Martin Lewis’ MSE issues £11,000,000 Tesco Clubcard expiry warning

Martin Lewis has issued a warning to Tesco Clubcard holders (Picture: Shutterstock/Getty/Metro.co.uk) Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert (MSE) is never short of tips and tricks to help you make your hard-earned cash go further. Now, the UK’s favourite finance site has issued a warning for anyone with a Tesco Clubcard – and if you’ve been racking up points on your weekly shop, you’ll want to tune in. According to the supermarket, more than half a million shoppers have more than £100 in unused loyalty card vouchers, with 95,000 shoppers sitting on a hefty £200 or more. And on August 31 at 11.59pm, £11 million worth of them are expiring. Clubcard vouchers – issued every three months in February, May, August and November – are valid for two years, meaning those issued in August 2024 will be void come the end of the month. Ask Metro Use AI to go deeper into the stories you care about – powered by Metro and trusted publications. Customers are being urged to use or lose their reward points before the deadline. But fear not, as MSE has issued the lowdown on how to check when yours go out of date, or extend their validity if you won’t get a chance to spend them in time. How to convert Tesco Clubcard points into vouchers You can spend Clubcard points on more than just your weekly shop by converting them into a voucher, which can then be spent at an array of exciting locations, from restaurants to theme parks. You can convert points to vouchers on the app (Picture: Shutterstock) You’ll need a minimum of 150 points to claim a voucher, which you can do by signing into the Tesco Grocery & Clubcard app, or by visiting the ‘Clubcard’ tab at Tesco.com. Next, select the button to turn your Clubcard points into vouchers, click on ‘request vouchers’ and, ta-da, they’ll appear in your Clubcard account within seconds – just like magic. How to check your Clubcard voucher balance It’s easy to check whether you have vouchers that need using up. Any vouchers in paper format will have an expiry date printed on them, but if you’ve lost the physical copies or prefer to do things digitally, you can see your balance online or through the app. To check online: Log in to the Tesco Clubcard website, and click through from ‘Clubcard account’ to ‘Vouchers’, where you’ll see a table listing your available vouchers and their expiry dates. To check with the app: Log in to the Tesco Grocery & Clubcard app, go to ‘Clubcard’ and then to ‘Vouchers’. What can you spend Tesco Clubcard points on? If you choose to exchange your points for Tesco vouchers, 150 are equal to £1.50 to spend in-store or at Tesco filling stations. However, you can get up to double or triple the value of your Clubcard points by exchanging them with one of the supermarket’s Reward Partners. There are more than 100 companies registered as part of the scheme, offering everything from money off days out to discounts on big ticket purchases. For example, at restaurants like Pizza Express, Zizzi, and Las Iguanas, youcan turn a £5 voucher into £15 spending money. So, don’t let them go to waste and double-check those expiry dates. You might be able to extend your vouchers – but be warned The team at MSE might have identified a way to extend your vouchers – however, it’s technically prohibited. Some shoppers extend Tesco Clubcard voucher expiry dates by using part of the voucher on the Tesco Clubcard Rewards website (rather than in-store). If you use 50p from a £5 voucher on a small purchase with a Reward Partner or charity donation, the remaining £4.50 is usually returned to your Clubcard account as a new voucher balance. You’ll need to do this by 11.59pm on Monday, August 31, but be warned, technically, under the Clubcard’s terms and conditions, Tesco can refuse a Reward Partner order if it believes you’re trying to trick the system by redeeming vouchers just to extend their validity. The T&Cs state that orders can be refused if a customer is ‘abusing’ the system. Such abuse includes: ‘Redeeming Clubcard vouchers for the sole purpose of extending the life of the Clubcard points.’ Basically, while MSE experts say they ‘tested the trick… this week and it worked just fine,’ you may not have the same results. If it does work, according to the consumer finance site, you can then swap your points for vouchers manually or wait for them to be converted with your next statement. The expiry date for these new vouchers will be two years in the future. Keep in mind, you’ll need to do this for each individual voucher. So, it may not be worth it if you’re only looking to extend a load of them at £1 a pop. 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