CHRISTMAS is just 99 days away and we are expected to spend an average of £453 on the festivities, according to loyalty points scheme Virgin Red.
There are supermarket saving schemes that can help, some offering cash bonuses worth up to £25 on a £500 shop – although there are downsides.
The plans encourage savers to put money aside for their Christmas shop throughout the year, but it’s not too late – there’s a clever trick which means you can still nab a bonus at the last minute.
Here, Harriet Cooke explains how to get the maximum rewards at each store with the minimum risk . . .
Morrisons
HOW IT WORKS: Register online for the Morrisons More loyalty club to take part through the app, or talk to customer services. To load money on, buy “stamps” in store by October 30.
PAYOUT: Stamps worth £49 or more earn a £1 bonus, up to £6 for £194.
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MAX BONUS: £6, or 3 per cent.
TOP-UP BY: October 30.
SPEND BY: Between Nov 6 and Dec 31. If you fail to cash them in, they expire.
Asda
HOW IT WORKS: Christmas Savings Cards can be picked up in store or ordered online. Top up online or at the till in store.
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PAYOUT: You get a bonus £1 for saving £30-£79.99, £3 for £80-£129.99, £6 for £130-£179.99, £9 for £180-£229.99, £12 for £230-£279.99, and £15 for £280 or more.
MAX BONUS: £15 or 5 per cent.
TOP-UP BY: 5pm on November 12.
SPEND BY: No deadline.
Iceland
HOW IT WORKS? Not a Christmas scheme, but its year-round Bonus cards are a great way of saving an extra 5 per cent towards the event.
Sign up on the Iceland Bonus Card app.
PAYOUT: The cards give you £1 extra to spend in stores when you save £20 on them, with a max £1,000 saved per card.
MAX BONUS: £50 or 5 per cent.
TOP-UP BY: No deadline.
SPEND BY: No deadline.
Sainsbury's
HOW IT WORKS: Get a Sainsbury’s Christmas Club card in store, activate and load it up at the checkout.
PAYOUT: You get a £2.50 reward for each full £50 on your card on November 1, capped at £25 on £500 savings. Bonus goes on your card by November 30.
MAX BONUS: £25 or 5 per cent.
TOP-UP BY: Add at least £50 to your card by 11.59pm on November 1.
SPEND BY: Usually mid-January.
Tesco
HOW IT WORKS: Log on to Clubcard account and select Christmas Saver to turn points to vouchers. Also pay in to top up saver and get a bonus.
PAYOUT: £1.50 bonus if you save £25-£49.99, up to £12 for £200 or more.
MAX BONUS: £12 or 6 per cent.
TOP-UP BY: October 18.
SPEND BY: Vouchers, and money you pay in, last two years. Bonus, in separate vouchers, expires after two months.
Co-op
HOW IT WORKS: A store-only paper booklet runs throughout the year.
You’ll need to spend £48 to fill up your booklet with stamps, which cost £1 each. When you spend that £48 in December, you will get a bonus £2 to shop with.
PAYOUT: £2 for every £48 spent.
MAX BONUS: No max, 4 per cent.
TOP-UP BY: No deadline.
SPEND BY: End of December for bonus, but stamps don’t expire.
How to get even MORE free cash
TEMPTING bonuses make these schemes appealing, but take care or you could lose your cash.
You can’t normally take your dosh back out of a supermarket saving plan in an emergency, like you can with an easy-access account.
Unlike savings in the bank, your money isn’t protected if the provider goes bust, and it could be worthless if you miss any spending deadline.
And if you’ve failed to register a savings card online, your cash will be gone for good if it’s lost or stolen.
To get best value, you should keep your money in a high-paying savings account until the last minute.
Consumer expert Andy Webb, of BeCleverWithYourCash.com, said: “It’s a double win. Your cash is protected in a savings account and you’ll earn interest on top.
“And when you swap it for the supermarket bonus, you’re then getting even more free cash.”
But once your money is in the supermarket’s pot, you’re stuck with that store, so you might miss out on lower prices or sales elsewhere.
And often you won’t be able to get change from your vouchers, so may end up buying more than you need.
If you don’t already have a bank account paying decent interest, now is the time to sort it.
According to comparison site Moneyfacts, Ford Money’s Flexible Saver is a top option. It pays 4.95 per cent and you can apply online for an account, starting with £1.
If you put £500 into the account tomorrow and withdrew it at the end of October, you would get around £2 in interest.
If you then moved the cash into the Sainsbury’s scheme, for example, by its deadline of November 1, you would get a bonus of £25.
Plan ahead to save even more. Follow @BeCleverWithYourCash on Instagram for more tips.
Get wise to the Wilko sell-off scam brigade
SHOPPERS looking for early Christmas bargains have been warned to watch out for scammers offering fake deals on Wilko clearance stock following the budget chain’s collapse.
TSB revealed to Sun Money that it has already refunded £70,000 to more than 1,500 customers who were duped by conmen pretending to flog discount stock.
Based on its own figures, TSB reckons criminals will have amassed at least £1million from customers across all banks through bogus Wilko deals.
Adverts have been circulating on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other social media platforms with links directing shoppers to websites purporting to offer old stock at knockdown prices.
But these are just a front to steal shop-pers’ cash, the bank said. The average loss per customer is £45.
The victims it has reimbursed so far include a woman in her fifties who was sent a link from a friend via Facebook of a Wilko advert offering “amazing closing-down deals”.
After clicking on it, she went on to pay £42 for a huge order of toilet rolls before later realising she had been conned.
Another woman followed a pop-up advert on Facebook and ordered a £23 lawnmower before realising that it was bogus.
And a 60-year-old woman found a chair she liked after clicking on another advert.
When attempting to pay on the scam website, she then received a request to enter a one-time password to complete her payment, which she provided.
Using this, the scammers were able to take several payments totalling £30.
Paul Davis, TSB’s director of fraud prevention, advised: “This sharp rise in Wilko scams is typical of how fraudsters capitalise on the news to trick consumers out of their money.
“Wilko has explicitly stated that it is not taking any online orders, so please avoid any offers and clearance sales you find online, as they will be scams.”
Social media companies, such as Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, are coming under increasing pressure to do more to weed out rogue adverts and to share the cost of reimbursing victims with banks.
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All the customers mentioned here got their money back through the bank’s Fraud Refund Guarantee.
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