* Anybody know what's going on with this £5 'offer'??*

hybernia

Does anyone have any idea what's going on with this 'offer' that dropped through our letterbox this morning?

It's a folded, envelope-style leaflet. It's also unaddressed mail. The sender obviously doesn't know who or where we live. But the front of the 'envelope' says 'Your household is among those specially selected to receive this notification'.

Opening the leaflet reveals this:

National Notification of Official NEW £5 Coin: new legal tender UK £5 coin officially commemorating Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee

The leaflet explains that the Royal Mint has struck this commemorative coin, that it is legal tender, and that:

"You can reserve your coin today for just its face value: £5 for £5. . . POST FREE".

The leaflet has been mailed out by a company called Westminster, and its address is The Westminster Collection, PO Box 4848, Poole, Dorset. There are:

3 convenient ways to place your order!

by returning the leaflet by Freepost; reserving on line at westminsterorders.com (again, at no charge); or by telephoning at 5p per minute (though that cost relates only to BT Unlimited Weekend Plan, Westminster is coy about saying what the charge per minute would be if you're not a BT customer on that particular price plan.)

I've had a close look at the details and yes, there are attempts to sign you up to mailing lists: in the space where you're asked to provide your phone number, a very, very small line of type says:

'Please help us to keep you up to date with selected special offers'

and there's also a further text section about offering you "the opportunity to receive information from other respected organisations" with a check box that you can tick if you don't want such offers.

So. . . £5 paid to Westminster ostensibly gets you £5 back in the form of the new, legal tender, Diamond Jubilee coin.

If you don't ring them, then you don't incur any order costs at all. If you don't give them your telephone number, or you invent a fictional number, then you don't "help" them to, er, "help" you. And if you tick the opt-out box, you don't get added to the mailing list buy-and-sell data market.

So what's in it for this Westminster outfit then? Does anyone have any ideas?

stewgreen

- If you do search then you see this comes up many times before with the same company.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/357557
discussion mentions a small print phrase "that the coin is legal tender in Guernsey"

- I personally would not hand over £5 for a coin that may not be accepted by a regular bank ("legal tender" is not the correct phrase)
I guess it's a good business bet that even if banks would change the coin for a £5 note, only 1 in 1000 customers would actually do that before the expiry time; so the maker would get £4995 for making & distributing 5000 bits of metal

- The same £5 was also advertised to be 100% free
There is another happy happy new thread on this
http://forum.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3720027

NBLondon

hybernia wrote: »

So what's in it for this Westminster outfit then? Does anyone have any ideas?

The coins are collectable. If you buy this one for face value; they will then send you bumph every couple of weeks in the hope you will buy some more at their regular price which would be nearer £20.

I bought a Battle of Britain £2 from them over a year ago as a present for a Spitfire fan. Cost me £2. The rest of the advertising I've ignored. I don't just bin it because they sometimes send you pretty postcards of coins or stamps - which I keep for competition entries - then chuck the rest in the recycle bin.

stewgreen wrote:

I guess it's a good business bet that even if banks would change the coin for a £5 note, only 1 in 1000 customers would actually do that before the expiry time; so the maker would get £4995 for making & distributing 5000 bits of metal

There's no expiry time. It's a coin. You can spend it in the Channel Islands (Jersey shops usually accept Guernsey currency and vice versa) or you can keep it and admire it or you can try and sell it on eBay for more than £5.

Of course, if it never gets spent then the States of Guernsey win on the deal. Same as Postal Services all over the world win when a commemorative stamp is paid for but never used.

hybernia

Thanks for the replies. I've now had time to Google around for references to this company and as it seems that accepting this "offer" could well leave me open to being not merely bombarded with mailings but also unasked-for coins and unjustified invoices, then I'll keep well clear. :eek:

stewgreen

actually some forum posters said that when they went to redeem similar coins 2 or 3 years after they got them they were told "sorry, this coin is no longer in circulation"

NBLondon

stewgreen wrote: »

actually some forum posters said that when they went to redeem similar coins 2 or 3 years after they got them they were told "sorry, this coin is no longer in circulation"

How do you "redeem" a coin? You might redeem a voucher or a token... but not a coin. If it's gone out of circulation, you cannot spend it but you can still exchange it for current equivalents. For example - the Bank of England will exchange any note it has ever issued for the current equivalent. If it's in good nick, you'll get a better deal by selling it to a collector.

What the poster said on the other thread was that her village (sub)postmistress wouldn't accept it. That's her prerogative as a shopkeeper. Main Post Offices have agreed to accept them.

And they do... I was actually given a £5 coin in change once - the 2002 Golden Jubilee one. I didn't want to keep it so it was spent at a Post Office with no questions asked.

kwaks

"It's a folded, envelope-style leaflet. It's also unaddressed mail. The sender obviously doesn't know who or where we live. But the front of the 'envelope' says 'Your household is among those specially selected to receive this notification'. "


The fact they put it through your door doesn't make it obvious they know where you live? Or that the could have selected your household?

For all that it should only be of interest to collecters