British shoppers could be missing out on more than £46billion worth of loyalty points a year, new figures suggest.
A survey of 2,500 Brits found one fifth of us are failing to collect points when we shop - despite spending an average of £4,500 a year on groceries and fuel.
The majority of this group either have no loyalty cards or have forgotten to take advantage of them over the past 12 months, meaning they failed to earn rewards on their spending.
The research also revealed the average Brit thinks they are sitting on around £47.19 of unused loyalty points and gift vouchers - while 17% say they have in excess of £100 of loyalty points they haven't yet redeemed.
The poll found that Brits are spending £86.57 on average a week on fuel and groceries, which corresponds to £46.8 billion worth of loyalty points that UK consumers are missing out on.
This is the equivalent of 100 billion pints of milk, 45 billion loaves of bread or eight billion gallons of unleaded fuel.
The research was carried out by onepoll.com on behalf of Esso, which has joined forces with Nectar to help drivers collect points when they fill up.
David Chilton, at Esso, said: “The research shows that we’re a nation of savvy shoppers who have been using loyalty cards for almost eight years on average and love getting something back on household spends.
"We are pleased to be able to increase the ways in which we can reward our customers through our new loyalty programme with Nectar.
"But with a significant proportion of people missing out on points, we want to remind drivers not to forget to swipe at the till and collect their valuable points for some great offers."
