THE Boots Advantage card promises to maximise customers’ savings – but what items should you go for and which ones should you avoid?
The retailer launched its loyalty scheme over 20 years ago, offering points on purchases and discounts on thousands of products.
The Boots Advantage Card launched more than 20 years ago
Shoppers just have to download the app on iPhone or Android phones, then can start using it in-store or online.
You get three points for every £1 spent, which equates to 3p, as well as an extra 10% off on over 6,000 own-brand products.
You’ll want to maximise your savings by purchasing certain items though.
Here are our suggestions.
What to buy
Clearance items
Boots sells dozens of cheaper and discounted products on the clearance page on its website.
You can also pick up clearance items in-store as well, but not all branches have the section and products on offer vary too.
Shoppers have been known to pick up beauty products from as little as £1 while one even bagged popular foundation product Morphe filter for £4.50.
When we checked out a few of the items on sale online at the time of writing, we couldn’t find them cheaper at other retailers.
There was a Bugaboo Lynx Pushchair Set on sale for £595 down from £650.
While we found Argos selling the pram for the same price, the added bonus of buying from Boots is the Advantage card points you earn – 1,785 in total – that works out to £17.85 in cash.
Meanwhile, shoppers could nab SlimFast banana milkshakes for just 50p, compared to £2.15 at Morrisons and £2.20 at Superdrug.
£10 Tuesday items
Every Tuesday, Boots launches a flash sale on its skincare, makeup and health items, offering them all for just £10.
You can pick up items both in-store and online, but the major sticking point is that the deals are only available for 24 hours.
Of course, what you will get branch-to-branch varies as well.
That said, you can pick up some absolute steals, all the while building up your Advantage card points pot.
In the most recent online sale, customers could find Lab Series All-In-One Defense Lotion SPF 35 for £10, down from £49.50 and £6 cheaper than eBay.
Meanwhile, shoppers could also get hold of a Yankee Candle Reed Diffuser for £10 instead of £21.99. That was £2 cheaper than eBay and £5 less than Amazon.
And there was also Eucerin Sun Sensitive Protect face sun cream for £10 instead of £16 – £7 cheaper than Amazon.
Make-up dupes and beauty boxes
Boots has dozens and dozens of beauty products to choose from in-store and online, many of them bargain dupes.
The retailer recently launched a new fake tan range, including tanning drops for £5 similar to the Isle of Paradise version that sell for £14.95 – saving you nearly £10.
Current workers recently revealed which dupes to pick up to save you money as well, including a 17-colour glow cream blush selling for £4, making it £21 cheaper than Laura Mercier’s tinted moisturiser blush.
Customers will want to keep an eye out for beauty boxes too, where you can get products worth potentially hundreds of pounds individually at a massively discounted rate.
Money-saving expert Martin Lewis often highlights the advantages of picking up the boxes, but you have to be quick as they often sell out fast.
One previous box was on sale for £80, but individually the items retailed at a combined £332.31, meaning you’d have saved over £250.
Another sold for £55 instead of £195 – a £140 saving.
Not only can you pick up these items to save money, depending the product you might be able to get an extra 10% off through your Advantage card too.
Anything that’s the same price elsewhere
Even if what you are buying at Boots is the same price as other retailers, it’s still worth grabbing it if it means you’ll pick up loyalty points.
For example, you can get Sure Men’s deodorant at Boots for £2.50 with an Advantage card, the same as Asda.
But you also pick up six points at the same time.
Meanwhile, Colgate toothpaste is on sale for £1.50 at Boots, the same as Asda, Morrisons and Tesco, but you get three points.
What to avoid
Milk, prescriptions and more
While the Advantage card offers up the chance to earn points on thousands of products, you can’t get them when purchasing everything.
You won’t earn points if buying baby milk either, just like at other shops, as they are not allowed to have promotions on formula.
You can’t earn loyalty card points when buying prescriptions, stamps, gift vouchers/cards or when topping up your mobile phone either.
Plasters
You can sometimes get good deals on plasters with the 10% off the Advantage card offers.
But that’s not always the case, and often other retailers like Sainsbury’s and Superdrug have the same product for less.
Of course, this isn’t the case across the board so it’s always worth double-checking how prices compare to other stores.
You can do this by using the trolley.co.uk website which lets you compare thousands of items.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected]
