Incentives to Switch Bank

Katiehound

Zanderman wrote: »

(NWide CC cashback has, btw, just been reduced again, at least for my card, so NWide are keeping more per transaction)

so what's your paying now? Mine is only 1/2p in the £ if I remember correctly.

RG2015

Katiehound wrote: »

so what's your paying now? Mine is only 1/2p in the £ if I remember correctly.

Currently 1/2p in the £ coming down to 1/4p in the £ from 11th January 2018.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5738849

Zanderman

Katiehound wrote: »

so what's your paying now? Mine is only 1/2p in the £ if I remember correctly.

Changing from 0.5% to 0.25% from January 11th. Announced in a letter and leaflet that came a few days ago.

spadoosh

Im in agreement with the OP here. However not just with banks.

Promotions of any kind generally frustrate me. Its preying to opportunists not customers.

I used to work for B&Q. Every year we would have a kitchen sale. Every year it would be 20% off blah blah blah. If you went in a month before you would get the kitchen at the same or cheaper price. If you went in 4 weeks before youd pay an RRP that never really existed.

So youve got people waiting for the sale. most of which will pay equal or more than if they wouldve bought a month or two before.

To highlight this and how stupid customers are B&Q one year decided we will not do a sale. No sales at all. 'We will have one price thas low all year round'. 95% of the time the products where cheaper than competitors, during the sale time the products where on par or marginally cheaper than competitors. B&Q's sales for that period on kitchens was one of the worst its ever done purely because they hadnt or couldnt use the word 'sale'.


Now why am i talking about b&q. I used to work on paint. I coudlnt mark things down, damaged etc we just had to deal with as best we could. On showrooms a customer could walk in and get 20% off an order pretty easily. On a £10k thats incredibly more than 20% off a few tins of paint. The mark up on kitchens is not a lot. Made up for a little bit with fitting. 10% discount could wipe out the profit margin on some kitchens. Ultimately i realised that if your buying a kitchen from B&Q they are subsidising that purchase with customers who are buying paint. You pay more for paint so someone buying a kitchen can pay less.

Getting back to banking, fantastic theyre offering me free money... we all know free money comes from no where. So where do these rip off banks as we like to call them get there free money from? I dont think it unreasonable to think that the rip off banks would then go on to rip off someone else in order to pay for our bonuses.

MSE encourages bank switching. It encourages people to get out of debt and become more finaically savvy. A lot of people are signed up to MSE but there is more who are not. Of which i'd imagine a large number of them arent financially savvy.

Im not against people looking out for themselves. But whilst everyone is saying 'we're just taking our crumbs' the reality is youre not. Theyre not giving you their crumbs, theyre giving you someone elses. Their profits arent falling are they?

Its a vicious cycle. Bank rips off customer a, customer a tries to rip off bank, bank needs to rip off customer b to pay for ripping off customer a.

I can blame customers, i can blame banks but it doesnt matter. The practice of it is unfair. In that not everyone will be able to access it (ie those with large overdrafts or those who dont play the games). Its paid for no doubt by increased charges which increases the cost of product for everyone. It encourages manipulating markets and fudging targets.


Im as guilty as anyone. I changed bank last month for the first time ever and should be receiving a bonus. Halifax offered new customers an incentive last year, this year theyve increased their overdraft charges to such an extent its encouraged me to move banks.

tempus_fugit

Except I don't see the people who are paying in as necessarily being "ripped off". Charges and interest rates are fully available before people use the banking services, so they are not being "ripped off" in my opinion.

RG2015

spadoosh wrote: »

Im in agreement with the OP here. However not just with banks.

Thanks for your post and agreeing with me, but are you actually agreeing with my opinion?

Is offering a cash incentive to switch any less ethical than offering an inflated interest rate?

It sounds like you are saying that all banking (and other organisations) incentives are as bad as each other.

PS: I have a great new bathroom, cloakroom and kitchen courtesy of B&Q.

Katiehound

Zanderman wrote: »

Changing from 0.5% to 0.25% from January 11th. Announced in a letter and leaflet that came a few days ago.

Boo shucks. No paperwork received here - yet

spadoosh

RG2015 wrote: »

Thanks for your post and agreeing with me, but are you actually agreeing with my opinion?

Is offering a cash incentive to switch any less ethical than offering an inflated interest rate?

It sounds like you are saying that all banking (and other organisations) incentives are as bad as each other.

PS: I have a great new bathroom, cloakroom and kitchen courtesy of B&Q.

Sorry youre right im not agreeing with you.

Id say most incentives are as bad as each other. Initially an exclusion would be something like economies of scale.

Interest rates i'd consider as bad as switching bonuses. As its something the bank can manipulate. They can choose to offer a 50% savings rate but that would more than likely be offset by increased charges as such robbing peter to pay paul. Ideally they would offer everyone the same so someone with a £2000 overdraft can easily switch which in reality is unlikely.

Its a kin to tax dodging (not arguing about avoidance or evasion). Those who do it are just looking out for themselves and protecting their interests unfortunately its usually at the expense of someone, for the tax scenario its the UK Public. For switching bonuses its another customer. For the tax dodger its nicer for them to think theyre denying HMRC than those in need. For those switching bonuses id imagine most think theyre giving one to the banks when theres a good chance theyre just creating another newbie poster.

spadoosh

tempus_fugit wrote: »

Except I don't see the people who are paying in as necessarily being "ripped off". Charges and interest rates are fully available before people use the banking services, so they are not being "ripped off" in my opinion.

So was PPI, so where account fees and so are interest rates. Apparently people where ripped off over them?

If you dont think banks rip people off thats fair enough, id imagine the same would apply to switching bonuses then in which case your conscious is clear. If you do feel banks rip people off, ripping them off (taking advantage of the bonuses without 'properly' switching) is only going to encourage them to rip others off is it not?

RG2015

RG2015 wrote: »

Thanks for your post and agreeing with me, but are you actually agreeing with my opinion?

spadoosh wrote: »

Sorry youre right im not agreeing with you.

Boo Hoo! For a moment I thought I had a friend but it's back to RG No Mates.:sad:
:rotfl: