Some links to products and partners on this website will earn an affiliate commission.
With the recent tie up between Avios and Nectar, the focus is very much on a new (and sometimes underappreciated) loyalty scheme. We’re all shopping at Sainsbury’s now, obviously. But beyond that, there are plenty of opportunities to earn with Nectar and, as a result, increase your Avios pile.
The Easy Win – Sainsbury’s and Partner Offers
The place to start is your nectar.com account. On the homepage you will see two sections, “Sainsbury’s Offers” and “Partner Offers”. Clearly, the former is exactly that – click on it and you’ll see a variety of bonus points offers on your online or supermarket shop.
My current 4 options are as follows:
- 40 points for buying ‘by Sainsbury’s’ loose Fairtrade bananas
- 15 points for every £1 spent on Fresh Fish from the Aisle or Counter, including ready to eat and Smoked Salmon
- 20 points for buying Sainsbury’s Strawberries 400g
- 20 points for buying any Cereal (Includes porridge, Excludes cereal bars)
To benefit, you simply click “save offer”, and it will be automatically added to your card. Frankly the best option is just to get into the habit of clicking on “save all offers”, as you’re not penalised for not using them. The offers refresh from time to time (I understand every Friday), and have a limited life span.
Partner offers is where things gets a little more varied. Nectar has a variety of “Non-Sainsbury’s” partners (see below), and you’ll get a selection of offers from a range of merchants participating in the Nectar scheme (so bear in mind that, I believe without exception, all the shopping options featured in the “Partner offers” will ordinarily earn Nectar points anyway).
Anyway, my current “Partner offers” include:
- 10x points when you shop Jewellery & Watches at Argos. Excludes Smart Watches (10 points per £1)
- 3 x points at Booking.com (6 points per £1)
- 500 points when you first fill at least 20 litres at Esso.
Earning Nectar From Non-Sainsbury’s Shopping
It’s important to remember that Nectar is not merely a Sainsbury’s loyalty scheme. You can actually earn Nectar points at a very wide range of retailers, the full list of which you can access here. Earning rates vary, but some highlights include:
2 points per £1 spend
- South Western Railway
- Great Western Railway
- Avanti West Coast
- Lastminute
- Holland & Barrett
- H&M
- Accor
- Adidas
- House of Fraser
- Lego Shop
- Harrods
- IHG Hotels
- TK Maxx
1 point per £1 spend
- eBay (up to a maximum of 300 Nectar points)
- Argos
- Just Eat (tacos to the chateaux)
- Dominos
Is there a catch to earning with Nectar?
Not really, but be a bit careful. In your blind quest to get Nectar points to become Avios, don’t forget that the “Nectar Partners” are generally available on the cashback sites such as TopCashback. So, make sure you do a bit of shopping around before you shop around. If you can earn 1 Nectar point at a retailer, anything above 0.5% cashback is arguably better value.
Spend-Free Nectar Earning
I’m always a bit cynical when it comes to “free” points-earning that nevertheless takes up vast swathes of your time. However, there are a few ways to earn Nectar points without even having to get your wallet out. We are (unsurprisingly) not talking mountains of points here, but it can be quite fun to earn a handful of loyalty points in this manner:
Nectar Canvas – Points for Surveys
You will receive up to 120 Nectar points each time you complete a survey with Nectar Canvass. Plus, by registering and completing your first survey you will receive an entry into its quarterly prize draw to win 10,000 Nectar points.
100 Free Points plus bonuses for internet searches
You will collect 100 Nectar points by downloading the Nectar browser extension, plus an additional point for every two internet searches you make, up to a maximum of 200 points a month.
Also, you’ll get 100 free Nectar points just for signing up with Experian.
Another 100 Free Points when you tell Sainsbury’s your insurance renewal dates
Provide your insurance renewal dates to Sainsbury’s, and you’ll get 100 free Nectar points.
Remind me, what is a Nectar point worth?
Typically, Nectar points can be redeemed at a value of 0.5p. However, 400 Nectar points will also get you 250 Avios.
Hi Tom.
As Sainsbury’s is my local supermarket then this Nectar tie-up with Avios/BA is great.
As a long time user of the Nectar app etc I can confirm that longer use builds up a better picture for Nectar of your spending and also your preferred items. Added to this , the bonus per item regularly is 90-120 Nectar points extra . Therefore I am presented with around 15-20 deals a week to boost my Nectar tally. Yesterday I spent £36 (on items I was going to buy) and got an additional 830 Nectar points as some were on the app as bonus’s.
So for newbie Sainsbury’s users, stick in there as the app should get more interesting.
Re timing of the bonus, I get mine on Monday’s. I think it comes through on the day you previously signed up.
Hi Bazz. Thanks for the clarifications, and totally agree that the Nectar/Avios tie-up should work really well. It does appear there’s plenty of scope to earn bonus points, too, which we always enjoy.
The insurance renewal dates is a Top Tip for 100 Nectar points – done this afternoon !!
If Nectar Canvass surveys are anything like the current alternatives (e-rewards etc) then forget it – seems like they only want marketing data and then say you’re not eligible / already have enough respondents in your category !!
My wife uses the bonus offers every shop – and comes home with one banana, one red onion, one piece of ginger to trigger the bonus awards. I see that now the offers are more for pre-packed items (e.g. 4 bananas; 250 grams carrots etc) so maybe Sainsburys twigged what was going on.