Magic Plastic Card

Advantages: Free & easy to sign up, good offers for double points etc, easy to gain & redeem points
Disadvantages: None

...This is one of a few store loyalty cards where you can't lose out as it's free to get one and there are no obligations to fulfil. The Advantage Card is a plastic, credit-sized card, that offers you a gateway of store offers. When you purchase something from Boots, be it make-up, toiletries, vitamins, jewellery etc, you are rewarded with points that go on your card. For every £1 you spent, you get 4 points. Each point is worth 1p. If you find something in store you'd like, for example there's a funky nail varnish you want to treat yourself to at £2.99, and you have 299+ points on your hard, you can get this for free. Just take your purchase to the till, hand over your card, and ask for it to be bought using your points. You can't, however, buy something that costs more than the amount of points you have and add cash to it, which is...

gothic_moon 05.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Boots Advantage Card

Virgin Credit Card : 'Plastic Fantastic'

Advantages: Lower interest rates than other credit cards, stylish choice of card designs, widely used
Disadvantages: Minimum payment of £25 is quite high. Additional charges can be costly, alot of additional post.

...to use it, thinking that one purchase might lead to another and so on. I decided to give customer services a ring to lower my credit limit to £200. This made sure I wouldn't be tempted to go over the top and flash the plastic. Having owed £100 on a Visa card, I transferred this across to my new Virgin credit card. On the Virgin Money website it says card transfers are free of charge but however I found this not to be the case as my account had a £3 Virgin fee applied to it for the transfer. My Barclaycard was about 27% APR a year and I thought I'd save money transferring to my Virgin card which is about 16.8% so over the next 4 or 5 months I would be paying less interest. I found this to be the case and on a balance of £100, I would only have to pay around £1 on interest a month, compared to the £2 interest a month on the Barclaycard...

f1insidetrack 01.12.2009 · Read review
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Review of Virgin Credit Card

Nectar Card

Advantages: Lots of retailers to collect with
Disadvantages: Online points may not equal amount of cashback available elsewhere

...The nectar card is the loyalty card associated with Sainsbury's, however it has since branched out and is affiliated with many companies which allows for maximum point collecting! Let's start with the basics, you get 2 points per pound spent at Sainsburys or 1 point per litre of petrol bought at the Sainsbury's petrol garage. Each point accumulated is worth half a penny, so you need 2 points to equal 1 pence. If you redeem your points in store at Sainbury's then you will need minimum 500 points for £2.50 off o your shopping. Points need to be redeemed in increments of 500. Points can also be collected in other stores, for example Dolland and Aitchinson also give 2 points per pound, as do Homebase. As far as I am aware however, you cannot redeem your points against your total bills in these stores. Points can also be collected...

rachieb123 06.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Nectar Card

Oyster Card

Advantages: Convenient
Disadvantages: You could lose it!

...use Oyster. Around 22% of all Tube journeys are Oyster Pay as you go, around 4% cash.? Proof then that the system has been a massive success. It?s clearly more convenient and easier to manage than constantly having to purchase paper tickets. The paper option is still available for people who hardly use public transport or are just visiting the capital, as you?d expect, but the future clearly comes in plastic card format!...

carl.mcqueen 26.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of Oyster Travel Card

Make a Bee Line for the Nectar Card !!

Advantages: A good way to save for the extras at no extra cost
Disadvantages: None at all.

...THE PURPLE CARD IN MY PURSE THE NECTARCARD I have owned a Nectar card for many years now - in fact my card is the old design and I keep forgetting to upgrade it!! "WHAT IS A NECTAR CARD ??" The Nectar card is a Loyalty or Reward card. It is NOT a credit or debit card and is free to join. Nectar is owned by Groupe Aeroplan Inc., and it is estimated that more than 50 per cent of UK households collect Nectar points when shopping for groceries, booking a holiday, paying household bills, buying petrol and even eating and earn Nectar points every time they shop online via Nectar eStores at over 220 leading online retailers. The scheme was started in September 2002. It is not actually a Sainsbury's Loyalty Card as the Tesco Clubcard is for Tesco, although Sainsburys and BP are the key members in the scheme...

oldchem 03.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Nectar Card

Plastic fantastic?

Advantages: Option to pay over 6 months interest free on orders over £125
Disadvantages: High APR on other purchases

...Nearly every time you go into a national chain store they offer you one of their store cards. Some of them offer good discounts and perks to being a member, and others are just a rip off designed to make you have even more credit in this society that has managed to build up a huge national debt. The Argos card is somewhere in between. I don't generally agree with store cards. They can offer one to anyone over 18 and they regularly do. I think store cards are a bad idea because they are so easy to get and use and thereofre build uphuge debts. Offering them to every person that comes in is wrong I think. Having them available for people to ask about is fair enough, but I think offering them to everyone is irresponsible as it puts the idea in the head of people that alreadyhave huge debts. This isn't good for our consumer...

pepper8823 18.08.2004 · Read review
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Review of Argos Card

national ID cards - police or plastic?

Advantages: it would help with administration
Disadvantages: cost, implementation, efficiency

...for terrorism, it is unlikely that a piece of plastic would stop this global threat. It is worth mentioning that the people involved in 9/11 had genuine documents. Possibly the biggest argument against ID cards is the sheer cost involved. It is not just the cards, but implementing the system. This would involve new technologies in all banks, prisons, and posts offices etc. The govt estimates that it would cost £93 per person but experts from the London School of Economics predict it could be three times this amount. In short this cost of ID cards would easily pay for 20,000 new policemen and their wages for 10 years! There is also evidence to suggest that ID cards would worsen harassment for minorities since they will mainly be the citizens open to extra ID checks. Various groups including the Lib Dems have argued that it would be much better...

breakinbeats 10.04.2006 · Read review
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Review of National ID Cards

Plastic Magic

Advantages: Saves lots of time and money
Disadvantages: They are a bit small and easily lost

...In this high tech world we live in there seems to be very little standardisation of electronic equipment. DVD's which play here not there and storage disks which work in the camera but require an adaptor to work on your PC. Similarly storage devices which hold your MP3 music for you MP3 player are often not compatible with your PC. There are several formats of disk devices about and each has it's own merits and de-merits, fortunately with the SanDisk 6 in 1 PC adaptor the missing link is filled in and everything can be interchanged swapped or whatever. The package contains six apparently simple pieces of plastic which can all change the standard cards into one device easily used by your PC. The devices supported are SD cards, Multi-media cards, memory sticks, smart media, memory stick pro and xD picture card. Each of these cards...

donf18 20.01.2008 · Read review
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Review of SanDisk 6 in 1 PC Card Adapter

Working for the well known card shop

Advantages: nice staff, not complicated work
Disadvantages: not the best paid job!

...I used to work at Clinton cards years ago when I was younger - in fact it was my first job! The shop may have changed slightly since then on how it's run but judging by the other reviews, it hasn't changed much! I was employed by Clinton cards for just under 3 years and during this time I did do quite a bit of training. I'll start from the beginning and cover as much as I can! Applying and the interview: I saw the ad placed in the window that they needed staff for the busy Christmas period on a temporary basis - this was just what I was looking for as at the time I was just going into college and needed a weekend job. I asked in the store for an application and the girl behind the counter was really nice and advised me that once I completed the form they would probably be in touch within a day or two. I actually completed...

frankiecesca 02.10.2007 (29.12.2008) · Read review
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Review of Clinton Cards

Quality cards at bargain prices

Advantages: Excellent value for money, great promotions
Disadvantages: Shops always busy, some relatives hard to find

...I'm slightly unaccustomed to writing reviews on shops in general, but I was thinking of something to write and this popped into my mind. I first discovered Card Factory a few years ago, after walking past it umpteen times and dismissing it as yet another card/birthday shop on the high street. One particular day I was struggling to find a good sentimental card for Mum's birthday that wasn't going to break the bank, so I thought I'd give it a try. Since that day, Card Factory has been my number one stop for all my greetings card needs. The shops are not terribly big, and usually crowded so getting around with a buggy is always difficult. Good thing I've got my Hippychick Hipseat! (See earlier review.) However it is worth the struggle as their prices are prettymuch unbeatable. As the name suggests, Card Factory mostly sells cards...

CG1anon 02.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Card Factory