I was offered a free green Zilch card as part of Zilch Plus, which I am trying free for a month, otherwise it’s £3.99 per month. It sounded good. I could earn up to 6 percent, but most of the time I would be earning 3 percent, as most of the merchants I buy from only offered 2 percent in Zilch rewards (without the Zilch Plus).
Using Zilch Plus Online
This is the easiest way to earn a minimum 3 percent in Zilch rewards.
- Join Zilch.
- Verify your ID and add your debit card details.
- To earn your free fiver (500 Zilch reward points), make your first tap & pay (contactless) payment anywhere in-store.
- Choose the Zilch Plus option. Visit the Zilch website or download the Zilch app and search ‘your chosen brand’ in merchants.
- To earn up to 6% Zilch rewards, choose ‘pay now’.
- Enable your card and you’ll be immediately taken to your chosen brand’s website.
- Make your purchase within two hours by paying with your Zilch virtual Visa and earn up to 6 percent in Zilch rewards.
- If you have the Zilch plus, you will still get 1 percent in Zilch rewards when you use pay over six weeks or pay over three months.
Using Zilch Plus In-Store
This is a bit more complicated, because I’ve faced issues multiple times with using my new green Zilch card in-store, and Zilch are not honouring the points when I’ve earned only half a percent, instead of the 3 percent I should have received. For example, last week I enabled my card in-store for use at Co-op. When I tapped the card to make payment, it was declined mistakenly and I was told to insert my card and add my pin, which went through. After checking minutes later, I was angry to learn that I had only earned 0.5 percent and Zilch will not state why it was declined the first time when the card was enabled, but then went through at 0.5 percent. I didn’t know that I had to enable my card again, so please be aware that Zilch are ripping people off with their defective system. No doubt I will not continuing with the Zilch Plus option when the month is up.
When Zilch Plus Works In-Store
I visited Home Bargains last week and made sure to enable my card in-store. I spent over £60 and paid on my green Zilch card. Bingo, it went through fine. I earned £1.97 in Zilch rewards.
If this worked ALL THE TIME, fantastic, but in the case with making a payment that I enabled at the Co-op and my card being declined, then having to pay by pin number and me having to put a complaint in with Zilch to get my points, it is too stressful for me. A few pence compared to £0.36 pence is a significant difference with every purchase. I don’t want to have to be contacting Zilch every single time I don’t get the points I should have earned because their system is malfunctioning. So please be warned.
Zilch Plus Priority Customer Service
This is just not true. I’ve been waiting THREE days since my declined co-op purchase and they have still not honoured my points, and I’ve yet to get any update. When you first contact them, the AI bot starts the conversation and then says someone will join in about five minutes. This is just what the normal service (non Zilch Plus) was like so no one gets priority service by paying the £3.99 premium service for Zilch Plus.
Final Word
I think Zilch is great, when it works. It definitely works online, but I make most of my purchases in-store, and as I have found in just three purchases using my new Zilch Plus green card, I’ve only earned the full 3 percent on one purchase, while the rest declined and I later found out I had only received half a percent. In my opinion, the system has not been tested throughly and they expect people to pay £3.99 when they are not honouring the points when their system malfunctions. Their system needs to be working perfectly in order to change someone a monthly fee.
And another thing. Apparently, with Zilch Plus you get priority customer service. This is a lie because the customer service is the same average time as it was before signing up for Zilch Plus, and I’ve been waiting THREE days already for an update about my co-op points. Seriously, if I was to make five purchases in-store using my Zilch Plus card, and four of them were declined inaccurately, and I only earned 0.5%, I would have to raise four disputes with Zilch and who wants to go through that every single time. Not me.