Smart shopping

Updated 27 March 2026

Flybuys vs Everyday Rewards: are they worth it?

Flybuys and Everyday Rewards compared. How much they actually save you and whether loyalty is costing you money.

The basic numbers: nearly identical

On the surface, both programs are almost mathematically identical:

Feature	Flybuys	Everyday Rewards
Points per $1 spent	1 point	1 point
Points to $10 discount	2,000 points	2,000 points
Effective return rate	0.5%	0.5%
Sign-up requirement	Free (membership required)	Free (membership required)
Paid tier available	Coles Plus ($19/month)	Everyday Extra ($7/month)

A 0.5% return might sound low. To context it: if you spend $100 per week at a single store, you get $10 off every 20 weeks (4-5 months). That's $26 per year in loyalty rewards. Not nothing, but modest.

Member-only pricing: the hidden game

The real change in 2025-26 is that both Coles and Woolworths now run parallel pricing tiers. The shelf price you see is not the member price. Some products are 10-20% cheaper if you own the loyalty card.

This is clever marketing: the programs now feel mandatory rather than optional, because the base price is inflated and the "real" price is member-exclusive. A comparable product might cost $5.00 on shelf but $4.20 with the loyalty discount built into the app.

Both retailers justify this by saying members get better deals. What they don't advertise: non-members or late adopters effectively subsidise member pricing. The system works if you're in it. The system costs you if you're out.

Paid tiers: Everyday Extra vs Coles Plus

Both retailers offer paid subscriptions that accelerate rewards:

Everyday Extra (Woolworths): $7/month

• 10% off one shop per week (up to 10 items)
• Double points on eligible purchases
• Effectively doubles the 0.5% return to 1.0%
• At $84/year, it breaks even if you redeem around $840 in value (12 x $10 discounts + double points)

Coles Plus: $19/month

• Unlimited free delivery on online orders (minimum usually $100+)
• 10% off one shop per week (up to 10 items)
• Lower fuel discount prices at service stations
• At $228/year, only worth it if you order online weekly

For a low-income family shopping once per week in-store, neither paid tier is necessary. The free loyalty program delivers enough value (0.5% return, member pricing access, occasional bonus point promotions).

The real problem: loyalty lock-in

Here's what neither program tells you clearly: loyalty programs are designed to lock you into one store, even when another is cheaper.

Example: You've accumulated 1,800 Flybuys points at Coles (almost $10 off). Next week, Woolworths has chicken breast at $8.99/kg and Coles has it at $12.50/kg. A 28% price difference. But you're 200 points away from redemption, so you buy at Coles anyway. You subconsciously sacrifice price for points completion.

Retailers know this. They've built the programs so that reaching redemption feels close enough to encourage the next shop, and the next, creating habit. It's psychological switching cost.

The maths of this trap: if loyalty lock-in costs you even 2% extra per week (say, $2 on a $100 shop), the 0.5% rewards more than disappear. You're losing $0.96/week in net spending, or $50/year, just to feel the progress toward a $10 discount.

Data and privacy: what you're trading

Both Flybuys and Everyday Rewards collect detailed shopping history: what you buy, when, how much you spend, and even estimated demographics based on postcode and purchase patterns.

This data is valuable to the retailers because it:

• Trains their pricing algorithms (which items are price-sensitive for your postcode, which aren't)
• Enables targeted promotions (if you buy baby food, show you nappies on $2 off)
• Measures campaign effectiveness (did the $3 off chicken drive traffic?)

This data is also sold or shared with third parties (read the terms). You're getting 0.5% cashback and member pricing. They're getting detailed insights into your household income, diet, and spending patterns.

You can opt out by not joining, but the member pricing tier makes that increasingly expensive. You're not really choosing to share data; you're being nudged into it.

Which program is actually better?

If you must choose one: Everyday Extra ($7/month at Woolworths) has the lowest cost of entry and the highest upside (double points effectively double the return rate). But this assumes you shop at Woolworths regularly anyway.

If you don't already prefer one store over the other, joining both for free and checking each app before you shop is the rational approach. You get access to member pricing at both, you accumulate points at whichever store is cheapest that week, and you're not locked in.

17.8 million Australians have Flybuys. 14+ million have Everyday Rewards. Many have both.

The better strategy: split shopping

The retailers don't want you to know this, but here's the real answer to "are loyalty programs worth it?"

Yes, they're worth joining (free). No, they're not worth letting them control where you shop.

The best strategy for a lower-income household is split shopping: use Pinch or the retailer apps to check where milk, bread, chicken, and your staples are cheapest that week. Buy your main shop where it's cheapest, earn points there. Then pop into another store if they have a killer deal on something else. You earn points everywhere, you pay the lowest price on everything.

This requires a bit of planning (5-10 minutes to check apps before you leave home). But a family spending $5,000/year on groceries could save $250-500/year by shopping on price instead of on loyalty. The 0.5% rewards are a 5% tax on that loss.

What matters most: actually comparing prices

Loyalty programs return 0.5%. A single shopping decision (this store instead of that one) can swing 10-20% on your basket. The multiplier between "which store" and "which program" is 20-40x.

Both retailers rely on you not knowing their competitors' prices. Join both programs. Then ignore the psychological tug of "almost at redemption." Check Pinch every time you shop, see where the best deals are, and shop there. Earn loyalty points as a bonus, not a strategy.