Wombling
Wombling
What is Wombling?
The term ‘wombling’ would normally suggest images of Uncle Bulgaria and the gang on Wimbledon Common but it’s also the name of a new money-saving craze, helping shoppers to save money at the supermarket.
Wombling is where you collect up old discarded supermarket receipts dropped on the floor or left in trolleys and collecting the points left on them.
But before you start scanning the floor for discarded vouchers, the rules around how to womble are pretty grey and some supermarkets are not on board.
Several supermarkets, such as Tesco, Morrisons and Asda, offer price guarantees. So if you shop at a rival supermarket and it’s cheaper, you’re able to claim the difference back. To do this you have to take the receipt into the shop and either scan it at the checkout or enter the code from the receipt online to get a voucher for the difference.
At these supermarkets, if a comparable food shop at rival stores is cheaper you’ll be given a voucher for the difference plus a percentage. Different stores have their own limits.
What the womblers do is collect other people’s discarded receipts and in essence claim the points and the cash for themselves. By doing this you can make quite a bit of money.
Is Wombling legal?
Technically, collecting a receipt is not illegal; nor is comparing the cost of the shopping. The grey area is the bit where you redeem the difference. Since you are not explicitly claiming that receipt is yours (the websites don’t yet ask you to confirm this), you are not misleading anyone.
As of yet, there are no known cases of either Tesco or Asda refusing to honour their pledge to refund the difference, no matter who claims it. The system is automated and issues a refund voucher, which you can print off.
What can I womble from Tesco?
Typically, Club Card points are added at the point of sale. Tesco is usually happy to add them after the sale if you forget your card. This leaves Tesco open to people claiming points from discarded receipts. If you find a receipt from Tesco and it says ‘you could have claimed — points’ then you can take the receipt to the Customer Service desk and have them add the points to your card. Obviously, you have to be a bit tactful here and perhaps claim that you forgot your card. Members who forget to do this may have their points added manually up to 14 days after the transaction upon production of a valid receipt. Points may only be claimed for up to two receipts per day.
What can I Womble from Asda?
On Wednesday 3rd October 2018 ASDA price guarantee (APG) ceased to operate which means the end of Wombling as we know it with ASDA.
Asda says “After eight years we’ve decided to end the Asda Price Guarantee scheme. Chief Customer Officer Andy Murray explains how we reached the decision to say goodbye to an old friend – and invest more in lowering prices for customers.”
Tesco cancelled their brand match which meant that ASDA didn’t really need to use their APG system any longer. ASDA also state that only 1%% of their customers used the APG service (We beg to differ!)
ASDA price guarantee was launched in 2010 promising their customers that their shopping at Asda would be 10% cheaper than the other big brand supermarkets, and if it wasn’t, they’d refund them the difference. ASDA claim that
So, what now? I would suggest concentrating on your wombling at Tesco and Sainsbury but if you do shop/womble at ASDA then use your receipts for Shoppix or Receipt Hog. If you are clever enough, you could also use them for cashback items on apps such as checkout smart and shopmium.
You may still also be lucky enough to find the odd £20 note? who knows.
What can I Womble from Sainsbury?
Sainsbury brand match ended on 26th April 2016 in order to introduce lower prices. Unfortunately, all brand match coupons had to be redeemed by this date too so if you still have any outstanding you would need to dispose of them. This doesn’t mean the end of saving on your shopping at Sainsbury, you can still check for unclaimed Nectar points and have them added onto your own Nectar card if you notice any. Look out for a receipt that says ‘You could have earned xx Nectar points today’ as this means the points have not been redeemed and you can redeem them within 14 days. Plus, be sure to save your receipt for the receipt hog app.
What can I womble from Morrisons?
Morrisons offer their More reward scheme. If you find any receipts where the Morrisons More card has not been scanned you can take this to their customer service desk where they will scan it for you and add the reward. You can do this for a maximum of 15 receipts a month but they must be within the last 30 days. Earn 5 points for every £1 spent or 5 points per litre of fuel. Once you’ve hit 5,000 points you will get a £5 voucher to spend in store.
Where else can I womble?
If you put your mind to it you soon realise there are quite a few more places where you can womble.