Is asda rewards worth it our review


Is Asda Rewards worth it? Our review
As a result, we would suggest not focusing in on milestones too much in terms of your attention.
Is Asda Rewards worth it? Our review

Hello everyone! We continue our series on supermarket rewards schemes by doing a review of Asda Rewards. Asda Rewards is a little bit different to how some other supermarket loyalty schemes work so an interesting one – but we’ll be applying our classic question to it: Is Asda Rewards worth it?
(Please note: Loyalty schemes change all the time so whilst everything is correct at time of writing, there is always potential for slight changes!)
In this article: hide
How do I get started with Asda Rewards?
To use Asda Rewards you’ll need to download the app on your phone and register though the app.
How does Asda Rewards work?
Asda Rewards works the same as other loyalty schemes in respect of the fact that you scan a loyalty card after shopping, using the Asda Rewards app.
Triggering various Rewards puts some money into your Asda Rewards “cashpot” – when money is in that pot, you can convert it into vouchers.
How do you put money into the Asda Rewards cashpot?
There are three key methods of topping up the Asda Rewards cashpot – some will come from milestones on overall spending, some from spending on specific items and some from purchasing particular star products.
It’s a little bit complex as a system, but one thing I like about Asda Rewards is that it doesn’t force you to “opt in” to missions and offers like several rival supermarkets loyalty offerings. As a result you can just scan at the till to get most of the benefit without too much thought for 80% of the benefits.
Let’s now break down the specific earning approaches however to explain what they do, and how to maximise them.
I’m going to list the earning methods in the order of how beneficial they are and how much attention I think they’re worth:
What are Asda Rewards Missions?
Asda Rewards missions are spending targets where you need to spend on a specific group of items (such as bakery products) rather than on your overall shop.
The amount you need to spend depends on the specific section – however we think the missions are worth some attention.
The reason for this is that rewards are offered on some fairly low spends – I had offers for a £1 cashpot reward for spending £5 in the bakery section, and £5 for buying from a Vegan range.
You should only buy these products if you need them, but that’s a very generous 20% return on spending, extremely generous by the standards of most supermarket rewards schemes.
As a result, we suggest keeping an eye on missions to time taking advantage of these offers on products you might buy anyway.

How long do I have to complete Asda Rewards missions?
Most seem to run for about a month, but they get issued on a weekly basis so different missions may expire at different times. You can see the time remaining on a small cream box in the top left of any mission within the Asda app.
Examples of Asda Rewards Missions
Some examples of missions I have at the time of writing include:

  
Spend £5 on Ready Meals for £1 in cashpot
  
Spend £7 on Sports Drinks for £1 in cashpot
  
Spend £50 in one shop to get £15 in cashpot (this one is a Christmas special)
  
Spend £5 on Blue Dragon products for £1 in cashpot
  
Spend £5 on Fresh Soup for £1 in cashpot

What are Asda Rewards Star Products?
Asda Rewards is at it’s most rewarding when it comes to star products. These are where in exchange for buying a specific item, you’ll receive instantaneous money in your Asda Rewards Cashpot.
Some of these are a simple cash value, some of them are a percentage of the purchase price – aimed to be about 10% return.
It’s worth particularly keeping your eye out for the “super star” buys which have particularly high level of Rewards, usually greater than the 10%.
These are handy as they’re often on the type of products you’d buy anyhow! It can be worth checking the list before you’re shopping, as you might have “sausages” on your shopping list but switching to a particular brand that’s a star buy may reward you better.
One note of caution on star buys though – a lot of the products are branded ones. It may be worth considering if sticking with an own brand option may still be a cheaper option overall, despite the star reward. Moneysaving off higher prices isn’t moneysaving!
(And don’t forget you can combine Star Products with Missions to maximise rewards).
What are Asda Rewards Milestones?
Asda Rewards milestones tend to be based around overall spending targets rather than specific – for instance, spending £100 in store over a month. Once completed, you’ll be rewarded with a fixed amount for your cashpot.
However, completing each milestone will unlock a new milestone – the more you unlock, the more you’ll get as a Asda Rewards cashpot at the end.
The milestones appear to vary each month. At the time I originally reviewed the scheme, completing milestones 1-3 will earn you a £1 reward for each completion. Milestones 4 and 5 will earn you a £2 reward, and milestone 6 will earn a £4 reward, with each milestone having been hit after each £100.
On re-looking (May 2023) the milestones have changed so they’re hit more frequently at £75 and there’s now 10 of them, however have lower payouts – particularly the later one.
This sounds exciting but in practice, you need to be a particularly big spender, like shopping for a large family if you’re to consistently hit the later milestones.
As a result, we would suggest not focusing in on milestones too much in terms of your attention.
How do I find Milestones, Star Products and Missions in the Asda Rewards app?
For star products and missions, click on the “earn” button in the grey bar at the bottom of the Asda Rewards app.
The page that appears will show your missions by default (scroll down to view them all). There’s a grey bar near the top of the page which will allow you to change over to a view of the star products.
For milestones, this can be found on the “home” button in the grey bar at the bottom of the Asda Rewards app. Just scroll down the main page and you’ll see a section called “milestone missions” which will display it.
Further down there’s also a summary of available missions and star products, but it’s not as detailed or complete as using the method above.

How do I cash in my Asda Rewards cashpot?
Once you have money in your cashpot, you’ll need to convert it into a voucher in order to actually spend it.
To do this, click on the “spend” button in the grey bar at the bottom of the Asda Rewards app. This will then bring up a slider for exactly how much of your cashpot you would like to convert into vouchers.
Once done, your vouchers will appear on the “wallet” page of the app – please note you must scan the voucher at the till as well as your Asda Rewards barcode for it to apply successfully. You cannot just scan your Rewards card.
There’s a couple of things to be aware of here. Money in your cashpot will expire six months after earning, so it’s best to try and get it spent once you’ve earned it, rather than saving it up for a big shop at some point later into the year.
When converted into a voucher, the voucher will also have an expiry date on it (you’ll be able to see this displayed against the voucher in the wallet tab on the app). Just keep this in mind as you don’t want your hard earned Rewards to be wasted.