Beware £10 off Next card

stringz

My girlfriend and I were in Next today and a chap in the store was handing out cards with what seemed like a very good offer, of £10 off our first online purchase. All we had to do was write our email address on a form and we received a card. When we got home my partner dashed to the computer to take advantage and before she realised what she had done she had entered into a credit agreement with Next.
Reading the small print, all became clear. It says "redemption of the £10 incentive involves applying for a Next directory credit account".

We've learnt a valuable lesson, but at the same time we did not expect to be hoodwinked like this. The chap in the store did not mention anything of the sort, he implied it was a simple £10 off online orders. I wrongly presumed it was similar to the offers Tesco or Sainsburys does, where you get money off your first online order.
We also went to debenhams today, where at the sales counter they ask if you are interested in a store card. They don't mask what they are offering.
So why are Next behaving in such an underhand way?

Am I justified in being upset, or should alarm bells have rung straight away ie: was it too good to be true? I don't think so, although we (my girlfriend actually lol) acted too rashly, placing an order before reading the small print.

Grr i'm angry.

jonesMUFCforever

Personally I think you are over reacting!
Q.Why do you think anyone would give away free money? A. In order to make more money.

stringz

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Personally I think you are over reacting!
Q.Why do you think anyone would give away free money? A. In order to make more money.

I understand that, but I did not think it would involve being signed up for store credit in such a covert way, which we will never make use of and would also make us think twice about shopping there again. doesn't seem like very good long term thinking on Next's part.

izools

stringz wrote: »

All we had to do was write our email address on a form... applying for a Next directory credit account.

Clearly you were asked for more than an email address otherwise an account wouldn't have been set up.

The fact that the document signed had "Credit Agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974" plastered all over it should have been a clue.

Whilst the Next staff member that accosted you didn't hold your hand through the document you were signing, it was signed, and the signatory indicated they read and understood the document.

It's not Next's fault if someone signed to say they understood a document, when they didn't.

brians_daughter

I was stopped to be told about this 'offer' it clearly stated on the card with the 'gift card' attached that you would need to open a credit account..also (from memory) when going through the online process it makes it crystal clear you are applying for a credit account and searches etc will be performed...with any offer i always read the small print as there is usually a credit agreement involved somewhere along the lines!

TBH if she wanted an item and has now purchased it online with £10 off i cant see why you would be upset ?

stringz

brians_daughter wrote: »

I was stopped to be told about this 'offer' it clearly stated on the card with the 'gift card' attached that you would need to open a credit account..also (from memory) when going through the online process it makes it crystal clear you are applying for a credit account and searches etc will be performed...with any offer i always read the small print as there is usually a credit agreement involved somewhere along the lines!

TBH if she wanted an item and has now purchased it online with £10 off i cant see why you would be upset ?

yes, we realise how stupid we've been. It seemed very innocuous in store.

ironlady2022

Applying for a credit card compared to signing up your information clearly involves asking for further details. Alarm bells should have been ringing and even before you started entering the information. I can see why you are upset as I would be signing up to a credit card and marking my credit file for the sake of £10

McKneff

before she realised what she had done she had entered into a credit agreement with Next.


Signing up is not done in a nano second, it would take a good few minutes to fill in the form.

Whats the problem anyway, get the card, get the tenner, get the goods, cancel the card or just cut it up but check that there is no dormancy fee.

Everybody's happy

Mr_Oink

If it were possible to open a credit account with nothing more than an email address I'm sure the spammers of the world would do it and be walking around in the 'Rags of Next'. I'm sure there would have been a requirement to provide a great deal more detail than that claimed by the OP.

IMHO Next are irritating in their marketing and pressure to sign up for accounts. As a former customer we are still hassled by Next. Thankfully 'marketing' email from them (which is mostly pumped out via Cheetah - a rather unpleasant mainsleaze spam operation connected to the credit reference agency Experian) is now blacklisted by my provider before it even comes into their server. To mitigate this Next then switched to cold calling us, so they were dumped with 'choose to refuse'. Funny company. They keep sending zero value statements saying I have thousands of pounds of credit available, but if they were the last store on earth I'd never use them again.

brewerdave

Mr_Oink wrote: »

IMHO Next are irritating in their marketing and pressure to sign up for accounts. As a former customer we are still hassled by Next. Thankfully 'marketing' email from them (which is mostly pumped out via Cheetah - a rather unpleasant mainsleaze spam operation connected to the credit reference agency Experian) is now blacklisted by my provider before it even comes into their server. To mitigate this Next then switched to cold calling us, so they were dumped with 'choose to refuse'. Funny company. They keep sending zero value statements saying I have thousands of pounds of credit available, but if they were the last store on earth I'd never use them again.

I've tried 3 times to close my wife's "credit" account with Next - on the last occasion I actually got confirmation in writing -however,after reading this thread I tried out her log in - it still works!:(

Karmacat

I just got this offer in my Next shop - haven't opened it yet, the only print large enough to read says "Enjoy £10 off when you shop at Next Directory simply by registering the unique pin number asshown on the card when you place your first order". And firms give away free money like this all the time! I did think it was odd that next were doing it, as they charge for their directory when most people give it away free - I won't bother looking online in this case.