# Tesco or Pigsback Visa



## Unregistered (27 Apr 2005)

Hi All,
Just a quick question. Does anyone know which is the best value?
Tesco or Pigsback Visa?
I pay off what I owe each month so I am looking to see what I can get back?
Any help appreciated.
Thanks


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## Crunchie (27 Apr 2005)

I'm a Tesco Visa user and because I also shop at Tesco and buy my petrol there I do quite well out of it - around €45 in vouchers per quarter. As I mentioned in a Credit Cards post recently they're also very on the ball when it comes to security. On the downside they don't have online access to your account. I reckon Tesco vouchers are more useful than Piggypoints


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## extopia (27 Apr 2005)

You get Tesco vouchers anyway if you use a clubcard. Perhaps not as many though. Piggypoints? Always seemed to me to be not worth the bother.


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## cuchulainn (28 Apr 2005)

I wondered about this too. mbna visa but can now thange to pigsback under the one €40 rule and still stay with mbna,who I find handy as I dont have a cheque book and they supply one. all you have to do is  preload it before writing a cheque and theres no interest to pay.I have my isp as  piggy and last year I got a €50 voucher for  kinnity castle. recently took €20 in hughes and hughes bookshop vouchers. Ok I know they are expensive    bookshop but this more than levels the pitch.


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## Crunchie (28 Apr 2005)

extopia said:
			
		

> You get Tesco vouchers anyway if you use a clubcard. Perhaps not as many though.



In addition to the usual 1 point you get per € with an ordinary Clubcard you get an additional point per €2 spent on the Tesco Visa Card regardless of where you use it. 

Of the approx €45 in vouchers I get per quarter it works out at €10 - €15 from my Tesco spend and the rest from the Visa


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## Cahir (28 Apr 2005)

Anyone use the Brown Thomas credit card?  It has a high enough interest rate (16.9%)but I pay off my balance every month so that doesn't bother me.  You get points to use in the shop by shopping there or a load of other places.

Can you pay the tesco card through aib online?


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## Crunchie (28 Apr 2005)

Cahir said:
			
		

> Can you pay the tesco card through aib online?



Not sure - I pay mine by DD from my ptsb a/c

A point worth noting on their DD mandate form is that it only gives the option of paying the minimum or a fixed amount. When I told them I wanted to pay the full amount they told me it wasn't in their interest to encourage this (how's that for honesty??) but if I amended the form there would be no problem.


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## MoodyToo (28 Apr 2005)

I have a Pigsback CC and use the points to buy credit for my pre pay mobile. However if you have a monthly bill pay mobile your piggy points spending options are fairly limited, in that case the tescos vouchers might be of better use.


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## colc1 (5 May 2005)

you can pay tesco visa thru billpay.ie by laser


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## Delboy (1 Feb 2006)

Just looking for an update on this.

Anyone got anything extra to add to the discussion so far? I'm about to switch CC but not sure which to go with. I pay my CC in full every month and am looking for the best value in terms of points etc....

as someone said, pigsback is fairly limited (and seems to be getting worse) in what you can spend your points on (there's only so many times you can go to the cinema!!!!). But then myself and the missus don't have a huge food spend every month either....so the Tesco points would be fairly low even if using the CC for other non-tesco purchases. 

Are there any other 'reward' credit cards out there other than Tesco or Pigsback?

thx.


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## CCOVICH (1 Feb 2006)

Check out the Best Buys forum, link in my signature.


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## slave1 (3 Feb 2006)

> you can pay tesco visa thru billpay.ie by laser


 
You can now pay through billpay via your bank account, very handy


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## Janet (3 Feb 2006)

Delboy said:
			
		

> But then myself and the missus don't have a huge food spend every month either....so the Tesco points would be fairly low even if using the CC for other non-tesco purchases.
> 
> 
> thx.



I have a Tesco visa which I pay off every month.  Don't shop in Tesco much except for petrol.  Tend to do my food shopping in Aldi and local butchers and greengrocers.  Find the vouchers I get though handy for buying things I don't like from Aldi, mostly toiletries.  

Points would only be low if you didn't use the credit card at all - you get normal clubcard points plus 50% if you shop in Tesco (i.e. if you spend 10 you get 15 points) and 1 point for every €2 you spend elsewhere (i.e. spend 200 buying flights somewhere and you get 100 points).  As I have a fairly low limit on my credit card I don't get a huge amount of vouchers but I do use them all.  

The deciding factor for me at the time I got it almost a year ago was that Tesco paid the stamp duty.  They now offer a €40 voucher for Tesco when you sign up so that essentially covers the stamp duty cost I suppose.

Oh, and I pay my bill through Banking 365.  

One thing I liked about the credit card bill from Tesco is the reminder on the front of it that if you only pay the minimum amount each time it could take you much longer to clear your bill.


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## applegrower (22 Feb 2006)

This Tesco thingy seems very interesting.   I use both Visa and Laser.   So, if I cancel my Visa Card and sign up for Tesco Visa I would benefit from extra points etc.   Sorry for being such a dud, tell me again please, how do I pay off the Tesco Visa every month?. My head is a tad confuddled at present so any help would be much appreciated.


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## applegrower (22 Feb 2006)

a further question.    If I change from my present Visa card to a Tesco card can I continue to pay by direct debit?   Thanks


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## DrMoriarty (22 Feb 2006)

Delboy/applegrower, if (as originally posted) you always, _always_ clear the full amount, then you should consider BoI's [broken link removed] (listed under the 'reward schemes' section of CCOVICH's best buys).

I run up about €20K/year on mine, and it nets me €200 in direct 'cashback' — easily cancelling out the extra €40 government duty, and mine to spend wherever I want. But you will probably need a backup (I'd recommend the Tesco Visa), as Amex isn't quite as widely accepted...


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## colc1 (23 Feb 2006)

applegrower said:
			
		

> This Tesco thingy seems very interesting. I use both Visa and Laser. So, if I cancel my Visa Card and sign up for Tesco Visa I would benefit from extra points etc. Sorry for being such a dud, tell me again please, how do I pay off the Tesco Visa every month?. My head is a tad confuddled at present so any help would be much appreciated.


 
You can pay it for free through billpay.ie if you register there and you have a laser card


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## Crunchie (23 Feb 2006)

You can pay your Tesco Visa by Direct Debit or "over the counter" at Post Offices. The latter is free, they accept cash or cheques (made payable to An Post) and my experience is that it is shown as credited to my account on the date of the payment.


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## Alex (23 Feb 2006)

if it were me i would go with the tesco visa.


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## applegrower (24 Feb 2006)

Thanks, for all the advice.   I'm going to take the Tesco Visa rate.


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## GreatDane (25 Feb 2006)

Hi

For what its worth, I've seen both Tesco & Pigsback VISA in operation over quite a while now, with direct experience to both & in a nutshell this is how I see them:

Tesco Visa
- better for benifits, assuming you shop in Tesco & particularly if you buy your petrol there too

Pigsback MBNA Visa
- slightly lower APR if you do happen to miss your payment deadline
- far superior customer service to the above

Good Luck with them

Cheers

G>


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## Moose (27 Feb 2006)

I've had the Tesco Visa card since 2004 and it's due to expire at the end of March.  I received my new card in the post today and its expiry date is March 2007.  Is it me or is that...slightly odd?  I pay my credit card bill immediately (via the post office) and in full.  When I was issued with my first card in '04, the expiry date was two years from the date of issue.  Why would it drop to _one_ year?  It's been suggested to me that perhaps Tesco haven't been as successful with the card as they'd hoped and are perhaps not willing to commit to customers for longer than that.  I think my curiosity will have me phoning their customer service line anyway, but I'm just wondering if anybody else using the Tesco card has experienced the same reduction in the length of time for which it's been issued.


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## Crunchie (27 Feb 2006)

Moose said:
			
		

> I've had the Tesco Visa card since 2004 and it's due to expire at the end of March.  I received my new card in the post today and its expiry date is March 2007.  Is it me or is that...slightly odd?  I pay my credit card bill immediately (via the post office) and in full.  When I was issued with my first card in '04, the expiry date was two years from the date of issue.  Why would it drop to _one_ year?  It's been suggested to me that perhaps Tesco haven't been as successful with the card as they'd hoped and are perhaps not willing to commit to customers for longer than that.  I think my curiosity will have me phoning their customer service line anyway, but I'm just wondering if anybody else using the Tesco card has experienced the same reduction in the length of time for which it's been issued.



I've had a Tesco card for over 3 years and my cards have always had a one year life span.


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## justsally (27 Feb 2006)

justsally

I have answered your query here

Marion


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## justsally (27 Feb 2006)

Thanks Marion *s*


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## Moose (28 Feb 2006)

Crunchie said:
			
		

> I've had a Tesco card for over 3 years and my cards have always had a one year life span.



Does anyone know a particular reason that some companies opt for shorter spans than others?


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## DrMoriarty (3 Mar 2006)

*Re: Tesco Visa*

Update re the Tesco Visa offering (from today's _Irish Times_):



> Tesco is giving €40 shopping vouchers to all new customers who sign up to its credit card between now and May 14th.
> The Tesco credit card includes a 0% interest rate on balance transfers for up to six months.
> Customers can also earn Tesco Clubcard points on purchases made in any retail outlet. The interest rate on purchases is 14.9% APR.


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## MonsieurBond (3 Mar 2006)

Moose said:
			
		

> Does anyone know a particular reason that some companies opt for shorter spans than others?



Banks tend to vary the length of time new cards are valid for, and to sometimes vary the expiry month, for security reasons.

If someone finds your old card, for example, which expires Feb 2006, they can't just assume the new card is valid for 2 years and try to make payments using the same card number and with an expiry 2 years in the future i.e. Feb 2008. This would be rejected by the bank as the expiry could be January 2008 (different month) or even Jan or Feb 2007 (shorter term).

Shorter expiries were also common when switching cards to chip & pin, as the lifetime of the new card if not yet chip would be shorter as it would be replaced soon with a chip one.


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## icantbelieve (3 Mar 2006)

Does anyone know if tesco have any intention of allowing online account inquiry for credit card holders, I find this invaluable and is one of the reasons I haven't switched over to them.


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## askalot (4 Mar 2006)

icantbelieve said:
			
		

> Does anyone know if tesco have any intention of allowing online account inquiry for credit card holders, I find this invaluable and is one of the reasons I haven't switched over to them.


I've been holding off on switching for the same reason but I noticed today that you pay for the tesco visa using billpay.ie

Not a full online service by any means but I may switch.


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## CCOVICH (4 Mar 2006)

Given that UB cc holders have no facility to see their transactions online, I'm not sure that Tesco customers will be (UB issue credit cards for Tesco).


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## justsally (5 Mar 2006)

Does anyone know if Lidl/Aldi accepts Tesco credit cards.


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## CCOVICH (5 Mar 2006)

justsally said:
			
		

> Does anyone know if Lidl/Aldi accepts Tesco credit cards.


The provider (Tesco) isn't relevant-it's the type of card, i.e. Visa, MC or Amex.  

The Tesco card is a Visa card which is accepted by Lidl and Aldi.


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## irishpancake (5 Mar 2006)

askalot said:
			
		

> I've been holding off on switching for the same reason but I noticed today that you pay for the tesco visa using billpay.ie
> 
> Not a full online service by any means but I may switch.



Just a word of warning for people using the billpay.ie service. I recently had a problem with this, where i was paying a bill and setting up a future date for payment. I entered the future date in the dd/mm/yyyy format (e.g. 15/03/2006). 

however, when i proceeded to ok the payment, i noticed that the date had defaulted to a dd/mm/yy format (i.e. 15/03/20)   which is not what i wanted at all. 

It appears that the site either converts years entered in "yyyy" format to "yy" format, but uses the leading digits (in my case 20) or does not have any provision for the full year format, which is a bit strange, given all the hullabulloo abour y2k, etc.

either way, it could have serious repercussions if you don't notice the date, and OK the transaction, for some date in 2020.


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## justsally (5 Mar 2006)

CCOVICH said:
			
		

> The provider (Tesco) isn't relevant-it's the type of card, i.e. Visa, MC or Amex.
> 
> The Tesco card is a Visa card which is accepted by Lidl and Aldi.


 


Thanks CC


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## Crunchie (5 Mar 2006)

CCOVICH said:
			
		

> The Tesco card is a Visa card which is accepted by Lidl and Aldi.



Lidl and Aldi do not accept ANY credit cards - only Laser


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## justsally (5 Mar 2006)

And that's what I was afraid of, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

thanks Crunchie.


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## CCOVICH (5 Mar 2006)

Crunchie said:
			
		

> Lidl and Aldi do not accept ANY credit cards - only Laser



Sorry, I was confused, the point I was making was that the fact that it was a Tesco card was irrelevant.


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## justsally (5 Mar 2006)

No problem Cc........I probably confuddled you


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## MonsieurBond (6 Mar 2006)

irishpancake said:
			
		

> Just a word of warning for people using the billpay.ie service. I recently had a problem with this, where i was paying a bill and setting up a future date for payment. I entered the future date in the dd/mm/yyyy format (e.g. 15/03/2006).
> 
> however, when i proceeded to ok the payment, i noticed that the date had defaulted to a dd/mm/yy format (i.e. 15/03/20)   which is not what i wanted at all.
> 
> ...


I use this site all the time as well. 

I just tried this and it appears that the Payment Date is indeed a 2 digit year. The field accepts "07/03/06" but is limited to 8 chars so if you try to type "07/03/2006" you will get "07/03/20"  instead as the field will stop accepting input after the 8th character. This is probably what happened to you.

However, if you don't notice this and choose to proceed with this date, you will get a message saying "You can not make a payment more than 30 days in the future", so it is unlikely that you would actually get caught out.


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## irishpancake (6 Mar 2006)

MonsieurBond said:
			
		

> I use this site all the time as well.
> 
> I just tried this and it appears that the Payment Date is indeed a 2 digit year. The field accepts "07/03/06" but is limited to 8 chars so if you try to type "07/03/2006" you will get "07/03/20"  instead as the field will stop accepting input after the 8th character. This is probably what happened to you.
> 
> However, if you don't notice this and choose to proceed with this date, you will get a message saying "You can not make a payment more than 30 days in the future", so it is unlikely that you would actually get caught out.



Hi there MB

They have gone and changed it, and improved it as well   

the limit to 8 charachters in that field is new, as are the warnings regarding future date, etc. 

To confess a little here, I actually got caught out with the date format some months ago, when paying an ESB/BoSI Appliance Loan via Billpay. 

I was mystified as to why my payment had'nt been made, and found out that I had made the error of entering the year as "2005", which became "20" unnoticed by me. No warnings about 30 days in the future.

When i checked with Customer Care, they found out that my next/missed payment was scheduled for payment in 2020  

I actually had to make a double payment the following month (finished now TG). 

I e-mailed Billpay the other day, when i saw the reference to them here, and they apparently have acted on this.

I think we can claim another success for AAM, even if I felt a little silly at the time.


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## Moose (7 Mar 2006)

MonsieurBond said:
			
		

> Banks tend to vary the length of time new cards are valid for, and to sometimes vary the expiry month, for security reasons.
> 
> If someone finds your old card, for example, which expires Feb 2006, they can't just assume the new card is valid for 2 years and try to make payments using the same card number and with an expiry 2 years in the future i.e. Feb 2008. This would be rejected by the bank as the expiry could be January 2008 (different month) or even Jan or Feb 2007 (shorter term).
> 
> Shorter expiries were also common when switching cards to chip & pin, as the lifetime of the new card if not yet chip would be shorter as it would be replaced soon with a chip one.



Thanks for the explanation.


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