Nectar / Avios

[tonyg]

Yes same for me with Sainsburys knowing about it. We are to wait 48 hours before contacting them.

[cocobay71]

Same here, usually bonus veg points post immediately but not today. My base points are showing as pending. Keep your receipts just in case they need proof you purchased items.

[cocobay71]

Saturdays bonus veg points came through today. Looks like they are catching up

[cocobay71]

Has fruit & veg bonus points finished?

[Sarah]

I had some points stolen yesterday. Luckily only £2.50 worth, when it could have been so much worse. Someone and their accomplice did a redemption using a self-service checkout in a Sainsbury's Local branch hundreds of miles away from where I live. Not entirely surprising, since the redemption system seems to have quite poor security in place, prioritising convenience instead.

Nectar helpline was closed at the time of the theft, so I called the store instead, they checked their records and CCTV, identified the suspicious characters and said they'd try to look out for the same people returning and trying again.

As it happens, I did some Sainsbury's shopping at my usual store yesterday too, earning some points, but now need to wait a week or two for a replacement card to arrive with a new membership number. In the meantime, the only activity I can do is save Sainsbury's receipts and request any missed points to be added later.

[Sarah]

Spoke too soon, even though I contacted Nectar as soon as possible this morning, they didn't stop thieves taking all my points this afternoon.

[tonyg]

Yes I have read about others having points stolen so I keep my points on the card to a minimum by regularly using them to pay for shopping.

[MrsXfile]

Had your Nectar account been hacked Sarah? I'm guessing it must have been when the theives redeemed them so far away from where you live. What an absolute liberty!

[Sarah]

No, I doubt they hacked my account. I'd guess they instead perform some kind of brute-force attack that generates Nectar compatible barcodes until successfully finding one that works for an in-store redemption. Presumably felt like they'd hit the jackpot when they got a receipt showing nearly £600 of points available to steal.

I haven't been saving points up for any reason in particular, other than recently starting to consider I might redeem them for a next-generation games console. However, with that not expected to be available until 2028, the system clearly isn't safe enough to wait so long. I'll need to put more thought into good ways to redeem them more quickly.

[pabenny]

There was coverage of fraudulent use of Nectar in last Saturday's FT. I lost a lot of points like that a few years ago. They gave a reasonably generous 'bonus' as well as reinstating my points. That was before all the nectar prices and bonuses - more difficult to get those back now.

Both of our household accounts have sizeable balances - I've received a message on the higher one saying I need to call before redeeming.