Payback: Rewe & Penny get out

For weeks there have been rumors that the Rewe Group is leaving the Payback program, which is popular with many consumers. Rewe has now confirmed to the Lebensmittelzeitung that the supermarket chain and the loyalty program will go their separate ways. Rewe’s goal: to set up its own customer loyalty program. Apparently, people were bothered by having to dig too deep into their pockets to get access to the users’ valuable data. Because customer loyalty programs like Payback have one purpose above all: collect data, find out what customers are interested in buying and then address them with targeted advertising. According to the report, Rewe had to pay 150 million euros a year for this.

17 million Payback users collect at Rewe and Penny

This should be over now. At the end of 2024, Rewe will end its cooperation with Payback. This means that collecting points at Penny is also history, because the discounter also belongs to the Rewe Group. For Payback and its users, the end should be a bitter blow. According to reports, around 17 of the 31 million Payback users use the two supermarket chains Rewe and Penny to collect points. The discount achieved without coupons and bonuses is 0.5 percent for almost all goods that are not sold on behalf of third parties or are subject to price maintenance. Rewe has been a Payback partner since 2014 and also participates in the Payback Pay payment system.

But there is also growth in Payback. The sports chain Decathlon has been on board for a few days. You can now collect points in 80 shops and online. At the start there is an 11-fold voucher until the end of the month. Amazon has also recently become a Payback partner. You can convert the collected points into non-cash bonuses at Payback, go shopping with them at shops like Rewe or dm or – what few people know – have the collected Payback points paid out to you as cash. One point corresponds to one cent, and when you collect the points, you get 1 point for every 2 euros you spend with most partners. So you get 1 cent back for every 2 euros you spend, which results in a discount of 0.5 percent.