Asda launches new service to help people self-isolating

If you're self-isolating at home due to coronavirus, you may be finding it increasingly difficult to organise your food shopping – as well as asking friends or family to go to the supermarket on your behalf, there's the added hassle of remembering to pay them back for your shopping. To help people out in this situation, Asda has launched a dedicated volunteer shopping card for those unable to personally go out to buy supplies.

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So how does it work? Customers need to go to asda.com/volunteercard where they can buy a shopping card and top it up with funds. They then give it to their family member, friend, or NHS volunteer to pay for their shopping without the hassle of using cash or bank cards. It's a great idea because it sticks to supermarkets' requests for contactless shopping, which reduces risk to staff and customers of catching coronavirus.

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You can now pay for your shopping with Asda's Volunteer card

The card has several benefits: it's a secure method as there's no need to exchange bank or credit card details or hand over cash, plus the card can be topped up at any time. For the volunteer, it's great as you can help out a friend or family member whilst minimising risk for you both – there's no need to touch someone else's bank card. For the self-isolator, there's no worry about your card returning home with the virus on.

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Once the shopping card has been purchased online, it can then be emailed to the volunteer or printed out and left in a safe place for the volunteer to pick up. The volunteer then shops using the card, makes the payment using the barcode in-store and leaves the shopping in a safe place for the self-isolator. Sounds like a brilliant idea to us.