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This morning, we chat to Money for Jam presenter Effie Zahos about everyday savings that can be made using loyalty cards.

Research carried out by Perkler ( www.perkler.com), a new online community that allows people to organise all their loyalty programs in one place, found that if loyalty cards/programs were utilised in all aspects of spending as well as credit cards, $4000/year could be saved (*based on mum, dad +2 kids & $28000 household expenditure).

Perkler asked 1,000 men and women to reveal all about their shopping habits and uncovered that despite more than eight in ten of Aussies (around 17.9 million) being members of loyalty programs, 56 percent of us save less than $100 on them a year as we don't bother to redeem our rewards.

Effie says

On paper it looks easy but in reality who's going to do it all!

It's true we're members but we don't utilise the benefits on offer everywhere we go.

It's great if you can do it but we're so time poor these days that it's hard to remember all the time.

The biggest savings are by getting the right cards for you.

When it comes to the perks we do redeem, retailer discounts such as supermarket, clothing and furniture offers are most commonly claimed (54 percent), closely followed by petrol (48 percent) then coffee (39 percent).

RETAILERS

Retailers include discounts such as supermarket, clothing and furniture offers.

At Franklins you earn one point for every $1 spent using the Loyalty Club card. Remember that points expire within 18 months. When you get to 2000 points you can redeem them for either $20 off your bill or a $20 Franklins voucher to be used later. You can clock up bonus points by purchasing products featuring the "loyalty bonus buys" logo.

Myer One: It's free to sign up, $1 = 2 shopping credits. Each quarter your MYER one Shopping Credits will be automatically converted into dollars and transferred onto a MYER one Gift Card that we will send to you. Once you've earned 2,000 Shopping Credits, you'll receive a $20 MYER one Gift Card.

PETROL

Coles & Woolworths offer 4c off p/litre – But be sure not to get sucked into counter offers of extra 2c p/litre discount if you buy a chocolate bar. That automatically cancels out the saving!

On an average 60L tank being filled twice a week equals a saving of approx $250/year.

COFFEE

Local coffee shops often have a frequency card whereby every 8th coffee is free.

Effie's example (from Money for Jam) is of a woman who does a coffee run for the office and claims the free coffee for herself everyday

Based on 1 x coffee x 5 days x 48 weeks = saving of over $700/year

CREDIT CARDS

E.g., ANZ Qanas frequent flyer rewards.

You can potentially save over $1000/year!

Best ways to save