Clubcard Pay+? Fine but no one understands how it's supposed to work at the till

  • LakesGeek's Avatar
    Fresh Eyes
    An email arrived asking for feedback to be posted into the community so here you go :)

    Main complaint I have with it, is it gives you the impression you can just "tap" it to register both the clubcard and payment. At least on the self checkout tills where I am, this doesn't happen, it just immediately takes the payment. Any clubcard discounts get missed off and you pay full price (confirmed in the app).

    You can't tap it before hitting "Pay" on these tills like some people have suggested, the reader NFC stays off and doesn't see it. As soon as you do hit pay, yes the reader says something like "tap your clubcard and/or payment card" but it only registers the payment (my theory is the card gives off two NFC signals one for clubcard one for payment and something in programming we call a "race condition" occurs where the payment signal from the card is registered first). No one at clubcard customer services or Tesco stores themselves know how it's supposed to work and all give different answers. It's flawed, poorly supported and undocumented.

    Workarounds I know of:
    * Use your old clubcard with the barcode first
    * Insert your card into the reader. It then detects and acknowledges the clubcard before the transaction races it through (I don't know if it gets it off the chip), giving the discount and you can either put in your PIN or remove the card and tap it (but this causes a "payment aborted" thing that takes longer than just putting in your PIN)
    * Use the "pay in store" functionality in the Tesco app to generate a QR code that acts, correctly, as both your clubcard and payment method.

    Now that I know the workarounds it's not so bad but we shouldn't have to figure out workarounds it should surely work as it seems to be advertised, unless I'm missing something.

    Good sides -

    the top up system is great for budgeting, it's really helped me stick to a weekly "drinks and treats" budget as I'm thinking about what's left rather than just mindlessly tapping my card at random treats.

    The round up thing is pretty good. More painful if you buy a lot of single £1.10 kind of items but you can always move money back. This helps me put a bit aside for a bigger treat like a meal out, again I can already afford it but the discipline it "forces" helps to then save more of the "main" money for other things.
  • 1 Reply

  • CarolineD's Avatar
    Employee
    Hey @LakesGeek, thanks for getting in touch 🙂

    Thanks for sharing your helpful tips with our community.

    Apologies for any inconvenience caused by the Clubcard Pay+ card and receiving your points.

    I have checked with our Clubcard Pay+ team about the issue with the card in the store. They've confirmed the Clubcard Pay+ card works by allowing customers to tap first for Clubcard Pay+ points to be credited to the account and that you would tap again to make payment. They've advised if your card is taking you straight to payment then the card may be faulty.

    To order a replacement card, please call our team on 0345 835 6295 (Mon - Fri: 8am - 9pm, Sat - Sun: 8am - 6pm) one of my colleagues will be able to help you further.