Are MBNA (LBG) and Santander part of the same banking group?

JenB79

Of course they're not, but the retailer offers showing up in my MBNA's credit card 'Smart Rewards' list and Santander's Zero card 'Retailer Offer's are almost identical, eg Morrisons 5%, Pizza Express 10% just to name two. Not that I'm complaining, but how can they appear to be under the same discount scheme when they're 2 totally separate banking groups?

anna42hmr

i would hazard a guess to say that its probably as scheme/system that is provided to the banks by a third party company? and therefore offers the same companies that have cash back offers with?

Zanderman

anna42hmr said:

i would hazard a guess to say that its probably as scheme/system that is provided to the banks by a third party company? and therefore offers the same companies that have cash back offers with?

Agree.  Lots of 'Rewards' schemes from otherwise unrelated companies are the same as each other  Because they use the same Rewards scheme provider. Doesn't make them linked.

JenB79

anna42hmr said:

i would hazard a guess to say that its probably as scheme/system that is provided to the banks by a third party company? and therefore offers the same companies that have cash back offers with?

Cheers, perhaps I wrongly assumed the each bank/banking group would have their own unique rewards scheme. Use of a third party for the scheme is the only logical reason I can think of where the rewards are almost identical. This means I can use the same offer twice (at different times) through MBNA and Santander as usually each offer is one time only.

Nebulous2

JenB79 said:

anna42hmr said:

i would hazard a guess to say that its probably as scheme/system that is provided to the banks by a third party company? and therefore offers the same companies that have cash back offers with?

Cheers, perhaps I wrongly assumed the each bank/banking group would have their own unique rewards scheme. Use of a third party for the scheme is the only logical reason I can think of where the rewards are almost identical. This means I can use the same offer twice (at different times) through MBNA and Santander as usually each offer is one time only.

I think a lot of the offers are through Visa, rather than the bank concerned. They only promote it to you. 

JenB79

Nebulous2 said:

JenB79 said:

anna42hmr said:

i would hazard a guess to say that its probably as scheme/system that is provided to the banks by a third party company? and therefore offers the same companies that have cash back offers with?

Cheers, perhaps I wrongly assumed the each bank/banking group would have their own unique rewards scheme. Use of a third party for the scheme is the only logical reason I can think of where the rewards are almost identical. This means I can use the same offer twice (at different times) through MBNA and Santander as usually each offer is one time only.

I think a lot of the offers are through Visa, rather than the bank concerned. They only promote it to you. 

My MBNA card is Every Day Visa (ex-Every Day Amex) and Santander one is Zero Mastercard.