Credit Market Consolidation

th081

Is there less competition in the credit card market with Virgin, Tesco, Sainsbury being taken over. I must admit with charging 25% rates I thought these companies were making a killing but obviously not. What is the long term prognosis of this consolidation will we see less 0% deals etc 

Nebulous2

th081 said:

Is there less competition in the credit card market with Virgin, Tesco, Sainsbury being taken over. I must admit with charging 25% rates I thought these companies were making a killing but obviously not. What is the long term prognosis of this consolidation will we see less 0% deals etc 

There's a vibrant competitive banking / credit market, with newcomers such as Chase offering a bit of innovation and challenge to the established players. Looking at a comparison website I'm seeing a lot of offers, though some of them will be different cards from the same providers. 

Coming out of the crash offers were very thin on the ground, and dried up quite a bit for me around 2009/2010. 

I'm not seeing anything similar at this point. 

There are some grey clouds around. I'm not getting the limits I used to, although my status has changed and that could be part of it. More importantly there are very few deals without fees. I recently got a deal from Tesco with a fee of 0.99% for 16 months, but most of them seem to have fees of over 3%. 

Olenna

Nebulous2 said:

th081 said:

Is there less competition in the credit card market with Virgin, Tesco, Sainsbury being taken over. I must admit with charging 25% rates I thought these companies were making a killing but obviously not. What is the long term prognosis of this consolidation will we see less 0% deals etc 

There's a vibrant competitive banking / credit market, with newcomers such as Chase offering a bit of innovation and challenge to the established players. Looking at a comparison website I'm seeing a lot of offers, though some of them will be different cards from the same providers. 

Coming out of the crash offers were very thin on the ground, and dried up quite a bit for me around 2009/2010. 

I'm not seeing anything similar at this point. 

There are some grey clouds around. I'm not getting the limits I used to, although my status has changed and that could be part of it. More importantly there are very few deals without fees. I recently got a deal from Tesco with a fee of 0.99% for 16 months, but most of them seem to have fees of over 3%. 

You gave me a good chuckle with that statement. The UK banking market is an oligopoly with the 'competitors' simply the same old banks using a sister brand or third party e.g. M&S Bank

Chase has yet to fully launch - I've had their banking app for years, had frequent offers for savings/Nutmeg and not a peep about the credit card.

WillPS

Olenna said:

Nebulous2 said:

th081 said:

Is there less competition in the credit card market with Virgin, Tesco, Sainsbury being taken over. I must admit with charging 25% rates I thought these companies were making a killing but obviously not. What is the long term prognosis of this consolidation will we see less 0% deals etc 

There's a vibrant competitive banking / credit market, with newcomers such as Chase offering a bit of innovation and challenge to the established players. Looking at a comparison website I'm seeing a lot of offers, though some of them will be different cards from the same providers. 

Coming out of the crash offers were very thin on the ground, and dried up quite a bit for me around 2009/2010. 

I'm not seeing anything similar at this point. 

There are some grey clouds around. I'm not getting the limits I used to, although my status has changed and that could be part of it. More importantly there are very few deals without fees. I recently got a deal from Tesco with a fee of 0.99% for 16 months, but most of them seem to have fees of over 3%. 

You gave me a good chuckle with that statement. The UK banking market is an oligopoly with the 'competitors' simply the same old banks using a sister brand or third party e.g. M&S Bank

Chase has yet to fully launch - I've had their banking app for years, had frequent offers for savings/Nutmeg and not a peep about the credit card.

What about Zable, Monzo, Zopa etc? These are all genuine newcomers.

Jaja isn't much older either.

Nebulous2

Olenna said:

Nebulous2 said:

th081 said:

Is there less competition in the credit card market with Virgin, Tesco, Sainsbury being taken over. I must admit with charging 25% rates I thought these companies were making a killing but obviously not. What is the long term prognosis of this consolidation will we see less 0% deals etc 

There's a vibrant competitive banking / credit market, with newcomers such as Chase offering a bit of innovation and challenge to the established players. Looking at a comparison website I'm seeing a lot of offers, though some of them will be different cards from the same providers. 

Coming out of the crash offers were very thin on the ground, and dried up quite a bit for me around 2009/2010. 

I'm not seeing anything similar at this point. 

There are some grey clouds around. I'm not getting the limits I used to, although my status has changed and that could be part of it. More importantly there are very few deals without fees. I recently got a deal from Tesco with a fee of 0.99% for 16 months, but most of them seem to have fees of over 3%. 

You gave me a good chuckle with that statement. The UK banking market is an oligopoly with the 'competitors' simply the same old banks using a sister brand or third party e.g. M&S Bank

Chase has yet to fully launch - I've had their banking app for years, had frequent offers for savings/Nutmeg and not a peep about the credit card.

There are some big groups with multiple brands, but there are also smaller standalone players like TSB and Santander. Far too many distinct players to be an oligopoly. 

Chase has launched it's credit card, but invitation only so far, I haven't been offered it either. 

I haven't been very active in recent times, and decided I needed to pick that up. In the past week I've got a money transfer, a long-term 0% balance transfer card and a long-term 0% purchase card. 

There doesn't appear to be a shortage of companies willing to throw offers at me to get my business. 

Olenna

Nebulous2 said:

Olenna said:

Nebulous2 said:

th081 said:

Is there less competition in the credit card market with Virgin, Tesco, Sainsbury being taken over. I must admit with charging 25% rates I thought these companies were making a killing but obviously not. What is the long term prognosis of this consolidation will we see less 0% deals etc 

There's a vibrant competitive banking / credit market, with newcomers such as Chase offering a bit of innovation and challenge to the established players. Looking at a comparison website I'm seeing a lot of offers, though some of them will be different cards from the same providers. 

Coming out of the crash offers were very thin on the ground, and dried up quite a bit for me around 2009/2010. 

I'm not seeing anything similar at this point. 

There are some grey clouds around. I'm not getting the limits I used to, although my status has changed and that could be part of it. More importantly there are very few deals without fees. I recently got a deal from Tesco with a fee of 0.99% for 16 months, but most of them seem to have fees of over 3%. 

You gave me a good chuckle with that statement. The UK banking market is an oligopoly with the 'competitors' simply the same old banks using a sister brand or third party e.g. M&S Bank

Chase has yet to fully launch - I've had their banking app for years, had frequent offers for savings/Nutmeg and not a peep about the credit card.

There are some big groups with multiple brands, but there are also smaller standalone players like TSB and Santander. Far too many distinct players to be an oligopoly. 

Chase has launched it's credit card, but invitation only so far, I haven't been offered it either. 

I haven't been very active in recent times, and decided I needed to pick that up. In the past week I've got a money transfer, a long-term 0% balance transfer card and a long-term 0% purchase card. 

There doesn't appear to be a shortage of companies willing to throw offers at me to get my business. 

You clearly don't understand what an oligopolistic market is -  like most Brits. 

Just looking at the top five balance transfer options in MSE - four are Barclaycard/Tesco Bank and one is HSBC with the next best four; two are MBNA/Lloyds and two are Santander. 

eschaton

Santander have a fee free BT albeit only for 12M, as do Natwest. 

There will be others probably but I’ve used these two before for fee free. 

For purchases, the M&S card is good for 24M 0% and £35 TopCashback. 

Still plenty of good deals out there  

Nasqueron

Olenna said:

Nebulous2 said:

Olenna said:

Nebulous2 said:

th081 said:

Is there less competition in the credit card market with Virgin, Tesco, Sainsbury being taken over. I must admit with charging 25% rates I thought these companies were making a killing but obviously not. What is the long term prognosis of this consolidation will we see less 0% deals etc 

There's a vibrant competitive banking / credit market, with newcomers such as Chase offering a bit of innovation and challenge to the established players. Looking at a comparison website I'm seeing a lot of offers, though some of them will be different cards from the same providers. 

Coming out of the crash offers were very thin on the ground, and dried up quite a bit for me around 2009/2010. 

I'm not seeing anything similar at this point. 

There are some grey clouds around. I'm not getting the limits I used to, although my status has changed and that could be part of it. More importantly there are very few deals without fees. I recently got a deal from Tesco with a fee of 0.99% for 16 months, but most of them seem to have fees of over 3%. 

You gave me a good chuckle with that statement. The UK banking market is an oligopoly with the 'competitors' simply the same old banks using a sister brand or third party e.g. M&S Bank

Chase has yet to fully launch - I've had their banking app for years, had frequent offers for savings/Nutmeg and not a peep about the credit card.

There are some big groups with multiple brands, but there are also smaller standalone players like TSB and Santander. Far too many distinct players to be an oligopoly. 

Chase has launched it's credit card, but invitation only so far, I haven't been offered it either. 

I haven't been very active in recent times, and decided I needed to pick that up. In the past week I've got a money transfer, a long-term 0% balance transfer card and a long-term 0% purchase card. 

There doesn't appear to be a shortage of companies willing to throw offers at me to get my business. 

You clearly don't understand what an oligopolistic market is -  like most Brits. 

Just looking at the top five balance transfer options in MSE - four are Barclaycard/Tesco Bank and one is HSBC with the next best four; two are MBNA/Lloyds and two are Santander. 

MSE normally pushes the cards that also give them referral fees

Barclays & Tesco will be the same group sure but you have HSBC, Santander, Lloyds/MNBA, Capital One, Co-Op, TSB, NatWest, Virgin, Nationwide, Post Office all offering them

Olenna

Nasqueron said:

Olenna said:

Nebulous2 said:

Olenna said:

Nebulous2 said:

th081 said:

Is there less competition in the credit card market with Virgin, Tesco, Sainsbury being taken over. I must admit with charging 25% rates I thought these companies were making a killing but obviously not. What is the long term prognosis of this consolidation will we see less 0% deals etc 

There's a vibrant competitive banking / credit market, with newcomers such as Chase offering a bit of innovation and challenge to the established players. Looking at a comparison website I'm seeing a lot of offers, though some of them will be different cards from the same providers. 

Coming out of the crash offers were very thin on the ground, and dried up quite a bit for me around 2009/2010. 

I'm not seeing anything similar at this point. 

There are some grey clouds around. I'm not getting the limits I used to, although my status has changed and that could be part of it. More importantly there are very few deals without fees. I recently got a deal from Tesco with a fee of 0.99% for 16 months, but most of them seem to have fees of over 3%. 

You gave me a good chuckle with that statement. The UK banking market is an oligopoly with the 'competitors' simply the same old banks using a sister brand or third party e.g. M&S Bank

Chase has yet to fully launch - I've had their banking app for years, had frequent offers for savings/Nutmeg and not a peep about the credit card.

There are some big groups with multiple brands, but there are also smaller standalone players like TSB and Santander. Far too many distinct players to be an oligopoly. 

Chase has launched it's credit card, but invitation only so far, I haven't been offered it either. 

I haven't been very active in recent times, and decided I needed to pick that up. In the past week I've got a money transfer, a long-term 0% balance transfer card and a long-term 0% purchase card. 

There doesn't appear to be a shortage of companies willing to throw offers at me to get my business. 

You clearly don't understand what an oligopolistic market is -  like most Brits. 

Just looking at the top five balance transfer options in MSE - four are Barclaycard/Tesco Bank and one is HSBC with the next best four; two are MBNA/Lloyds and two are Santander. 

MSE normally pushes the cards that also give them referral fees

Barclays & Tesco will be the same group sure but you have HSBC, Santander, Lloyds/MNBA, Capital One, Co-Op, TSB, NatWest, Virgin, Nationwide, Post Office all offering them

An oligopolistic market is a market structure where a few large firms dominate; it doesn't mean there aren't various minnows in the marketplace. Virgin / Nationwide are the same provider, Capital One / Post Office are the same provider & along with Co-Op and TSB are minnows.

The UK financial system is an oligopolistic market and this has got worse since 2020 as non-UK firms can no longer 'dip their toe in' with EEA passporting. 

WillPS

Olenna said:

Virgin / Nationwide are the same provider

This is clearly not true. One is a building society, the other is a bank.

born_again

WillPS said:

Olenna said:

Virgin / Nationwide are the same provider

This is clearly not true. One is a building society, the other is a bank.

Opps. Nationwide bought Virgin. 
On 1 October 2024, Nationwide completed its acquisition of Virgin Money