MSE News: Co-op Bank ditches travel rewards for credit card customers

Former_MSE_Paloma

About 12,000 Co-operative Bank travel credit card customers won't earn loyalty points to spend on holidays from December ...

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Co-op Bank ditches travel rewards for credit card customers




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stator

Co-operative bank. The bank that's not a co-operative. I guess it's inevitable that they will disassociate themselves from the remains of the co-operative group

dazza.mk

And Co-op travel that is 70% owned by Thomas Cook now of course! TBH I thought they'd entered these offers a long time ago (my wife has a 'dormant' card)

bigmama1

dazza.mk wrote: »

And Co-op travel that is 70% owned by Thomas Cook now of course! TBH I thought they'd entered these offers a long time ago (my wife has a 'dormant' card)

I haven't heard yet about this. I only use the Co-op Travel agent so I can get a few points on my co-op card. I will not be using them again! I will be booking online in future.

stator

You still get co-op points from co-op travel but as said above the co-op group only own a minority stake in the business as a whole.

The Co-op pharmacy is also no longer a co-operative, but that will be rebranded within a year.

Stuart_W

stator wrote: »

You still get co-op points from co-op travel but as said above the co-op group only own a minority stake in the business as a whole.

There are some branches of The Co-operative Travel that are 100% co-operative owned. Midcounties Co-op and East of England Co-op for a start - they are nothing to do with the Co-op/Thomas Cook deal. Midlands Co-op travel shops were part of the Co-op/Cook deal, but Anglia Co-op travel shops were not. Midlands and Anglia Co-ops have since merged, so goodness knows there.

stator wrote: »

The Co-op pharmacy is also no longer a co-operative, but that will be rebranded within a year.

Again, some Co-operative Pharmacies are still 100% co-operatively owned. Midcounties and East of England both are. Only Co-op Group pharmacies (which admittedly is most of them) have been flogged to Bestway. East of England pharmacies don't use "the brand" so their stores are quite clearly differentiated, whereas Midcounties do. I guess once Bestway rename the stores next year, it will sort itself out (unlike the Travel shambles).

Not all co-operative societies have been run as badly as Co-operative Group.

The Co-op Bank really needs a new name - they could already use either smile or Britannia as it is - it's a bit of a con going forward with the co-op name. This seems to be how folk in the co-op movement feel. Depends if the new owners are up for rebranding or just selling on. The reality is that the private owners want to profit as much as possible from appearing to be a co-operative, given the current customer base. Irony of some sort there I think.

I've got the Co-op Members' credit card which was a nice 0.5% pure cashback card (with 1% for any co-op group shopping) but they've nobbled that down to 0.3% so even less competitive, plenty around that beat it. There's no warm fuzzy feeling about sticking with the (non-Co-op) Co-op bank anymore.

In their latest newsletter, Ecology Building Society are surveying members about launching a current account. Interesting move for those looking to ditch Co-op bank but don't really feel like they currently have anywhere worth running to. The Ecology have been getting more involved with the Co-op movement recently, so I could see something developing here.