That’s a stunning rise, and one that we can all feel in our pockets every time we pick up groceries.

To put it into context, the annual rate of inflation for groceries has risen for 17 straight months and is now at the highest level seen since September 1977.

This would be tough enough on household finances in ordinary times.

But rising prices aren’t isolated to our food bills ‒ we are paying ever higher prices for everything we buy, from fuel to mobile phone bills. 

And that means that the increased size of those supermarket costs is even more painful to deal with.

Getting more for our money 

That puts a bigger emphasis on making sure that we get the maximum possible for the money spent at supermarkets.

Loyalty schemes, like Clubcard, are a tremendous way to do just that. First and foremost these schemes can help you reduce the price of particular items.

At Tesco for example, Clubcard members get lower prices on certain products through the Clubcard Prices scheme.

But the big selling point are the rewards that you can enjoy from them, whether that’s money off vouchers to use in the supermarket itself, or trading them in for even better value rewards at other retailers.

Most of the main supermarkets have some form of loyalty scheme in place ‒ in fact, last year saw Asda launch its own first national loyalty programme ‒ and the fact that they are genuinely free to make use of means it’s well worth signing up for schemes run by supermarkets you use.

Of course, having a wallet full of loyalty cards ‒ or more likely these days, a mobile phone filled with supermarket apps ‒ can be a bit of a pain, but it’s worth it for the savings they could deliver.

Will Clubcard Unpacked save you money?

The key question is whether Clubcard Unpacked is likely to deliver a financial benefit to users. And there are a couple of areas where I think it could be really useful.

First off, it provides a useful insight into precisely how you are spending your money in the supermarket, and what is delivering the best rewards.

If you find that one of your big earners (in terms of Clubcard points) is filling your car up at Tesco, but you only head to Tesco for petrol half the time, then that could lead to a useful change in habits.

Rather than filling up elsewhere, you could focus your efforts on only doing so at Tesco, and reaping the rewards with further Clubcard points.

I also like the fact that Unpacked details how many points you have, and how you could use them.

I’ve been a member of Clubcard for most of my adult life, but I know for a fact that I have wasted some of the rewards earned, precisely because I didn’t keep a close enough eye on the vouchers I had or, more importantly, when they would expire.

It is crucial for users to think carefully about where they will get the most impact in their regular lives from those reward points though.

Sure, I might be able to transfer my points into a voucher that’s three times more valuable by using them at Thorpe Park, but using them to cut the cost of my food shopping may be more worthwhile in the long run than a trip to the theme park.

Ultimately, it could help people improve their finances, but it's really down to us users to get the most out of the info at our disposal.