Is The M&S Sparks Card Worth It?
I am sure your social media feeds have been inundated with people talking about the changes to the, previously useless, Marks & Spencer Sparks card. I thought it would be helpful to actually unpack how this card now works, and whether it is actually worth using!
What perks are staying?
Whilst the Sparks card wasn’t that great when compared to the likes of Clubcard or Nectar before, it did have a few good perks which are hanging around following the changes announced this week, such as:
A FREE birthday treat - this is triggered by entering your date of birth when you sign up and could be a packet of sweets or a whole birthday cake
Buy 1 coffees Get 1 FREE - when you buy 6 hot drinks in-store and scan your hot drink stamp card in the app you’ll get your seventh for FREE
What new perks are there?
Goal-linked M&S Vouchers
Everyone will have unique offers available within their app but it is important to note that you MUST activate each offer separately to use them, as an example these are the offers that are available on my Sparks card right now:
Spend £40 on fashion, home and beauty to get £8 back
Spend £6 on herbs, spices and sauces to get £1 back
Spend £10 on frozen food to get £1 back
Spend £6 on chocolate bars, treat bags, crisps and nuts to get £1 back
Spend £6 on granola, muesli and cereal to get £1 back
As you can see these offers are all quite random and have different “spend thresholds” - it is worth looking into each one as some people have noted their offers allow them to spread the spend over multiple trips whilst others must spend £X in one transaction to unlock the rewards.
New offers are released every Tuesday and you have to activate the new ones every time before you can earn the rewards. This does not mean the previous offers expire after a week but some may.
How do you redeem the vouchers?
Vouchers that you earn from buying food and drink will be available immediately in the wallet within your Sparks app.
Vouchers that you earn from buying clothing and homeware will be shown as “pending” for 14 days so that people don’t abuse the system and use vouchers and then return the items.
To use your vouchers you need to locate them within the app and click “Spend” so they get added to your Sparks card.
Partner Offers
You can also earn M&S vouchers if you are a Virgin Red member, and should link your Virgin Red and M&S Sparks accounts in order to access offers across the two brands. As part of this, you can also convert Virgin points into M&S freebies (with 100 points being worth a packet of Percy Pigs, etc.)
Important
I am yet to test this out, but based on the terms and conditions it appears as though we cannot combine this with the use of gift cards at the till. If you have been around for a while you will be aware of apps like EverUp that pay ~4% cashback when you buy M&S gift cards and use these to pay. I believe that this point in the terms and conditions rule this option out:
and (ii) rewards will not be awarded if the offer is combined with other discounts or promotions or for purchases made in full using Virgin Points, gift cards or vouchers.
https://www.marksandspencer.com/help-and-support/loyalty-and-rewards - see “Reward value”
Therefore, it is probably worth weighing up the rewards values versus cashback rewards on each occasion.