Woolworths Everyday Rewards Bank for Christmas: Is it worth it?
Will stashing all your points until the end of the year really pay off?
The Woolworths Everyday Rewards loyalty scheme earns you 1 point for every $1 you spend at Woolworths and some other Woolworths Group retailers (chiefly Big W, BWS and Ampol). There are 2 well-known ways you can use these points:
- A $10 credit voucher at Woolworths for every 2,000 points you earn, which is the most common choice.
- Converting every 2,000 points into 1,000 Qantas Points, which is better value if you're actively using Qantas Points. This is what I do myself - I've earned 42,000 Qantas Points through Everyday Rewards so far this year.
There's also a lesser known option: Bank for Christmas. With this version, your Everyday Rewards points are banked all year (at the same 2,000 points/$10 rate). You can only spend them between mid-November and the end of December.
Around 750,000 Australians are signed up for Bank for Christmas, according to Woolworths. That's a fairly small proportion of the scheme's 14 million members.
The idea is essentially a modern variation of "Christmas Club" bank accounts, which were common in past decades as a way to save for Christmas expenses.
Christmas club accounts were once a common feature of the banking landscape, as this 1960s advertisement demonstrates. Image: Trove
A handful of these still exist, including accounts from Heritage Bank, Bendigo Bank, IMB and Military Bank. However, a high interest savings account will pay a higher interest rate than any of those.
How much money can you get from Bank for Christmas?
This year, Bank for Christmas opened up on 13 November. According to Woolworths, the average Bank for Christmas account has $100 saved. One ambitious saver has stashed $4,000 in credit.
Any chance to save money on groceries is a good idea. If you know you have trouble balancing the budget at the end of the year and you're a regular Woolworths shopper, then not being able to use your reward dollars until November could make life a little easier.
That said, if you're looking for maximum value, converting to Qantas Points is still going to get you more bang for your buck.
Using my own example, if I'd opted for Bank for Christmas, I'd have $420 in Woolworths credit.
But I can spend my 42,000 points on flights that are worth a lot more than that. For instance, I could get a return economy ticket from Sydney to Auckland, which typically costs $800 for a regular fare. Even with sale fares, that's worth over $500.
Ultimately, it's a personal decision. But if you're shopping regularly at Woolworths, it makes sense to earn the Everyday Rewards points - and to make a plan to maximise their value.
Get more helpful money tips to help you save.
