Who doesn’t love to get something for nothing? That’s the basic premise for retail rewards cards and supermarket giant Woolworths has stepped up the game in this department. It has unveiled a new rewards card program that gives out more points and more bonus goodies in a bid to compete with its biggest rival Coles. So which program gives you more? Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the two supermarket rewards programs.
Both the Woolworths and Coles rewards programs are used to entice customers to spend money at their respective supermarkets. Each offer cash rewards in the form of in-store credit as well as ways to earn points or miles towards air travel.
Woolworths’ new Rewards program has just been launched and one of the most notable changes is that there is no longer a minimum spend to earn points. Here’s how the two programs compare:
| Features | Woolworths Rewards | Coles Flybuys |
|---|---|---|
| Earning points | Every $1 spent at Woolworths, BWS and Caltex -= 1 point (excludes Tasmania and Star Mart) | Every $1 spent at Coles, Target and Flybuys= 1 point. Spend $2 at Coles Express = 1 point (can also earn points from other partners) |
| Minimum spend | None | None |
| Cash rewards (spend in stores only) | 2000 points = $10 | 2000 points = $10 |
| Travel features | Swap $10 cash reward for 870 Qantas points | Earn 1 Guest Tier Mile for every dollar spent with Etihad Airways (up to 2500 miles per month. Bonus point options available.). 10,000 Flybuys points can be swapped for 4000 Etihad points |
The Woolworths Rewards program is pretty straight forward while the Coles Flybuys scheme offers more bonus features and there are more partner stores that you can earn points with. So which one is better? It’s a matter of preference, really. At the end of the day, both rewards programs are free so there’s no harm in signing up for both.
Be aware that each of the programs has their own terms and conditions and products that are excluded from earning points. For the full details you should visit the Woolworths Rewards and Coles Flybuys websites.
Which supermarket rewards program do you prefer? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
14 responses to “New Woolworths And Coles Rewards Programs Compared”
So I spend $2000 and get a $10 reward voucher. Rubbish!!
Oh really? They’re literally giving you something for nothing.
Not nothing – loyalty so you prioritize spend with them. I personally do my shopping at the markets. much cheaper than $0.005 discount per dollar.
I’d rather not be beholden to any one supermarket and don’t find the reward incentive enough to carry around more pieces of plastic in my pocket. That’s just me though, I also find the supermarket discount fuel petrol stations annoying and avoid them too. Sure I’m probably $200 worse off a year, but I’m at a point in my life where I can afford these choices.
Also as I replied below, I get reward points EVERYWHERE with my credit card and have made about $400 this year by spending everything on my Visa.
Rewards points are generally worth 0.5-1 cent each (depending on what you cash them in for), so the $2,000 spend for a $10 voucher is pretty much in line with what other points are worth.
As someone who doesn’t drive, I completely agree that the fuel discounts are a waste of time 🙂
It’s a bit better than that. Roughly $8000 gets me a $100 jb hifi voucher. I can put almost everything on this card so it adds up really quickly. Bills, Groceries, fuel etc. Plus I don’t have to carry anything extra in my wallet. It’s working out pretty well for me, but it does require financial discipline.
Two months of shopping for groceries so in a year I get $60 for just doing my shopping which I already do and get nothing now.
$2,000 spend = 2,000 standard points = $10 is the bare minimum you earn. The way these programs really work is by getting customers to engage with their bonus offers. Flybuys sends out a ton emails and even things on your till receipt and sometimes in the mail. Triple points, or spend X get Y bonus points offers are where the payback improves. If you’re prepared to open a few emails, you can earn 5 points per $1 and then it’s $10 back on every $400 spent. Which works out to be about twice a month for my family. I’m happy to take that!
Excludes Tasmania? Awesome, because our current deal is 200% better already.
This is a common misconception perpetuated by the media – the disingenuous “spend $100,000 to get a toaster” line.
I’ve made $’00s from these (ironically-named) loyalty schemes over the years with little special effort and it’s the bonus points that make up most (about 95%) of it.
One month W might say “spend $50/week for a few weeks and we’ll give you $20 worth of points” so you stock up on toilet paper, non-perishables, phone recharge vouchers etc.
Then C ‘miss you’ because you haven’t spent a cent there for a while and offer something similar so you switch there.
Then W miss you …
Repeat.
Don’t buy anything you don’t need or spend just to meet a limit (for example, if they want you spend double your usual, ignore that offer) and those bonus points convert to cash that’s jam on top of whatever savings you achieve by sensible shopping.
With a bit of discipline, it’s possible to make money AND rack up bonus points with credit cards.
Spend every possible dollar onto a rewards credit card – groceries, bills, everything you can (as long as it isn’t being surcharged – you will almost never be better off paying the surcharge). All the money that you would have spent – dump it into a savings account, preferably one with the highest interest rate possible – just make sure it doesn’t have any withdrawal or minimum balance restrictions. That way, through the month, the money you would have spent upfront is sitting in a savings account earning you interest, and you’re racking up the points on your credit card. At the end of the month, use the money in the savings account to pay off your credit card bill – and you’re left with some interest earnings and a bunch of rewards points, without spending anything extra!
Just make sure you control your spending – if you can’t pay the card bill off at the end of the month and you start paying interest, you will be significantly worse off.
This is what I do – I can spend my money anywhere and it’s only 1 bit of plastic to carry around. I’ve made about $400 worth of rewards vouchers this year.
I really can’t be bothered carrying a rewards card for every place.
There are solutions for that – cards like Plastc will let you combine all your credit, debit and loyalty cards into the single piece of plastic. I agree that credit cards are where the big points are at, but if you’re shopping at a retailer like Coles that lets you double up on rewards points, then why not.
Or, you can go a step further and use digital wallets, eliminating the need for carrying a card around altogether.
In my opinion the “minimum spend” in the above comparison is incorrect.
The minimum spend to get 1 base point with flybuys is $1.
Rumour has it that the new Woolworths points will be rounded up so the minimum spend to get 1 point might be 1 cent.