[JamieC]

Hello everyone! 👋

Jamie here, I recently joined the Clubcard Pay+ product design team and I am currently working in the world of topping up.


I am on the hunt for any top-up feedback, but specifically, I would love to hear the story of your first top-up and how that experience went.

1. What were you doing when you topped up for the first time?
2. How much was your first top-up and why that amount?
3. Did you understand what you were doing and why you had to top-up?

Please be as open and honest as you can be, we are here to make sure your voice is heard so that the solutions we build help you and others like you in the community as much as possible.

Thanks so much for your time ⚡️

[lion]

I am usually quite adventurous when it comes to personal finance but the pull money in was a little scary at first as I had not used it before. It has the obvious advantage that you don't need to set up a new payee on your current account, and it avoids any misdirecting of funds. If you have an app for your current account, logging in from CCP+ is also transparent (at least it is on my iPhone, where I have enabled FaceId for my current account app. Way to go, it's all very easy, and mostly quick. What I found disappointingly slow is the actual transfer of the money - - it seemed to be considerably slower than a push-in by Faster transfer (my top-ups are generally in the region of £100).

I also initially found the concept of granting Tesco to "snoop" in my current account a bit alien, and I honestly still have an issue with this. I would feel much more at ease with the pulling if it was about the money transfer only, and no rights to look at other details would be granted.

Call me old-fashioned but on balance, I have reverted to topping up by Faster Payment, even if it means foregoing the advantages I mentioned above.

[Steve2021]

JamieC

1) I have just transferred from the Current Account to Clubcard Pay+ because I had too.

2) Not a totally pleasant experience; just after activating the new account and tried both ways of transferring £200.00 from my main bank account and both failed to go through. I think this was because I was too quick off the mark and beat the Tesco computers. A couple of days later I managed to send (push) £2.00 successfully. Subsequent transfers have worked with no problems or delay.
I hate the "pull" feature and I don't use it. Log into Tesco then after selecting Top Up I have to log into my main account (not Tesco) also. What is the point? It is also a security risk typing in your login password from a foreign app -- VERY PHISHY!

3) I am fine using TOP UP as it was the way I was using the old Tesco current account -- to get points using one card and separating my regular food a fuel bills from others.

Steve.

[pegerton]

Don't use it as I cannot see the point. Have a Tesco Bank Credit Card and receive Clubcard points via that. Will not be using it.

[OceanspanVII]

I switched to CCP+ due to the cumbersome way my Tesco Pay+ app on my iPhone required me to remove my face mask during the peak of the first lockdown for the face recognition process to launch the app. I tend to "push" the top-ups from my non-Tesco's current account (my own personal choice) and tend to do this at home when my phone is latched on to my WiFi. My first payment was for £20 and when I thought I hadn't done it properly because of the time it took to come across I sent a further payment of £30. Of course within the next 5 minutes both payments appeared and that's the way I've been doing it ever since - in £50 blocks which suits me fine. I tend to push the sum of £50 across before leaving home to go to my local Tesco's which is around 5 minutes away and by the time I've gone around the store and presented my CCP+ card for payment - it's all gone through swimmingly. I tend not to top-up any further until just before my next shopping trip due to the fact that Tesco's systems were recently hacked so am loathed to allow some low-life access to my account(s). Finally, I started using the facility in July this year and have already built up a nice little "nest-egg" in my Round-Up account - maybe not this Christmas but hopefully by the following one there's hopefully going to be a sizeable amount in there for that little bit extra!

[JamieC]

@lion Thanks so much for your response, very...very useful! We have heard similar wariness around the first top up and being taken into the 'pull' method you mentioned, so it's great to have more evidence to back up this friction ⭐️

You mentioned your top ups are around £100, was this your first ever top up amount as well, or was your first top up different? And can I ask why the £100 amount now? Is that your weekly/monthly shop, or is there something else that makes this amount your go to? 🤔

Thanks so much again, this is helping the team so much!

[lion]

@JamieC My weekly shopping + petrol is around £80 - £90, so I like to have a little more in my account, to avoid embarrassment at the checkout.

I have to confess, I haven't topped up recently because my current account now pays me cashback which is worth quite a bit more than using CCP+ now that my bonus period has ended 😥

[ZeroSum]

"Please be as open and honest as you can be"

Really? Cos last time I did that, I got banned for 'spam'

Anyway, my honest opinion (at the risk of being black listed again) is that the product is pointless.

for the life of me I can't understand why you don't get any benefit for shopping in tesco.

Give extra clubcard points for using it, then I'll use it.
As it stands, once the current account ends, I'm done with tesco bank as it serves zero benefit

[JamieC]

@ZeroSum Thanks for your response - and the honesty! It's absolutely what we are here for ⚡️

I would love to dig a little bit deeper if that is okay with you.

Firstly, am I right in saying you are using your Tesco current account card at the moment for all your shopping? But due to those types of accounts closing, you tried the Clubcard Pay+ card and did not find any benefit in the product? 🙂

Do you have any thoughts as to where you will be moving your current account to, after your Tesco Bank account closes?

- - - Updated - - -
@pegerton Thanks so much for the response! I can absolutely see where you are coming from in terms of points and using your credit card for the same thing ⚡️

Did you try the Clubcard Pay+ product and then make this conclusion - or did you know the product was not going to be for you without having to apply? 🙂

- - - Updated - - -
@Steve2021 Thanks a lot for your response, Steve! Really appreciate your time ⚡️

You mentioned your first top up attempt was for £200 which failed, you then managed to successfully top up £2 a few days later. Why did you drop the top up amount down so much?

I totally see where you are coming from on entering your banking passwords within another apps experience. Is there anything that would have made the journey more trusting for you? How did you know about the 'push' method of topping up (sending direct from your other bank into your Clubcard Pay+ card without clicking 'top up' in the app)? Did you just know this would work, or did you read/get confirmation from somewhere before trying it? 🙂

[abrevoort]

Suspicious of topping up. Getting the Tesco app to call another app on my phone feels... wrong.
It feels very much like one of those fishing scams with a fake front end.

I personally would feel safer just setting up a standing order to the account.