1,000 Nectar points when you send a parcel with DHL

You will get 1,000 bonus Nectar points when you send a parcel with DHL before the end of February. You need to send a parcel at parcel.dhl.co.uk before 28/02/15 and use the promotional code ‘NEW‘. You then have to go to dhl.co.uk/nectar/claim to claim your points.

It doesn’t matter how cheap the parcel delivery is – you will still get the bonus points.

You can only earn the 1,000 bonus Nectar points once. For any subsequent parcels, you will earn Nectar points at the usual rate of 2 points per £1 spent. Full terms and conditions are available here.

For more ways to earn Nectar points click here.

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Why you should never spend your Nectar points on Eurostar tickets

Nectar have recently added Eurostar as a redemption partner, meaning that you can now spend your Nectar points on Eurostar tickets.

I have previously advised that you should never use Nectar points to buy EasyJet flights (unless there is a double or triple-up promotion running) because of the £11 booking fee. A similar thing applies to Eurostar.

When you book Eurostar tickets with Nectar points you are charged a £10 booking fee. This is obviously a complete and utter rip off! It does, however, get worse:

To book Eurostar tickets with Nectar points you have to phone a Nectar helpline to receive a quote. This is obviously an incredibly inefficient way of selling train tickets, so I have no idea why it has been implemented. It also means that you are not necessarily receiving the same prices that are displayed on the Eurostar website.

If you are planning to purchase Eurostar tickets with your Nectar points then don’t. Instead, you should spend your points on a week (or 2, 3…weeks) of food shopping at Sainsbury’s. Spend the money that you would have spent on your food shopping on buying the Eurostar tickets directly from their website. You will save the £10 booking fee and any additional charges that Nectar might add to the tickets when you order them over the phone.

Exception: Nectar are beginning to jump on the Clubcard Boost bandwagon, and are planning to run a ‘Nectar Rewards Double Up & More’ promotion from 18th March – 17th April 2015. During this period your Nectar points may be worth double (or more), so it may still be worthwhile redeeming them for Eurostar tickets.

For lots of ways to earn free Nectar points click here.

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Sainsbury’s are giving away over 815 million Nectar points over the next 2 days (genuinely!)

Sainsburys are giving away over 815 million Nectar points as part of their Swipe and Win promotion. Swipe your Nectar card when you spend £20 at Sainsbury’s between the 12th and 14th of February and you are guaranteed to win a coupon. The prize breakdown is as follows:

• 15,000 coupons worth 5,000 Nectar points
• 40,000 coupons worth 2,000 Nectar points
• 60,000 coupons worth 1,000 Nectar points
• 800,000 coupons worth 500 Nectar points
• Over 1 million coupons worth 200 Nectar points

The minimum prize is 200 Nectar points (worth £1), so don’t spend between £19 and £20 at Sainsbury’s – make sure you top up to £20 as the last £1 is effectively free.

As ever, there are some exclusions. The £20 qualifying spend excludes:

‘spirits and liqueurs, first stage baby milk products, National Lottery, Tobacco, gift vouchers, gift cards, prescription medicines, over the counter medicines, postage stamps, savings stamps, mobile phone vouchers, phone cards, e top-up, pay point payments, charity products and car park tickets’

Interestingly, if you are in Northern Ireland you can take part in this offer without even making a purchase. Instead, you can just claim a free coupon! Instructions are available in the terms and conditions.

For more ways to earn Nectar points click here.

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Win a million Nectar points by liking a Sainsbury’s post on Facebook

Sainsbury’s are giving away a prize of 1 million Nectar points on their Facebook page this week. To enter the competition, all you need to do is like this post.

The competition ends at midnight on Wednesday 11th February, and the winner will be drawn on Thursday 12th. Full terms and conditions are available here.

To enter more competitions click here.

For lots of ways to earn free Nectar points click here.

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Why you should never use your Nectar points to buy Easyjet flights

Nectar regularly advertise that you can spend your Nectar points on easyJet flights. In theory, the concept makes perfect sense: save up your Nectar points and treat yourself to a nice holiday one summer – sounds good, right?

In practice, however, redeeming your Nectar points on easyJet flights is a complete and utter rip-off.

I quote the following from the Nectar/easyJet booking page:

• “Fares available on the Nectar-easyJet booking website will match those available at easyJet.com.
• You can pay in full with Nectar points or top up with a debit/credit card payment.
• A booking fee of £11 will be added to all bookings at the payment stage and can be paid for with points or debit/credit card.”

The first two points are completely logical: having the same prices on the easyjet.com and Nectar-easyJet-offer websites is fair, and allowing customers to pay with Nectar points + cash is also sensible.

The third point, however, is completely ludicrous. Why should Nectar/easyJet charge customers £11 for the privilege of spending their Nectar points on flights? It is a total scam.

My advice is as follows. If you are ever considering using your Nectar points to buy an easyJet flight, don’t. Instead, use your Nectar points to buy your shopping (until they run out). Use the money that you would have spent at the supermarket to buy your flight directly from easyJet.com. This will save you £11!

For lots of ways to earn free Nectar points click here.

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Earn extra Nectar points with Nectar Savvy Shoppers

Nectar Adpoints, a site which allowed you to earn Nectar points by watching adverts, closed without warning on 31st October 2014. Since then, Nectar have launched a beta version of an alternative. It is called Nectar Savvy Shoppers. Using it, you can earn Nectar points by playing ‘daily games, quizzes and missions’ and ‘learning savvy shopping tips’.

The scheme isn’t yet advertised on the Nectar website, and is currently limited to the first 50,000 Nectar cardholder registrations while it is still in trial mode.

I joined Nectar Savvy Shoppers today and have already earned 150 Nectar points: I got 50 Nectar points for watching the ‘Pampers Cute Babies Video’ and 100 Nectar points for being one of the first 1,000 members to complete mission #7.

The concept of Nectar Savvy Shoppers is pretty neat. The website is well designed, and the games/quizzes/missions are far more interesting than something like online surveys.

The only drawback is that you can never be certain if you are actually going to earn any Nectar points because each mission is advertised as ‘the first X members to complete this mission will receive X Nectar points’. For example, I completed mission #8, but wasn’t one of the first 500 to complete it so didn’t receive the 200 bonus Nectar points. I also wasn’t one of the first 5,000 people to sign up for Nectar Savvy Shoppers so didn’t receive the 100 Nectar point bonus advertised on the homepage.

Since some of the rewards that are offered are quite large (one particular mission earns you 1,000 Nectar points), the trick with Nectar Savvy Shoppers will be to check it regularly for new missions. I signed up for the weekly ‘what’s new’ email when I signed up for my account, so hopefully this will keep me up to date with all the latest missions and ways to earn points.

For lots of ways to earn Nectar points click here.

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How to get a free £5 Sainsbury’s Little Ones coupon

If you join the Sainsbury’s Little Ones club you will receive a coupon for £5 off Little Ones products.

Sainsbury’s Little Ones is a club for parents-to-be and those who have children up to the age of 4. Benefits include:

• family recipes
• meal planners
• parenting advice
• exclusive offers

To get the free £5 coupon you need to follow these steps:

1. Join the Little Ones club here
2. Wait 2-3 weeks (!) for an email telling you that your coupon is ready to collect in-store
3. Swipe your Nectar card on any purchase in-store and your £5 coupon will print automatically

For lots of ways to earn free Nectar points click here.

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12 ways to boost your Nectar points balance

If you are looking for ways to boost your Nectar points balance then you are in the right place. Follow the hints and tips in this article and you can easily earn thousands of extra Nectar points each year.

1. Earn 10% interest on your Nectar points with Nectar Hive

You can earn 10% annual interest on your Nectar account balance by depositing your points in Nectar Hive. As you can see from the photo below I have earned 112 points of interest so far! Access the offer here.

2. Use Sainsbury’s MyCoupons

Sainsbury’s have introduced a new scheme called MyCoupons. You can sign up for a free account with My Coupons here using your Nectar card number. When you log in to your account you will see a series of Nectar point offers tailored just to you. You can select up to five offers to put in your ‘wallet’, and you can use them next time you shop.

3. Download the Nectar toolbar

You get 100 free Nectar points for downloading the Nectar toolbar, and can earn up to 200 points each month carrying out internet searches using the toolbar. You get 1 Nectar point for each 2 searches, so 400 searches gets you 200 points. Follow these instructions if you want to set your Nectar toolbar as your default search engine in Chrome.

4. Sign up to the Nectar eShops newsletter

If you sign up to receive the Nectar eShops newsletter you will get 100 bonus Nectar points. Easy!

5. EDF Read. Reduce. Reward customers: complete two surveys worth 1,000 Nectar points each

If you are a customer taking part in the EDF Energy Read-Reward-Reduce (ie Sainsbury’s Energy) scheme then you can earn up to 2,000 free Nectar points for completing two short surveys. You can get 1,000 Nectar points if you are a gas customer and 1,000 points if you are an electricity customer (if you are both a gas and electricity customer you can get the full 2,000 points).

6. Use the Nectar app on your phone or tablet

You can get up to 100 Nectar points each month by carrying out internet searches through the Nectar app on your phone or tablet. 2 searches gives you 1 Nectar point, so 200 searches generates 100 Nectar points.

7. Give your insurance renewal dates to Sainsbury’s Bank

Give your car insurance, house insurance, pet insurance and mortgage renewal dates to Sainsbury’s Bank and you will get 100 free Nectar points. Access the offer here.

8. Use Oxfam’s Tag Your Bag scheme

You get 100 free Nectar points just for signing up for the Tag Your Bag scheme. After you have signed up you will earn Nectar points whenever an item that you donate to Oxfam is sold. For each £1 that an item is sold for your receive 2 Nectar points.

9. Link your Nectar card to your Expedia account

Receive 100 bonus Nectar points just for linking your Nectar card to your Expedia account. More information is here.

10. Complete two quick surveys

Get 50 free Nectar points for completing this 2-minute survey with Nectar and 50 more free Nectar points for completing this 2-minute survey with Homebase.

11. Nectar Canvass

Earn up to 120 Nectar points per survey you complete with Nectar Canvass.

12. Link your Nectar card to your British Gas account

You can easily get 1,500 Nectar points each year by linking your Nectar card to your British Gas account. For example:

• 200 Nectar points (4 x 50 points) for each quarter you are a gas customer.
• 200 Nectar points (4 x 50 points) for each quarter your are an electricity customer.
• 480 Nectar points (4 x 120 points) by submitting quarterly gas meter readings.
• 480 Nectar points (4 x 120 points) by submitting quarterly electricity meter readings.
• 200 Nectar points – you will receive 200 points on each anniversary of linking your Nectar card to your British Gas account.

Win £500 of Sainsbury’s shopping each month with Tell Sainsbury’s

I recently wrote a review of Tesco Views, a website where you can get 25 Clubcard points in return for completing a brief survey about a recent shop at Tesco. Tell Sainsbury’s is the Sainsbury’s equivalent of Tesco Views – but it isn’t as good. With Tell Sainsbury’s, you are entered into a competition to win £500 of shopping at Sainsbury’s in return for filling in a 3-minute survey about a recent shop.

There is one £500 prize to be won each month. The terms and conditions state that you are allowed one entry each month. You will need a code from a recent receipt to enter. The form of the £500 shopping prize varies depending on the method of your shop. Quoting the terms and conditions:

• ‘For in-store shoppers who complete the survey following an email from Nectar, the prize will be 100,000 Nectar points (worth £500 in store)
• For in-store shoppers who complete the survey via our URL http://www.tellsainsburys.co.uk, the prize will be one £500 Sainsbury’s giftcard posted to the winner
• For Online shoppers, the prize will be in the form of evouchers for use when shopping online and/ or a Sainsbury’s giftcard for use in store. The format of this will be discussed with the winner when they are informed about their prize.’

For lots of ways to earn free Nectar points click here.

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How to set the Nectar toolbar as your default search engine in Chrome

If you are a regular user of the Nectar toolbar then you will know that it can be used to earn up to 200 Nectar points each month just by carrying out internet searches. You get 1 Nectar point for each 2 searches, so 400 searches in a month generates 200 points. You also get 100 free Nectar points just for downloading the toolbar.

The Nectar toolbar can be difficult to use. When you first install it in Chrome you have to click on the Nectar toolbar to the right of the address bar (omnibox) before searching. This is incredibly slow if you are carrying out lots of searches!

You can get around this by using a keyboard shortcut. You have to press Shift+ALT+T, TAB, TAB, TAB, TAB, ENTER, TAB and then you can search! As you can see, this solution is still very slow.

There is a way to set the Nectar toolbar as your default search engine in Chrome. This means that when you search from the address bar (omnibox) you will be using the Nectar toolbar. Follow these instructions closely:

1. Download and install the Nectar toolbar

2. Click on the Nectar toolbar and search for the word ‘test’

3. The address bar will now show a URL similar to https://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=nectar-tb-v3&type=*****&p=test. I have replaced a 5-digit number with ***** for privacy.

4. Highlight your URL and copy.

5. Go to Chrome -> Settings -> Manage Search Engines

6. Scroll to the bottom and add a new search engine.

• Where it says ‘add a new search engine’ write ‘Nectar’
• Where it says ‘keyword’ write http://www.nectar.com
• Where it says ‘URL with %s in place of query’ paste your URL, but replace ‘test’ with ‘%s’.

7. Select the Nectar toolbar as your default search engine

8. Now when you search from the address bar (omnibox) you will earn Nectar points. You can do this by clicking in the address bar, or using the shortcuts CTRL+T or CTRL+E. Easy!!

For lots of ways to earn free Nectar points click here.

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