New card scheme proves less rewarding

It has been billed as the fantastic new loyalty card which offers customers flights around the world, trips to theme parks and meals out.

Launched in a blaze of publicity yesterday, the Nectar card aims to sign up half of the population in the next year and become a rival to Air Miles.

Debenhams, Sainsbury's, Barclaycard and BP have joined forces in the venture, which rewards customers with points for every £1 spent with them. These points can be exchanged for a range of offers.

But an Evening Standard investigation found Sainsbury's customers will have to spend up to 50 per cent more to accrue some of the same benefits offered under the chain's old Reward Card scheme.

Mike Naylor, from Consumers' Association publication Which? Magazine, said shoppers may not always get as much as they expect. "If the value of the new scheme is not as good as before it can be annoying and we would advise people to look at what the offer is," he added.

"If you shop there anyway, it can be a great way of getting extras. But we would advise anyone else not to change their shopping habits."

Until last Sunday, Sainsbury's shoppers using the old Reward Card had to spend £1,000 to earn enough vouchers for a ticket to Legoland. But using Nectar, they would have to spend £1,500. The amount spent in-store to get two Odeon cinema tickets used to be £750 but now it is £1,000. Similarly, a bmi flight to Amsterdam would have cost the equivalent of £2,500-worth of shopping but now customers must fork out £3,000.

On BP's old Premier Points scheme, where points can be redeemed for money off at Argos, customers effectively received 0.8p per litre of fuel bought. On Nectar, they effectively receive 0.5p per litre. Mike Phillips, an analyst for consumer research company Datamonitor, said: "Obviously it is something that they hoped people would not notice but many people will. The new system for BP means that people will actually get more points for their fuel at Sainsbury's than at BP, which could cause friction."

A Sainsbury's spokeswoman said some offers under its old Reward Card scheme had been temporary: "The flights and Legoland deals were created to last the summer. The changes with Odeon cinema happened because they moved their offer. We think we still offer a very good deal on all these products."

BP admitted the basic offer was not as good as under Premier Points, but said Nectar offers special bonus points for people buying more than 100 litres of petrol in three months.