Who finances it?

fozmcfc

So you have a card branded for instance Post Office, but the card is a Bank Of Ireland card.

How does it work, do the finances actually come from the Post Office or from the Bank of Ireland.

Do Bank of Ireland pay money to the Post Office to use their name on the card, or do the Post Office, go to Bank of Ireland and say, hey we would like a card with our name on it, but we don't want to run it.

I ask because say you apply for the Post Office card, do Bank of Ireland set the acceptance criteria or do the Post Office, say we only want people with certain criteria to have a card, with our name on it.

brendon

The Post Office get a commission from the Bank of Ireland -- otherwise, why would they bother selling it? It's all Bank of Ireland's money, the Post Office is just white-labelling. The Bank of Ireland sets the criteria, although it may be customised for a particular audience/market.

fozmcfc

Thanks, I asked because I applied for a Fluid card, due to the 0.5% low BT rate.

But upon applying the soft search on their site, it said I wasn't eligible for it, but I was likely to be accepted for the standard 2.98% fee card, which surprised me, as I can normally easily get credit.

Thought it might be because I have an MBNA card.

I had 2 options, apply for another low BT card, or if MBNA made the decision, I was going to contact them and see if threatening to close my account with them, may make them look at the decision again, as I use the card for thousands a year.

In the end, I applied for another card, after doing the soft check via this site. Was looking at the Post Office card, but only 60% chance, so applied for Bank Of Scotland card and got accepted with a £9500 limit (0.7% fee), so I guess my credit status is still fine :rotfl:

Oh well MBNA/Fluid loss.

EDIT....the card I was transferring from isn't an MBNA card, as I know you can't do MBNA to MBNA.

[Deleted User]

It's the same as Luma being a Capital One card, Fluid is MBNA, Amazon Card is MBNA, Granite is Vanquis, and so on.

guesswho2000

fozmcfc wrote: »

EDIT....the card I was transferring from isn't an MBNA card, as I know you can't do MBNA to MBNA.

Slightly OT, but with MBNA, you kind of can - that allow you to transfer the cash to your current account, which you can then use to pay off the original MBNA card!

InsideInsurance

fozmcfc wrote: »

So you have a card branded for instance Post Office, but the card is a Bank Of Ireland card.

How does it work, do the finances actually come from the Post Office or from the Bank of Ireland.

Do Bank of Ireland pay money to the Post Office to use their name on the card, or do the Post Office, go to Bank of Ireland and say, hey we would like a card with our name on it, but we don't want to run it.

I ask because say you apply for the Post Office card, do Bank of Ireland set the acceptance criteria or do the Post Office, say we only want people with certain criteria to have a card, with our name on it.

How it works varies between deals. Some are a pure white label where the brand use gets a basic commission and thats it. In some cases it can be a joint venture with potentially both sides having input and either side providing staff to service etc and more of a profit share arrangement.

As in this case it explicitly says its BoI that issues the card then they are the ones carrying the can and so they ultimately make the decisions but that isnt to say the PO doesnt have some influence in the matter or arent the ones making the decisions within the guidelines agreed with BoI.