How does M&S's SPARKS compare to Clubcard, Nectar and Boots Advantage?

We've looked at how Marks & Spencer's new loyalty scheme stacks up next to three of the UK's most popular reward programmes.

M&S has launched a new reward scheme for customers called SPARKS. But how does it rank alongside three more well-established rivals in Clubcard, Nectar and Boots Advantage?

We've totted up the points.

Tesco Clubcard

The Clubcard scheme from Tesco is really the original loyalty scheme, having launched back in 1995. You earn points, which can then be exchanged for vouchers off in store or money off a range of experiences or days out..

After you sign up for a Clubcard you’ll receive vouchers every three months based on the number of points you’ve collected, but you won’t start receiving vouchers until you reach 150 Clubcard points. That's the equivalent of a £1.50 voucher.

At the moment you collect one point for every £1 spent online and in-store, while shopping with partners like E.ON and Esso will give you one point for every £2 spent.

So if you spend £200 a month with Tesco, you'd earn 2,400 points over the year, or £24. That'll shave a bit off one of your weekly shops.

To help them go a little further, Tesco runs Clubcard Boost throughout the year, which allows you to double, triple or even quadruple the value of your points when you spend them with a Clubcard partner. So, for example, right now you can turn £2.50 in Clubcard vouchers into £10 to spend at ASK or Prezzo, while £10 in vouchers can be turned into £30 to spend with Eurotunnel.

Then a couple of times a year Tesco runs Boost at Tesco events, where you can double the value of your vouchers in certain departments in-store or online at Tesco. These tend to be during the summer and at Christmas.

So those £24 in vouchers could be worth nearly £100 with certain Clubcard partners, or nearly £50 if you cash them in during a Boost at Tesco event.

To get even more bang for your buck, Clubcard customers should look at banking with Tesco or taking out a Clubcard credit card. With the credit card you get five points for every £4 spent in store, and one point for every £4 spent elsewhere (though that is dropping down to every £8 in December).

So spending £200 at Tesco with a Clubcard credit card would see you pocket 3,000 points (worth £30 in vouchers), and that's before you consider the points you could pick up on spending elsewhere too. If you then cash those vouchers in during a Boost at Tesco event, you're looking at a £60 return, or you could use them with a partner retailer, meaning they are worth as much as £120!

Nectar

Nectar is a hugely popular loyalty scheme, will millions of users across the UK. Unlike Clubcard, which is tied so closely with Tesco, Nectar has far more 'senior partner' retailers.

The primary way many people earn their Nectar points is by shopping at Sainsbury's. You get one point for every £1 in-store or online and on Sainsbury’s fuel.

You can also collect with a host of Nectar partners like Argos (currently offering six points for every £1 spent) and Homebase (two points for every £1 spent).

Unfortunately, the rate of return from Nectar is only half as good as Clubcard. So while spending £200 a month at Sainsbury's would see you net the same 2,400 points as with the Clubcard example above, that would only be worth £12 in vouchers to spend at Sainsbury's or with various other Nectar partners.

As with Tesco though, you can significantly boost your Nectar points collection with the right credit card.

For example, the Nectar Credit Card from American Express will give you an amazing 20,000 points as a welcome bonus when you spend £2,000 on it in the first three months. On top of that you collect up to four Nectar points for every £1 spent at Nectar partners and one point for virtually every pound spent elsewhere.

You get three points for every £1 spent at Sainsbury's, so that £200 a month translates into 7,200 Nectar points after a year. If you manage to spend enough on the card in the first three months to get the 20,000 bonus Nectar points, that equates to around £143 in vouchers to spend after 12 months.

In other words, Nectar itself is not that generous a loyalty scheme, unless you make use of the right credit card or other financial product to turbo-boost your points collection.

Boots Advantage

With Boots Advantage you get four points for virtually every £1 you spend on almost any product in-store and online with 100 points worth £1 in vouchers to spend in Boots. You’ll also be invited to exclusive events in-store and you can pick up Boots’ Health and Wellbeing magazine free of charge, too.

Even if you only spend a tenner a month, that's 480 points (£4.80), enough for a Wilkinson Sword Xtreme 3 disposable razor four pack (£4.49) It’s even better for the over-60s and parents of young children.

They can collect an impressive 10 points per £1 spent on Boots-branded products. If your child is under three you can join the Boots Parenting Club and collect 10 points for every pound you spend on baby products as well as getting free gifts.

If you're in the parenting club and spend £1 a month, you could pick up a bottle of Brecon Carreg natural still mineral water (£1.15) to go with your lunch.

SPARKS

The new Marks and Spencer SPARKS card gives you 10 ‘sparks’ for every £1 spent at M&S. The number of sparks you earn is rounded to the nearest multiple of 10, with 10 bonus sparks for each transaction you make.

There are also 50 Sparks bonus points up for grabs for using the clothing Shwop service in-store and 25 for every product review you write that is published online.

Members are sent personalised offers through every fortnight, normally an in-store or online discount. Bear in mind you can’t earn on gift cards, M&S Bank and Energy payments and the made-to-measure shirt service.

Better offers are unlocked as you earn more sparks. They break down like this:

3,000 sparks allow you to see new season previews including new collections from M&S;
5,000 sparks will allow you to preview and buy sale items a day before they go on the M&S website;
14,000 sparks will bag you invitations to special events including exclusive shopping evenings, catwalk shows and food masterclasses.

It's not until you reach 17,000 sparks that you get the experience rewards like the vineyard visit and the chance to meet M&S models like Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley. Though some of the benefits are more appealing, they'll take you quite a while to save up for.

Oddly, your sparks will reset every year but you’ll still get the same level of reward rather than having to start building up points again. It's probably best if you keep up with your account online.

If you're a regular M&S shopper this scheme could work for you, but as you can imagine, it might get a bit confusing.

Which is best for you?

A loyalty scheme is only really much use if you shop at the retailer regularly. This is especially true of supermarkets; if you drift between shops, you'd be best just trying to find the cheapest deals week to week.

Take a look at MySupermarket for the latest deals, and don't forget to check our weekly round-up of supermarket bargains.

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