# Bonus Cards



## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

Is there any point to Bonus Cards in Cyprus? I registered for both Paps and Alpha Mega Bonus Cards back in Nov 14, some 6 months ago, and so far have had no tangible benefit from doing so. Nearly all of our food shopping is done in Paps, Polis as there is very little alternative here, and consequently our points there are very healthy, but to what avail?

In the UK we had a Tesco Card and every month we received discount vouchers for popular items we had bought regularly, along with 'cash' vouchers every couple of months dependent upon what we had spent but usually amounting to around £30 at a time.

After 6 months of constantly repeating my Bonus Card number at the checkout, I have had nothing in return so far. Am I missing a trick somewhere, or is it like air miles where you would probably need to fly around the world business class ten times to get one free domestic flight in economy class?


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## Talagirl (Feb 24, 2013)

At Papantoniou you get a €10 voucher for every 1100 points at the Customer Service Desk.

Carrefour tends to offer you various items eg a set of saucepans and if you use your points you buy them at a reduced price - I always give away the little stickers they give you after you have paid to other customers as usually it's for a school scheme or item.

I have an Alpha Mega Card but doubt if I will ever spend enough to benefit.


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## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

Talagirl said:


> At Papantoniou you get a €10 voucher for every 1100 points at the Customer Service Desk.
> 
> Carrefour tends to offer you various items eg a set of saucepans and if you use your points you buy them at a reduced price - I always give away the little stickers they give you after you have paid to other customers as usually it's for a school scheme or item.
> 
> I have an Alpha Mega Card but doubt if I will ever spend enough to benefit.


Ah! So I have to ask for the voucher, rather than it being an automatic process? Thanks Claire. 

A voucher of €10 for each €1100 spent represents a discount of 0.9% which is pretty derisory, but I suppose that it's better than nothing and if I wait until Christmas to redeem them, it may be more worthwhile.

Like you, I am unlikely to amass a significant number of Alpha Mega points.

Actually, in the UK, the 'Loyalty Card' scheme is very much biased in the retailers favour. The cards enable the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury to pick up a huge amount of information about their shoppers habits including shopping times, types of purchases bought together and when linked to a home address, the ability to target certain groups of shoppers through the post. The information gained from individual shopping habits using Loyalty Cards even enable the Supermarkets to identify A,B and C type customers.

Thank goodness Cyprus is behind the curve in these respects.


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## Rema (Aug 12, 2012)

David_&_Letitia said:


> Ah! So I have to ask for the voucher, rather than it being an automatic process? Thanks Claire.
> 
> A voucher of €10 for each €1100 spent represents a discount of 0.9% which is pretty derisory, but I suppose that it's better than nothing and if I wait until Christmas to redeem them, it may be more worthwhile.
> 
> ...


Personally I don't see whats so wrong with retailers getting this type of information through the use of loyalty cards, after all there's no such thing as a "free lunch" as the return is, in this case, around £30 every couple of months - quite a nice little earner, at least in the UK that is.
However I too have never seemed to get the point of these cards in Cyprus but then again I have never actually asked at customer service, maybe I should but if anybody knows how the system works at Super Home Centre (next to Debenhams) please let me know, thanks.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Rema said:


> Personally I don't see whats so wrong with retailers getting this type of information through the use of loyalty cards, after all there's no such thing as a "free lunch" as the return is, in this case, around £30 every couple of months - quite a nice little earner, at least in the UK that is.
> However I too have never seemed to get the point of these cards in Cyprus but then again I have never actually asked at customer service, maybe I should but if anybody knows how the system works at Super Home Centre (next to Debenhams) please let me know, thanks.


Just go to the information desk that is near the tills. I think you can even ask the cashier to check how much you have on your card and they will tell you.
I know that as the super home centre is part of Debenhams you can use your bonus in Debenhams as well.


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## Sarchy (Feb 14, 2011)

We just donate our bonus points to Paphiakos and that helps to buy food for the animals in their care. Instead of handing over a card we just say "Paphiakos" to the cashier and they put the number in, we have a card with the number on, but most of the cashiers know the number or have it in a little book if you do not know what it is. I believe that at Alpha Mega and Papantonios you can donate your points to Solidarity which helps to feed the people in need. We have done this since we first came to the island...we don't miss the points and someone else can make good use of them.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

That's a brilliant idea Sheila
We don't bother with cards for Paps or Carrefour but we do go to them occasionally so we will keep that in mind in future.
We do buy extra cat or dog food whenever we go to Alphamega to put in the Paphiakos bin so we are doing our bit that way already.

Veronica


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## PeteandSylv (Sep 24, 2008)

I think if you look on your receipts you will see the number of points accumulated.

We've certainly had cash benefits in the past when we used to shop regularly at Carrefour. They have a machine in the store which prints a cash voucher redeemable as payment for goods at the checkouts. They no longer exchange points for saucepans or other goods.

We currently do our main shop at Alphamega who have some sort of machine in the store for viewing the goods you can redeem points for. So far we've not looked at it.

Although it may be a small percentage of the total spent it is something for nothing as we would shop there anyway.

Pete


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## hiatusxenia (May 6, 2013)

Sarchy said:


> We just donate our bonus points to Paphiakos and that helps to buy food for the animals in their care. Instead of handing over a card we just say "Paphiakos" to the cashier and they put the number in, we have a card with the number on, but most of the cashiers know the number or have it in a little book if you do not know what it is. I believe that at Alpha Mega and Papantonios you can donate your points to Solidarity which helps to feed the people in need. We have done this since we first came to the island...we don't miss the points and someone else can make good use of them.


That's very nice of you Sarchy. The dogs (especially) are in the most terrible state in Cyprus. Since it sounds as though the benefit of the points to one family/couple is very small, every little bit, however small, would help the charities.


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