How to get the best out of supermarket loyalty programs

In a decade of helping people to save money on their bills, one of the greatest money saving streaks I have witnessed was when IT consultant Lee Ward saved $3749 in a single afternoon simply by switching or re-negotiating six of her household bills back-to-back.

She got in touch again this week to share some information on her latest hobby – “milking” supermarket rewards programs for maximum value.

One savvy shopper has built up more than 220,000 Flybuys points.Credit:

Last year, Flybuys told Ward she was in the top 1 per cent of points collectors in Australia, with more than 220,000 in the bank. She is not grocery shopping at Coles (Flybuys) and Woolworths (Everyday Rewards) for a household of 10, either – just three people.

Still, Ward estimates she saved almost $1400, or 10 per cent of the total cost, on her grocery shopping last year.

She says a key to success is understanding how algorithms work and chasing the best bonus point offers. Almost 200,000 of her Flybuys points are bonus points.

Sophisticated rewards programs, such as Flybuys and Everyday Rewards, have software programs that monitor what we buy and what we click on, then send us tailored bonus-point offers to encourage us to buy more of the same thing.

However, canny shoppers can observe patterns in the algorithms and make the most of them.

With her money saving savvy and IT background, Ward has worked out some techniques to “milk” rewards programs for maximum results.

Here are some of her best strategies:

• “The algorithm has figured out I do the shopping, so my partner’s offers are not as frequent nor as good as mine. Still, some are worthwhile, or sometimes I use both his offer and mine. We look for the most points for the least spend.”
• “Sometimes offers overlap. I had one recently that was 10,000 points for a $230 spend in one week and another offer of 8000 points for spending $220 a week for two weeks. So, I could get the 18,000 points as both offers were current.”
• “Don’t go over your limit in an offer. To do this I’ll often do part of the shop on my partner’s card and part on mine… the register staff don’t mind you paying in two transactions – you just have to speak up and ask.”Loading
• “Play hard to get. If you stick to your limit, or you don’t use the card for a couple of weeks, the algorithm often lowers the limit and makes a better offer.”
• “If I don’t have a good offer at Coles one week, I shop at Woolworths and delay any non-essentials until next week. This also encourages the algorithm to improve my offers.”
• “Look at bonus products. They don’t pay much usually, but there was a weird one at Christmas of 4000 points on a ham, so I timed when I bought my ham.”
• “Don’t shop just because you have an offer. That creates wastage unless you can use what you buy.”
• “Don’t redeem points in the online shop. You can find these products elsewhere and the best value for your points is to redeem them on grocery shopping.”
• “Flybuys has just added Bunnings and Officeworks, so we scan there too now. But I don’t think the petrol offers are generally good. I can get 10 cents off a litre any day at the independent fuel chains, compared to the price at Caltex (Woolworths) or Shell (Coles).”
• Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.

Joel Gibson is the author of KILL BILLS. Catch his money saving segments on Nine Radio, Today or on Twitter @joelgibson.

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