The discounter Lidl has been aggressively promoting its “Lidl Plus” bonus program for months. MeinMMO editor Benedikt Schlotmann tested the program for 30 days and explained how much he saved and whether Lidl Plus is really worth it.
What is Lidl Plus anyway? Lidl Plus is a bonus, customer and incentive system from the Lidl retail chain. This is comparable to Payback or myMediamarkt/Saturn. The program is free.
Lidl has been aggressively advertising its bonus program for months, sometimes with bonus promotions such as fuel vouchers.
What do you need? To use Lidl Plus you need a mobile phone number and the Lidl Plus app. You don’t necessarily have to enter an address or your real name, but you won’t get very far without a cell phone number or app. Lidl Plus is a purely digital offer
What do I have to consider? Basically, Lidl Plus is free, you don’t pay any fees like you would with Amazon Prime. But as with any free product, you pay here primarily with your data. When using it, you must confirm the data protection information and thereby give Lidl the right to process your data, determine product interests and compare you with other customers.
Who tested that?
I am a tech editor at MeinMMO and have been testing hardware for our readers for many years. Gaming mice in particular are among my absolute favorites. In addition to the PS5, I also play on my Steam Deck.
Transparency note: I tested Lidl Plus privately in everyday life and paid for all my purchases myself.
Benedict Schlotmann
Hardware editor MeinMMO
Individual offers can be unbeatably good
How does Lidl Plus work? In the supermarket, some products are marked with an additional discount, which you can only get if you have Lidl Plus scanned at the checkout. There are also coupons that you receive when you shop at Lidl. There are also occasional coupons that allow you to get a specific product for free. If you scan your “Lidl Plus” app at the checkout, the benefits will be activated automatically. You have to activate coupons yourself.
This is really good: Own brands are always on offer and that can be really worthwhile. The discounter competition such as Aldi, Netto and Co. cannot keep up because Lidl usually significantly undercuts the normal market prices:
In moments like these you can really save money, also because the offers are significantly better if you compare them with the competition. Especially with everyday products such as pasta, milk and the like. If the promotions exist.
Often only expensive products are on offer, which are still too expensive
The first problem: The whole thing with the offers has a catch: expensive branded products or “Bioland” often have a price advantage.
If you shop sparingly or specifically, you will still be significantly cheaper with your own brands or “normal” fruit. Two examples for comparison:
And this problem affects dozens of offers at Lidl. This usually seems as if Lidl is trying to lure customers into buying the expensive products instead of choosing the cheap own brands. And this despite the fact that Lidl has been advertising for months that you can choose between its own brand and a brand.
The second problem: The in-house competition and the discount campaigns outside of Lidl Plus are generally much better. Because you can use many discounts even without Lidl Plus:
In addition, other discounters such as Aldi or Netto are also heavily involved in offers.
To put it simply: If you really look for low prices and shop accordingly, you are better off than with Lidl Plus or other bonus systems. Lidl Plus is usually worthwhile at certain times. There were several days and purchases where I didn’t save a single cent with Lidl Plus.
Lidl Plus is not worth it or only worth it to a very limited extent
How much did I save? Overall, I made the most purchases at Lidl for the experiment in October 2024 and spent 173.92 euros. Thanks to Lidl Plus I saved 9.27 euros. That’s the equivalent of around 5.3%. The savings are distributed fairly evenly over the weeks. This is how much I saved on the following days (prices in euros, only savings through Lidl Plus, not total sales):
Was Lidl Plus worth it? In terms of pure numbers, rounded up, I saved 10 euros. In my opinion, it was only partially worth it for me personally. Because often the products that I buy all the time, such as butter, cheese or oatmeal, are never or only very rarely on offer. And often the normal weekly discount offers, which you can also use without Lidl Plus, are simply better.
On the other hand, when I have a discount, I tend to buy more. When Lidl had its cat food on offer, several bags ended up in my shopping cart, which I didn’t have to do. Theoretically, I save, but then I still spend more. Lidl is happy about that, but my wallet is less happy about it.
At the same time, it must also be emphasized that I bought the discount of around 10 euros with my customer data: in the end, the big beneficiary of the campaign is Lidl and not the customer.
If you don’t care about data collection and are happy about every discount and every free promotion that you can take with you, then Lidl Plus is definitely interesting. Personally, I will cancel Lidl Plus after the experiment.
Another store sells returns from Amazon and has gained some notoriety for it. But why do so many people rush into old returns from Amazon? Read more about this on MeinMMO: A shop sells returns from Amazon for 15 euros – someone was lucky and found a good TV