Money Saving Girl Money Saving Tips and Ideas
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How to Tastecard & its equivalent for FREE
What is Tastecard?
It is a physical or digital voucher card allowing you to benefit from 2-4-1 or 50% off offers in about 6000+ restaurants in the UK. These include Pizza Hut, Zizzi, Bella Italia, ASK, Cafe Rouge, Strada, Prezzo and many many more.
Where do I get the Tastecard from?
Typically you get it from the Tastecard website, where you can get a 60days trial for FREE here
How does Tastecard work?
Tastecard is the UK & Ireland’s largest diners club, with over 6,000 restaurants. Each member receives a personalised membership card which they show at the restaurants to receive the discount or you use the Tastecard app on your phone. Lately, Tastecard offers more than dining out discounts. See bleow:
What are Tastecard (free trial) benefits?
- Free for 60 days, cancel anytime*
- 2 for 1 or 50% off meals nationwide
- Up to 50% off attractions
- Exclusive member perks & more
- 10% off Delivery & Collection
- Digital-only membership
- Instant access with our FREE app
*Auto renews for £5.99 monthly
How do I get my tastecard discount?
1. Call the restaurant to book a table & mention you have a tastecard
2. Arrive at the diner and let the host know about your booking and tastecard
3. Present your physical tastecard/ or phone app when you get the bill.
Is getting Tastecard worth it?
It depends on the frequency of you going out, the places you visit and more importantly on the fact if you can use it.
Tastecard cant be used towards your drink just the food and there are certain days (Fridays and Saturdays are often excluded) /holidays it cant be used in some restaurants (check the T&Cs before planning eating out).
Its original price was £79.99 a few years ago but it has been always sold for £34.99 and it may be worth that price as it may be paid back after a few restaurant visits.
Can tastecard be used on takeaways?
No. However they introduced discounts on deliveries in August 2020. They concern only “Pizza Delivery”. It offers 50% off pizza for collection or delivery from some of the pizza restaurants like Dominos or Pizza Hut.
Can I use more than 1 tastecard at a time?
No.
Are there any alternatives to Tastecard?
Yes – Gourmet Society – works and cost the same as Tastecard and includes discounts on drinks as well. The rules of getting it are pretty similar – you can get it for £1 for 90 days or for a whole year for £34.99 at the time of writing.
How can you get a Gourmet Society card for FREE?
If you are a Lloyds Club account owner one of their lifestyle benefits is a FREE Gourmet Society card. See below what are the other 2 you can choose shouldn’t you be convinced Gourmet Society Card is worth it.
What do I need to do to open up a Lloyds Club account?
- Setup 2 different direct debits from the new account
- In order to avoid the £3 account fee, you need to pay in £1500 to the account monthly ( it can be your salary, if however, if your salary reaches your other account you can use a trick and transfer £1500 to the Lloyds account for a day or so and transfer it back to your main account when using a standing order which will mean you neither have to remember nor do it yourself every month – just be careful to not to choose dates of your bills payments so you do not get overdraft).
Is tastecard going to save me money?
In the light of the above – if you are a foodie or just love to go out to dine in restaurants Gourmet Society membership is a much better option for you than the Tastecard. -> This blog post title may be a bit misleading but ultimately this is it you cant get a Tastecard for £1 for a bit longer than a month, whereas you can get the Gourmet Society membership totally FREE! There is not much difference between these two cards as the majority of the high street restaurants allow to use either.
* Depending on the benefits selection it may be worth to get the Gourmet Society club card for £34.99 and choose 6 free cinema tickets from Lloyds instead – the best combination of choosing benefits depends really on your lifestyle preferences though and can’t be really defined by me here as it is rather very personal at the end of the day!
What does MoneySavingGirl use?
I go out rarely and when I do I use Tesco Clubcard vouchers (I can exchange my points worth in many chains such as Zizzi, Cafe Rouge, Pizza Express, and more). So for me, vouchers do the trick when dining out. Obviously, I have mentioned above Lloyds account but given the fact how rarely I dine out, I went for 6 free cinema tickets rather than the Gourmet Society membership card in the past (and since Covid for a magazine)…
I believe this is the right combination for people who go out more often to the cinema than to the restaurants. I also believe that once I open a joint account for myself and my husband Lloyds will offer us yet another lifestyle benefit for this newly opened account – which will mean we can get the card then as my husband gets his free cinema tickets due to a subscription to work health insurance from Vitality 🙂
