Hacker News Reader

Comment by bschwarz | Hacker News Reader

I've been thinking about getting an "loyalty card" untied to my person but I haven't figured out a way to do this other than getting somebody to sign up and give me his card. This is because (at least here) they will send you your card in the mail, you can't really lie about any contact information.

View on HN

Do you have to use the card itself? Here, if you don't have your card, you can use your phone number. Have the card sent to a "fake" address and just remember the phone number you provided. (Pick an address where someone moved about 8 months or so ago or pick a big apartment building and it will probably get trashed by the receipient instead of being sent back.)

What happens if you lose the card? Do replacement cards get mailed, too?

You could try standing outside the store in the parking lot and asking other customers if they want to trade cards with you to avoid getting tracked.

Just remember not to use your credit card to make any purchases when using someone else's loyalty card, because then your identity will be linked to the loyalty card from then on.

you could have a ring of people, with their own loyalty cards, use them for a bit, rotate around, offset any loyalty points differences with a bitcoin transfer.

In my experience, 90% of the time the clerk will swipe their own loyalty card if you claim you don't have one, so you get the benefit of any available discounts while remaining anonymous.

Highly depends on the store. In my experience only one supermarket here will do that, every other store will not. Another point, you can't earn gas points and save money on gas later on doing that. Another point, with my loyalty card on certain purchases at Walgreens and every time I fill a prescription there I earn points which can then be spent like cash there later on. It's a pretty generous program, actually, I have earned a couple hundred dollars.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com