How rewards schemes can help you slash your bills

Millions and millions of us are signed up to reward programs and there are lots of ways to gain points. Here are some you may not know.

Most of us belong to at least one rewards program but there are tricks to making the most of them.

According to money expert Victoria Devine, founder of She’s on the Money, reward schemes are a smart financial move – if you use them well.

“Who doesn’t enjoy a discount on their groceries or rewards you wouldn’t have had otherwise?” she said.

“The key is to make the schemes work for you, instead of just getting sucked into buying things for the sake of points and rewards.”

Getting the most out of Coles’ Flybuys

According to Coles, its loyalty program Flybuys has more than eight million active members.

To earn points, which equate to a minimum of one point per $1 spent, members scan their Flybuys card while shopping at retailers like Coles, Kmart, Target, Catch.com.au and Optus.

Points can also be earned by using the Klarna buy now pay later shopping app, completing surveys through the Flybuys website or app, and via Flybuys’ financial, insurance and travel services partners.

These points can then be used to get rewards including money off your shopping, gift cards and travel.

According to Flybuys CEO John Merakovsky many of the programs most engaged members earn more than $200 of rewards a year.

“It’s all about taking more rewards from your everyday spending,” he said.

“As well as Flybuys dollars, members also have the choice of redeeming their points for travel with Flybuys Travel or by transferring points over to their Velocity Frequent Flyer accounts.

With kids aged three, six and 10, Darian Clark’s weekly supermarket spend clocks in at $500 and by using Flybuys dollars he saves between $20 and $50 off that.

Father of three Darian Clark, 42, says using Flybuys can knock around 10 per cent off his usual grocery spend.

With children aged three, six and 10, Mr Clark’s weekly supermarket spend clocks in at $500 and by using Flybuys dollars he saves between $20 and $50.

“The points are real; accumulate quickly and can be easily redeemed,” he says. “No complicated process with a million zeros on the end, which translate to cents off.”

Mr Clark uses both the app and has taken out car, health, pet and home insurance with Coles, to “just keep the points rolling in every month”.

“The app is the best way to access all the latest offers and just jump online before you jump in the car to go shopping. The bonus points for minimum spends are a no-brainer,” he recommends.

“Click on all the bonus offers in the app and find ways to set and forget, like using Coles insurance products and definitely jump on board the Coles MasterCard.”

Getting the most out of Woolworths Everyday Rewards

Woolworths says that its Everyday Rewards has 13 million members. Being a member unlocks access to points – one point per $1 spent – and discounts when shopping at Woolworths, Big W, BWS, Pet Culture, HealthyLife and Superpharmacy.

You can also earn points when signing up for Woolworths insurance products or with partners like Origin and Bupa. For example, with Origin, members get 10,000 bonus points when they sign up to a dual energy and earn one point for every dollar of energy usage and supply charged on their account.

Members can also save on fuel at EG and Ampol currently earning one Everyday Rewards point per dollar spent and receiving $0.4 off every litre.

“We know customers are always looking for ways to save, and Everyday Rewards makes it easy to get the most value each time they shop in store or online,” says Hannah Ross, Woolworths director Everyday Rewards.

“The Everyday Rewards app is the best way for members to save money and earn points. Our most engaged members save hundreds of dollars each year by activating bonus point offers, shopping specials in their ‘my weekly picks’ and redeeming fuel discounts, and opting in is easily done through the Everyday Rewards app or online.”

Woolworths says that its Everyday Rewards has 13 million members. Being a member unlocks access to points – one point per $1 spent – and discounts.

Best ways to use rewards schemes

Ms Devine believes that using rewards schemes for things like paying off bills and to save for Christmas “are really clever and practical ways of using these rewards to your advantage”.

Thirty-year-old mum of two Emili Jean, from Sunshine Coast, has become a pro at using rewards schemes.

“After reading Barefoot Investor and following a quite a few Instagram profiles that focus on money, I’ve been paying more attention to the small things I can do regularly,” she explains.

“My original goal was to use rewards to pay for all the groceries and shopping for Christmas. I’m not a high-income earner, I currently work two days a week and have two young children.

“I scan my Flybuys card whenever I’m at Kmart or Coles and also have it linked to my electricity bill. It’s something I don’t think about a whole lot but I ended up with $40.

“I also use Everyday Rewards and just scan the card whenever I shop and activate all the offers in the app.”

As well as supermarket rewards schemes Ms Jean also uses cashback program ShopBack and earns money by uploading pictures of her receipts to ReceiptJar.

“I would and I have recommended using rewards schemes to others,” she says.

“For the most part it’s fairly simple things that it really doesn’t take a whole lot of time or energy to do, it’s not a get rich quick thing but if you are kind of doing it in the background throughout the year, when you take some holidays it’s spending money for you.”

According to Coles, its loyalty program Flybuys has more than eight million active members.

Other rewards schemes worth trying

There are also many other rewards schemes – like the ones Ms Jean uses – that can offer cash back and discounts off shopping or even pay money into your superannuation.

ShopBack, which is a firm favourite with members of the She’s on the Money Facebook group, is a website and app that gives shoppers up to 30 per cent cashback at stores including The Iconic, eBay, Myer, Amazon, Booking.com and David Jones.

“ShopBack is a really clever way of online shopping because they give you money back when you shop via their platform,” explains She’s on the Money founder Victoria Devine.

“If you need a new pair of runners for example, you could get them on Shopback and receive a percentage of the money you spent back in cash. It’s really useful for those items you were going to be buying anyway, but again I’d always discourage shopping online just for the sake of it.”

Super-Rewards is an online shopping platform that has partnered with retailers like Apple, The Good Guys, Catch and Adore Beauty, which pay cash back on purchases into over 180 superannuation funds that accept voluntary contributions, as well as any self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF).

The company, which says it currently has 20,000 active members, hails the platform as a “fast, frictionless and practical way for individuals to contribute to their super” and estimates that it can add years to your super balance.

“Super-Rewards allows any Australian, whether in or out of the workforce, to make contributions towards their super simply by shopping with retailers they likely already shop with,” explains Pascale Helyar-Moray, CEO at Super-Rewards.

“Women and men can contribute to their super through spending they would do anyway including purchasing groceries, buying school shoes, co-ordinating Christmas gifts etc.

“According to modelling, being a member of Super-Rewards for only two years could turn into $56,000 at retirement. That’s two years’ worth of pension the government would otherwise have to fund.”

Using cash back to invest more into your super gets the seal of approval from Ms Devine too.

“Anything that contributes to our superannuation gets a big tick from me!” she says.

“If you’re getting cashback on items I think it’s really smart that that money be directed towards your super without you having to do anything actively. Unfortunately, super is something we tend not to prioritise because retirement is considered to be too far away to worry about, but if we make little contributions now it goes a really long way over the course of a lifetime.”

If you’re a fan of exercise and travel (we’ll be able to again, one day) then Qantas’s Wellbeing app might be for you.

When paired with an activity tracker such as Garmin, FitBit or Apple Watch, it counts the number of steps you take in a day and converts them into Qantas points, with 10,000 steps a day equalling 18 points.

Although taking more steps in a day than usual might be beneficial to your health, spending more money just to get rewards won’t do your financial health any good.

“I wouldn’t look at these rewards as your ticket to spending more freely, instead, consider them to be a nice bonus making your finances a little easier while continuing on with your usual money behaviours,” advises Ms Devine.

“We don’t want to become reliant on these schemes as at the end of the day, they all work via you spending your own money and it can be a trap for many people that they think they’re saving when really they’re just spending more.”

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